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Late Afternoon Florence (13 x 22 watercolor) $550
Florence is worth visiting just to walk the streets. The twisting turning little alleys are endlessly fascinating. The light pours through in dramatic shafts between the buildings spotlighting slivers of streets and buildings.
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A Spire of Saint Paul's (11 x 15 watercolor) $300
This is one of the twin clock tower spires of Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London. I love Saint Paul’s Cathedral though it is nothing like the Gothic Cathedrals I fell in love with on my first trip the England. Unlike England’s early cathedrals, Saint Paul’s was designed by a single man, Sir Christopher Wren and built over just thirty years. The result is a clean coherent building rather unlike the the quirky cathedrals I first admired.
Wren designed and saw built numerous churches in the vicinity to compliment and be complimented by the cathedral. But in the London Blitz practically the entire neighborhood was bombed and burned to the ground. The cathedral is now surrounded by modern offices. The Millennium Bridge now leads directly to it providing a very modern show case for Wren’s jewel.
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Changing in Milan (14 x 21 watercolor) $600
In our month long odyssey to Europe last year we had only one really long travel day, but it was a dozy. We left London in morning to take the train to Paris. We boarded the train without a hitch and ate lunch as we emerged from the channel tunnel in France. We walked the streets and had dinner in Paris. Then we boarded the night train Milan.
I’ve heard mixed reviews of the night train, but it did well for us. Our cabin mate was a gorgeous young Frenchmen who man managed to be both chivalrous and bashful at the same time. The cabin was spacious and the bunks comfortable. We agreed to an early bedtime and all fell asleep easily. Which is surprising because the trip was tinged with worry because Italy was scheduled for a railway strike, and we intended to go on from Milan to Rome.
So it was with some relief that we arrived in Milan in the wee hours to discover our connection to Rome was still on the board. Relief and time to enjoy the beauty of the modern railway station with the morning sun lighting up the tracks’ exit to the greater world.
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The Ultimate Alley View (12 x 19 watercolor) $450
A colorful back alley view of the Duomo, Florence, Italy.
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Waiting Bike (13 x 19 watercolor) SOLD
This painting has sold, but you may still purchase a fine art print.
Monterosso Cafe (watercolor 16 x 22) $600
The Cinque Terre, or five lands do not have much in the way of tourist sites. They are the tourist site. The five coast hugging Italian villages feature brightly colored townhouses, residential streets made up of nothing more than a flight of stairs, beautiful coastal trails, and tight picturesque beaches. In July of last year they were also hot as blazes and ought to have been uncomfortable, but the narrow shady streets, and cool ocean made up for the heat. Oh, and there was gelato too, lots of handmade gelato.
We visited the four villages actually on the coast, and dipped our toes in the water at more the one beach. We also climbed innumerable stairs just for the fun of climbing and looking down. This painting is of Monterosso, the largest of the five, and the one with the widest flattest beaches. We stopped to sample the gelato at the cafe. We ate it while watching our girls play in the warm surf.
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Bridge of Sighs (13 x 19 watercolor) $600
This is Hertford Bridge, more commonly known as the The Bridge o Sighs, after the The Bridge of Sighs in Venice. It connects the two quads of Hertford College, in Oxford, England. It doesn’t really resemble Venice’s Bridge of Sighs, but it is beautiful, and quintessentially Oxford. We visited in the late afternoon when street was beautifully shadowed.
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Oxford Lane (watercolor 13 x 19) $500
A little taste of Oxford—another poured painting.
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Gothic Specter (11 x 15 watercolor) $200
The Gothic archways surrounding the quads in churches and colleges have always intrigued me. This one happens to be at Christchurch, in Oxford, but it could be one of hundreds in Britain. The ribbed ceilings and the slanting light from the quad are always both beautiful and romantic.
In this painting I exaggerated the contrast poured the colors.
The Colossus (12 x 15 watercolor) $400
This building needs no introduction. If there is a ruin that everyone recognizes, it is Roman Colosseum. Even in ruins, it is an impressive building. It dominates the horizon, larger even than you expect to be.
