What A View

This morning I stumbled across photos we'd taken last summer during some pretty incredible exploring down in Southern Oregon. Those layers of mountains just went on for days! Atmospheric perspective (how things farther away appear lighter, bluer, and less detailed) has always been one of my favorite things outdoors! I remembering explaining it to my husband when I was trying to paint something early in our marriage. He had seen it's affects plenty of times but had never really thought about how it actually looks bluer farther away. It blew his mind! Art student perk I guess! 😜  It just makes those grand mountaintop vistas so incredibly cool!

The Sand Beneath My Feet

I'm so glad we live in a place that's near the beach again (Instead of all land-locked in the northern Midwest). I have such wonderfully nostalgic memories of quick trips to the coast with cousins growing up. We'd run up over that little hill and were there! Sandcastle-making, burying feet, s'mores-making, kite-flying and shell-hunting galore! Such great times.

They're back!

And yellow fields with a white fence! I know, I'm really shaking things up. Ha! But there is something to playing with the same idea and trying it again and again to see what comes out. Which is my way of saying, I'm not stopping yet! The yellow fields will be back.

Do You Wanna Go Straight to Hawaii?

My watercolor journal is made of this really awesome handmade paper that has dreamy, ruffly edges. However while the paper is devilishly handsome, it is...less than ideal to paint on. You can't go over anything more than a few times or layers of paper start to come off. And there's absolutely no scrubbing anything off or changing the paint's mind if it's decided to slowly bleed into somewhere else. So quick landscapes are challenging. I had done this very unsatisfying sketch when I was on the extremely satisfying beaches of Hawaii in December. But inspired by some artists I see combining watercolor and ink, I thought I'd give it a try and it saved the sketch! The black lines made it go from being all blurry and wishy-washy to sharp and flowy. Can I pleeeeeease go back to Hawaii now that I know how to sketch it better while lying on the warm sand, eating fresh tropical fruit, in between snorkeling swims? Sigh.  

Rolling In

Oh and I forgot to post this one too! I painted it a year ago (see the post here) but never loved anything other than the clouds. So I chopped off even more of the painting this last week to help the focus be more completely on those big ol' ominous clouds. I also painted over the white lines in the sky that were just too distracting. I think I'm finally happy with it!

And it makes me want to go mountain biking again, which is what we were doing when I saw these fantastic clouds and stopped to take pictures just long enough to completely lose my group. Ha. They noticed I wasn't still with them EVENTUALLY.

Courage

Remember this one I started back at the festival? Well I wasn't lying when I said it made me nervous to do the water. I was so worried I'd ruin what was already there that I hadn't dare lay a finger on it in two whole months! Just silly. But I have a deadline tomorrow and didn't have time to get a whole new painting done so crossed my fingers and dove in. I had no other choice really. The photo was absolutely no help, nor would it have been if I could've actually found it. But I remember that it didn't really work for a painting so I had to make it up myself, trying to be true to my style and the basics of reflection. I think it works but I'll have to sleep on it for sure. Happy Halloween!

Light Runs Through It

I think she's done. Not sure why my painting has suddenly become female but she has in my mind. And I like her. It was really, really fun to paint on this aquboard and just play with the shapes and colors. I love painting.

And Painting-Needs-A-Name is done!

Finished!! And what's even better is that I'm truly happy with it! 

I added large ripple lines to help the reflection read as a reflection, which was a bit terrifying. Before I bit the bullet and did it, I put a piece of tracing paper on top and painting the blue ripples on the tracing paper. I've never tried that trick before but it totally worked! I knew instantly I had to do it. Took a lot of the fear (of ruining the painting) out of the equation, which is always nice. Especially because throughout this painting, I enjoyed a freeing sense, a lack of fear and restraint. Trying to figure out how to work that into the title...

Almost there

After a long weekend of camping, hiking, and waterfall hunting, I was totally inspired and HAD to paint. Natural beauty does that to me. I just can't get enough of it. You should see how many pictures I take! Thanks heavens for digital cameras. I would totally go broke if it was still back in the days of developing film to see what you managed to capture. But before I could start something new, I was ready to tackle this unfinished one with a new eye and enthusiasm.

