I have my painting teacher to thank for this looking okay. He reminded me that what I'm trying to paint is LIGHT and not things, so painting the local color was taking me down the wrong path.
The sand dune one is what I'm working on at home and again, painting the light is what I'm about.
I had a wonderful party of very creative people at my house last Thursday night. The next morning I woke up with an unbearable urge to go to S. Padre. I knew that wasn't feasible, because they expect you to pay for your hotel room and food, so I started a new painting...S. Padre Sand Dune II.
When we were down at Padre this summer, I took a whole range of pictures of the sand dune I stared at every day. So, rather than do the same exact composition (I just don't think that's right), I looked through all my shots and settled on another composition that pleases me and worked on blocking it in on Friday.
All the lessons learned from the earlier painting will be helpful this time and maybe the painting will flow easily and much quicker than the 17 hours the first one took. At any rate, I know it will be fun.
S. Padre Sand Dune is in a new home as of yesterday, so last night it was good to start a new painting that I already am enamoured of. It's from my daughter's visit to Lyon, France last summer. The photo has been calling to me all this time and finally I feel ready to do this painting. It's only 24x30", which is a nice relief from the big pieces I've been lugging up and down the stairs. I'm not terribly fond of the canvas, though. It's a gallery wrap, but the edges are rounded so a palette knife goes off into nothingness instead of hitting the curved edge which leaves a bit of white along the edges. Learned my lesson and won't use this canvas with palette knives again.
I like how the blocking in is shaping up. It's my plan to keep doing paintings with a long block in time so that I don't get hung up on details (hard to do with a palette knife anyway).
I have just finished reading "Julie and Julia" and saw the movie last week. My husband and I typically go to our favorite little French bistro for our anniversary, so my life lately is tinged with French, buttered with Francais, bubbling with the feeling of champagne in my anticipation of this painting and more paintings to come.
Au Revoir,
Constance
"S. Padre Sand Dune" 2009 oil on canvas 30x40
I've enjoyed every second of this painting. Maybe it's because I chose a composition of something that I enjoyed looking at for an entire week and it reminds me of the lovely time I had there. I do think that good paintings come from that enjoyment. I think one can become more immersed in work that is compelling and the Muse tends to stick around longer when one is having a good time.
I have my painting teacher to thank for this looking okay. He reminded me that what I'm trying to paint is LIGHT and not things, so painting the local color was taking me down the wrong path.
The sand dune one is what I'm working on at home and again, painting the light is what I'm about.
I had a wonderful party of very creative people at my house last Thursday night. The next morning I woke up with an unbearable urge to go to S. Padre. I knew that wasn't feasible, because they expect you to pay for your hotel room and food, so I started a new painting...S. Padre Sand Dune II.
When we were down at Padre this summer, I took a whole range of pictures of the sand dune I stared at every day. So, rather than do the same exact composition (I just don't think that's right), I looked through all my shots and settled on another composition that pleases me and worked on blocking it in on Friday.
All the lessons learned from the earlier painting will be helpful this time and maybe the painting will flow easily and much quicker than the 17 hours the first one took. At any rate, I know it will be fun.
S. Padre Sand Dune is in a new home as of yesterday, so last night it was good to start a new painting that I already am enamoured of. It's from my daughter's visit to Lyon, France last summer. The photo has been calling to me all this time and finally I feel ready to do this painting. It's only 24x30", which is a nice relief from the big pieces I've been lugging up and down the stairs. I'm not terribly fond of the canvas, though. It's a gallery wrap, but the edges are rounded so a palette knife goes off into nothingness instead of hitting the curved edge which leaves a bit of white along the edges. Learned my lesson and won't use this canvas with palette knives again.
I like how the blocking in is shaping up. It's my plan to keep doing paintings with a long block in time so that I don't get hung up on details (hard to do with a palette knife anyway).
I have just finished reading "Julie and Julia" and saw the movie last week. My husband and I typically go to our favorite little French bistro for our anniversary, so my life lately is tinged with French, buttered with Francais, bubbling with the feeling of champagne in my anticipation of this painting and more paintings to come.
Au Revoir,
Constance
"S. Padre Sand Dune" 2009 oil on canvas 30x40
I've enjoyed every second of this painting. Maybe it's because I chose a composition of something that I enjoyed looking at for an entire week and it reminds me of the lovely time I had there. I do think that good paintings come from that enjoyment. I think one can become more immersed in work that is compelling and the Muse tends to stick around longer when one is having a good time.
