Monday, April 27, 2009

Warmth and Distance /Painting in progress

painting in progress
underpainting

How do you create distance yet retain the warmth of the very late afternoon/early evening? The simple answer is greying down your colors.. But there is more....Look at Sanford Gifford. His greys and light are magnificent.

Yes..today is beautiful outside(90 and sunny even at 6 am it was 70). It's almost sacrilegious that I am inside. The fact is this painting called me to begin.....immediately. More on this one later.

6 comments:

Karen said...

I am inside too today...don't tell.

Thanks for reminding me of all of those Hudson River painters. Gifford's work was so good to look more closely at...

Retaining warmth and yet graying down at the same time...challenging to balance that. Will you write more as you think about this?

Donna T said...

This painting is going to be a beauty! Thanks so much for showing your underpainting. I can see that I need to be much bolder with my colors - I can always gray them down but trying to make them more intense doesn't usually work for me.

loriann signori said...

Hi Karen!

Yep, Gifford's work is amazing. It's funny when I was in NY I could see where he developed the color for his water. that river is VERY different from mine.
I will try to write more about warmth and grey balance later.
L

loriann signori said...

Hi Donna,

Thanks for the vote of confidence.
You are observant about the underpainting. Yes you need to be bold and loose with an underpainting. I feel it's easy to tighten up but not loosen up once the tone is set. That is the struggle I am having with the oil underpaintings.
Enjoy some painting freedom!
L

Jala Pfaff said...

I'm continually amazed at how exquisite your watercolor underpaintings are! If you ever get tired of pastels ("not bloody likely!" as Monty Python might say :D), you'll have a fallback art medium.

loriann signori said...

Hi Jala! Not bloody likely you're right...although I am enjoying the underpainting aspect more and more.L