Thursday was a good day. First of all I had a pretty good night's sleep, at least compared to the really bad sleep I have had over the last week or so, and I didn't as if there was sand in my eyes all day. I think the stress of this was getting to me a bit. I have been waking up at 3am each morning and then tossing and turning until my usual wake up time at 6am. Also when I am stressed I tend to clench my teeth at night and I wake up with the worst headaches. I have a mouth guard to wear and usually I only have to wear it once in awhile but I have started wearing it each night.
So anyway, I put the hangers on several completed pieces, so that I could stack them and get them out of the way. Then I started the first barn piece. I was surprisingly nervous and it took me awhile to get going. While it wasn't exactly an easy one, I did struggle a bit with it. It took me awhile to settle on the colors for the barn and at one point the sky was painted blue but I thought it made the whole piece look really ordinary. I rubbed off the blue and settled on a purplish sky. Not sensible at all but it really makes the blue-green of the barn really pop.
(This is one of our cats who likes to be involved.)
The next piece was like a puzzle. There are many more elements to this one (pictured at the top, partially painted and then finished, except for some touch up) and getting the colors to work together was a real challenge. The color of the roof was the most difficult and I tried many different shades of blue/grey, until I settled on one. The short wall in front was purple for awhile and I thought it looked too patchy so I changed it to red. I also removed the road and made the entire foreground yellow. When I changed those elements I thought the piece became rather elegant and had a nice horizontal movement.
The last piece (below) was done right at the end of the afternoon. I mixed much of the color right on the panel, mostly because my palette paper was full and I didn't feel like putting out a new piece. But I like how the foliage especially looks when I work the paint like that. I will probably work on this one a bit more today. There is some lettering I'd like to add to the sign on the front, darken the shadowed side and and I may want to soften some of the edges so that the building fits into the landscape better.
The three that I painted on Thursday were 18x24. I have two more barns, one 18x24 and one 24x36 that I plan on working on today. plus I will hopefully finish up with the others. However, it's a short day as I have to leave at 1pm for an appointment. SInce I will be working in the studio on Saturday and Sunday I think I will continue to post over the weekend as well.
16 comments:
The blue barn piece is really beautiful!
What is your brand of choice for paints?
Tracy my heart goes out to you. I can relate to the ups and downs of starting a new series of paintings. I too have trouble sleeping when the stress is becoming a bit overbearing. But you're doing a great job and in the end everything will turn out wonderful! I told my husband the other day, that you're going to be famous someday. Hope this helps.
I love the blue barn with the pink/purple sky. It's so simple and spare - just beautiful proprotions & colors. Very nice.
Thanks Susan. I use nearly all of the different brands, mostly because I like certain colors by certain manufacturers and they vary so much from brand to brand. But technically, I love the quality of Schmincke, Old Holland, Williamsburg and Rembrandt. Then there are are colors that I use all of the time by Grumbacher and Gamblin. So a variety would be a shorter answer!
June, you flatter me! But if I were famous there'd be more photos of me and I am not photogenic at all. Seeing bad photos of myself would be much more stressful than all of this. Anyway, thanks...
Shan, Thanks, glad to hear a compliment about the red barn, that's the one that Doug, my barometer, didn't have much to say about. I just painted the barn/tree piece this morning so I will put that up tomorrow.
Thanks Lisa, I struggle sometimes because part of me wants to be really logical and make things realistic but the other part wants to just paint color and shapes that harmonize and don't make any sense.
You'll have a comfy set of laurels to rest on when this marathon is finished. Hope you've scheduled some down time between marathons!
Nice colours, beautifully painted, very skilled!
Love the cat…
I hate to make such a mundane comment, but, it looks as though you must sit and paint. If that is true, are you scuttling around your studio on a wheeled chair?
Also, our cat looks at me like that when it wants to go outside.
I asked the above comment because I am looking for the perfect wheeled stool or low-back studio chair. Not the big goodwill one that I have that I somehow seem to fall asleep in too often. I need a real posture perfect inducer that is mobile.
Dang - you've been busy!! All those paintings and in big sizes! I think I need to borrow some of your productivity...
Seriously though - it's looks like you're managing the stress as well as possible since you're managing to make such beautiful pieces. I love the second one (the blue one). And I love the foliage in the third one.
They are beautiful and skilled, all of them!
I love the warm colours...
Karen, I think my down time will be the months of November and December! That should do the trick.
Thanks Angela, and that is our prettiest cat. At least she thinks she is.
Steven, I like mundane comments. I do sit in a chair when I work on the smaller pieces. Usually I stand when I do a larger piece, larger than 18x24. I would wheel around on my chair but I don't really have enough room, plus I try to get up often. I'll post a picture of my work space with chair tomorrow. I wouldn't say that I have a good chair, but it doesn't hurt me.
Hi Stacers, Nice to hear from you-I miss your posts! How are YOU doing?
Despite not having a break between shows, not even a day, I am doing pretty well. And I once I get over the shock of how much there is to do, I actually end up feeling pretty inspired when I am so busy. I think some of my best pieces have been done during this kind of hectic schedule.
Mother Angel, Thanks, I much prefer warm colors too. In person you can see that even the cool colors in my work are warm.
love that you can show different phases in the process I have to say i really like that little hot pink front of the barn on the before last pic
Hey Tracy, Angela Ferreira and Mother Angel is both me, I open an account on eboggler so I can participate in more blogs but I keep getting confused.
Hug from a big admirer!
Hi Amber, I liked the pink side too but I felt I had to give it up. Once the sky was in it just didn't work very well.
Angela/Mother Angel, nice to know that you two are one AND that you both read my blog!
I love all of them I love the style- its so moody!
Thanks Terri, I love mood too!
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