Downtown Denver Squared

Downtown Denver Squared, 30x30, oil on canvas

Here is a night scene of downtown Denver. I took the reference photo one evening while painting during the Denver Plein Air event a few years ago. My painting did not turn out well that evening but I did get a few good reference photos. Yesterday a friend came over and critiqued this piece. His suggestion was to darken the tower of the library and to soften the edges to push it back. That would give the foreground more focus.

I had a lot of fun with this painting. I loved all the graphic shapes and the way those shapes and colors played together. Even though this is a night painting there was so much light, but I agree with Drew; I need to play down some of that light as long as the capital does not then become too much of the focus. My husband had said the library needed to be grayed down, so maybe between a darker value and a more neutral value that tower will fade back where it needs to be.

A funny aside. Being a graphic artist by training, this painting is more in my comfort zone. But since taking the master painting class 4 years ago I have worked hard on not making everything so hard edged. When I brought this painting in to work a number of people commented how out of the ordinary this piece was compared to my "normal" style! I had to laugh out load. I had not realized how much I missed this more graphic style of work until I got into it.

Semur-en-Auxious, An Old Walled Town in France



Untitled, 36x24, oil on linen

To start the New Year off, here is a painting I am still contemplating. Not sure if it is completed yet. I think not, but it is close. Why I say that is because I think I want to darken the shadow that wraps around in the alley, and then the reflected light on the back wall will be lighter and brighter. Or possibly just to darken the wall that is wrapping around from the light will do the trick.

In the Fall 2007 I was on a three week vacation with my sister, her husband and another couple. We had done 5 nights on the Yonne River in Burgandy, gone to Dijon for 2 nights and were on our way to Paris when we stopped at the little medieval town of Semur-en-Auxious. I had read a blog post on the walled towns of this region and the writer, living in the area, said Semur was the best and the least touristy. It was a wonderful example of the old walled towns and though we did see one tour bus, it was a small tour group! This is not the first painting I have done from this village, and it will not be the last. Because it sits on a hill and the streets roam up and down (and has an ancient Roman Aquaduct!) there was so much that caught my eye. This scene,which includes my sister, is one of them.

Road Trip?

The new museum of American Art that just opened a few months ago, Crystal Bridges, looks like it will warrant a road trip. Here is the New York Times article on this new museum. I think the road trip must wait until the pools are running with water but other than that, I am ready!

The Alley Reflected

Reflected Alley, 36x24, oil on linen

Here is a new alley in the continuing alley series I have been working on for the past 2 years. I am not tired of alleys yet (although you all may be) as there is so much to discover. I keep thinking I should move out of my neighborhood, but each time I think that I find another scene worth doing. It sure is easy when you can paint a scene so close to home. If I get stuck, I can walk back over and just check it out. This one presented me with a few questions that I needed to venture out to solve but overall it was fun. I can't wait to find out how many people tell me this is just like the alley where they grew up!

Burghausen Again

Burghausen Castle, 20x30, oil on linen

I discovered a funny thing while painting this piece. We were in Germany in December 2003 so I was still using film cameras at that time. I used Seattle Film to develop my negatives, and with that they offered digital images as well that they kept in albums online. So I went to the website (now owned by Shutterfly) to download the digital image so I could work from the computer. On screen there was this odd green light in the sky which is barely visible in the bottom photo and a bit more in the top photo, going across the sky about midway. In person, this green really drew the eye to it. I was trying to explain this to someone at work, as I do take paintings to work to see them from a different point of view. I sent the digital photo to my work computer to show her, but the green did not show up on my screen at work. Go figure. So I then dug around in my photo albums and found the print. The green light was not in the printed version either. But what I did discover is that the print (4x6) showed way more detail than the digital image. So from the original photo of Burghausen that I posted a month ago, I went about adding the details that were lost to me on the screen. I made the wooden covered stair way more interesting and not so flat by suggesting the boards; I discovered window boxes under the windows; and a red door in the shadows under the walkway. I had put a door there anyway but now I knew there was one and that it was red. The dark blue window bothered me so I lightened them all up a bit. I also decided to put more detail into the whole wall and lightened the tree somewhat so it wasn't quite so dark.

Denver Street in Winter

6x6, oil on canvas panel

Here is the second painting I did thinking I would submit to a juried show where all paintings had to be 6x6. It is a challenge for me trying to keep all the values so close to give the effect of a snowy gray day. So typical in my neighborhood to have only one set of tracks down the street but I must have been in my car as there aren't any traffic lights where I normally walk the dog.

Jimson Weed Refreshed

Jimson Weed, 2002, 18x14, oil on linen

Here is a painting that I gave my daughter years ago when she asked to hang it in her room. This Datura was in my garden and I am fascinated by them. I think they have great color and great shape. You can see why bats love them.

Last week I was helping my daughter hang her art in her new place. This one was rather dark for the wall where she wanted it and in that particular light the painting and the frame just did not work well together. I brought the painting home to refresh it and see if I had another frame in case the painting still did not work in that frame. Linen-lined frames can be problematic in that way. The reworked painting needed a new frame.

To begin with, I thought the flower not very pretty with too much harsh gray and not enough nuance. But I decided to start with the leaves and work my way into the flower. My memory and my photo references told me the leaves were too green, so I went towards blue green. I used ultramarine blue and cad yellow light to get my blue green. Adding more yellow where I wanted it to be more towards the green and younger leaves and flower buds and then more blue for the depths. The stems I wanted to be more purple to add a richness and color. Every so often I would throw in Quinacridone Violet for a deeper color and to tie in with the purpley stems (QV and UMB and white). The dirt I also played with making my own brown and adding orange and QV to give it more variation in color yet keeping it in the light.

Since I had no photo reference for this particular painting I went to the internet and found a pretty good match for the angle of this flower and used it for form and color. I fixed the form to make it less angular and stilted. I softened the edges and toned down the value. I wanted the stamens to stand out more and even though the shading in the revised version is lighter overall because it is more uniform the stamens now pop out. It is subtle but I used yellows, blues and violets to make the form of the flower.