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Clock Cafe (12 x 16 watercolor) $400
The d’Orsay Musee in Paris, was once a railway station. The original exterior clocks now serve as windows on the upper floor. I painted one of them a few months ago. That clock is opposite the gift shop and attracts as many tourists as the paintings. The other clock serves as the window in the museum cafe giving the cafe a charm all it’s own. Here it is.
I poured this painting is a similar manner to the first clock painting.
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Shining Out of the Rain (12 x 15 watercolor) $400
Westmister Abby, The Parliament Building, and the new super Farris wheel the London Eye, dominate the Westminster end of London. The buildings are gritty with smog, and yet the marble still shines in the sun. Here are two of the shining towers of the Abby.
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Rue Galande (watercolor 19 x 13) $500
Another painting taken from our trip to Europe last summer. This charming little street is close to Nortre Dame, but at least a little off the beaten path. Like many of the streets in the area, it curves charmingly.
I poured this painting in much the same manner as July in Florence. The process is much like batik and leads to clear color passages that make buildings glow.
July in Florence (13 x 23 watercolor) $600
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And Suddenly the Duomo (15 x23 watercolor) Reserved
Old town Florence streets are shaded lanes so narrow they almost feel like tunnels running at irregular angles to each other. The view at the end of the tunnel is often as not another narrow lane cutting the street off at not quite a right angle. But here there the streets open into plazas with startling sunny views of churches, cathedrals, bridges, train stations and castles. Walking from our apartment, the Duomo complex burst upon us in much the same way–the light at the end of the tunnel.
Another poured watercolor painting, a process much like batik.
This painting is reserved for a show but you may purchase a fine art print.
Paris Giant (watercolor 18 x 24) SOLD
When we travel, we Armitages climb things. In Paris we climbed Nortre Dame and the Arch d’ Triumph. But we took the elevator at the Eiffel Tower. We had tickets for the evening we arrived at ten thirty. We choose the evening and only the second platform out of necessity because two of the four elevators had been out of commission all summer. It turned out to be a delightful choice. It was our only nighttime view from above, and such a view it was. The Seine with city lights is a sight to see.
The Eiffel Tower itself is a spectacular view at night and we were there when the lights came on. The colors of the lights have changed over the years. When we visited they were predominately gold. The sky was black despite the early rain. The wet lawn and paths leading to the tower added to the effect. Walking to the tower across the park was a plus too. The vista leading up to the tower is grand and seemingly endless.
I took the photo for this painting on our way back through the wet to the metro. We didn’t mind standing in the wet to look one last time at Paris’ four legged giant.
This painting has sold, but you may still purchase a fine art print.
July in Florence (13 x 23 watercolor) $600
July in Italy is hot. This July was particularly hot. The week we were there, highs hovered in the upper nineties and topped one hundred from time to time. It had been the same in Rome the week before. But it didn’t feel quite as hot in Florence because of the narrow little streets. It simply isn’t possible to find a street in old Florence without shade on one side or the other. In this painting I tried to capture that cool shade under hot hot skies.
Like The Pilgrims at the Gate and The Arch of Titus, this painting is poured. Pouring is not an easy process to describe so, this time I took photos of the painting in progress.
I begin the design process by making a value sketch of the painting. A value sketch is a very rough depiction of the painting in black and white with very clearly defined values. It is my broad plan for the painting. I refine it until I get a compositional plan I think will create a striking painting.
Next I create a detailed line drawing or cartoon. The image on the far right below is my cartoon for this painting after I transferred it to my watercolor paper. It is really the extreme opposite of a value sketch. It has no shading at all, just lines. It is as detailed and small picture oriented as the value sketch is loose and big picture. If the value sketch is the destination, the cartoon is the road map.
The reference photo, the value sketch and the cartoon function as my guides during the painting process. Usually, I make a cartoon and value sketch whether I pour or not. But when pouring, the value sketch and cartoon are particularly important.
With poured paintings, I always begin by washing the cartoon loosely with color. The idea is to make sure none of the paper is truly white, even though it will read as white later. In this case, I washed the sky and the pavement with light blue and the buildings with yellows and oranges.
