Friday, May 2, 2014

Watercolors- Plein Air paintings from early April

I got the chance to go out and do some plein air painting, and had a beautiful time out in the meadow.


This is more the successful of the two, IMO.  Loose and colorful, I wanted the mustard and clouds to dominate the distant hills and trees.



This one, with the silhouette of the steeple, was going ok....


Then I painted in the tower (my intent from the beginning) and ruined it.  Too dark of a value.  Duh!  I was clearly painting what I thought I should paint, and not what I saw.  The structure is, of course, much lighter and greyer.  Hopefully, next time I'll get it right.




5 comments:

  1. I love your loose style, and the capturing of the light, in both of these paintings. Were you able to "tweak" the tower by greying down the lines?

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    1. Sadly, this one I set aside. However, when I took the Alvaro Castagnet workhsop, I learned a technique that would have applied to this painting-- use a cool grey color and mix it with white. What you'll get is an opaque, cool, light valued pigment. Perfect for painting objects receding into the background.

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    2. You had a good idea of selecting the steeple with the power line next to it. However, I would have left the church top the white of the paper with light blue windows and top of steeple bright orange with red tint to contrast with the dark green trees behind it. Also, I would have put some purple in the sky to contrast with the theme of yellow mustard in the foreground make a harmony with the orange steeple top. Instead of gray, I would have used a light blue (possibly cerulean) for the windows on the building to the right of the steeple. I would think of harmony of color for unity with a contrast in the sky with purple and lavender beside the gray in the sky.

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    3. Come check out the newer version of the blog! :)
      http://www.seamlessexpression.com/blog

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  2. Hi,
    Thanks for commenting. Come by my new website and blog and check out what ok doing there! Many new posts, paintings, and tidbits to share.

    http://www.seamlessexpression.com/blog

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