Montmartre and Sacre Coeur

Montmartre with Sacre Coeur, 15x30. oil

Here is a new one for you. I started this months ago but only now have gotten it close to where I want it. The first draft I went very graphic with heavy outlines on the buildings. But I kept the cathedral more realistic which made it feel like two paintings in one. Since the idea of outlining the cathedral did not seem appropriate I painted over most of the lines in the rest of the painting and also removed windows and blended buildings together, leaving just some here and there. The trees remained the same, just one dark shape broken up by lighter shapes. I may at some point paint this scene again with a very graphic fun style. I am seeing it in my minds eye as I write this post. Take it in a totally different direction. Maybe paint it a little larger than this one.

This is a local tone painting, meaning it has three distinct values: light, medium and dark. The lower half is also a study in equalization. Equalization is a visual approach which brings a uniform sense of pattern to a painting. The goal is to create a visual rhythm out of the pattern. It does not mean all shapes are equal in size and shape but are similar in size and shape, no two alike. I also was doing color harmony as an element where every color has blue in it. That is still true but I did not take it as far as I could have.

The reference photo for this painting was from my two weeks in France 7 years ago. I have so much reference material from that trip I am still discovering. A real treasure trove. This is not the typical view of Sacre Couer but I love the fact that it shows so much of Montmartre a great little village built on a hill in Paris. Be sure to visit this landmark when in Paris. The cathedral is beautiful inside, the view from there across Paris is amazing and the streets are so much fun to explore. There is a funicular for those who can't walk that much.

Lost in a Good Book nee Junior Great Books

Lost in a Good Book, 18x24, oil on canvas

This painting is a blast from the past. I started it at least 20 years ago when I first started to paint in oils. It is of my daughter at the age of 6 or 7. I must not have taken a photo of the painting in the early trial of the life of this piece. I was going to scan it if I had one, but luckily, I never saw any reason to photograph it. I had stuck the painting in the basement hoping to one day resurrect it, which I did about 10 years ago. Here is what it looked like from that point in time (below). I did put this painting in a show and had lots of positive feedback on it. But it went back to living in the basement as I decided it did not meet my standards after all. Everything outlined and not very clear as to the fact that she is in shadow! She definitely looks too light and bright for that. There are two light sources coming in, one as you see is an west facing window and the other is a small window that is higher up and faces north. The drawing is good and I like the composition so a few weeks ago, when I came across the original 4x6" photograph (remember now, 20 years ago there were no digital cameras!) I went looking for the painting to see what I could see. I saw that I could definitely improve it so set to work to do just that.

Junior Great Books, circa 2004

Having the composition already in place makes the work a lot easier. The drawing had to be corrected here and there along the way. I started from the top and worked my way down. From window/wall, to couch/pillows and finally placing her on top. The light was made blue instead of yellow and lightened considerably. The white background of the quilt had to come down in value to read as in the shadows. I had added the quilted "flower" above her head even though it was really just stitched in as a white on white on the quilt. I decided to take that out to see how it worked; I don't miss it. While working on that I noticed that the angle of the top of her head was off-that it needed to slope down into the pillow. Her profile also had to be restructured so she is not so flat faced, which she was not! I darkened the shadows on the couch to match the dark of her shirt and sink her into the couch. Her skin had to be darkened down and since the light is blue, I could use the red shadows I originally had used and have it be more believable. The book had to be given depth and the curve accentuated.

I was surprised to feel nostalgic about this old couch while I was reworking the painting. It is the couch I grew up with and it was called a studio couch. These are hard to find these days. It opened into a double bed by lifting it from the bottom of the front of the couch. You brought that up and then folded it towards the back until it clicked it into a flat surface. There was storage under it for blankets and sheets. The springs were a little tired by this point in its life, but boy did I love that silly couch.

These were the days when we lived month to month so I made most everything I could, including reupholstering the couch.The quilt was my first attempt at such a thing so it is by far not a piece of art but it was functional. The pillows I made from old curtains I had bought at a yard sale. The pink tropical patterned curtain fabric was from the 50's but I found enough to to salvage for these pillow cases. My daughter is in hand me downs from her cousin. "Those were the days!" Every picture tells a story...and speaking of that, I am curious to know if people who view and or buy paintings like to know about the painting or prefer to make up their own story for it? I was counseled at the opening a week ago by an art consultant to never tell the history of the scene in the painting to a viewer. That was not the way to sell a painting! I am not sure how I feel about that. I personally can rewrite the story if I choose but I am curious about where it is and what drew the artist to paint that particular scene.

Repeat until Complete

In the Name of Blue; 20x30; oil on linen

A bien Mesdames et Monsieur
Here we are yet again as I continue to tweak and fine tune to get the painting correct. Every time I get to it there are things that are gained and some that are lost. I made some changes that I hope make the scene read as it should. Misty fog, mysterious light and a road less traveled. I await the verdict with baited breath. I am not inclined to give away what the changes are hoping someone will notice and comment.

