wintergrass

Time for only one painting today. I photographed the painting, turned the image into a grayscale in Photoshop, printed it out and used it to make value corrections to the painting in progress. Now I'm going to let this one rest and dry while I work on the other one tomorrow. Inching along.

two oils, step 3

Posting each day's work on these two oils might be too much like watching paint dry. In the end, I can print the images and staple them together for one of those little flip-books to entertain myself.

two oils, step 2

Another hour of painting on these two this morning. Now, a wheelbarrow of Italian prunes to deal with. I think I'll just eat as many as I can.

back to it

These cooler days and crispy nights are my favorite time of year! A project for Women Painters of Washington has filled most of my week but I was happy to be able to get back to painting this morning. Here is the start of two 18x18 inch oils.

rework #22

Found another painting to rework. The original painting was high-key and a different scene (see below). The rework is a scene from a dog-walk at Luther Burbank Park on Mercer Island last week. "September Sojourn," 11.5x18 inches.

rework #21

Now, that's better! The new and improved "Wenatchee River" is cooler in color temperature and darker for a change of mood. There is more sensitivity in the handling of the trees and bushes, less detail in the rocks. Background has much more depth especially because this time I have indicated a path. We do the best we can with what we know at the time. In the five years since painting the original, my handling of the medium has improved so I am better able to tell the story of a painting. My advice...paint every day so the five year changes don't take 10 years to happen. I'm going to put this on DPW just because I love the magnifier tool!

This painting, along with the other 20 reworks can be seen as they are now and as they looked before the rework. In most cases, the current images looks completely different. Click on the link in the upper right corner of this blog - Reworked Paintings

sketchbook reminder

I'm coming to the end of my list of mediocre paintings to be reworked. "Wenatchee River," painted in 2007, had enough redeeming qualities to put it near the end of the list so I'm going to try to save some of it.

An email conversation with a friend about the many uses of Photoshop for an artist reminded me of the preparation steps I used to go through. My process was to use PS to look at the reference photo in grayscale as well as blurred (as if squinting). I also turned it into a value sketch. I looked this painting up in my old sketchbook and will use this page from 2007 as reference when I rework "Wenatchee River" today.

7 year old paper

I've been painting on this same piece of Art Spectrum paper since 2005. In that year, I painted "Softly" which survived until 2009 when I washed it off and repainted the scene as "Wild Iris." Now, that painting is gone and it has been reinvented as "Footpath." This is a fun one to look at with the magnifier on Daily Paintworks.

paper for day dream

I received several inquiries about this painting (and votes for the title "Zombies at Dusk") so I thought I'd post the unframed version. This is Canson Mi-Teintes violet color. I worked on the wrong or "soft" side for less paper texture. These days I usually work on a sanded surface.

The paper was previously used in 2005 for "New Day." Nice value range but tight, over blended, lacking nuance and subtlety, it was on my rework list.