I gave up on the idea of painting in every single grapevine row in the background— at least for now. I brushed in some yellow green and blue on the distant hills, and will add the dark shadow lines sometime in the future. Also added some atmospheric blue to the trees on the horizon.
This piece, also, should be finished as soon as possible. I keep dragging my feet on it. Worked on the figure on the right today.
I need to finish the dessert series and the vineyard series. There are only two paintings left in each of them, but I'm having trouble forcing myself to do them; it's a shame because I can probably show them somewhere once they're done.
Today I worked on the plate for the fortieth time. Next time I'll add crumbs, highlights, and work on the fork shadow.
So, a couple of weeks ago, I decided that the hot pink color of the sweater was too bold. I tried to relate the sweater to the color of the brick wall, but that looked too forced, so I got out my trusty Pantone swatch kit and experimented with other ideas... But nothing worked; I wanted to keep the reflected warmth visible on the jaw line, so today I tried some corals and roses and ended up with what you see below. I think this will be okay.
This is one of those paintings where I feel I can use a freer hand. The detail doesn't matter so much. Worked mostly the left side and the pergola today.
This first one will have two women seated in the window, chatting. I like the soft colors but it's maddening to have to work against the nubbly canvas; this is why I prefer to work on panels. Of course, the larger you go, the more difficult it is to handle a large panel; they get quite heavy. And expensive! So I do a lot of canvas (linen) stretching on my own for the bigger pieces.
'S Nice, work in progress, (click on image for larger view)
And I'm taking my time with this one, too. After viewing a painting video by an artist I admire, I think that the tiny blending strokes work better than trying to get it with a quick dash.
I stopped working on this one so late I didn't get to take a picture of it in natural light. That blue sky color still looks a little intense to me, but we'll see how it looks against the foliage.
Once an artist friend asked if I ever lost my place while painting one of the Atlantic ocean series; I just laughed. It's impossible for me to stay accurate with the details on something like that, or the one below, even though I carefully mark the grid and try to match the components with the grid on screen.
Anyway, I've been getting bored with the foliage and have stated placement of the figure. I also re-stretched the corner of the canvas that was wobbly, up in the right hand corner, and will have to do the lower corner next.
Got to the studio late; trying to make up for lost time. Added a lot of paint to the left side.
The word "quandary" always amuses me; when I was a kid I discovered the humorous writings of Robert Benchley, one of whose books was called "My Ten Years In A Quandary."
But I digress.
The area adjacent to the face in this painting is just not working. Previously, it was a flat grey, and it was hard to see where the nose was because the values were so similar. So I tried light colored leaves, thinking they'd be separate enough, but they're not. I'll have to try a different approach.
This one is fairly uncomplicated, though there's some detail in the cloud bank to work on, and the water's going to involve a lot of brushwork. I expect it to be finished in a few weeks.
I'm still in my pajamas, having come directly to the studio after finishing morning coffee; I guess it's time to get dressed. Here's what I worked on, though: the jeans, coat and scarf on the walking guy; the face and shoulders of the man in the window; plotting points for the eventual painting in of the tree on the right side; and lots of ivy.
So, my thinking was that the sweater needed to be a warmer color to be in harmony with the brick wall seen through the window, but now it's just too obvious. I'll have to find something else.
