July 14, 2016

Montana painting update

The Montana painting is coming along.  I share my studio space with other artists who are very precise in their painting -- one uses a projector to project a photo onto canvas and trace its lines to ensure accurate drawing; the other uses some straight edges and spends hours working to make sure that straight lines are perfect and such.

I just paint.  I know the result can have "drawing problems" but I can't give up the spontaneity of painting without drawing first.  I just put the colors and shapes where they seem to go and make adjustments as I go along.  So ... here's the drawing problem that resulted from doing that with this painting.  The porch railing exists in three different spaces that don't really connect to one another visually.

That's what I'll be working on fixing tomorrow.  Not by using a ruler, just working it out in paint.

July 8, 2016

Montana Painting In Progress

I'm just back from Montana -- an amazing landscape that I was desperate to paint.  No time to paint, but also, Montana's Paradise Valley is a very windy place.  A large canvas wouldn't stand a chance, so I took a lot of photos so I could return to the studio and work on what I'd seen.

The canvas for this painting in progress is hanging on the wall, so I'm painting standing up. I used to paint all the time standing up (like the Sundance Kid, I'm better when I move), but my long agonizing knee troubles forced me to paint sitting down for the past couple of years.  But now!  New knees, and I am very happy that standing up feels great.  I'm enjoying painting standing up again, and especially, the ease of painting, standing back from the work, and then painting again.

This is a sunset view from the log cabin where I stayed, looking toward the Gallatin mountains that make up the West side of Paradise Valley.  I have a lot of work to do on this, but this is how it's starting out.