A LITTLE VASE - JUST FIDDLING

 

Just a little vase using watercolor dabs and some oil pastels here and there.  

Trying to play to get myself back in the mood.

EVEN MORE UNSURE

 Since this wasn’t going to work out anyway, I took some inks and played with this painting.  I guess it’s just practice with the inks but now I’m not sure when or if I’ll use these inks - what made me buy them in the first place?  I should not purchase art supplies when I’m not feeling well - I make rash decisions about wanting things!! ha ha

But Laura wanted some line work on the trunks and this is what I came up with, spending the most time and effort on the central trunk.  

UNSURE

 

The ink is going to take some getting used to as the 2 dip pens I have tend to drop blobs of color down every so often so just trying to learn with the green and yellow ink on the leaves.  I don’t think marking the trunks will do anything but be a learning experience.  May just use the inks for sketching.

CURVES

 

From a photo taken in Florida of beautifully colored and shaped banyan (?) trees outside our rental that year.  I’ve cut it down into a square to get rid of unnecessary stuff at the bottom (leaf litter I could not create to look right) and the top (more green) so the focus is more on those few leaves and the tree color and shape.  I need to darken the tree trunks more to show the sunlight was behind them.

But I think I’ll get out my new inks and play with the leaves a bit and see what happens, just to experiment. I have 2 pens and some odds and ends of things (sticks, bamboo stick pen, etc.) to use with the inks and I’ll play with those.  

I’ve been in a rut with painting and drawing lately (haven’t even finished my weekly lesson in the Strathmore Artist Series online course).  But might be coming back and it seems playing with the new inks will help get me back in the mood.  

I did read on the boxes of inks and found they are not lightfast - so…maybe they are just for quick sketching or learning rather than for finished works?  

ART SUPPLIES

 

Sometimes you just need new art supplies.  Have never tried the inks, but I think they might add interesting elements to my paintings.  And have always wanted to try a Lamy fountain pen.  We’ll see.  Also, just a couple of well-loved colors and 2 new ones (small 5 ml) to try.  

WARM AND COOL IRIS FINISHED

Went ahead and finished it.  I think the variety of yellows and oranges give it a nice glow.  

Now I wish I had made the violet/purple blue - might do this again and change that color and be more delicate with the white lines.  

WARM AND COOL IRIS

Working on the interesting shapes of an iris - closeup.  Used the white candle to mark the whites (resist technique) and got too heavy-handed with it.  It should be much more delicate - will learn and do better next time and, probably, use white gouache for those whites after trying to save the white of the paper more in those lines.  

LITTLE LANDSCAPE

 

Just another little landscape with a stormy sky.  We haven’t had rain for a while and now hot and steamy weather again after a short break of cooler weather.  August in Northern KY.

GREENS, REEDS AND POND WATER

 A fourth sheet Hahnemuhle paper (140# cold press).  Just playing and trying to get good greens with some variety.  The reeds a the pond side are too dark and I may go back in with light colored pencil.  Unfortunately, the water reed refletions are indented so can’t lift them out = too harsh right now but I’ll do better next time.  

RED ROCK POOL AGAIN

 Roughed up the texture of the rocks a bit more - I like it more now but still think that water/pool at the bottom doesn’t look grounded.  Perhaps darken the center of the pool area?

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?