Remember this painting? I said I wasn't sure I was finished with it and I wasn't!

My friend Pat Star noticed that I had unintentionally created an arrow shape (with the reeds in the lower right) that directed the viewer's eye out of the picture frame. Since I want the viewer to stay in the picture frame, I took the point off the arrow and darkened the lower right corner to give it more weight. I was unhappy with the stacatto effect of these reeds too, so I grouped some of them to make stronger shapes and draw less attention to them.

Finally I added a band of ice blue on the right in the distance just to carry the idea of ice on the pond through the piece.

August Evening on the Dungeness River

This week I am trying a system suggested by Duane Wakeham - one of my all-time favorite artists.
This is a half sheet of Arches cold pressed 300# watercolor paper. I have applied 2 coats of gesso with pumice and then tinted the surface with some oil paint diluted with turpentine. Next time I will tint with either watercolor or acrylic, this took a long time to dry and it's stinky!











I have blocked in the initial shapes with Nupastel.  Notice the ghost swans in the foreground - though they were initially intended to be the subject of the painting, I just couldn't bring myself to include them....they mess up the reflections with all their paddling around and they look trite.
















I have washed the Nupastel with alcohol to create a loose underpainting. Next time I think I will underpaint with the darkest color in a given area, for instance I might underpaint the cattails on the left with a dark green brown.













I have laid Nupastel over the washes.

This is the first wash with some of my reference photos on the gatorboard.  Just blocking in the initial shapes.




















A Closer look at the initial washes


















Second pass with pastels, trying to lose some edges.  I am putting the darkest values underneath so when I 'turn on the lights' in the next pass these darker values will show through.

















Final painting, I think....still studying this. There may be too much energy in the foreground which competes with my intended center of interest, the vine maple in it's fall colors.

This is the first wash of watercolor. I am trying to lay down the "underneath" colors of the stone, grass, trees and path.

Here is the completed painting, with a second, more detailed layer of watercolor and some spare applications of pastel. I love this old abbey in St. Remy de Provence.  It's where Van Gogh stayed in 1889 after he was released from the hospital in Arles.  Here he painted 150 works of the gardens and grounds of the asylum.  I'm no Van Gogh, but I enjoyed the surreal experience of painting what he painted. 

Artwork

I have decided that an art blog is the best way to show my latest artwork.  Some will be finished paintings like this one entitled Across From Angel's Farm (from the collection of Rick and Paulette Hill) others will be works in progress showing the watercolor underpainting and then the pastel overpainting.  Since we snowed in, I hope to have lots to post over the next few weeks! Please feel free to add a comment.

first snow and another 'building'

Any day now the new high tunnel kit should be arriving from Farmtek...then the fun of "construction" begins...I just hope the ground won't be too frozen to pound the metal posts into the soil.

We will be planting 1,000 ranunculus bulbs in December and January to have gorgeous blooms next spring in time for Mother's Day!