Monday, April 25, 2016

Fixing up finished paintings, Redbuds and boats

I pulled out an old painting of redbuds in Kingwood and spruced it up. I didn't have a lot of time this week. Lesson I learned...make dark background and then the pink stands out. I would do that if I painted it again.
Then I took my teacher's critique and worked on Peggy's Cove. Very difficult to make lights in the fog, to make fog. I do like my rusty blue whaler? Lesson? Hmmmm. Need to work on boat shapes and foggy scenes.
I had good intentions for more painting but still working many days and took Tosca to her last agility trial. We will still practice but for now she does not like the teetertotter at Wadsworth and flys off the end. We did finish level 2 of Canine Performance Events and that was the goal for Saturday. Sunday worked in the yard mulching and making a garden around the two Butterfly Bushes and the two hydrangeas that survived the winter. They all died to the ground but are coming back. It is always a choice between painting, gardening, Tosca and her agility and house cleaning. Guess which is last? I am really hoping to spend more time painting soon.
#Redbuds, #PeggysCoveinthefog#oil paintings

Monday, April 18, 2016

Painting at Malabar Farm

Finally the weather broke and I had a morning to go paint at Malabar Farm. A few of my Ohio Plein Air Society artists were there also. I went early because I had to be to work at 2pm and darn that is going to happen this week also.
I didn't want to walk around too much because of the time so chose a spot near the parking lot. I was fascinated by the shadows of the spires on the smaller shed.
First I did a small 1x2 notan (black and white) sketch to see the pattern. I had already toned the painting with transparent red oxide. I did a quick drawing with a light blue pastel pencil and blocked in the dark areas with some viridian. Then I did the shadow sides of the buildings with a cobalt blue and white, mixing some other colors,(very small amounts) to get varigations. Then I mixed some Cadmium Yellow Pale with a touch of Cadmium red and some white for a warm sky, varying the colors across the sky. I wish I had used some more yellow/white in the left corner as that is where the light is coming from. I added some light green to the background to give a touch of Spring to the landscape. I then worked on the warm sides of the barns and silos with some of the sky color and was pleased with the varigations in the silo. It was getting close to time to leave so this is what I had when I stopped.
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was off on Friday so I worked more on the painting and found that the painting didn't want to have the focal point the shadows on the shed so I put them in lightly and the focal point ended up being the crib and the doors and the light hitting them. I did do some work on the perspective. There were lots of angles to that painting. After working for a couple hours I feel I can no longer call it a plein air painting as I have put in the same time at home as I did at Malabar Farm.
I did not like the angle of the crib, felt it should be more horizontal, had a tangent at the top of the silo where the background hit right at the top of the silo.
Worked on it on Saturday afternoon after work and finished some smaller details, fixed the tangent and the angle of the crib. Unless I see something glaring it may be finished. Although the left sky corner and the right sky corner look very similar so will fix that and do the final photo with my camera rather than my phone so I get a stable picture.
I have not worked on the Peggy's Cove painting nor done the watercolor from Saturday. I did watch Johannes Vloothaus workshop and hope to try that on a day off.
Thursday is painting at Malabar again.But the weather looks like some showers. I really like sunny paintings so not excited.
Saturday I am off work but am taking Tosca to an agility trial. She will love it. I get nervous! I know we are doing it for fun and not to get to the top. I have to keep telling myself that!
#MalabarFarmpainting,#MalabarFarm,#oilpainting,#landscapepainting,#farmpainting
My Websites:
http://judyfischerwaltonfinart.weebly.com
http://judy-fischer-walton.artistwebsites.com

Monday, April 11, 2016

Painting in Panpastels

I have not been able to work on the Peggy's Cove painting but will tomorrow when I am off work. I will fix the lights, darken the water and possibly do the fog better.

The Monet's Garden was pure joy to do. I love the PanPastels. I bought the basic set from a friend who didn't care for them. I am happy with the painting but feel like working on it tomorrow also as it is so soft but has some hard dark places. This was so much fun. I want to find some other colors that are basically landscape colors.

I have been working on my newsletter so will be sending that out soon. My working is getting in the way of my art! I know I am a day late with the blog.

Our Thursday painting group has been unable to paint as the weather has been bad. Three inches of snow and l9 degreees! So much rain and cold. It looks like Thursday will be warmer and we are to paint at Malabar Farm. It will be a fast one as I have to work in the afternoon. My websites are http://www.judyfischerwaltonfineart.weebly.com, and http://judy-fischer-walton.artistwebsites.com #monetsgarden, #PeggysCove, #oilpainting,#Pastelpainting,#Panpastels.

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Keep or toss?


I will attempt more of this painting but am highly dissatisfied with it. I used an old panel that was painted with housepaint making it very slick. I will not use that again as the paint does not stick. I will see if things change once it dries.I think if I cropped it making it an 8x8 taking two inches of the right side the composition would be better, also. I wanted to do a foggy scene. I watch Johannes Vloothaus do the painting on his workshop online Saturday. I have studied with him for four years and he is one of the best teachers I have found. Check out his site, http://www.Improvemypaintings.com. His workshops are inexpensive and they are scheduled from 1-5pm and sometimes last until 7pm as he has so much to teach. He has free videos occasionally.
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I did work on this painting to keep the large tree from being so round at the top. There is still a roundness! I should wipe out the left branch at the top. I did raise the yellow tree next to it so that the trees were not at the same height and set the other tall tree more in the background.
On Thursday I went to Malabar Farm to meet with the Ohio Plein Air Society painters from our area. It was raining but we talked about painting places we want to go to and four painters did stay and painted from the porch. We will meet again at Malabar next thursday as it qualifies as a park and we are all planning on entering a show requiring paintings of parks in Ohio.
I did start to work at Kingwood Center Gardens on Saturday and will be working 3 days a week so am hoping to stick to my schedule and paint as much as I can.
Happy Spring. Spring is trying to come in but Winter is pushing her out! Yesterday it rained, hailed, snowed and had terrible wind. The combination toppled a tree in Kingwood wiping out the fence around the duck pond. No birds were harmed.
To you artists out there keep painting...I have some projects in mind that are more inspirational than the boat scene!