LANDSCAPE AND TREE

 Just fiddling with granulating colors, darks, lights, a sense of distance (maybe).  This one is very small on a a scrap I had and wanted to just warm up.

And a kinda sad looking little tree.

THIS AND THAT

Another couple of small paintings done while watching and listening to Angela Fehr in the online course (which is, actually, over now).  

My landscapes need more practice to get used to trees, tree lines, grasses, etc.  It will come along after many more hours.

I am not the only person saddened by the fact that, once again, we are being asked to mask up (I never really stopped and am the only one in the grocery wearing a mask when I go, rarely.).  I got my vaccine.  I’m sick of this selfishness by others - it is making it hard to do anything but be sad or angry, but I’ll keep trying to work through it and painting helps - until it doesn’t.  So while I’m painting landscapes with bright, granulating colors and some good shapes, this is how I’m actually feeling…

 

BEES

 

Just some small bee paintings.

 

THIS ONE IS ON GOOD PAPER

 

The planning stages and sketches/paintings helped but I’m still not crazy about this one.  Perhaps it needs more texture in the rocks?

RUSTY ROCKS AND WATER FALLING

 This one is on better paper but I see things I need to change in the next, final, version:

Don’t make the trees spaced so evenly and maybe just have 3 of them.

Get some better darks in parts of the orange rocks so they stand out more.

Flatten the orange pool underneath the rocks because right now it doesn’t look like a pool of water.

Other things may happen, but if I keep those three thoughts in mind, I may need up with a better painting in the end.

STARTING SOMETHING NEW

 

Photo was taken on a short day trip to Yellow Springs, OH and the Glen Helen forest.  The red in the rocks is from the colorful minerals (iron + ?) flowing through the water.  

This first sketch is on student grade paper - just a study to see what I can put where and what I want to change in the final painting.  With landscapes, unless they are almost all imagination, I am going to do 3 versions with the 3rd being the final painting - maybe that will help me paint landscapes?  We’ll see.

HEART-LED, NOT PHOTO-LED

 

In the Angela Fehr workshop, Heart-led Landscapes, she does a video each week and takes us on a journey of exploring how to paint landscapes and all the elements.  She suggests we paint two versions of the scene and does it - we can follow along to learn and then use what we’ve learned in our own works.  These two are from a photo she took in Ireland and neither her paintings nor mine look anything like the photo - but that’s the idea.  No one sees the photo but us…and then we can do what we want with it, leaving parts in, taking parts out, using colors that speak to us.  

I like this one best.  But still, just a practice piece playing with colors and shapes.  I will need to paint many more trees before I feel comfortable painting trees.

IT’S A TURTLE

 

A little turtle sunning herself on a log sticking out of a muddy pond.  

If I seem to be jumping all over the place lately with my paintings, it’s because I am.  Will finish the previous painting with the masking fluid off soon…

AND DONE

 

The left side was doing nothing for the painting so I cropped it off.  Better.  

PAINTING ALONG

 

Painted this small one along with Angela Fehr in the course - doesn’t look anything like her’s but playing with greens and values/shapes…

She said the bright yellow from her scene was canola growing - when I lived in Wales, there were fields of this stuff and they called it rape seed (same as canola) and it was a bright mark across the green landscape.  I’ve never seen it growing around here so maybe it takes a certain climate?  

AND NOW WE DO A FINAL PAINTING - MAYBE

What has the planning and painting small studies done to help me with the final painting?  Let’s see…

I used masking fluid to mask off the areas I will paint pink and the bridge area as well as the white egret and the white pelican in the foreground.  I moved a few things around and brought the bridge farther into the painting - not so far to the right.  

Using the masking fluid frees me up to put down more darks in between the slats of the bridge and darken the underneath area and posts 

PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE IN THE HEART-LED LANDSCAPE COURSE

 

Working through the Angela Fehr online course, Heart-led Landscapes.  Doing color studies before starting the painting.  This is in my Strathmore Visual Journal, 90# cold press; good for working up things but won’t react like good paper.  

A larger painting on Saunders Waterford paper given to me by an art buddy (thanks, Laura!).  I am going to need to use masking fluid to keep those whites of the egret (and the pelican if I want to add it).  And I’m not going to use saran wrap on the background trees - that was just a thing to play with since Angela introduced it.  Haven’t used plastic wrap or salt in ages but she says to try both.  I never cared for salt - could never get it all off the paper when dried.

I will do this again on Arches cold press paper (which I am more familiar with).  

PEONY ALMOST FINISHED

 I’d like to work on the center whites and pinks to make them stand out more - but unsure how to do that with the white scraggly bits.  Will think about it a while.  Almost finished.  

Half sheet Arches 140# cold press.

I’ve been using Moonglow from Daniel Smith for years and never had a problem with it.  Now I hear on Facebook that it’s fugitive?  I don’t know where that rumor came from but I did see a thread recently that disputed it because they, too, have been using Moonglow for years and it’s never changed (the rumor is it changes to a dull blue color after 6 months).  I wonder if some art teacher said it and now it’s making the rounds of all the artists out there who have never tried it.  All paint manufacturers will test their colors and tell you which ones are lightfast and which are not.  (Why am I mentioning this?  Because that dark color that isn’t green is Moonglow.). 

PEONY BEFORE AND AFTER - 3

 Finished except for the center bits that are mainly orange/yellow and a pale pinkish white.  Will get back to it soon.  Right now, have started another online course with Angela Fehr on Heart-led Landscapes - started this week and it will be a month-long or longer course.  I would like to paint landscapes much better than I do right now so hoping to learn and grow a bit more.  

It’s July already.  The heat of June doesn’t bode well for July and August (our hottest months).  Hope everyone can stay cool…and well.  

PEONY BEFORE AND AFTER - 2

A bit more done, still in the flow of it.

A couple of close-ups so you can see how it’s coming together.  I am happy with this one and just have the center bits to do.