Sunday, October 10, 2010

Expressive stroke


Sunflowers
10 x 8, BFK
oil


Alla Prima: Everything I Know About Painting by Richard Schmid is a must-read for oil painters. My copy is open and I am taking notes as I read what a living legend has to say about the very thing I am trying to learn. In an aside, Schmid comments that he enjoys painting flowers in an informal set up. His paintings of sprays of roses, scattered pansies, and baskets of other flowers are beautiful and simple and elegant and WOW!

That inspired me to pull the sunflowers out of my bouquet from October 1 (here) and see what I could do. So much of this painting is mediocre (again, contributing to the crappy painting pile) but there are a few brushstrokes that I put in just the way I imagined them. A few expressive brushstrokes out of hundreds and I am giggly with excitement.

2 comments:

SamArtDog said...

You oughta be tickled!

Celeste Bergin said...

great job, K! successful strokes..that is what we are after, you have done it. I love the Schmid book you are reading. Schmid = national treasure