I started this one day before yesterday..a landscape. It is a 20x20...sometimes I like to paint on a square format. I begin pretty much the same as always. I like a warm ground ..this is transparent oxide red with just a touch of ultramarine blue in the mix. It is mixed with a small amount of thinner and then let dry before applying the next round of thinned paint. I have a quick sketch underneath using a charcoal pencil. I then spray the sketch with hairspray so the charcoal does not smear. I like this composition because of the perspective of the hay bales and rows and the impending sky.....not to mention the colors.
In the second stage I apply the darks that will be allowed to show through the later layers of paint. I begin to add many of the colors that are seen in the land in the sky...the difference is that they are muted and paled. I see the colors of the landscape reflected in the clouds. The distant hills had a peculiar blue-green color and the hay field had an almost orange cast.
I start to apply more color and thicker paint delineating the different planes of the landscape. I start to model the sky and give the clouds form. Painting...for me...is largely a series of adjustments in value, color, shape and form.
Here you can see some of the adjustments that have been made...it is still largely unfinished...especially the foreground and the right middleground. I have begun to work on the haybales and the rows of stubble...leaving the dark underpainting showing through for the shadow areas. Approximate time so far about 10 hours.I will have to stop on this piece for the next day or two. I have cookies to bake...and a large dinner to prepare and a house to clean! I made a huge pot of spaghetti with meatballs and Italian sausage the other day and we have been eating that for awhile. I make everything from scratch....just a habit from how my family cooked. Max's son is coming up from Houston, Texas for the holidays...Christmas dinner will be at relatives house and I have been assigned to bake an apple pie....just as spectacular as my cheesecake if I do say so myself. Ha! The dinner will be our Christmas dinner for when Wyatt arrives.
I will try to get this one done before Christmas and then start another one sometime soon after Christmas day. I will also try to keep posting in between.
See you soon,
Theresa
16 comments:
Hi Theresa,
I love watching the progression. Just wonderful. Speaking of cookies I have to do that too, and buy the tree, the front door wreathe, and put up the decorations and outdoor lights.
If you make the cookies on my blog add some Skor pieces -- they package them just like chocolate chips, only in a smaller bag -- they really add a nice
flavour and crunch undertone.
Sorry -- cookie comments on an art
blog -- that's a different art isn't it!
Ah well -- it's all part
of the same thing -- joy in life.
You bring joy to mine. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and all your family and friends.
Love Barbara
Theresa and Barbara M:
For me, these blogs I read every day remind me of the balance necessary for an artist to succeed. Like my friend and watercolor mentor Charles Reid told me...you can't paint all day. His secondary 'art' is cooking. And then, while the sauce was simmering, he would paint what was left on the cabinet. Spontaneous still life.
Anything can be 'art', many things are 'creative'. Cooking, writing, (blogging), art, music, gardening, needlecraft, homemaking (martha stewart), stirring sermons, inspirational speakers.
In fact, perhaps being human is to be 'creative'.
Address to send cookies available on request! lol
vicki
Geez Louise!! What depth! I can feel the air in this piece already. It's like I could stroll right on in. Keep it comin!!
EW
It will be fun to follow the progress. Looks good at this point.
Could you send me some of those cookies (soon - I'm hungry)
Merry Christmas.
Hi Theresa,
I just noticed the piece on coal versus wind and solar. Right on!
My brother was talking to a nuclear
expert the other day who said, not only is there no safe way to store the waste from nuclear power plants, which has a deadly half life of 150,000 years, there's no safe way to transport it before it is stored!!!
Why can't we all sign on for more wind and solar? In Canada we have enough water power to add to that picture. New technologies using the power of tides are also in the works. It's time we insisted that
governments think about our health,safety and the best interests of this and the next, and next and next generation.
Theresa you rock!
Barbara
Yes Barbara...Joy...that's where it's at! The tree wreath and most of the cookies are done as are the brownies. One problem they keep getting eaten as quickly as I make them!! A wonderful Christmas and New year to you and yours, too, my friend!
Yes Vicki I could not agree more...all things in life are creative..including humanness.I know so many wonderful people that are creative in so many ways. I just revel in life for all of it's amazingly creative possibilities!! I am thrilled that we will both be doing a portrait..the ones I have seen so far are fantastic!
A great big thank you, Eldon!!!! That is one of the things I hear a lot about my work and I am thrilled you feel that also. I really am honored that you can feel the air...wow!! Be patient...holidays..you know!
On painting thank you..I am very happy that you are enjoying the progress...Cookies, huh? I may have to wrestle them away from the kids and Max first!!
Barbara...in my humble opinion...there is no reason on this earth that we cannot harness solely...wind and solar. I do not see or understand the need to wrench stuff out of the earth that is not reproducing itself or that fouls the air, water and land. We have an amazing amount of technology from numerous sources that are highly advanced in many areas including medicine only to be shunned by the lobbyists and their money which has been going on for way to many years. I first became aware of "green" and climate awareness way, way back in my hippie days and have never let up in that belief and have tried to live it. It is painfully obvious what has become of the earth over the past 40 years...which includes the greed of humanity and the subsequent soiling of our own nest. I hope and pray that we can finally do something positive before it's too late. You rock....and so does the universe....still!
Ok, patience it is. Aint gonna be easy tho. :)
EW
Hi Theresa,
Wow! How refreshing to read what you're saying -- something so many people won't say. We've been recycling and composting since before our kids were born. I marched against nuclear power when I was first married. It irks me to see politicians serve up some lame solution to a problem that isn't easy.
I'm furious about the mercury "green" lightbulbs that are as green as "clean" coal. Just look at the mercury tailing piles for those green bulbs in China and see what that's doing to the people there. I agree with you.
Now we better relax and have some Christmas, and get back to painting beauty.
I will be talking to you soon.
Merry Christmas to you and yours,
Barbara
You won't have too much longer to wait Eldon... I am posting the finished product sometime today! Thank you for being so sweet!
I am so glad you are green, Barbara!! You are so right about those damn light bulbs....who the heck thought that fiasco up! I am back to painting, finally...:)
I love the step by step shots! awesome!
Thank you Jeb...I certainly appreciate it!!
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