Glorious Color

Painting #1 Imagined landscape on Arches 140#

I have been enjoying more warmth in my paintings lately. I am a lover of blue but want to reach out towards a little heat. This particular scene is in Colusa County on a day trip with my big brother Doug. I am working more and more from my imagination and memory rather than photos. Easy for me now that I am willing to let loose and not rely on relentless detail.

Painting #2 Remembered Landscape on Arches 140#

I don’t think that I’ll ever tire of this scene. I am intrigued by the light and the overall feeling.

Painting #3 Sand Pond on Lanaquarelle 140#

One of my favorite scenes on my favorite paper. I didn’t plan on that golden pyramid shape in the background, it “snuck” in but I would like to think that it is a sunlit mountain, let the imagination work.

Painting #4 Imagined Landscape on Arches 140#

Basically the technique with these imagined landscapes is working wet on wet and building a scene intuitively.

Painting #5 Abstract

I love abstracts and when I paint them I work entirely by intuition.

Painting #6 Imagined Landscape Arches 140#

I had the most difficult time getting the colors to match up with my painting. I do believe that my photo on Instagram is much better.

I don’t have as much time this week to paint because I will be running into town twice this week. I have to pick up a painting from my framer that I won via ArtistNetwork. It is an original painting by Thomas Schaller, one of my favorite watercolorists. Talk about exciting to have won something, a first time for me.  Happy painting folks!

 

 

Go Paint Go!

Painting #1 Semi-abstract imagined landscape

I lost some blues in this which made this painting richer and the sky/sun is not as acid yellow, keep that in mind. I am rather happy using my computer lately for uploading photos and writing these posts.

This week has been pretty busy with painting, the above painting started out as intuitive though I had a directional left pull and I had to take a little time to resolve it. It might still have that pull but I do believe that the rays of light streaming down counteracts that.

Painting #2 semi-abstract imagined landscape

The purple lavender on the bottom is more of a grayed purple, keep that in mind. This one reminds me of a sand storm. I love granulating colors and it was perfect for this scene.

painting #3 semi-abstract imagined landscape

I was very pleased that I was able to get the photo to marry up with the actual painting, I lost some of the rich color when I posted it to Instagram. It reminds me of something out in space. I am really enjoying minimalism. I start with swiping on color, wet on wet use my sprayer, letting the colors mingle and blend. I turn it around and around and look for a scene. Most times it makes itself evident from the get go, I have been pretty lucky so far in that I find it so quickly. I only paint what I intuitively know what to do. If I don’t feel moved or am unsure of what to do next, I set it aside.

painting #4 Yuba river

I prefer to paint loosely and nowadays imaginary scenes but I do like to return to a more realistic scene to hone my skills. I had gone up to the North Yuba river about two weeks ago to plein air paint. This painting was from one of my photos. I use the photo as a jumping off point, I use artistic license, which is more fun.

Painting #5 North Yuba river

I was feeling a bit off the day I started this, I basically threw myself in a fury of painting hoping that I get out of my perfectionist funk. If anything, this is a creativity killer for me, being picky about how my paintings look.

Painting #6 semi-abstract imagined landscape

Woah, hold onto your socks! I love painting imaginary scenes but this one I am loving it but also scratching my head. I wanted to paint outside the box and really up my colors but boy, did I go wild!

Painting #7 semi-abstract imagined landscape

The sky/sun in this photo is not as acidic in reality and the blues are more of a Prussian blue which leans towards a blue/green. I wanted to go wild and minimalistic. More of an exercise, I think that Debi Riley’s last couple of posts inspired me.

Painting #8 imagined scene but inspired by Bullards Bar Resevoir

I wanted to add one more painting, sorry for the length of this post. The blues pop out more than they should, it was difficult to marry up the photo to the painting, the painting is very rich and deep with contrasting color.

Well, that’s in for now, keep painting happy!