Tuesday, June 5, 2012

one if by land

30 x 22. mixed media on BFK
This painting started as a small Sumi sketch. I enjoyed the happy shapes, the simple lines, and the composition. It was no hard decision to translate the sketch into a full sized painting.

Rives BFK is a soft but sturdy paper and I love to work on it. It can take rough treatment and handle a variety of techniques and still hold together beautifully. I started with a charcoal sketch, then used gouache to set up my color palette. Once that was dry, I applied Golden's Acrylic Pastel Ground and incised the medium with calligraphic marks to add interest and texture.

Once the APG was dry, I started layering on pastel. The final touch was a gestural application of Sumi to bring back the lines of the original sketch.

These are busy days in the studio for me. Tick tock. Soon I will be back on the boat. There are three plein air spots aboard the boat and I plan to make good use of all of them throughout the summer.  But for now, I'm on land. And enjoying a bit of time in my studio!

At least, when I paint on the boat, I don't have to worry about the bears, like this artist did!  I always think that bears are wonderful, but only FROM A DISTANCE! Sheesh!



4 comments:

Nancy Van Blaricom said...

I think I'll be staying aboard our boat this summer to paint and not plain airing on land ... I definately do not want to encounter a bear.

Happy painting ... be safe.

Sarah Bachhuber Peroutka said...

Today's painting just hums "joy" to me!

Roxanne said...

Still my new fav!

Katherine van Schoonhoven said...

Nancy -- I'm with you!

Sarah -- thanks! The colors say the same thing to me.

Roxanne -- thanks for your comment!