I like the flow and the softness. I did realize earlier this evening that it was too soft and punched up the colors so that the trees and hills looked more solid. Wish I could finish it now but after three nights on a hard ground in a tent with five children, I gotta catch up on some sleep!

2nd chance WIP

So I had this partially-begun painting hanging on my line of unhappyily unfinished paintings and fairly demanded to be finished. In it's defense, it didn't really seem fair to make it keep waiting while I started something new so I brought it back out for a second go. And I like what happened tonight. It feels kinda soft and dreamy. And instead of stressing as I sometimes do about how to keep my "style" intact while still giving the impression of the reality that inspired the painting, I zoned out singing to Les Mis, reminding myself that "my painting, my rules."

And I even cleaned my art room this weekend!!! Maybe that's why it was easier to relax while painting tonight...

Rule follower by nature

I think I might've had a breakthrough. I brought this painting to a critique group on Friday and one of the ladies said that since I wasn't painting realistically, I didn't have to follow the rules. Since I was creating my own version of reality or my own playful universe, I got to make the rules. See I was struggling with the ocean. Trying to keep it on the same level of that middle ground but if land - the same in lack of detail or sharp edges, the same in intensity of color. But it made the water, which is like a whole third of the painting, into a total blah zone. 

So I deepened the colors and sharpened the lines. And then I played with the sky, trying to tie the circles of the leaves together with the repeated, parallel lines of the ocean rolling in. Sure they weren't really there. But what does that matter when I'm making the rules? I think I'm going to like this game. Now the question is, is it done?

Zigzagging along

So trying to paint when you're watching a very stressful NBA playoff game is unwise. So much tension! I wasn't even really watching. Just listening as my husband did but the stress got to me all the same. But after the Blazers so sadly lost in overtime, I took a few minutes to recover and went back to it and got the middle ground done better than I expected! It's so hard to keep the shape style without being able to add as many layers or use the sharpness and distinction between the shapes.

The only problem is, now that I have that I see that the background strip of land is much too dark. And it's refusing to cooperate. So now I have two options. Add a white haze overtop and be less of a watercolor purist (it'll add a milkiness instead of the transparent quality of water colors that I prefer), or I'll have to darken the middle ground, which will risk making it the same as the foreground. Stay tuned until next time to see which one is the lesser of two evils...

The hills are alive with yellow!

I forgot to post this too! A few weeks ago I got to go to the Watercolor Society of Oregon's Spring Conference. Had a lot of fun learning a lot in a very short amount of time. I started my day going to a demo/classy artist Sally Bills-Bailey. She used huge brushes, big and quick bold strokes and bright colors and challenged us to do the same. Here's the painting I did in her class:

I like it and got lots of compliments in class about it. The zig-zag composition that I caught in this old photos has always been asking me to paint it but I've always been a bit intimidated. I'm not sure if it's finished? Or if this was just a nice color study and now I should go back and paint it again for a final painting? It's not my typical style but can it stand on its own?

Finishing reflection #1

I'm not sure I even know what to say because I'm not at all sure how I feel about it. Possibly done? Possibly needing to make those distant purple mountains less skyish? Possibly needing to break up that crystal clear reflection a bit? 

I may have to let it stew, and see how I feel about it in a week or so after the move. Which means I have no excuse not to be packing boxes. Man I hate packing boxes. 

Reflecting twice over

I complained tonight after finishing that I made so little process. My kind husband pointed out that since I'm doing two paintings at the same time, it's always going to feel like I've accomplished half as much. He's good at math like that!

But you can see how they're the same painting now, right? Or at least from the same source. I like how the shapes are developing. But do you know what's hard? Reflections! Getting it the same, but upside down and tilted in the opposite direction and in the painting on the right's case, twice as long? It's hard. But who doesn't need a good challenge when they're painting exhausted at midnight, right? Nature just makes it look so easy.

Reflections x2!

