Can This Painting Be Saved?

  Teaching a pastel class this week I was demonstrating some basic principles -  things to consider in setting up a few still life objects,  how to explore your subject with thumbnails,  selecting a limited color palette.  

I started a demo of my still life but time was getting on and I wanted the students to have time to paint so I stopped my demo painting prematurely.  When I stepped back from it I was,  let's say , underwhelmed with the result.  Not an inspiring painting to say the least.  

Some of the students expressed curiosity about what I'd do with it, so to see if  a painting with an unpromising start could turn in to something worthwhile, I took it into my studio to see if it could be turned into something that looked somewhat competent.  I did like the subject  and that in itself made it worthy of more effort.



So, examining the reference photo I saw that the bowl was not drawn correctly and some of the stripes were not parallel and spaced wrong. ( see photo above). 
  
 I erased the bowl edges and relocated the stripes.

  Then I turned the cherry tomato 90 degrees so it would be perpendicular to the stripes. 

 I did not use a straight edge on the stripes, wanting a looser more informal feeling to this pastel.  

 I refined the edges of the eggs and reinforced the white stripes using a warm light orange color.   Then I stared the white dots on the edge of the bowl.  

     I continued to refine the eggs and bowl, and modified the cast shadows on the white stripes. 

 Rather than use black for the stripes, I used a dark green so that the shadow on the black stripe cast by the tomato would be visible.  


 Next was adding some intense color on the tomato and the highlight, then touching up the white stripes.  

So, much improved, I think, although I see that I could tighten up on the stripes a bit.  

What do  you think?  

Eggs with Red Bowl,  12 x 12"

Skating Pond

                                             Skating Pond,  oil and cold wax, 6 x 6"

Mt. Helena with Winter Trees. oil on board, 6 x 6"

$125

Changing up the Color

 

Helmsville Turnoff 2, pastel, 5 x 7"

I had painted this scene as a large oil last year and it just wasn't working.  I tried changing several things in the painting itself to no avail.  So this week I stared at it for a while,  looked at the notan pattern, the values,  the color scheme,  the drawing, etc, and decided to do some tiny studies in pastel exploring some possibilities that might solve the problems.  The pastel above keeps pretty close to the original colors of the scene, but I emphasized the amount of blues to add to the atmospheric effect.  

Contrast this pastel to the earlier blog post of Jan 17th. .(image below) For that study I really pushed the colors of sky and field for a version with more pizzazz.   The red of the paper was allowed to show through and the effect pretty potent.  They have very different moods. Which  do you prefer?

                                                               Helmsville Turnoff,  pastel, 5 x 7"

                                            Helmsville Turnoff,  pastel, 5 x 7", $125

Sieben Willows, pastel, 6 x 8"

Bay Islands Blue #6, oil on board, 6 x 6"   

Deerborn in Summer Smoke

Dearborn in Summer Smoke,  pastel,  8 x 10", $225

Click here to purchase

This was a demo I did last night for my pastel class demonstrating atmospheric perspective.  There's lots of that in Montana this summer with thick smoke from all the fires. 
The Missouri River at Deerborn, Montana.  

Canyon Creek Field

 Canyon Creek Field, pastel,6 x 8", $125

      Click here to purchase

Mountain Hay

Mountain Hay,  pastel,  8 x 11", $250

Click here to purchase

Down Canyon

This is the view from Mountain Village at Big Sky, Montana.  I had gotten up before dawn to watch the sun rise over the mountains.  It was a beautiful subtle sky with thin clouds that reflected the rosy hues.  To capture the breadth of the view I decided to paint on three separate panels and frame them together.  The frame is a beautiful black frame with a glossy finish.  


Down Canyon, Triptych, oil on gessoboard, 6 x 24"
   $600.

Rocks and River

Rocks and River,  oil on canvas, 16 x 20", $1250.

This scene is along the Missouri River near Cascade, Montana.

There was a full moon rising in a very clear sky but there was a pink glow on everything from the setting sun.

Big Sky

   Lone Mountain dominates the landscape at Big Sky.  I got up early one morning to watch the sun illuminate the peak and work her way down her flanks.  No snow, it was early fall.  