Once the color wash had dried, I use a removable liquid mask to cover everything I wanted to remain white. The mask shows as a blotchy coral color in my photos below. Then I mixed some very watery cups of yellow and orange paint. I wet the paper with clear water and then poured each cup of paint on the base of the builds and tilted the paper to let the paint run off the top. Then I poured cups of watery blue and purple on the lower left and tilted the paper to the right to let the paint run off.
Pour one above, shows the results of that first pour.
For pour two I masked the lightest values and poured again. This time I used thicker paint and no yellows. I added more reds and allowed the blues and violets up into buildings.
I masked medium values for pour three. Then I poured yet darker paint and left out the golds. After pour three had dried I removed some of the mask to check to see that I was maintaining the value contrast I wanted. Then I re-masked the lifted areas and masked the areas I wanted to remain dark to medium values before doing the final pour. In the end I did five pours total.
As you can see, each pour makes it a little harder to tell what the painting looks like as more and more of it gets covered up with liquid mask. This is why the value sketch is so important to me when pouring. It helps me remember where the majority of the lightest and darkest values must go. The cartoon and the reference photo help me place the smaller details. This helps me keep my eye on the final painting even as it disappears under mask. But, there are always a few surprises after the mask is removed:
Once the mask can off, the brushes came out. I cleaned up the windows, finished the figures and added the darkest values.
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Pilgrims and the Gate (watercolor 15 x 20) Reserved For WSO Fall 2013 Transparent Show
This is Canterbury. I began with reference photos showing Canterbury Cathedral’s spires rising above the gate, but in the end I cut back to the gate itself. The gate is now the only approach for tourists, and the streets leading up to it are charming. But despite the Tudor buildings, it is modern. There are Starbucks and Subways. These tourist use smart phones and get their cash for ATMs. Rather than providing a refuge and a place to sleep for pilgrims, the cathedral charges a fee to tour the cathedral and view the place where Thomas a Becket was murdered.
Like the Arch of Titus below, this painting is primarily poured rather than painted with a brush. The result is rich color with a graphic feel.
This painting is reserved for the Watercolor Society of Oregon’s fall show, but you may purchase an art print. [ The painting may be purchased through the gallery at Southern Coos Hospital & Health Center at 900 East 11th Street in Bandon Oregon beginning October 4th, 2013]
Arch of Titus II (watercolor 16 x 21) For Sale at Western Federation of Watercolor Society Show in June 2013
I knew I wanted to paint the Arch of Titus before we ever got to Rome this summer. I remember being struck by it on our honeymoon, eighteen years ago and when I remember an object that long, it simply must be painted. But eighteen years ago, things were simpler. Eighteen years ago in September my husband and I felt as if we were alone in the forum. We walked under the arch and touched the carved stone. This summer in July the forum was mobbed and the arch was surrounded by a wrought iron fence.
The painting I had in mind, featured tourists walking through the arch. Obviously, that painting, no longer reflects reality. So instead, I shot the arch looking up from below, avoiding the ugly iron fence. This turned out to be a challenge. I like the striking steep upward angle, but perspective is difficult to pull off. The fact that that exterior of the arch is a light blue marble and the interior a warm yellow orange didn’t help as it made the shadowed underside warmer in color than the cool exterior. But more difficult yet, the upward angle exposes intricately carvings covering the interior ceiling of the arch.
I began painting the arch and quit four times, each time simplifying the arch a little more. The second to last attempt I used to demonstrate painting at the fair. The result is good, but it didn’t have quite the oomph I was looking for.
Arch of Titus I (watercolor 15 x 20) $350
So I simplified even further and poured the painting. (For a description of pouring click here). The result is more richly colored and much more graphic.
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Foggy Morning on the Railway Bridge II (12 x 17 watercolor) $300
I’ve always heard that art is therapeutic. And perhaps it is for some people, but not for me. When I’m depressed, I get in fights with paintings and I lose all sense of self judgment. Everything I paint, I deem of no value. Sometimes I’m right. Sometimes I’m not.
