Longing for Sunny Days

This morning I realized that I have not plein air painted in months. Today, like much of this winter, is grey and colder than normal (feels like 5 degrees).

Summer Sun 8x10

Sadly, I don't remember the last time that I painted en plein air. November was abnormally cold here and the chill still remains, 4 months of below average weather plus snow and wind... Brr. I miss sunshine and warmth and painting from life.

Last night I worked on a painting from a photo reference that I took last summer. I had painted a similar scene from life last summer; however, it was not a successful painting back then. Last summer I had tried to mass in the sunflowers but somehow I struggled and the result did not work.

 Yesterday I approached this painting more thoughtfully from a different view and with more intentional design. Now, this is a more successful painting to me. I created a high horizon and I like how the lines of the grass and field of sunflowers leads up and over to the horizon. Also, I am pleased with my tree background greens. Plus the barn was more grey but I made it more purple-ish to complement all of the yellow. Cerulean blue near and around the yellow sunflowers was helpful to keep the color bright, and later I went back in and added some complementary purples. I really like how this painting turned out, as is.

I can get caught up in details, and that would be a problem if I tried to paint each and every sunflower, there were a million sunflowers.  First I established the "lines" of fields to the horizon using cerulean and bright greens. Then I massed in the yellows starting with cad yellow up front and ending with radiant lemon towards the top.  Then I went back in over the yellows with brownish red and orange to define the flowers further. For the house, I made it a purple grey as I know purple would complement the yellow wonderfully. And, I paid careful attention to the light on the green trees in the background. Plus, the sky was very very light, I feel that I got that right.

This painting makes me long for sunshine and summer warmth, like the day that I sat and painted this from life, like the day that I took the reference photo for this work. Ah memories!

Inside Winter Painting Time

When it Snows... paint in the studio

It is cold and snowy outside and I am inside painting. The sun is not shining and I am dressed in layers to stay warm. I run outside only to take the dogs out, dressed in layers and layers for warmth! Brr! My February goal is to paint more landscapes. Up North where I live this means painting from my reference photos. Painting from photos is way less fun than painting 'en plein air.'

I have hundreds of reference photos and yet I still have a hard time choosing which one to paint. I can get stuck in an endless loop, scrolling through photos looking for inspiration. Some photos I have painted before, some are intimidating or do not have good light. Am I too picky?

Perhaps I should rely less on the photo and more on making up my own colors and designs. I went to a workshop once and the instructor used a poor photo as her reference pic. She made a beautiful painting but I could not understand how she chose the pretty colors for her painting as they were not in the photograph. Her reference photo was one that I would have deleted, it was lots of greens and not much design, how did she make it work? I have a lot to learn, and much to figure out. How can I  take a sad reference photo and make it a great painting? I have a long way to go in this regard.

I have learned that painting the same subject over and over yields better results! Right now I am working on a painting that I have painted twice on location –two different days two different paintings. Those paintings are my references now, and I am thinking of them as I start anew. This is my third iteration of this painting, and this one, this  one has potential…. 

I am very pleased with the final results (pictured), I hope to enter this into a show, wish me luck!