Landslide

Landslide, oil on board, 14x 18"

Rows and rows of uphill vines acting as earths sun catchers.

Long-legged

Long-legged, oil on board, 16x20"

I really need to get a phone with a better camera. I took several photos of this painting, and I feel like it still isn't represented to the best of its ability.  Regardless, I loved these long-legged vines.  I wish I knew what varietal they are.  When I was painting the background, I blurred the photo so I wouldn't get to caught up in the nitty gritty, i.e. the details. The abstraction was fun to do, and still shows the depth of space.

Kansas Farm Lake

Kansas Farm Lake, oil on gessobord, 10x10"

I returned to the subject matter that I love the most for this painting, vast and sweeping farms. The photo reference  was taken last summer while driving to Colorado.  I am an urban girl, through and through, but I am always drawn to expansive amounts of space, a big portion of it untouched in many ways. I guess it's the yin and yang, the push and the pull, the balance. And the never-ending search for a scene to translate into a painting, is in itself, very humbling.

Wheat, path, sky

Wheat, Path, Sky, oil on gessobord, 8x6"

It feels like forever since I picked up a paint brush. I think it has been over a month, so it might as well have been forever. I've been kept away by the preceding's of, the actual event and the post stuff of surgery.  I have not felt well enough or truly had the endurance to sit at the easel, until today. And I am very rusty both in thought and execution...it's amazing how quickly that happens!!  Today I found an older photo that I thought had a strong composition. Unbeknownst to me I was painting in a semi-dark room for the palette  I was using, and when I went outside to photograph it, I received this surprise. Very bright!! Kind of patchwork-ie but overall not a bad re-start.

Parklands #5

Parklands #5, oil on Arches paper, 16x12"

I had a lot of trouble with this painting all the way around.  I don't know if it was the combination of the inorganic and the organic, which the other paintings in the Parklands series don't have, or that I was rusty.  I will chalk it up to both at this point.  I don't like getting rusty but it happens.  I had two different versions of this painting prior to going back in and re-doing the whole thing. The alternative would have been to scrub it. I eventually gathered my long, lost focus and reworked it. I re-sketched the entire composition, resized it all, and tried to squint at my photo to see and compose larger shapes.  I did a lot of overpainting on what remained of the other versions. One good thing about the oil paper that I have been using is it is very rag-like and absorbent, so there is no way to ever get a clean slate. It makes me rethink what color palette I will use henceforth, thus making "take two" more interesting all the way around.

Parklands #4

Parklands #4, oil on Arches oil paper, 16x12"

I feel like I am gaining momentum with each new painting in this series.  This painting was done from a photo reference with very little light variations. I painted it that way but added a lot more color. 

On a personal note, today is the last day of my Spring Break, and I am already feeling a bit melancholy. I have gotten into a nice routine of waking up, finishing a painting that I started late the night before, posting it, then deciding where I will hike or bike for the day, to explore and take photos.  In other words, doing exactly what I want to do, which I rarely get an opportunity to experience.  I was very productive this past week, so I will heed a warning now, my painting is about to slow back down, much to my chagrin. Thanks for the support I have received through the evolution of the Parklands series. Any artist will admit that comments and "likes" help to keep us going.  So I'm not sure if this will be the last of the series or not. I still have a few interesting photos I want to explore through paint. We will see what this next week brings :-)

Windy Bernheim

Windy Bernheim, oil on gessobord, 8x10"

Yesterday, to take advantage of a rain-less day, I took Rothko (see pic below) to Bernheim to paint and hike.  I wanted to continue with the vast, tiered landscapes of the Parklands series (which will continue hopefully tomorrow), so I set up near the Educational Building, stuck my set-up around a corner of the building to use as a wind block. The wind gusts still found us, and at times I was having to hold the pochade box with one strong hand or risk the entire set-up blowing over. It was an adventure that took a lot of laughing, and having Rothko there to helped me sustain. Out of these conditions came this sweet little landscape.