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 #3

"Color Study #3 6x6"

I'm now working in color schemes, trying out a complimentary palette with yellow and purple. Complimentary colors are colors that lay directly across from one another on the color wheel. Like green is to red, or blue is to orange. That kind of color study has always been my favorite combination. The actual photo reference I took of this scene has a much more "cooler" temperature to it and it actually didn't have a spoon in it either, so I had to imagine a spoon with that kind of lighting on it. Hopefully, it comes across as "really there" even though that is not the premise of this study. I struggled with my typical tight rendering, grasping on to any looseness to the piece. I just gave up and decided not to fight my tendencies to realism. Anyway, here is my palette below.