Friday, April 10, 2009

shadows on the path

shadows on the path
pastel on Uart600 paper, 7.5" x8.5"

A painting that I started and put aside for a week or so. Most of the ground work was done quickly on site. I finished it up today and it's cold and rainy. It was nice remembering this warm sunny day.

I realized that I use a lot of trial and error when I paint. Sometimes it's a very hard decision as to which color I'm going to pick up out of the box and use. Sometimes it's just really pretty haphazard- almost unconscious, or maybe a little intuitive. And I'm not talking about the choice between 2 very close shades of green, but more like, am I going to use this blue or that red? I'd like to find a good book on color. Any suggestions?

One very basic way that I think I'm improving as an artist is that I notice sooner when something isn't working, and I stop trying to make it work.


6 comments:

  1. This painting has so much depth...and even though there are some really dark darks it really does feel like a warm sunny happy day.

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  2. Pick an artist you love and get their monograph.

    I chose Wolf Kahn, but you may as well choose Edgar Degas, or Claude Monet.

    Very fun piece!

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  3. This is GORGEOUS. I think it may be my favorite yet.

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  4. P.S. I'm tagging you in my today's post. :)

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  5. Thanks everybody.

    Kat- I worried about making those shadows too dark, but I'm glad you think it works.

    Casey- Thanks for the suggestion. I haven't spent much time looking at the work of the masters in an instructional way nor was I familiar with monographs. Usually I go to books written by contemporary artists. I'm already finding so much online.

    Jala- It's one of my favorites too I think. Thank you for always stopping by and leaving such nice comments.

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