Artist Studio
(15 x 22 watercolor on paper “Plum Island”, I really got involved in the texture of the trees and tried to emphasize the overlapping shapes and textures in the trees. I worked at varying the strokes to create variety and interest.) Although it is sometimes not what we notice first about a great watercolor painting,
Continue Reading “Improve your brushwork, improve your paintings”
This painting is a metaphor for all of the rural beauty that is being lost to urban sprawl. I used a palette knife to paint most of it and it was a demonstration for my Friday class but I finished it at home. Take the time to look and appreciate, the soon to be gone, farms, barns and fields, they are more than just quaint buildings; they are our past. They reflect the society we were before we became virtual and gadget oriented.
Here is my mornings efforts at correcting and polishing up my last couple of demonstrations for my Monday morning plein air class. In both of these paintings I worked at pushing the backgrounds back using a more violet greys, and bringing the foregrounds forward with texture using a palette knife and chip brush, applying intense reds yellows and greens. The oils are coming along but it will be a year or so before I really feel I have turned the corner. I plan to spend the first two months of 2015 outdoors painting trying to get the winter greys down. I think that is the only way. Thanks for putting up with my oils I know they will get better.