musings on painting and parenting, love and life
My beautiful girl…Rhiannon at the Beach in Maui.
I started my monster painting today. I’m already struggling. I think it’s artist’s block, because it’s big and intimidating. I need to think more positively for tomorrow. And I’ll post my first in progress of it, too.
G’night for now.
A Walk on the Beach – Tofino, 24″ x 48″ oil on canvas $2,000
~In Pursuit of the Perfect Wave~ 16″ x 16″ original oil on canvas $400.00
This is a horrible photo of this painting! The colors are off, and the big white glare in the middle doesn’t exist, it’s from the light in the room. I can’t get a good picture because I can’t remember the last day that it didn’t rain here! I finished this painting last night, and I really wanted to post it, so this photo is temporary, until I get a good day.
It’s quite a bit larger than anything I’ve painted lately, but I really felt like I needed to breathe…take a break from the mini paintings and stretch my painting arm! How can you tell it’s winter?…I’m painting beach scenes! I’m dreaming of the ocean, the sun and holidays! I can’t wait till January.
This was from a black and white photograph that my sister took at Long Beach in Tofino, B.C. Check out more of her photography at www.ArtWanted.com/Karie.
TIP: For photographing your artwork, the best light is outdoors on a slightly overcast day. It gives a soft, even light which doesn’t seem to affect the colors as much as trying to shoot indoors, under artificial light. Put your painting on a flat, even surface, or hang it on a wall. I usually try to zoom as much of the painting into the frame as possible, then crop it in photoshop to get clean edges.
It was such a great day yesterday that I was able to finish two paintings! I completed this one last night after the kids went to bed and put the finishing touches on it this morning.
I feel like I’ve hit a new learning curve. There was something I was hearing for a long time, but it never really sunk in. With these last few paintings, I think I’ve got it. It’s that when you start, do a general block in of shapes and values. It sounds very logical, but I think that I may have not been really doing it before. Not generalizing the shapes and values enough. Maybe it’s all of the practice that almost daily painting provides, I’m simply getting better.
Ahhhh…to paint!!!! What a wonderful day I’ve had. For the first Saturday in forever, my husban didn’t work, and I was able to paint in the daytime, before I was exhausted, and for more than an hour. What an incredible experience!! I feel refreshed, inspired and re-energized. It helps that the baby is sleeping almost through the night these days, too. (KNOCK ON WOOD!!)
I am really pleased with this painting. It was from a photo I took a few years ago at Okanagan Lake in Kelowna, where I got to go for a family reunion. It was my son’s first time at a beach, he was 2, and in heaven. A really great memory, and it turned into a really great painting.
