Escape to Art

I am continuing to practise by covering up some of my old paintings.  The painting I am covering today was from one of my art courses where we had to copy one of the Master's - I chose Van Gogh's room.  It was enjoyable getting the textures of wood and colours but it is in my paint over pile...

So I chose a photo from an amazing trip we took to Spain a few years ago.  As it is cold and snowing again, it felt like a good escape from reality and brought back some warm memories.

I did a very quick sketch and decided I wanted to widen the view and make the 'bridge' over the road wider and the amount of wall on the right, less.  

 My final painting is a bit too light and chalky (too much white in there) but I have areas I love - primarily the palm tree and the garden and shadows below.  I often find I like certain parts of a painting and perhaps parts I am not thrilled with.  But... it is always a learning experience so on to the next one!!  I may let this dry and try glazing some transparent blues or purple over the left hand side and the bridge building, so I have more mid- tones and less light tones going on.  I think it would make the lights POP out more.  If it goes well I will post it again, if not it goes in the paint over or campfire pile!

Updated - This is the glazed version, where I used a transparent Ultramarine Blue to darken the buildings that are not in full sun.  Not sure if it has helped, so I think this is in the paint over pile!

Art Books I Love

 I recently purchased a new art book on sketching, by R.E. Scott.  I was not disappointed and have been practising sketching more every day.

 As I have continued to paint I realize the importance of having really great drawing skills, so I keep trying to improve.

I have about 3 shelves of art books, many are 'coffee table' style ones with paintings by and info about my favourite artists (Sorolla, Group of Seven, Wyeth) or my favourite style of art (impressionism).  However, I have a core group of art books that I have referred to several times, cause they are just so darn helpful.  Below is a photo of my FAVS - Charles Reids Watercolor Secrets
- Richard Schmid Alla Prima II  - Carol Marine  Daily Painting  -  John Carlson Carlsons Guide to Landscape Painting - James Gurney Color and Light - Kevin MacPherson Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light& Color - Landscape Painting Inside and Out. I think it is important to be a life-long learner in whatever it is you enjoy.  Now, being isolated from all our friends and daily tasks, is a great time to occupy your mind with something more uplifting.  So order that book you've been wanting!!

What to do with the failed paintings?

Like most artists, I have a number of canvases with paintings that did not go as planned. I also have difficulty throwing out or wasting the canvas and stretcher bars.  At times I have just removed the canvas and re-stretched some new canvas.  You always have to be careful that your old painting doesn't come creeping through if you do decide to paint over them - so I tried painting fairly thickly over a somewhat thinner painting underneath.

With this painting, I had a large, 36 x 48 canvas that had not worked out.  So I turned it sideways and sketched in a new idea from a photograph I took in Sept. 2019 at an art fair.  I had asked a couple guys with cool retro bikes if I could take a photo of them and their bikes for a potential painting.  They agreed and this painting below is one from these photos. 

Completed 36 x 48 Oil on Canvas Title? - 'Hecks Angel' maybe (or DeathSpoke Rider - which is the name of the retro bike group here in Edmonton)

The first bit of charcoal sketching going on after gridding.

  

I outlined the charcoal in Cadmium Orange Oil paint - cause I love the bright hit of colour it provides

A close up of the face in progress

Anticipation!

Well, my last blog post was about how much I looove winter.  TODAY, however I am eagerly anticipating spring because my FABULOUS Strada MICRO painting box arrived and I am planning some Plein air (outdoor) painting.  

I am pretty impressed with how small this pochade box packs down and how much lighter in weight it is.  I test drove it inside today, as the day started out as -20 with windchill.  Right now though it is warming up to above zero by tomorrow - so soon my pretty - I can take you outdoors. 

We had a pretty good snowstorm again on the weekend and it looked like spring was delayed I got several good wintry evening shots on Saturday night.  I set up the Strada box and easel indoors today and did a quick gouache study of the Orange Hall from this photo, with hopes to do an oil painting later.