Summer's gone and Fall is on its way

It's hard to believe the last time I posted anything was last May. But soon after that, summer hit and I'm always way busy in the summer. It is when I do most of my selling. Also, being President of the Spanish Peaks Arts Council, I have many many things to do. I do all the publicity and there are many events. Show openings, Art in the Park, Children's Art Workshop, Studio Tour. Now that Fall is half over and I have started learning about Facebook, I will try to do more with this blog. I have been busy painting small watercolors for Christmas. I wonder if I can figure out how to upload a picture. Since I have dial-up, everything takes so long, I often give up and move on to other things. This little watercolor is 5"x7". I did an oil painting of this same scene earlier this summer and it was purchased at the Cuchara Hermosa Art Festival in July.

Developing "Wahatoya Homestead"

I began this painting a little differently than I usually do, by sketching with a brush to determine the main shapes. Usually I tone the painting support with a thin color and wipe off the lightest areas, gradually adding values to create the composition. This one is done on a 12" x 16" gessoed panel. I used the principal of thirds to place the rock wall in the composition. This is the reference photo I used for this painting I began adding the local colors and working on patterns of color for the foreground, hoping to lead toward the barn and then on up to the rock wall. More work on the foreground. I decided to add some yellow wildflowers that are common in this area in the spring. Next I worked on extending a dark value pattern from the left edge down to the bottom of the painting. Once I set the patterns, I worked on developing bushes and shrubs. I also worked on the barn and was not satisfied with it. More work on the barn.... as well as the middle ground foliage The barn grew... After much fiddling with the barn, I decided to draw what I wanted, from a photo, that I had to flop. My barn had grown too tall after working with it so much and it needed to be smaller. Here are pictures of this process: I did a sketch of the barn on tracing paper to get the size right. The photo clipped to the painting is my reference photo. Then I used the sketch as a reference to sketch the new barn, with a brush, over the old barn.

This is during the process of creating the new barn, working with the background to eliminate the old barn.

This is my finished painting, "Wahatoya Homestead"

Welcome to my blog

This is the initial sketch of an oil painting I'm currently working on. I began painting with indigo on a gessoed hardboard, from several photos of a specific location. In my photos, there wasn't much in the foreground, so my challenge was to create an interesting foreground that would develop the painting into an interesting composition. I began with a monochromatic sketch so I could concentrate on values.

The second day, I began adding color, working to retain the value pattern I established in the original sketch. Getting some ideas from the actual landscape, I began to develop an midground of native pinon trees and scrub oaks. I thought I'd try some old worn fenceposts in the near ground, with more shrubs, and grasses.

The next sessions involved developing the colors. I decided it was too blue and began to warm up the mountain slopes with some greenish hues, as well as purples.

Now I am at the point of deciding how much more I should do!

After taking a break from this painting, to work on others, as well as to put up a show at the local Ryus Ave. Bakery, I worked some more on the details and composition. I worked on the values of the middle ground trees, the grass & flowers in the foreground and the scrub oaks. Now I'm letting it rest some more before I decide whether it's finished.