I haven't been painting a lot lately but I bought a little sketchbook and have been sketching my kids daily, in kind of a visual journal of little things we've been up to. I'm totally out of practice! But it feels good to be stretching those muscles a little, getting back to basics. Now if only they'd stay still long enough for me to get a good drawing in 😉 

One way or the other though, it got me inspired. That and a beautiful sunny day today that seemed to just leave us all in a happier mood. So I pulled out an old photograph - I think it's from 4 or 5 years ago. I don't usually do this but I'll share the inspiration photo here:

I'm so drawn to this peaceful scene with the crystal reflection but I've never actually sat down to paint it. After a few thumbnail sketches designed to help me choose the best composition, I remembered why - I can't decide how I want to go about it. So I didn't choose! I taped two pieces of paper down, side-by-side and got started painting the same picture twice. At the same time! Never done that before but I'm happy with the results so far. Funny how they don't look at all the same so far!

Can't wait to see where it goes tomorrow.

Struggles

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but I had strep throat the first week of this long-awaited Christmas break and badly sprained my foot for the second week. I could cry. Oh wait, I have. I ruined our skiing plans. Trying to find a silver lining, my husband set me up to paint in the corner (it's dangerous to paint while the kids are all awake so I gotta be out of the way) since I need to just be sitting here with my foot up anyway. 

I had the sky done and my outlines sketched in for this one, but have been rather frustrated with the "progress" I've made: 

I know it's nowhere near done but it just looks like there's no hope for it. Sometimes I'm sure I've forgotten how to paint. No clue what to do with what was supposed to be a cool, chill foreground and the hills are just blah.

In frustration, I watched some watercolor videos on YouTube and then started this one with a real devil-may-care attitude (didn't even draw outlines for that particular bridge, even knowing that it would probably ruin the whole thing). I felt like I didn't need a successful painting. Just a part I liked enough to boost my mood a bit, and remind me I can paint: 

I think it's working. I'm just feeling a severe lack of patience. Stupid foot.

Little rusty

Moving cross-country threw off my painting rhythm a bit, but every so often I've been making a little bit of progress on this landscape. It's from a photo I took while on a mountain bike ride in Bend, Oregon. The way the clouds were sweeping in majestically over the distant trees stopped me in my tracks, literally. Took me forever to catch back up to my group! I first did the blue sky, and loved it. Then one night I timidly approached the clouds - totally intimidated. I'd never attempted any significant cloud form before, especially not one that should be the focus point of the painting! After sleeping on it, I loved them too. But the trees and other greenery has been a struggle - ironic since that's usually my strong point. And the reflection has been a disaster. I can't seem to keep the style in with ripples. Here's what I have:

That's after a night solely focused on fixing the water. Not having any idea how to improve it (or hope really), what do you think of cropping the image to this:

Not only does it cut off the offending part, it brings the clouds back into the spotlight I think. Might need to slightly darken that row of shrubs too to help that. Maybe I shouldn't have tried such a difficult painting after so much time off :) but it was so inspiring to me. After being frustrated though, I went back to my sure-fire painting block fix: a flower. Somehow, making them shine always comes easy when nothing else does with a brush or without. After this decent start, I might actually be able to get some sleep now:

Now if I could get myself to paint two nights in a row, I might get somewhere!

Slowly getting back

So it's taken me much longer to get back into painting regularly than I had hoped it would! Before baby G was born, I had really ambitious/unrealistic goals of continuing to at least draw every day and being back to painting regularly within a month or two. So here we are nine months later... But in that time, apart from getting use to caring for four little kiddos, my husband got a job in North Dakota(!) and we moved our family far from grandparents and friends and everything familiar. Enough with excuses though, I did start painting again a month or two ago. I just kept putting off posting until I felt like I was ready to do it regularly again. That probably won't happen until after the holidays, but it is way past time to jump back in. So here are two of the three paintings I've done recently of my new surroundings (Sorry for the bad photos. They were already framed before I thought to photograph them and I'm being too lazy to take them apart just for a photo):

"Badlands Buffalo"

"In the Shadows of Thee"

Never painted a buffalo before so that was a first, but they're a much-requested subject around these parts :) I painted these for a local show (Badlands Art Association's Annual Show), and won 1st place for the second of the two! Kinda funny since I had procrastinated (big surprise there!) and had only finished painting it about two hours before I had to drop off the painting. Oh boy. That was cutting it close! I think I still prefer the first. The color makes it much more exciting. And I never really got the trees in the front of the second painting to look how I wanted them to. The Badlands are a mere half hour from our house though, so I imagine there will be lots more of these interesting hills to come!