My Palette

I may be changing my palette.

I love the quinacridone colors, but now that it's summer, I'm not sure that the intense tones of the quin colors are meeting my needs.  My plein air paintings need more subtle color.  I may be adding earth tones to my palette.

I've pulled out the sepias, the raw siennas, the umbers.....and they look very enticing.  I think I'll add them to my summer plein air painting as well as to my studio work.  I've just completed a commission of hydrangeas and I did need some of the earth tones to complete it.  I'll be painting in several plein air competitions and hope to be using some of these warm colors to mix my greens.

I always use a round or square palette that has nice sized indentations on all four sides for holding paint.  I like to arrange my colors in the order of the color wheel.  It's pragmatic.  It's logical.  It makes sense.  When I'm mixing my grays and blacks, I don't even have to think, because my complements are already across from each other.

I'll let you know how adding the earth tones to my palette work....I"m guessing my color mixes will be more subtle and richer.

Build The Light, No. Three

I continue to brush on glazes of paint to build up the wonderful light that streaks through this moody old house in Maine.

I may come close to completing this painting today; I'm including a picture here of what I woke up to this morning. I couldn't paint yesterday, because I taught all day long. I needed a good night's sleep before beginning again.

First thing today, I framed a completed painting, then I played with two pieces that are nearly complete - I was trying different mats to see what the best way is to crop them. These two paintings have been in the studio for a month or more, and I've poured on them, atomized on them, and tweaked the values. I think they may finally be ready for prime time. Meanwhile, I'm also working on another drawing....busy, busy, busy.

I'm painting good thoughts and prayers into every piece. I feel compelled to consciously place peaceful memories on each and every painting for someone special who might need those healing thoughts.

Building Light

Today, I was a little late into the studio. I came in around 9 am and treated myself to lunch with a long time friend at around noon. I had to ship a painting to the Rockies West National Watercolor Show in Grand Junction, CO, so I didn't really get much done today. Sometimes, I end up making several deliveries a week, not leaving much time to paint. This is so frustrating and can really confuse my creative process.

I spent today and last night working on two drawings of interior scenes, which I'm pretty excited to begin working on. I finally finished the drawings and began the painting. I hope to get two more paintings done by the end of next week...maybe.

I also worked on another painting that's almost complete. It isn't quite where I want it to be, so I stretched the paper (again), masked out the whites, re-wet the surface, and poured paint on top of the entire thing. I think I may like it now. Sometimes, it takes weeks or months to evaluate a painting, before I figure out the next step to completion....it's almost like a mathematical problem and there seem to be many ways to figure out these conundrums....

Every Day: I'm Working

Yes, I'm working every day, moving on towards new work and new ideas. All of the thoughts I have seem to merge towards painting light, light reflections, patterns of light and what happens to color when light is bouncing back and forth. I began at 6 am in the studio yesterday; today was a late day for me. I started working at 8 am.
Here's my latest.....

LIght Patterns

Here's another painting that's on the easel. I usually have several pieces going at a time, so that I can keep it fresh and moving and spontaneous.

I'm teaching my students how to paint fabric; yesterday's lesson was how to paint quilts. Watch as I develop this piece.

I love to paint pears because they're such a classic subject and there's so much more than meets the eye, if the artist takes their time in observation......