Buoy Dance 18" x 12"

"Buoy Dance" 18" x 12"

After having fulfilled many obligations (Art Lit with 1st graders & preparing my taxes) and having spent time organizing my work for the three upcoming shows, I finally finished this piece! Well at least for now it's finished. I will take this to my critique tomorrow and hopefully will get a thumbs up on it. I'd like to enter this one in the NPS Open International with hopes it gets in. This painting may look familiar from prior posts, that's because it is a larger format of the "Buoy Dance" that I painted at my Open Studio this past October. As with most of my posts, I have included the steps that I took to get to this point. Here they are....


First I start out with the garrish orange under painting of Createx paint. I used orange because it is the compliment color to what will be a predominately "blue" painting. Also, I lightly sketched in the composition with a pastel pencil.


Here is what I call the "ugly stage". Initially, I placed my brightest brights and my darkest darks to establish those values. Then I began placing my blue mid-tones in and around the painting.


At this point of the game, I'm beginning to see where I can inject color to liven up the comp. I'm playing with the water, the background and starting to place dabs of yellow where the brightest highlights will be.


Now I'm beginning to see the end, with still lots to do. I'm working quietly now, concentrating on the values, colors and reflections in the water. Here I've placed the brightest highlights on top of the yellow dabs and also notice the red buoys' reflection is now in the water. I'm really excited at this point and my painting sessions get longer. My...time flies when I'm having fun...


Slowing down here, I've softened the water, scumbling color over color to give it a sunset-like look. I'm really having fun with the wiggly lines in the water. Finished!
Giclee' print available online at Imagekind.

Color Study #4

Color Study #4 5" x 7"

Today, I worked on another color study that is an analogous color scheme. Analogous colors are colors that neighbor each other on the color wheel. For this study, I chose to use blue and its entire range from blue, blue violet, red violet, and red and tints of these. I used a dash of orange for the rope, which causes a ton of interest because it is a compliment to blue. I found out that analogous colors can sometimes give artwork a lack of interest or create a calming feeling. Sounds kind of boring! So, that is why I put that bold orange rope in this piece and also the boat was going to float away if I didn't tie it down!
Here is my analogous palette.

"Buoy Dance" 7x5"

This little marine gem "Buoy Dance" was painted quickly at a pace of 1/2 hour as a demo for my Open Studio in October. I since have touched it up a bit, adding detail and measuring values, making sure I have a focal point, cleaning up edges, softening edges, stuff like that. I'm offering this piece in the free drawing at Hillsboro's First Tuesday Art Walk this December 4th at Art Envy's Artist's Reception, 125 SE 3rd, Hillsboro, OR 97123. I will also have many of my smaller pieces that are very reasonably priced for this show as well as my entire line of note cards. Stop by from 6 to 9pm and enjoy a sip of wine with me! Oh, so because I worked on it some more, that brings the time creating up a notch to around 1 hour! :)