I painted these three almost identical views of the old Salem railway bridge about two years ago during a fit of depression. They are the survivors of perhaps six different attempts. I doubt the ones I threw away were all that much different. In the end I put the project aside in frustration and painted other easier things.
Foggy Morning on the Railway Bridge III (12 x 16 watercolor on clayboard) $250
About a week ago, when getting ready for the Silverton Fine Arts Festival (last weekend) and the Artisan Village at the Oregon State Fair (next weekend), I discovered that I had sold so much this last year, that I was in some danger of not having enough art to fill the space. So I looked back through some of my older work for things to frame and found these old bridge paintings. Looking at them now, I can’t figure out why I didn’t like them. They do exactly what I wanted them to do. They capture the foggy morning atmosphere, and they give a sense of how much the trestle draw bridge feels like an open cathedral.
Foggy Morning on the Railway Bridge I (12 x 18 watercolor) $300
Because version number two was painted on clayboard, I didn’t even have to frame it to hang it. The painting got a surprising amount of attention considering that I hung it on the back side of my booth. Several people asked if there were prints available. So I promised that by this evening I would get the painting on line. And here, they are.
Or purchase a fine art print of any of these three paintings.
Before The Dinner Rush (11 x 14 watercolor of clayboard) $250
This restaurant was below our apartment in Florence, Italy. Early every evening the waiters gathered to shoot the breeze and smoke while waiting for the dinner rush to begin. I liked the way their black clothing stood out against the stucco building and flag street. The street is typical of Florence, narrow, flagged in uneven stone, gritty, and full of life.
Title Page
I decided to try to add watercolor sketches to my usual travel diary on our trip to England and Europe this summer. I bought a little eight half-pan watercolor set and couple of waterproof black markers for the purpose. I didn’t get more than about two sketches every three days in because our days were full and no one wanted to drop everything and wait while I sketched. So I sketched on the fly in pencil and added ink and watercolor in the evenings.
The journal paper while intended for sketching isn’t really intended for water-media, so I had to work pretty dry. The results are more whimsical than accurate and the colors are often downright fanciful. So without further ado, or apology, here are my sketches of London and surrounding cities:
St. Paul's, London
White Tower with Knight
Canterbury Cathedral
Bridge of Sighs, Oxford
Tower Bridge Opening
The London part of our trip was pretty much a WWII extravaganza. The highlights included The Imperial War Museum, The Churchill War Rooms, and St. Paul’s Cathedral. St. Paul’s was a symbol of hope during the Blitz, and though everything around it was destroyed by bomb and fire, the Cathedral remained almost unharmed.
In addition to London itself we visited Hampton Court, Oxford, and Canterbury by train.
I took over seven hundred photos during the trip, and I to make many paintings of England, Italy, France, and Switzerland. In the meantime I will post my travel sketches one city at a time.
Inside Paris Time, (12 x 16 watercolor on paper) SOLD
We are just back from a fabulous trip to London, Rome, Florence and Paris. Our first museum visit in Paris was the d’Orsay, a fantastic art museum that picks up chronologically where the Louvre leaves off. Van Gogh Monet, Manet, Renoir, and Cezanne are all well represented. But this painting is not about the art in the d’Orsay, but rather about the museum building itself. The d’Orsay began it’s life as a train station. The gigantic clocks which once informed train passengers of the time remain in the building both inside and out. This clock is one of two facing the Seine River and the Tuileries Gardens. Outside the clock faces appear opaque. Inside it becomes obvious that the clock faces are actually windows Museum patrons are as drawn to the view through the clocks as they are to the artwork in the galleries.
To capture the feeling of the light through the clock, I primarily poured this painting, using removable masking and cups of paint instead of brushes. Only the final details and the view through the clock were added with a brush. I used New Gamgee, Hansa Yellow Light, Cobalt Blue, Thalo Blue, Rose Madder Quinacridone, and Windsor Red.
This painting has sold but you can still purchase an art quality print.
