Kathy Hill's Studio and Gallery

New Oil Painting of the Gap on Hwy 12 to Cuchara

2010-06-10T21:15:00.008-06:00

This is what I am working on now. I began this oil painting doing my planned composition in values of gray. I used Winsor Newton Indigo. I am painting this on a gallery wrap canvas.

Next I added color on top of the grays, trying to keep the same values.

The following several sessions I worked on the distant mountains and the darkest trees, then the slope, the rock wall and the closer trees and shrubs. In order to create a color bridge between the foreground Aspens and the large rock wall, I added some orange among the evergreen trees in the distance behind the Aspens.

After a few days off, I began working on the foreground --not sure what color it should be. It ended up too green, so I let it dry over night and then painted over the greens with warmer colors. I also changed the Aspen trees on the left side and still have more to do there.

After evaluating the previous day's results, I decided I like it better a couple of steps back. So I printed a copy of the painting as it looked at that time. Then I changed that image to black and white so I could compare it to my original value painting. I noticed that in the original the mid-ground slope was a light value and in the painting it had become a dark value. After comparing the two black and white paintings, I decided I prefer the darker mid-ground.

For this session, I first lightened the tops of the foreground shrubs, then darkened the rest of the shrubs and ground, trying to bring the value closer to the value of the mid-ground evergreen trees, as it is in the black and white value painting. When I was OK with the way it is going, I did some more to the bright yellow aspens on the right side. They seem too intense, for being clear over in the corner of the picture, so I tried to carry some of the bright yellow over the canvas on the tops of the shrubs. Then I began working on the distant mountain, the rock wall on the right side and the evergreen trees. I still need to work on the right foreground.

Step-by-step watercolor painting

2009-12-01T21:16:00.017-07:00

This is a small (5"x7") watercolor on 500 lb strathmore watercolor "paper". After determining the size of the painting, I chose a line drawing as the basis for the composition. Here is a picture of the drawing, which is on clear acetate, postitioned on the paper.

Next I laid a piece of Saral transfer paper between the line drawing and the watercolor paper, so I could transfer the drawing to the paper. I used a sharp pent to go over the lines. After removing the Saral paper, I then had a line drawing on the watercolor paper.

My next step was to use liquid masking fluid to block out certain snowy areas of the mountains. This is the reference photo that I used for the mountains and middle ground trees.

Now I am FINALLY ready to paint! I used a 1" filbert brush to wet the entire surface--juicy wet. Then I used the same brush to apply thalo red to create the pink clouds.

When the paper was dry, I carefully painted blue between the pink clouds, keeping the wash very light. I used Thalo blue. I also washed blue over other areas of the painting. When this was dry, I removed the masking fluid and began working on details, beginning with the mountains.

When I applied the masking fluid, I carefully put it on top of the blue lines so that when I removed it, it lifted most of the lines. I used a pale wash of Prussian Blue for the details on the mountains, as well as thalo blue, thalo red and cadmium red light. (later steps). I used the Cadmium Red Light to start sketching in some pinon trees in the foreground, then while it was still wet, I dropped in some Hooker's Green deep with a little Prussian Blue. I continued to work on details, including the distant pinon trees in the middle ground. Then to see how my composition was developing, I cut a mat to lay on the painting. I usually do this when I'm about three-quarters done with a painting.

Another thing that I do when I think I may be almost done, or when I want to evaluate what to do next is to stand away from the painting. I was working on this on a table, but put it on an easel so I could look at it from a distance.

Here is the finished painting.

Reference Materials for Three Iris oil painting (below)

2009-11-25T21:07:00.004-07:00

Yesterday I posted progress so far on a new oil painting of Three Iris. The pictures here are of the reference photos I'm using for the flowers and the line drawing I did, by tracing the iris and arranging the drawing into a composition.

Oil Painting of Three Iris

2009-11-24T20:48:00.010-07:00

After spending quite a bit of time doing small watercolors for the Gift of Art show at the Gallery of the Spanish Peaks Arts Council (SPACe) in La Veta, I am finally getting back to what really excites me--oil painting. I've started on a painting of wild iris. I selected 3 photos that were taken years ago when we lived in Pinewood Springs, where we had wild iris growing on our property. I arranged them and then worked on the background. I like to contrast yellow against the purple so I decided to put some Golden Banner in the painting. Pictures were also taken years ago, but I had seen some among the wild iris fields at the top of Cuchara Pass one year. (the next year the yellow flowers among the iris were dandelions!)

I tried to rough out the composition on a 14x18 canvasboard someone gave me, but decided it was too small. I had to order some 16x20 canvases, so there was a bit of a break before I got back to it. (We had company and I moved my office from upstairs to downstairs)

The first picture is of my first attempt to block out a composition using raw umber on the 14"x18" canvasboard. It was too absorbent and I couldn't wipe out the light values.

The 16"x20" Fredrix smooth portrait canvas accepted the paint much better. After blocking in a composition with raw umber thinned with mineral spirits, using a bristle brush, I worked on creating a pattern with the darkest dark going from the left side of the canvas toward the right and out at the bottom. Then I worked on wiping out lightest values and worked with middle values, adding more raw umber and adding some Liquin to give it more body.

Then after I took a picture of it, I worked on the composition some more using Microsoft PictureIt! By doing it this way, I was able to disconnect from thinking of the details and concentrated on the values and how they move through the composition.

The next three pictures show the gradual development of the painting. First I followed my value sketch, printed from the computer, to block in the dark background --mostly greens. The greens are a mixture of Prussian Green and Raw Umber, adding Indigo, Lemon Yellow, white and some other mixtures as I went along. For the iris I used Quinacridone purple, white and a little ultramarine blue. I did no drawing, but looked at my value sketch mostly to start. Then by the time I got to the 2nd picture, I was looking at my photos to get the iris accurate. You can see where the raw umber shows through as I added the local color, in the first picture of this series.

The next image, I filled in all the initial underpainting of raw umber and developed the yellow flowers and their surrounding somewhat. Later I looked at the image on the computer and did a little computer "painting" to look at possible value changes in the background mostly around the yellow flower on the left side of the painting.

On my next session I adjusted the actual painting using a print of the computer "painted" image as a guide.

I was fairly happy with the background value patterns so I began working more on the iris, working to let the two flowers in the back blend a little into the background. Then I worked on making the lower flower stand out more with more contrast and detail. I also worked on the "Golden Banner" yellow flowers, and the foliage surrounding them.

At this point I felt almost finished, but after looking at my photo of the painting, I decided to do a little more adjusting to the dark value pattern in the upper right quadrant of the painting.

This is my final painting "Three Wild Iris"

Summer's gone and Fall is on its way

2009-10-18T22:13:00.004-06:00

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"

2009-05-30T21:29:00.011-06:00

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

2009-05-09T21:24:00.012-06:00

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.