A Painting A Day

I actually painted this to go in our living room. We have a very modern living room and the focal point is an old mid century cubist painting, so I wanted to keep with the theme in the room. Since I can't afford any "real" cubist works, I decided to create my own. This one is fairly large - a 36x36. My husband commented that I got a little too carried away with the black lines, and maybe I did - making it look more like stained glass than an abstract. It was surprising difficult to do because I made the mistake of starting with the lines and then had to try to paint inside them. I think if I do another one, I'll do the outlines in pencil and add the black last! I do think I'll try another one because I really like this.

Plein Air Memphis had an outing this morning at the Botanic Gardens and I chose this little spot along the creek with the pretty cherry trees in bloom. But my painting was really awful! I wiped it off when I got home and did a quick do over. The composition is much the same but I tried to simplify and tried to capture the long shadows from the trees. Not really happy with the second attempt either, but it is better than the first. Landscapes continue to be so very challenging for me. It's difficult to process so much information and so many colors.

 I spent most of today reading Brian Keeler's book, "Dramatic Color in the Landscape." I'm so glad I did. He's a fantastic artist, and because I am on a mission to improve my landscapes, I thought some instruction was in order. I was planning on painting in the late afternoon, but I went out and took reference photos instead.

So around 10:30 at night, I started this. Not sure what size the painting is, I think a 20x20, but it's definitely larger than what I usually do. This is the result - Keeler style!

 Today I ran out late in the day for an hour or two to paint. I looked online and found a nice park nearby. It had an amazing fountain, but it was the light of the green grass in the distance and the interesting colors in the water that drew me to this spot. My technique was very messy and I had to leave very fast when a sudden thunderstorm sprung up but overall I was happy with this effort.

 I felt very in tune with my painting. My palette was so simple. I used alizarin red, cad yellow, ultramarine blue, white, permanent green light and burnt umber. I had also bought myself a round brush and experimented with the thin lines of the tree branches.

Spent the morning out at Shelby Farms in the good company of Denise Rose for the March Plein Air Memphis outing.  Wonderful location! I was pretty happy with my colors today especially the reflection of the trees in the water but not so happy with the trees. I imagine it's just going to take a while and perhaps the right kind of brushes to get the trees right, especially the big thicket of trees in the foreground. I didn't have any brushes for thin lines - must work on that! I do think I got closer to a focal point. My eyes are drawn to the trees beyond the lake, but my intention was for the thicket of trees to be the focal point - so I accidentally succeeded! Haha

We had a break in the rain for a short period today... and I took the opportunity to get out of the house, go to Shelby Farms, and paint! I have a long way to go on my plein air work. I don't know why my landscapes are so blurry. I guess I get impatient and don't focus enough on details. A painting needs a focal point, and I must find a way to put one into my plein air paintings!