Albany Painted Lady (watercolor 11 x 14) $175
Passing through old downtown Albany, Oregon, I was struck by the bright morning light on the Victorian houses. I stopped to photograph them. Some of the houses are the National Register of Historic places. This one is the Ralston House, 1889. But it’s not the history, its the beautiful shadows cast by the brickenbrack that caught my eye.
Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.com.
Watching the Photographer (10 x 14 watercolor) $200.00
I took the photos for the painting on the same Sunday I took the pictures for The Three Choppers. The alley is about a block east of The Book Bin on Court Street. My husband and I refer to this as the alley with the archway to nowhere because of the freestanding brick archway leading to more alley.
I had taken photos of the alley earlier, but the young woman photographing the plumbing caught my eye. It was only after I’d snapped the shot that I noticed the gentleman watching her curiously.
Or purchase a print at Fine Art America.com.
216 (9.5 x 13.5 watercolor) $175
This is the same alley I painted for “Alley Shortcut,” but on the opposite side of the street facing the other way. Once again I’m looking into the sun as it peeks out from the clouds. This time it’s afternoon sun and it strikes the alley at an angle so the back lit effect is not quite so pronounced.
I must admit I like painting alleys. There’s something sublime about making trash cans beautiful.
Painted in multiple transparent washes. Most of the painting has at least five or six transparent layers of paint. The palette is brown madder, quinacridone rose, cobalt blue, phthalo blue, cerulean blue, and raw sienna.
Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.com.
The Sun Peeks Out at 2nd Street (10 x 14 watercolor) $250
Once again the sun on wet pavement caught my eye. But this time it’s mid afternoon and threatening to rain again soon. The light was spectacular. Sunlight streaming from between the clouds always seems so much brighter.
The street is the Corvallis street I know best, SW 2nd looking south toward Art in the Valley and The New Morning Bakery.
The palate is what is becoming my new standard: phthalo blue, cobalt blue, quinacridone brown madder, and raw sienna. I painted conventionally working from light to dark in multiple transparent layers. The “blacks” are phthalo blue and brown madder.
Available through Art in the Valley, Corvallis, Oregon. Or purchase a print through Fine Art America.
Alley Shortcut (10 x 14 watercolor) SOLD
I drove into Corvallis a little early a couple mornings ago and spent the extra time before opening the gallery taking pictures of downtown. The sun was out, but it had just recently rained and the streets were still wet. The light was gorgeous. This little alley is just a couple blocks from Art in the Valley. The reflected light running up the damp pavement caught my eye.
I used a limited palate, but not as limited as my last cityscape: cobalt blue, phthalo blue, raw sienna and quinacridone brown madder. The vast bulk of the painting is brown madder and phthalo blue.
[This painting sold February 23rd 2012, but you may still purchase a print from Fine Art America.]
Afternoon on SW 11th Street (watercolor 10 x 14) $200
This is downtown Portland about a block south of Burnside. The little building peaking out on the left is our Portland mecca, Powell’s Books. But it’s the bright old fashioned brick building lit up by the sun in contrast with the glass and steel building behind them that caught my eye.
I simplified the buildings considerably, taking out much brick ornamentation. I eliminated a few street lights and lamps too. I also moved the shadow forward a little to encompass all of the foreground cars. Before I made the change, the closest left-hand car stole the show. The pedestrian was on the on the scene, but not where I’ve placed him. My applogies to the Joyce Hotel whose name I removed from their canopy since it drew too much attention to itself.
The palate is simple, cobalt blue, phthalo blue, quinacridone brown madder, and raw sienna.
The Shady Side of the Street (watercolor 9 x 13) $200
I redid my Mexican Cafe from scratch and I like it much better. I used the same reference photo and the same palette. The real change is the composition. This time the shadow leads the eye right into the diners. And I eliminated much of the detail in the building to keep the eye there.
I took it to my critique group yesterday and it got rave reviews. Someone pointed out that the composition works so well that it even looks good upside down as an abstract painting. Now, if only I could figure out how to do this every time.
An Abstract?
This painting is currently for sale on line at my Etsy shop. Or purchase a print from my print gallery at Fine Art America. (Fine Art America offers many prints of fine watercolor paintings).
