I can not stop looking at this painting!
I'm not a fan of blue (I know, I know! Nearly everybody in the world is a huge fan of blue... sorry!) and this is clearly a painting about blue, but I love so may things about the piece overall. Honestly, it was an unexpected treat to like it so much.
On other times we've had a teacher, but this time we had to come up with our own lessons. Hooray for YouTube! Julie & I would watch a little while, try to understand the colors and techniques, then turn to our canvases to try it ourselves.
The whole painting was kind of one experiment after another.
We got to use our fingers (in rubber gloves) for whisping out the clouds. We needed a fan brush for the trees in the distance. We used a big wide flat brush for the field and a color that didn't make sense at all until the end. There were layers of paint on our canvases that ended up being important when we dragged an erasing tool through them for some of the grasses. Then we got to load palette knives with lots of blue for the flowers. Finally a long bristled signature brush finished out the grasses.
Packing supplies for this kind of trip is tricky. There's limited space in the car, but it's hard not to bring every single thing! Would you look at all those brushes! Really? Did I think I'd need all those? 
We began this painting first thing Friday morning, and stopping only for meals, we stayed with it until a late-night bed time.
What a fun day! My sister Sheila worked across from me. She was sewing gorgeous new pillow cases for each bed there. She finished all 28 during the weekend. Can you see that little old machine she's sewing with? It's a Featherweight that she bought (already old then) in 1970 when she left home for college. She says, "It still sews like a charm!"
Our friend Jeanne was working across the workroom on her mixed media assemblage. She looked up and said, "Oh, you're finished!" I asked how in the world she knew that. She said, "I can tell. You have your signing-your-name face that you have when you're putting your signature on." What? Do I have a signing-your-name face? Hmmm...
Ta-Da!!! A pretty good day's work!
And a good fresh Coke in a pretty goblet is pretty standard sight at my art table.
Mmmmmm....
Does this painting
a.) Draw you in?
b.) Draw your eye back through the field? to the trees?
c.) Draw your eye up through the sky? to the clouds?
d.) Make you feel like taking a deep contented breath?
For me it was a yes, yes, yes, yes...
Thanks to our YouTube lesson painter lessons.rybakow.com. (In case you want to give it a try... A little tip... He doesn't speak at all and has the most annoying music ever. Unless you want to hear an 80 minutes of that, mute the volume.)
Oil painting on 18"x 24" wrapped canvas
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The field of flowers is even prettier in person. I love to watch the process.
ReplyDeleteAwww... Thanks!
DeleteWhat fun it was to all be together in such a creative space!
Do you hear that sound, that is me clapping!! This is just awesome. Yes, it does draw you in and back, lot of depth in this painting. Not too bad for someone who doesn't like blue!! (secretly I think you do) Smudging clouds with fingers, gotta try that one!! It is a peaceful painting and does make you want to just plop down with a good book, glass of wine on the blanket, and maybe even take a little nap. Thanks so much for showing all the different steps here.
ReplyDeleteOh, Nelvia, thank you! It means a lot that you like it so much. About the using fingers to smudge the bottom of the clouds, I like the end result, but I think we should avoid getting oil paint on our skin. I used a rubber glove for that.
DeleteWelcome Home Retreat looks like a fun place.
ReplyDeleteIt is wonderful there. I hope we get to go together someday.
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