The photo of me in the upper right hand corner of this blog, was taken in October 2007 on my last trip to Paris. I had been in Paris in 2001 with my daughter and son, and we were staying in a flat not two blocks from the Jardin des Plantes. Since it was so close, we ventured over there on more than one occassion walking the maze, experiencing the first zoo (the Menagerie), visiting the Natural History Museum and the Hall of Gems. I fell in love with the old green house of Louis XIII's physician. I vowed that if I ever came back to Paris, I wanted to paint a piece of this greenhouse in its rosy colored splendor. So, of course, you see that I did attempt to solve how to paint this piece of history. I first did a thumbnail sketch of it and then tried to capture color notes. (not posted)
This past September I drew it out on canvas and did a value study in paint while I was doing the other value underpaintings for Kevin's Saturday class. This week, I finally had the chutzpah to try and add color. I took the painting in yesterday to see what Kevin would say, and the upshot is, I have to rework it. I do have problems painting color over the b&w underpainting as I feel like I am doing a paint by number. I don't have this problem painting over an existing painting, so I don't quite get what is the difference. Now that it is a painting let's see if I can do what Kevin suggested. Which is to determine the light pattern and stick with it, and create patterns out of the flowers. He also suggested warming up the glass in the green house (add orange) as it is too disparate from the greenery and divides the painting. I had already determined the light pattern problem and knew that my middle values were not light enough and that the darks petered out. I also felt I had changed styles mid way through the painting, so essentially, my own thoughts on it were verified. I also feel it is stiff, which I am hoping to rectify.
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