Mexican El Fresco (watercolor 10 x 13) $150.00
Another cityscape from downtown Portland. The day and the palette are the same. The light and consequently the painting couldn’t be more different.
Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.
10th and Washington (watercolor 11 x 15) $200
Last month, my husband and I were out and about in downtown Portland, after having spent the early afternoon at Powell’s Bookstore. Stephen patiently followed me around the hot pavement as I photographed street after street. The sun was brilliant after a cloudy spring, and the light on the streets and buildings almost blinding.
Here’s my first attempt at the heat and glow of that afternoon. I began by giving the paper of light wash of quinacridone gold. After the wash dried I very carefully sketched out the scene. Then I washed the sky with cobalt blue and the pavement with a mixture of quinacridone deep red rose and gold. Next, I masked a very few small light details.
With the paper ready to begin painting in earnest I began with the shadows and the lamp. The shadows are phthalo blue and deep red rose. The lamp is the same plus some burnt sienna. I painted the man in the window next and then glazed over him and the window multiple times. Then I loosely dropped in the tree and the background foliage at the end of the street. After that I worked up and down the buildings washing in the light and building up the darks.
In the end I think the shaded part of the building on the right takes up too much attention, but I’m not sure. I’ll try something similar again soon.
Or purchase a print here.
The Sunlit Porch (watercolor 13 x 17) $225
I’ve always been intrigued by houses half hidden by trees. They arouse all of my worst instincts. The very fact the house is hidden makes me want to spy. I don’t of course, but I want to. The feeling is contradictory in any case because I want a house like that, private and treed. And I certainly wouldn’t want anyone else peering between the leaves.
The house I painted was particularly appealing because of the way the sunlit picked out the front porch. The tree sheltered privacy is an illusion though. And no private person’s privacy was injured by painting it. The house is one of the remaining officers’ houses at Fort Robinson Nebraska. Nor do the trees completely shelter the house, they merely screen it from the parade ground. From the porch one would have an unobstructed view of the northern bluffs. Not a bad thing that.
My painting methods were conventional. I began by tinting the paper with burnt sienna. Then I sketched the house and trees. I painted the house first working from light to dark. Then I added the trees beginning this the trunks. I painted the trees loosely working very wet. Then I scrubbed the edges to soften them and lifted color with a tissue.
Or purchase a print here.
Winter Morning on Campus (11 x 14) $150
This is another painting from my winter morning walk on Oregon State University. Weatherford Hall is probably the photographed building on campus and with reason. That morning the sun lit up just the top eastern half of the building.
I decided to focus on the the central archway and so I cropped out the wings before I began to paint.
The palette is ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, quinacridone deep red rose, and hansa yellow. I kept the use on hansa to a minimum. I used only for the trees, lawn and the very darkest darks.
This painting is available on-line through my Etsy shop. Prints available from Fine Art America.com.
Craftsmen Lantern (11 x 14) reserved for La Salles show
Last week’s art show was on OSU campus in Corvallis. Early Friday morning it was dry and clear and the morning light was stunning, but I had no time to do anything but rush inside the Memorial Building to finish setting up. Sunday was dry, clear and cold too, so I went early and wandered the campus taking photos on the sunlit buildings. Not only was the light dramatic, but since all the leaves have fallen much more of the buildings were visible than last time I was on campus.
The reflected trees in the arch above the main entrance to the Womens Building caught my eye. Closer up I noticed the sun on the craftsmen lantern.
The palate is mostly cobalt blue, dioxin purple and burnt sienna. The extreme highlights are raw sienna and the deepest shadows contain phthalo blue.
I began by painting in the windows in cobalt. I added the reflected trees with a mixture on cobalt and burnt sienna. The metal mullions are layers of cobalt, violet, and burnt sienna built up one over another. I painted the lantern and its reflection next to establish the darkest values. I saved the raw sienna for the sunlit portion of the lamp and echoed it it the sunlit side of the arch.