Four Perspectives Opening tomorrow

Fritz the Schnoodle

Day 1: 20x16, oil on panel (photo taken with iPad under florescent lighting)

I am working diligently to be more aware of paint quality. By that I mean having the brushstrokes be visible. I have always tended to paint smooth when in the studio. I can be very expressive outside painting but that does not necessarily come inside with me. I thought my dog, Fritz, would be a good subject to practice "paint quality" on. He just lends himself to it. I got him pretty well blocked in on the first day, shown above. There are definitely things that need to be corrected and finished, but his personality is already coming through.

Day 2: photo taken with iPad under florescent lighting

Not as much progress as I had expected was made on day two. I did get the whole canvas covered finally. I moved his left eye over a bit but I am not sure it doesn't need to moved closer in. I worked on his face, chest and front legs but they are still not quite finished. The background and rugs got more detail and refinement as I worked my way around the composition trying not to stay too long in any one place. The box in the background is coming to far forward and I hope it is just reflecting glare from wet paint. It was one of the last things I did, but if it is not the wet paint, it has to be toned way down to be pushed into the dark recesses of our kitchen.

Day 3: 20x16, Fritz, oil on panel

Day three has Fritz looking like the sassy boots he is. I did move the eye on the left further to the right; I did work on pushing the background further back as well as the depth of the rug he is standing on as it recedes and finally, some fine tuning on Fritz including adding his tags and melding some of his fur a bit better. I also had to bring his front paws over the threshold as it just wasn't reading correctly with them stuck below that level.

River Fog again or In the Name of Blue

I took this painting to work AFTER I posted it. As is usually the case when I hang a piece in a different environment, I saw some things that needed to be rectified. It only required some minor fixing to give the piece more of a sense of the fog and how it plays with depth perception but I thought it worth another look see. What I did is to push the tree without any leaves more into the fog. I also gave the bush which is right behind that tree softer edges so it was not so pronounced.The wall in the very back I shaved off the top 3/8 of an inch or so. I realized it was too tall and so I think now the perspective is a bit better going down the road. The sky/fog is reading too light so I still need to bring that value down. Part of the lightness is from the photography and how the light is hitting the brush strokes but not all of it. The value in the painting is reading as it should when compared to the photo reference but there are times you just have to do what works best for the painting and I think darkening the sky/fog might be what is needed. I will "sit on it" a bit longer before making a decision.

One of my readers came up with the name In The Name of Blue.  If you Feel French about it, Au Nom de Bleu (which echoes Au Nom de Dieu, which is how I got there in the first place.) If anyone has any thoughts on that please let me know. I am never sure how well received French names will be but sometimes they just work!

River Fog

River Fog, 20x30 oil on linen

We are still on the Yonne River in Burgundy with this piece in the town of Gurgy that is fresh off the easel. We will call it blue harmony again. The painting I posted a few posts back, see below, was also blue harmony and is not far from this painted scene. You can see this intersection in the distance in Docked Dinghy. I had mistakenly called it "Blue as a Visual Approach" in that post. Not sure what I was thinking as I definitely knew better. Blue Harmony means I added the same color of blue in every color mix used. Blue as a visual approach would have used a variety of blues and the overall color of the painting would have been definitely blue. In blue harmony you see other colors but they all harmonize due to the "mother" color used in everything. I am normally a very graphic style of painter so I have been using the fog to teach myself to soften edges

Docked Dinghy, 24x24 oil on canvas

For those of you who did not read the last few posts, Gurgy was a happenstance stop on our river trip. In France, the lock keepers are government employees. Therefore they work set hours, even if they live right by the lock. We were running a bit behind on this particular day and we knew we would not make it to the lock in time to make it to where we had planned to dock for the night, so we stopped at this tiny place. The pad in front of the dinghy is where you tie up. It was just the dinghy and us that night. But I must say, this little town has provided a plethora of reference material. For an overnight stay I think this latest painting makes five.

The Lock keeper, 30x15, oil on canvas

Above is one of our lock keepers going to the other end of the lock to let us out. Notice the sun! We ran into a lot of fog along the river both morning and evening, which was lovely, but the sun burned it off most days which was even better.

Boats in the Fog, 12x24 oil on panel

Just for fun I will throw in another painting from the river. We were docked in Joigny and surprise, surprise, there was fog when we woke up that morning! This is a quick sketch I did a few years ago. We were seven people in a small yacht type boat. We piloted it ourselves, so not some exotic barge trip. Although we did see working barges.

This has turned into a mini travelogue post but it is rather fun to see the variety of work I have gotten from this little 5 day "cruise" all in one post.