Tuesday, April 12, 2011

planning a studio painting


12x24 value study, pastel on somerset paper

To me a studio painting takes a lot of planning, then later, sometime in the painting, the paint takes over. and does all the deciding. You probably wonder why go through all that bother of planning when I will allow the painting to take over? I think it is because when I do all the planning, I sharpen the concept. I work so long deciding what is really important. I hopefully find the pitfalls before I land flat on my face mid-way through the painting. The composition needs to be well planned, values secure and the "color map" decided. To help me get that luminosity I crave I am now  making glaze strips before I put brush to wood.
On a wonderful side note, I just learned that I once again was juried into the Mountain Maryland Plein Air Event in June. Four days of painting in beautiful western Maryland is a dream. There are many very talented artists in the group so it is always a little nerve racking. More about that later.
composition studies

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Loriann,
Congratulations on your acceptance into the Mountain Maryland Plein Air Event! Enjoy yourself and let loose-bring back many studies and small paintings to work from when you are in your studio.

You have written some interesting comments about studio painting. I also plan but usually the plans go out the window when painting. This reminds me of the saying about battle plans and the reality of the battle field. Remember not to over plan so you do not "kill" the spirit behind the idea.

I enjoyed viewing the 12/24 value study and the 2 compositional studies you posted. I find that doing those small compositional studies can become addictive. I also have found that after you have done many of these compositional studies patterns will emerge. You will begin to see certain compositions, patterns and such that are your interests and signature ideas.

NJ ART 73

Lisa Le Quelenec said...

Congratulations on the plein air event, it sounds like it will be a lot of fun. It's nice to have something to look forward to, I imagine you will come back with lots after a four day event.

Interesting to see your planning stages, I find so many people assume that you just get up and paintings appear out of your head and flow down the brush. I'm kind of glad it doesn't happen that way - I'd miss all the fun of the experiments, tonal studies and palette playing etc. I agree with NJ, thumbnails are highly addictive, it's a kind of getting to know the subject and for me the longer I take over this the better the end results.

Caroline Simmill said...

Congratulations Loriann on being accepted into the Mountain Maryland plein air event, how exciting! don't stress out just be your natural self and work quietly with confidence, you will do very well. I look forward to following your time there on your blog. A most interesting post of how you work in your studio. A lovely drawing.

Donna T said...

I remember your work from this plein air event last year, Loriann, so it's no surprise that you got accepted again. Congrats! Your thumbnails and studies are very helpful to see. Once you have the composition and the value plan it must be very freeing to let the colors do their thing!

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