Friday, May 13, 2011

Breath of Fresh Air


Cindy's Mountain Getaway, replete with rhododendron

Well, since it is already 90 degrees and muggy here in Atlanta, it was nice to visit my friend up in the mountains, where it was cool and sunny!  Of course, I was wanting to get out of town to switch up my subject matter, but when I got there, Cindy had so many beautiful FLOWERS all around, that we ended up painting those!  We just did some studies and practiced seeing and color mixing.  As you can see, she had great little vignettes everywhere:






Even some peeking into the kitchen window, near a gift painting of mine in the corner...


First afternoon, Cindy did a nice study of the sunflowers in bold strokes, which was a great start to her getting back into painting after a lengthy break.


The next day, we set up a simple pot and apple to work on massing and turning the form:


 My block-in above, and


Cindy's finished painting...

Another set-up that afternoon...more complicated!



The set-up and the two easels (my EasyL on the right).


We were using Golden Open Acrylics ( I am practicing for a trip this fall ), and of course, as you can see above, a very limited palette...titanium white, cadmium yellow light (called cadmium primrose in this line), cad red medium, and ultramarine blue. That's the palette I almost always use; for me, it makes things simpler and often leads to subtle mixtures, which I can never exactly duplicate.  That in turn, creates variety, which is a good thing!  Now I AM going to paint something different...



5 comments:

  1. So beautiful. It looks like you had a wonderful time with your friend.

    Thanks for sharing your process. I didn't realize you paint with such a limited color palette. You are a master at mixing colors!

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  2. Thanks, Virginia! I get frustrated sometimes with all the mixing, but it works better for me to have less paint to sling about!

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  3. Look like so much fun painting with your friend! And, of course, your paintings are beautiful! I have some of the Golden Open Acrylics but have not tried them yet. How are you liking them? I will have to pull them out sometime and give them a try.

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  4. Her house is so lovely, looked like such fun to paint there. Lovely work as always.

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  5. Well first off...everything you paint with such fresh beautiful color is a breath of fresh air! Your colors and brushwork are what makes the paintings, does not matter what the subject matter is:) Paint what you love and love what you paint!! I love them all. Look forward to lots of painting time myself soon- miss you:)

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