Basic block in of large shapes, 18x14
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| Adding texture and color |
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| Wildflower Peak, 18x14, oil on linen, available (contact me) |
Lately I have been touching up paintings that have been relegated to the closet. Either I was tired of working on them or did not want to look at them anymore. And I knew they were not where I wanted them to be but was not in the place to get them there. It is rewarding to finish these outcasts but then I also need to do something completely different to break that work up. Hence, as spring has recently shown up, a summer painting painting called to me. Nothing too complex but that I could express my joy.
One of the things I try to remember for myself is to layer. Blocking in this painting I used colors to layout the big shapes. Nothing too extraordinary, pink sky, blue bushes and tan for dirt on the hillside and the overall dark shape of the evergreens in silhouette. building on these shapes I wanted to leave the underlying color showing through. My tendency, as a graphic artist, is to want to cover it all up and make it flat color. So I went with patterns in the grass and the front bush to avoid my habit and to allow the underlying color to come through. When I got to the point of the sky, it was tough. I was getting used to the pinkish lavender sky and should I leave it or go with blue. Colorado can have the most amazing cobalt blue skies, and the reference I was using for this painting had a big white cloud taking up most of the sky but with blue blue all around it. Do I go for the more traditional blue or not? Since I had seen so much blue in the bushes that I wanted to have show through, I ended up going for the blue sky as the blue in the bushes was from the sky. Don't want to confuse the viewer, after all. I am glad I did. Not only is it more interesting, the lavender pink shows through enough to still 'be there.'
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