I showed to my painting friend when I had finished. She introduced me to a new word, “tenebrism.” It means the use of extreme contrasts of light and dark with small amounts of light shining out of vast darkness. I love extreme contrast, and I’m happy to have a word to describe it. I’m not sure that this painting as a whole is an tenebristic, but the lantern and its shadow certainly are, and they make the painting.
Prints available at Fine Art America.com.
Shadows Glass and Leaves (12 x 14) $100.00
Driving down Commercial last summer, I was struck by the shadows of leaves on a stucco building. I reached for my camera and discovered I’d left it at home. I drove home hurriedly to get it. My daughters in the back seat were remarkable patient with me as I drove round the block twice looking for a parking space. Only eight or nine pictures later did it dawn on me what I was photographing. It’s a local mortuary. Never mind, the shadows and the glass bricks were beautiful.
The shapes were so simple that I drew them freehand onto the watercolor paper.
Most of the painting was done in what I think of as controlled wet-into-wet painting. First I moistened the the small area I wanted to paint and then I dropped the wet color in. I created each glass brick this way. After the paint dried I went back with a wet brush and added the darker shadows to each brick. I used phthallo blue, cobalt blue, cadmium yellow, and yellow ocher.
The shadows on the wall are two separate layers of controlled wet into wet. The first layer was phthallo blue, deep red rose quinacridone, dull a hair with cadmium yellow. The second layer was cobalt blue and deep red rose.
Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.com.
Sweet Shoppe (10 x 13) $100.00
This is another Central City Painting. I started it this summer at the Artisan Village at the Oregon State Fair. But I felt it lacked something and set it aside. Yesterday when looking for something to paint at the gallery I picked it up again.
What got me started on the painting in the first place is the Victorian decoration. I brightened the colors to go with the sweet shoppe theme. The result was interesting, but lacked something.
Yesterday I decided what it needed was more omph, or in other words more contrast. So I darkened up both the sky and the shadows and here it is.
The palate is cobalt and phthalo blue, quinacridone deep red rose, and cadmium yellow.
Or purchase a print at Fine Art America.com.
Grass in the Window (10 x 14) $225.00
Most of Central City is so well maintained that period-town would be a better description than ghost-town. But some of the buildings have been left to nature for some time. Grass grows out of a low window in one such wall were two building used to abut each other.
If the wall ever had any mortar, it’s not visible now. The quality of the dry wall construction obviously varied greatly between the two buildings is backed. On the right hand side the wall is neatly constructed and looks purposeful and solid. On the left hand side the stones are hardly squared at all are stacked more and more erratically the higher the wall gets. Some stones near the window have fallen away, revealing the depth of the wall.
I began the stones by making an under-painting of phthalo blue. The under-painting showed the shadows between the stones and some of the stronger shadows in the stones. Phthalo blue is a great choice for under-painting because it is strongly staining and won’t wash up with successive layers of paint. After the under-painting dried, I washed the stones wetly with burnt sienna and burnt sienna mixed with rose madder quinacridone. Washes of cerulean blue and phthalo blue mixed with burnt sienna followed. I built up the shadows slowly using the under-painting as a guide. Finally I splattered the rocks with various combination of cerulean blue, burnt sienna and burnt umber using a toothbrush. I smudged the splatters with a paper towel.
The window casing is burnt sienna, cerulean blue, new gamgee, and burnt umber. I applied the paint wet first and then in dry brushed layers.
The grass I masked before beginning the painting. I finished it with greens mixed from new gamgee and phthalo blue. I added the shadows over the window sill last.
I’ve always shied away from building detailed rock and wood like this because I was afraid I couldn’t get the textures right. But I”m pleased with this and may do some more like it.
Or purchase a print at Fine Art America.com.
The Newport Bay Bridge I (13 x 19) $250
The Yaquina Bay Bridge, better and more informally known as the Newport Bridge, is one of the most photographed and painted objects on the Oregon coast. It’s a little daunting to add yet another painting to the stack. But it’s such a beautiful bridge that I just couldn’t resist.
