Monday, March 23, 2009

Two Works: one oil (unfinished), one pastel (plein air)

unfinished, oil, underpainting with 3 layers of glaze
Here I am working WAY out of my comfort level. I am painting 5 of these glazed pieces at the same time. Glazing is slow painful work. Deborah quoted from Edgar Payne. "Mix brains with paint." Ah...so often they are forgotten and the painting is left to their friend, impulse.
I am holding my vision tight in my head. If it becomes unsure..time to stop and think.
6x6 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper $100.
Back to the reservoir on this very cold spring morning. It was good to be visiting my muse, the reservoir. I rarely take a plein air painting back to the studio to work. The color harmony in this piece was rather disjointed. So I tried to pull it together.

5 comments:

Casey Klahn said...

Thanks for sharing your glazing process - we get to learn along with you.

I love the orange and blue, and then the red and violet passages in the pastel. Very nice!

Jala Pfaff said...

Can I just say I LOVE that top pic, the oil-glaze thing. It looks like, who was it, Turner? Whistler? who did the harbor paintings at night with very little discernible detail.

loriann signori said...

Thanks Casey, I will add more as I learn and get frustrated more. I am really beginning to understand my natural working style now as I run counter to it. It's a good thing.

loriann signori said...

Jala,
I am guessing you mean Whistler.I am thinking about a few of his noctures with blues and sort of silver, boats or bridges. A few of which are in the Tate and Boston. He uses passages of very thin and thick. I am delighted to be compared in any way to either of them.
I am learning that limited detail is a kind of trademark for the tonalists. It's funny on the one I broke some rules...as I really was supposed to have my underpainting determined and only be working on color. ButI CAN'T resist changing it as I work. Can you?

Jala Pfaff said...

Yes, that's exactly what it reminds me of!!! I love it.