Quick and Easy...really???

I took some photos of flora in Kauai:

I love the soft texture of this plant and color, complementary reds and greens.  I deliberately took an up close shot because I love this "in your face" composition.  About a week ago I prepared my canvas with a nice layer of pigment and then did a very minimal sketch to guide where I would go with my paint.

I worked this morning on the painting and I already like it.  I love the colors, the smoothness of the texture, and the composition makes sense to me.

Wow! Who knew it could be so easy.  Of course I may wake up in the morning and hate it but for today, it's good.  The linen was great to paint on, the orange underpainting worked, and I can live with 60% cool, 40% warm.  

Next to my critique group for their comments and recommendations.  We'll see after that how much I like it.  Sometimes just seeing through other's eyes helps me to recognize faults, mistakes and icky stuff!  

New Sounds, Scenes, Emotions

Everyday a new sketch, and here's today's of the candy cane jar on the kitchen table.  Didn't quite get the whole jar on the page, but one gets the idea.

New sounds, smells and new everything at our house lately.  Kids are visiting, so am having fun photographing some scenes for possible future paintings.  I don't know that I'll actually do realistic paintings of grandkids; however their attitudes, smiles, everyday schedules inspire some emotions that possibly I can get down on paper or canvas.  One of my mentors is very good at painting her emotions and though I think I get my emotions out there, I don't believe I have ever done a painting of pure emotion the way that she does.  That's what I love about art though, the fact that no matter how long one does it or how good one gets-- there's always more to learn, feel, see, hear, and taste with art.

Most of all, one can breathe in art and forever there is more to breathe in..breathe, and breathe...

A Lesson in Color

There is a painting hanging in our bedroom, it's been there since Spring of 2010.  I have looked at that painting almost everyday since then and liked it sorta, nothing wrong with it technically, I framed it in a wooden shadow box, BUT I just couldn't "love" the overall piece.  I named it "Complementary Flowers" because the dominant colors were orange and blue.

I have been mulling over this work all this time and recently, I had an aha moment about the colors.  My gut was telling me cool this painting down, and the painterly part of my gut said change the background to a cool leaving small outlines of the orange at a ratio of about 15% warm to 85% cool. 

So I took the canvas out of the frame and went to work on the background colors. 

Now I absolutely love this painting.  The images here don't do the original justice, there's a lot of orange coming through the blues and I left outlines of orange around the flowers and leaves so that the painting is unified in complements all over the place.  I also darkened the bottom of the piece anchoring it a little more than it was when it was predominantly warm.

Yay!  It's back in it's frame and hanging in our room.  Now I absolutely love it.