New Landscape "Summer Afternoon"

"Summer Afternoon" (tentative title)

20"x24"

Oil on Canvas

This was officially the largest painting I've completed so far. It was painted from a photo taken one afternoon while going on a walk around the neighborhood with my wife and daughter. I saw the view and was glad we had our camera with us because I immediately wanted to paint it.

My focuses during this piece were:

1) To capture the lush green of the scene and complement that with the splash of red.

2) Convey the afternoon lighting by keeping the shadows relatively light while still dark enough to contrast with the sunlit areas.

3) To create a visual path to draw the viewer into the painting. My intended path starts at the upper left corner with the sunlit shingles, follows the brightly lit flowers over the arch, jumps to the slanted shadow on the opposite house, proceeds down to the lit bush in the bottom right and then on to the patch of sunlit grass before passing through the arch and finishing at the bright triangle on the fence.

I enjoyed painting this one immensely and am very pleased with how it turned out.

An imperfect process

So I had this picture I took in Hawaii that I knew I'd eventually paint, but I had been waiting until I felt I could do it justice. The other day I was feeling pretty good after a few successes but I wasn't really in the mood to start a big, detailed painting. Yet I did anyway. Why? I still don't know. Early on I about called it quits in favor of something small and immediately gratifying. But I kept with it and suddenly saw potential that fueled my efforts.

Things were going well for a time...

but after that came another trying period of temptations to quit.

Yet I fought valiantly on... well okay I gave in and painted one little canvas in between but I couldn't resist! Afterwards I was ready for more slaving in front of my ill timed project.

I began the finishing process in the background and worked my way forward, making good use of my painting knife. At this point I was feeling pretty good again, thinking I could pull it off.

Alas I made it through the foreground but was left very unsatisfied. It's not finished, but I don't know exactly what else to do. So I'm posting the process thus far while my canvas sits on the floor and I contemplate my plan of attack. Any tactics would be greatly appreciated.

Lilac

Lilacs

9"x12" Canvas Board

Available when dry

I've been planning on painting lilacs for awhile and last night I snagged some from my in laws. The colors in this photo are a little saturated as usual, but what can you do? I now have wet canvases laying everywhere and I'm running dangerously low on blank canvases.