This is the view of the bridge from the south side of bay standing on the ground looking up. Anyone who knows the area well will see immediately that I took major liberties with the landscape. I’ve placed tree covered hills in the foreground, where there is really a grassy flat area often used as an impromptu parking lot. My reference photo throws the parking lot and the bridge into silhouette against the late afternoon sky. Trees broke up the flat horizon. I expanded the treeline into undulating hills.
What I did not remove from the photo was the scaffolding. Somehow whenever I visit the bridge there is scaffolding somewhere in the picture. And with the light behind it, I found the scaffolding as beautiful as the bridge.
After transferring my sketch of the bridge to the paper, I began by painting the sky. I worked wet into wet beginning at the top with a combination of cobalt blue and cerulean Blue. Moving down the paper I added burnt sienna to the two blues to create the grays of the upper cloud masses. Then I dropped in dioxzine purple on the undersides and the dark areas of the clouds. I grayed the violet a hair and added some cobalt to it and washed in the lower cloud bank. Grayed cobalt brought the clouds to the horizon. The bay itself is grayed down cerulean.
The bridge is various dark combinations of burnt sienna, cobalt blue, french ultramarine, and dioxazine purple. The hills are are wet into wet layers of various mixes of the bridge colors plus cerulean blue and raw sienna.
When I finished the painting I was puzzeled about where to sign it. In the end, I signed the painting in removable liquid mask. The mask has a tendency to lift paint thus leaving a quiet signature behind when I removed it.
This painting is currently available on-line through my Etsy shop. Prints available on inquiry.
Queen Anne Nods to Shirley Jackson (11 x 15) $150
I set a challenge for myself this week. The idea was to paint a single subject in a variety of moods. The subject I choose was Deepwoods Estate, here in Salem. I took all of the photos for the painting in the same light and although the various aspects of the building gave me different ideas, the photos don’t convey much feeling to me.
Its Greener on the Other Side
Porch reference photo
I began with the front porch. I aimed to emphasize the softness of the light and the romance of the building. I also wanted to draw the viewer into the painting.
As you can see from my reference photo, my depiction is a little fanciful. I limited my palate to yellows and blues to mimic the soft shadowy light under the porch and the golden sunlight beyond it.
I think the painting works. The most common comment about it is that the viewer would like to step through the porch into the garden on the other side.
Turret and Cupola
Turret Reference Photo
Next I painted a detail of the roof-line from in back. This time I tried to contrast the harsh glittering light with the shaded parts of the building.
Because I intended to include many hard lines and less subtle variation in tone I looked for a place where the contrast between light and shade was particularly striking. But I didn’t want it to look like graphic art, so I poured this painting to ensure that the solid expanses of color were lively rather than flat. Once again I exaggerated, the light in the reference photo is not nearly as stark as the light I painted.
I like this painting, but it turned out rather softer than I had intended. I may try it again with an orange and blue palate.
House Reference Photo
The latest painting in this series is of the whole house. I’ve always found Victorian and Queen Anne houses a little creepy. Like wrought iron, they can be both sinister and charming all at once. On a bright sunny day there is nothing really creepy about the Deepwood House, but it does have a swallowed by the woods feel to it. Despite a generous lawn, there are few places where you can see the whole house. Instead what you see is patches of house through the trees.
So in order to bring out the sinister feel of Queen Anne archetecture, I pulled the trees in closer to the house and darkened the edges where the trees and house meet visually. I also distorted the shape of the house stretching it upwards to about fifteen percent more than it’s real height. Finally I chose a very earthy palate for such a pristine white house: burnt sienna, raw sienna, yellow ocher, phthalo blue and cobalt blue.
I poured this painting too because I wanted a lot of variation in tone. But pouring produces hard lines at the edges of the mask. The result had too many hard lines for the shadowy woods. I did so much scrubbing of the edges, washing over, and detail work that painting doesn’t feel poured to me. But the more I painted the darker it got. I finally had to stop for fear the house would no longer read as white.
I showed the finished painting to my husband yesterday. He said he really liked it, but then added tentatively, “Isn’t it a little eerie?” Yes, yes it is. But I don’t think it’s so eerie that it’s a caricature of the house.
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