14 posts tagged “landscape”
I may be done. Hard to say. Just because there are some areas that I'm unsure of doesn't mean that I should work them more.
This one was worked more while working on Bale II. The digital process has really gutted them both of life and color (Bale II below is closer than the two above)- On that note, I submitted Entropy Bale II & Elizabeth with Heavy Ball to a state show- the museum curator was excited to see E w/ Ball and hoped it would get in. Neither piece was accepted, so I'll drive down tomorrow and pick them up.
The background has taken most of my attention so far. Today moved from the foreground into the bale. I started with too small of a brush and lost my sense of mass, then backed up with a larger brush and started pushing around with the shadow areas- getting just far enough to leave a nice mess.
Some day a painting will look on the post as it does in the studio- lemon yellows disappear, as well all the complex layering. The day needed to be much brighter, and the shorn hayfield seem nearly too bright to look at. This helps emphasize the swirling depths of hay.
I didn't work on this yesterday, or the day before really- as my sister flew in from Sacramento to pick up my Dad's truck. It is the lovely Ford F-250 V-10 that effortlessly hauled the old Mustang down from Montana. Now it is off to it's new life as a California truck- it snowed yesterday and the day before; the last snow the truck will ever see. A bit too much truck for hauling groceries though- it will resume it's life as a working truck on my sister's little sheep ranch.
I didn't work on this yesterday, or the day before really- as my sister flew in from Sacramento to pick up my Dad's truck. It is the lovely Ford F-250 V-10 that effortlessly hauled the old Mustang down from Montana. Now it is off to it's new life as a California truck- it snowed yesterday and the day before; the last snow the truck will ever see. A bit too much truck for hauling groceries though- it will resume it's life as a working truck on my sister's little sheep ranch.
Once again, color is horribly compromised- and since that is where these works really live, the gutted versions appearing here only approximate...and deaden it down. that's all right, as it still has a ways to go. I'll take picts outside when it is finished in different locations and see if that helps. til then, it is all in-progress anyway.
The first bail is nearly done, but I'll wait til this new painting is further along before I post the first one again. On the first/prior bail painting, I'm having a painter's gap over a portion of the mid-ground, and so far it is one forced looking attempt after another. I may have gotten it resolved today: mid way through this latest one I mixed what seemed a tone that called to the problem area and wandered over and diddled about. I'll let is set for a bit and see. Meanwhile, this one has a fairly promising start- it is missing some of the essential volume and gesture as yet, but things are well enough mapped in to give an idea of where to go next.
This is from a photo of my sister and I with my father (at 42) when she was 12 and I was 10 in 1978. I started it yesterday afternoon and finished it this morning. Now I can see what is wrong with Karen's face...man. Really can't fix that without a major re-do. Maybe I'm the only one who sees it. yeah, right.
This afternoon I put in a few hours more and came up with this scene near the Idaho/MT border. The cold has settled in here in MT (-34!), perfect painting weather.
A final day spent color correcting the foreground, then 5 hours today of adding in fence-line, telephone poles, signs, trees, and highway details of the rumble-strip, white line, etc. Once again, the colors lose a lot in the transfer- even from iPhoto to vox.
the sun had set when I shot this latest version, so don't believe what you see for color here...just figure that it didn't go quite as poorly as it seems. Tomorrow I head back to the foundry for wax work, so it will be a few days before further changes occur. That should give it time to dry a bit.
Saturday I put in a few hours snowing a bit more on the central peak while E read out loud from our sheepy mystery: Three Bags Full. Today (Monday) I added in the power station and the row of bushes in the morning, then remembered I hadn't taken a picture of Saturday's changes.
The relative abstraction of the forms from the underpainting winding through the foreground are quite a nice contrast with the storm/peaks,
The storm begins to emerge from the underpainting...I introduced another blue to the palette.
The underpainting sets the composition and tonal notes. I mixed piles of neutrals with the pallet knife using brown, blue, ochre, and white.
It has turned a bit colder up at the ranch; -24 (as low as the digital thermometer goes) to (-55 with windchill in Great Falls) at night, with daytime temps hovering around 0. It is 90 degrees warmer here in Salt Lake City. These images are from the balmy days of late November, when temps were still near freezing. The paintings are taking 1.5 to 2 days to complete. The second painting is twice the size of the prior paintings, and shows 1.5 days work. The larger format really pushes the time frame. The image still needs a whole herd of cattle and a long run of fencing.
A few hours later, here we are with the fence and cattle added in.
A few hours later, here we are with the fence and cattle added in.
