One year ago tonight I was at this restaurant enjoying a New Year's Eve dinner. I started the painting soon after January 1st, and worked on it over the ensuing months until I got tired of it. But it's time to pull it out of the archive stack and get busy: this afternoon I worked mainly on the faces and chairs.
The young woman near the center of the image is wearing a burgundy coat, but it occurs to me that I have the chance to make a stronger statement if I change her coat color to something like red. Or is that too cliche? What if I made it orange, or green?
I'm excited to be starting something new. This painting will be part of a series I plan to spend a lot of time on in 2021.
First off is the vineyard painting with the pink and yellow sky. I love working on this one. Today I added some middle greens to both the tree and the vines, and evened out the foreground to give the painting more of a sense of unity.
I started the day off with some easy, fun stuff, worked through a more expressionist piece, and then got down to more complicated foliage and landscape. I discovered that a mix of Permanent Green Light and Yellow Ochre creates a nice middle green.
Here's the last one of the day:
Just before that, I picked up a little landscape that I'd started a couple of years ago. I've changed the composition considerably since then, and feel like it's better.
Had some fun with the poplar and the background sky:
Now, the cats; one is finished, hooray, and the other? Well, this is why you're supposed to stand back every once in a while when painting. What looks pretty good close up might look like a disaster from a distance. In this case, it was the right side eye on Orson. I had found another photo of him, and since I thought the original drawing of his face was all wrong, I decided to work from the new image. It was clear that the eyes were too far apart, so I redrew them. It looked great until I stood back. I have since rubbed out the right eye and will repaint after it dries.
I'll get back to the grassy ground areas next time, but there's not much left to do on this one.
I had hoped to finish several more pieces before the new year, but things always get hectic during the holiday season. At least I'll get a number of things done by June.
Today I did some repair work on the tabletop wood grain, and put in a lot of time on the left side spoon.
This morning I repainted the marble tabletop, which only had a layer of thin, brushy paint on it. I smoothed it out as best I could and added some strokes of darker veining. Next time I'll work on the edges of the cake and the plate.
I hope I can get back to the easel this afternoon; Christmas is coming and there's a lot to do. But in the meantime, here is Veramar, with some adjustments to the vines and the far trees.
All of these were worked on in the last 18 hours.
I don't feel like this is a piece meant to be taken seriously; it's more of a fun thing that somebody might hang to brighten a wall. It's certainly fun and easy to work on. I might even put a bird in the branches.
This morning I softened the edges of the shadows again, using varying blends of blue, pink, and yellow. And did a little detail work on the left side shopping bag.
Finally!
Not sure what the day will bring or how committed I'm going to be to painting, but here are two that I just did a small amount of work on so far today:
Chrysalis Vineyards, Virginia Vineyard Series, © 2020, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
I have to check some other photos of this guy, not sure I have his chest coloring correct.
Painting the sprinkles is thankless work, but I plowed ahead with trying to make them dimensional. And the lace doily is no picnic, either. But here is the mousse piece:
Listening to the news is a creativity killer; after fretting for a while this morning I forced myself to pick up a brush. The whipped cream problem has been solved on this painting; I used a warm grey and unbleached titanium with white, and a touch of blue in some places.
There's lots of tiny details left on this painting, mostly on the spoons, the lower right hand corner, the transition between the rim of the plate and the flat portion; also I want the edge smears of chocolate to be more transparent looking. Oh, and some of the whipped cream. Doubtful I'll finish before the new year, but I can hope.
I've finished enough things over the last two months that I can feel okay with starting a new piece, so here is the beginning sketch of Spring Street:
I can't believe how much I messed up the measurements on the door. Now I'm having to re-draw the lines of the panels, and out of sheer frustration I'm covering all the mistakes with a light blue, which of course will need further adjustment down the line. Also repainted some smaller areas in the grassy bottom portion of the painting.
More green work; this time, the lily pads on the surface of the pond.
It's snowing now, so I am excited. The flakes are lazing down from the sky so prettily I'm afraid I'll get distracted... but I've already put in an hour or so on these two:
This afternoon I made some updates to the sparse grass and the bare earth just to the side of the walkway.
The chocolate cake layer (I guess "the sponge," if you're reading this in the U.K.) was just too flat-looking, so I added many many tiny dots of a warmer brown color to give it some texture. Also worked on making the dish more dimensional.
Choose One, Stress Eating Series, © 2020, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
Done!
A lot of things came up that needed attention this morning, so I didn't get to the easel until 1:30, but I did check off the three paintings that had been on my list for today.
I am having a horrible time with the whipped cream.
On to the next one:
Same problem with the color of the shadows on the whipped cream, but not quite as bad.
I know I said this one is finished. It is. I just needed to tweak the shadows on the skin.
Up early for a change (and on a Saturday!) and working on the cherry blossom painting.
This is all I got done today, some vines and some background trees; but the paintings look like they're shaping up.
My intention today was to add the detail in the clouds, some warmish color that defied breaks between areas, that I'd decided it needed after watching some similar clouds at sunset on a recent road trip. But somehow instead I got caught in the foreground, and I ended up working solely in the bottom 4" of the painting.
There also were more interruptions and claims on my time than I want to elaborate on; suffice it to say it was not a good working day.
Part of the reason this looks like a chewy cake texture is the fact that I painted tiny dots of Burnt Umber, VanDyke Brown, and Blue Black into the layers. And the wet paint is picking up the light from the nearby window. Time for breakfast!
It will be a pleasure to have another in the dessert series finished.
My painting of the Chrysler Building has been sold. I am excited! Now I can buy some more art supplies!
This is actually shaping up:
Happy to have another painting finished.
