Ready to Paint: “New England Summer Sun”

So it’s cold, icy, and early January.  I thought of Maine in September and painted this familiar beautiful house with a wonderful shadow pattern.  My goal is to capture the light and feeling of summer, nothing too complicated.  As always, the holidays have taken a toll on my work production, not really the truth because I have painted about 10 oils in the last month but this is my first watercolor in a few weeks and what a wonderful medium it is.  I know why I spend 35 years painting in it, it is spontaneous, transparent and friendly to those who practice and develop good skills.  Get comfortable with the medium, your drawing, and subject matter and you will have a good year.

Run a colorful mixture of cobalt blue and cerulean blue and make sure you cut around the roof tops and leave the white paper for the clouds, this is a beautiful sky, sorry I know pretty and beautiful are not come peoples goals but its’ better than ugly.  Put in the trees with a mixture of new gamboge, cobalt and ultramarine blue, try for a nice feeling of light on the top of the trees and shadow under the canopy.  With the side of your brush put a little texture on the edge of the tree canopy.I used raw sienna, and the green from the trees to paint the foreground and I used a really lively brush.  Leave some lights in the grass for light and cut out the path up on the right side and turn it back towards the house.  Scrape out the trees and the weeds with a sharp knife.  Paint the shadows on the building, I used cobalt violet, cobalt blue and small hint of burnt sienna.  I had a good understanding of the shadow shape I wanted and had drawn it on the side of the building and I kept the shadow light but not too light.  Think Goldilocks.Add in the details windows, trim and weed with a darker value but not so dark that they take over the painting.detail of the side of the building, this is what attracts me to this subject is the shadow and the far right window that you can see through.  Have fun painting and try to paint everyday, even if it is just a quick study.  The middle of the month I will have a new series to present on the blog, but I will be traveling for a few days.  Thank you for coming and visiting.  Oh and I will be putting up some information on my Ireland and Maine workshops in a few days.