Hello Caroline and Ulrike and everyone!
Finally am "back in the saddle again" and have some paintings to post.
The top painting was started three weeks ago and finished today. I have been working on simplifying my composition and colors using glazes and scumbles which gives it the tonal effect. Painting in the indirect style takes a lot of planning and time, allowing each passage to dry before putting on another glaze or scumble.
The second one is from Buyou Drive; one of the most beautiful areas I've seen in Florida. I really like the composition of this painting and plan to use it again for a sunset or a cloudy day.
I am finishing up the paintings I started in Clarksville TX with Deborah Paris' workshop. It's so tempting to set them aside and start over since I've learned so much since starting on them (which was before the workshop started). I would do so many things differently now. But, no doubt, there is great learning in finishing them so I'm plugging away at them.
Meanwhile, this week I plan on ordering new materials that Deborah recommends for making your own linen panels. If any of you are interested in how to make them you can go to Lisa McShane's blog "1,000 Paintings". She has an excellent section explaining Deborah's process. She was one of the students at the Workshop in Clarksville TX. It will be such a change painting on alkyd primed linen instead of oil primed linen panels. The oil primed ones I've been using are slick which is difficult to overcome.
My future paintings are going to be done on larger panels. You put the same amount of effort in a small painting as a large painting so why not have something significant to show for your time? Also, I have a real interest in trying a nocturne painting. When we went to the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, there were several Remington nocturne paintings that took my breath away.
It's such a joy to be painting again and am looking forward to seeing others works also. I'll be much better at corresponding now that I am more focused on painting.
This is one of those painting that started out rough and and there were many tries to improve it but the composition is lacking so it's never going to sing. But I stuck with it for learning purposes; glazing and scumbling and dealing with clouds etc. All I can say is it's much better than it was a week ago but it's not for sale!
