Beginning to Melt (15 x 22) available
One more painting of Croisan Creek Trail. This time after bit of snow.
Posts tagged ·
road
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February 10, 2021 12:41 pm
May 8, 2019 6:28 pm
To the Cathedral (watercolor 15 x 19) SOLD
Santa Cruz in the Barrio on a street leading to the Seville Cathedral.
This painting has sold, but you can still purchase a fine art print.
August 27, 2018 11:02 am
Via Miranda (watercolor 9 x 19) Available
From Miranda del Castanar, all the views are vistas but all the vistas are framed by narrow streets. This little half timbered village, with a population of less than five hundred is a joy to wander.
The View From Miranda (watercolor 11 x 19) SOLD
August 17, 2018 4:44 pm
Leaving Segovia (watercolor 23 x 16) Available
Driving out of Segovia’s old town ends with a spectacular view of the aqueduct. Driving out on a rainy night, is like driving into an impressionist painting of the aquaduct..
June 14, 2018 7:25 pm
The Church in San Martin (16 x 23 watercolor) Available
San Martin de Trevjo is a sleepy mountain village in Extramadura, Spain. I spent a happy couple hours wandering among the half-timbered homes there.
December 28, 2014 5:15 pm
Italian Heat is not my first attempt at that painting. It is the second. I made several mistakes with the first painting, most of them having to to with composition. I left too many people from my reference photos in the image, and that took away from the real subject, the biking couple at the end of the street. Having reached the conclusion that the painting was a failure, I played around with photos the spoiled painting before sketching out the second version which ended up in the blog entry below.
That left me with a poor complicated painting with great color but no real focus. So I set the failed painting aside for a while. Then a few weeks later, I got out the mat corners (“L” shaped pieces of mat board used for visual cropping) and singled out the two bicyclists. The result is Florence Bikers.
Florence Bikers (9 x 16 watercolor) SOLD
Looking at the remainder on the contained yet another painting:
Three Italians, (9 x 21 watercolor) sold
Both paintings have sold, but prints are still available. fine art print.
January 29, 2014 12:21 pm
Bike Lucca (watercolor 16 x 21) Available
This is Lucca. It could be just about any narrow lane in the old part of a Tuscan city, but this particular lane is in Lucca. The bicyclist is appropriate, because Lucca is a bicyclist’s city. The old city wall around town has been paved as a broad street for pedestrians and cyclists, and everyone, natives and tourists alike seem to spend much of their time biking the wall. Down in the city, bikes are as common as at Oxford.
April 9, 2013 7:24 pm
Waiting Bike (13 x 19 watercolor) SOLD
This painting has sold, but you may still purchase a fine art print.
March 15, 2013 3:49 pm
Oxford Lane (watercolor 13 x 19) SOLD
A little taste of Oxford—another poured painting.
This painting has sold, but you may still purchase a fine art print.
February 2, 2011 4:01 pm
Between the Showers on HWY 101 (watercolor 10 x 14) SOLD
This January we spent a weekend in Lincoln City. It being January in Oregon; it rained at lot; it was often foggy; and in between the sun shone. I took the photo for this little painting in the car on the way to wave watch in Depot Bay. Before we reached Depot Bay it rained again and then the sun came out to stay for the afternoon.
This painting has sold, but you may still purchase a print from Fine Art America.com.
August 3, 2010 6:09 pm
Montana Road Trip (12 x 18 watercolor) Available
This is the descent to Butte, Montana coming from the east. Crossing Montana on I90 the views alternated between narrow rocky places and expansive high plains, true big sky country. I wanted to capture the feeling of the decent from the narrows to the wide open space below. I took a number of photos through the dashboard trying to get that feeling. This one came the closest:
Reference Photo
As you can see, the four lane interstate dominates the picture. Also the road looks much flatter than it actually was. There are other problems too. The end of the road is almost dead center in the middle of the picture. Trees hide the expanding vista. There is nothing about the vista to draw the eye in.
Adobe Photoshop to the rescue. I don’t have a professional edition, just Elements 6. But it’s fine for my purposes. I began by using the lasso tool to select the right hand cliffs. I then copied them, flipped them right to left, and wedged them in over the left hand two lanes of interstate. I selected and copied some of the left hand cliffs and slipped them in behind my newly transformed right hand cliffs. I used both copying and the clone tool to remove the trees from my opening vista. I lassoed the right hand cliffs again and stretched them upwards. I enlarged the canvas and stretched the whole image to the right. I added a band of sunlight in the vista:
Altered Reference Photo
The result was quick and dirty, but it gave me a good idea where I was going. And it gave me a workable photo to draw from. I used the bottom of the concrete barrier still showing in my altered photo to help me plot the new guard rail. The feet of the unaltered cliffs helped me imagine the feet of my new cliffs.
Here’s my working drawing:
Working Sketch
I left out the mountain range on the left as it would detract from the center of interest at the foot of the road. I also pulled the right hand cliffs even further to the right than in my altered photo, thus opening up more of the distant vista.
I did the painting itself quickly beginning with the sky, filling in the road while it dried and then laying in the trees to establish the dark values. The trees are phthalo blue, french blue, new gamgee, and Winsor purple mixed mostly on the paper. For the cliffs I used cerulean blue, cobalt blue, and yellow ochre, and purple. I added more purple and blue to the right hand shadowed side and more burnt sienna to the sunlit side. Rather than using burnt sienna to dull the blues, I used hansa yellow deep. The sky is phthalo, cobalt blue, burnt sienna, and more purple. I used the same pigments for the road. The result is bluer and stormier than the photo, but more like the day itself with was dark and threatened but rarely delivered rain.