Lone Mountain Sans Snow.  oil on gessoboard, 
6 x 8",  $150

Back in the Saddle

This is my first post in quite a long time.  I've had to take a breather due to health issues, but am recovering and back in my studio now.  It feels great to be painting again!

This painting is of the Bridger Mountains down around Livingston, Montana when the trees are just leafing out and there is a fresh green in the landscape.


Bridger Spring, 6 x 6", oil on gessoboard
Price: $125, unframed.
       
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New Work for Russell Week

                                            Huddle,  oil on board,  11 x 14" ,  $600.




     Russell Week, for those of you non western art followers,  is a big week for western art in, of all places,  Great Falls, Montana, where I went to high school.   I never would have thought in the 60's that Great Falls would become an art town.  But,  thanks to Charles Marion Russell and his followers,  the C.M. Russell Museum started an annual auction and it has grown into one of the biggest auctions of western art bringing in over $1 million in sales.  The major hotels turn their rooms into galleries for the hundreds of artists that come to exhibit their paintings and  sculpture.

      I will be participating for the first time in the Out West Art Show in the Heritage Inn.  The dates are March 17th - 19th.  Room 175.  

      The image above is one of the new pieces that I will be exhibiting in the show.

Welcome Winter

I never thought I'd be welcoming winter since I consider myself a palm tree gal,  but since I've moved to Montana I find I love the colors of this season.

 Plus, winter is fun here with both downhill and xcountry skiing close by.  Not to mention the sauna at my health club.  

So,  here is one of my first  tiny snow paintings.   I am still mesmerized by how blue the light is when the sun is almost gone.

Sun on Aspens,  6 x 6 oil on board,  

framed in sliver plein 'air frame

free shipping within the US of A.

Getting Ready for my show at the Holter Museum

Down to the wire I'm putting finishing touches on a couple of large oils.

Wish I could finish them sooner so the paint was drier when I delivered them.

 Here are the finished images:

                                           Willows at Simms,  oil,  62 x 54"

                                            Two Trees,  oil,  62 x 54"

And a smaller one

Last Light on the Missouri,  oil on canvas,  18 x 24"

Artist Appreciation Month

I received an email last week telling me that August was Artist Appreciation Month.  They asked if I might write a blog post honoring an artist who influenced me. Oh, how to choose, there are soooo many.   But I have to go back to the  very beginning and honor the master who inspired me to tolerate my first thousand (2 thousand?) bad paintings while I was learning.  He made me want to paint well so badly.  Winslow Homer.

Homer - Fishing Boats, Key West

 When I discovered his Key West watercolors I was living on St. John  in the Virgin Islands and these sights were all around me.

His paintings made me thirsty to learn watercolor.

Soon Start,  watercolor,  4 x 7"

This was one of my first.

Moonbeam at the Finish, pastel, 8 x 11

You can see how he influenced this one - one boat in shadow, the other catching the sun.

Homer - The Coral Divers, 1885

Without using gaudy color he caught the brilliant sun and light of the tropics.

Raising the Mast,  watercolor,  11 x 14

Seeing his vision of what I was looking at honed my own.

Sail Abeam,  oil on canvas, 30 x 30"

Beach Lineup,  pastel, 18 x 24"

Homer - Hauling Anchor, Key West

Even now,  nearly 40 years after discovering his tropical watercolors, I am still mesmerized.

          Thank you to Marietta Gregg at Patience Brewster for prompting me to honor this giant.

Plein Air Workshop for Montana Open Land Month

This painting workshop started at 6:30 am. 

But it was worth it 

The light was beautiful.

Emmalea was smiling.

Margaret sat in a meadow.

Mary Jo painted while fish jumped in the creek

Pam practiced painting distant mountains.

We all enjoyed a beautiful place that is now public land!

Willows at Simms

      Sometimes you know the wait will be worth it.  Several days ago I spent the day driving all over Montana.  A beautiful day with lots of clouds in the sky so the light was changing all the time as I drove through vast empty spaces.  I saw the scene below and the willow trees were shaded by clouds.  But I  liked the shapes on the hillside behind the trees so pulled off the road and waited while the sun and clouds danced around.  Then the sun suddenly illuminated the yellow green willows and the scene was transformed.  

Willows at Simms,  oil on gessoboard,  6 x 6",

 $150 ready to frame.