Secrets

 

 I once read that a great painting has secrets that the viewer wants to know. 

Now I think about that. I see George Inness. I see his Home of the Heron than makes me want to be absorbed by it, like a sponge.

dusk-a-thon, greens and golds

Using a different palette, at a new location, the dusk-a thon continues through the summer. There is always 20 minutes to do another small painting.

BTW There have been many questions about the texture in the last painting. Later this week I will post another from that series and give more detail about the method.

dusk-a-thon

Here's one from the dusk-a-thon series this summer. Pastel, 6x6"

snow break

pastel 6x6

On Friday I drove to the airport to pick up my husband, Paul. It was snowing like crazy and the beltway was a parking lot. Great for observation. I had him drive on the return trip so that I could take notes and photograph with my phone. I tried to get the feel of the blurriness that happens with snow. This was the beautiful moment when the skies began to break and the snow was only in the light clouds, not falling down. I am experimenting with the colors I build use to build the toned paper. My pastel is so thick I can scratch and scrape with my nails.

A new quote for you:

Create goals for yourself: 

play, fool yourself and other, be an artist."

Paul Klee, diary 1902

With that said, I think I will return to the press (in addition to painting) to work with monotype/print. I was checking out contemporary monotypes and found Forrest Moses. He makes beautiful monotypes that give me goose bumps. Check out his site.

roads with an edge

My roads series is developing into fun with design and now, with edge. hmmmm

memory painting is like making a pizza

Painting from memory is like making a pizza. All the stored knowledge you possess is the dough... that all important part you use every time. The toppings are the manipulations- the new ideas you bring to the pizza to make this one unique. In painting we manipulate color, value and shape. With pizza it's the sauces, cheeses and toppings. One time it's heavy in roasted garlic and basil and another time the sauteed  onions and sun dried tomatoes sing the song.

So in order to use your memory you have to work at that dough and spend time in the field studying, drawing, painting. Then the dough recipe is solid. You can now focus on the toppings...the real fun.

 This one (above)  has the sun dried tomatoes, artichokes and onions on a chickpea garlic paste.

I end today's crazy blog post with  a quote from a most amazing painter, George Inness and a recipe for pizza dough.

"The purpose of the painter is simply to reproduce in other minds the impression which a scene has made upon him. A work of art does not appeal to the intellect. It does not appeal to the moral sense. Its aim is to instruct, not to edify, but to awaken an emotion." -- George Inness  


 pizza dough

4 1/2 cups  unbleached high-gluten, bread, or all-purpose flour, chilled
1 3/4  teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1/4 cup  olive oil (optional)
1 3/4 cups  water, ice cold (40°F)
Semolina flour OR cornmeal for dusting 

more dusk

This was another from yesterday's explorations into dusk.  I liked what the acrylics were doing. They keep me away from "chalk." I think that when pastels have a lot of white, they look yucky. Whites need to be saved for highlights. That white is such an "uncolor." I have been working hard to move away from it and make more luminous grays.
Once again I have also come back to the "diva." Where is my real interest? That is where the fun happens, play down the other parts. Equal interest is uninteresting.
Now off to the Mountain Maryland Plein Air!

memory paintings at dusk

How much color can go in a  nightfall painting and still say dusk? Honestly, I am not sure. So I keep experimenting and using my memory, instead of plein air painting. Some consistencies include that after the sun sets the tree edges have a warm color, the ground is cool and the rest of the landscape is much darker.
These are both from my soccer field. We had a thunderstorm during the week and afterwards was glorious. Brilliant color and small puddles of colored water. I let it sit with me for days and finally painted today. The underpaintings were different. The top on has an acrylic underpainting, somthing I decided to do in order to push the intensity. The bottom one is a rubbed in pastel underpainting. Softer.

Always searching...
Now back to cutting boards, preparing frames, and packing all my stuff for a week of plein air painting at the Mountain Maryland Plein Air 2011. Think successful thoughts for me, k?