Daily Painting

I had a breakthrough on Tuesday night. I wanted to be loose and sketched/painted this Copenhagen scene in 20 minutes. Now I have to try to remember my state of mind and how I felt exactly when I let go of the details.

Having been trained as an architect, I paint very tightly. I see details before the big picture. Mies van der Rohe said: God is in the details. In a weekly watercolor class, I was finally done with my very tight detail-oriented painting of the Golden Gate Bridge. There were 20 minutes to pin-up time, and I wandered around, looking at other work. Then I saw a photo of a meadow with trees that the instructor had brought in, amongst many others, for us to use as inspiration. In the remaining 15 minutes, I thought I would set a deadline and try to do a loose painting, to finish in that time. I enjoyed painting just the essence and learned that setting a deadline forces me to look at the big picture, and that there is a minimum number of strokes to create a painting. Usually, I'm focused on the maximum {and then some!}. I was proud to have two paintings up at pin-up. And prouder still when the instructor said "this really isn't your style"! Wildflower Down (6...

This was my first attempt at using different colors than the picture I was using to paint this. I used the picture for the form and the values, but completely changed the colors and made it a fall scene. And it is actually more lively than the picture. How colors affect mood and feeling!                                                                      Solitary  (7" X 10")             June , 2017  

I gave a dear friend a lovely bouquet of sunflowers. She took a picture of the flowers in a glass pitcher, and promptly texted me .... the subtext was that I would paint it. And I did.                                                                       Feeling Blue  (7" X 10")        July 2017  

Planning colors and being loose This painting is up on display at Hobees off Montague Expressway, and is on sale. I tweaked the colors from the original photograph. I knew I wanted to keep the cable car its true yellow and red colors. The buildings were too multicolored in the original photo. I decided that to complement the yellow of the cable car, the buildings should be blues and greys. Then, the umbrella, only a minor and unimportant part of the man's silhouette in the original photo, was changed to yellow to match, and "speak to", the cable car. The lights in the buildings, also a paler yellow, make the eye flit - not a bad thing, as you look to see who else is awake and working. Missed It !  (7" X 10")  August 29, 2017  

Sometimes it is hard to find that perfect object to paint. I started with what was at hand. These are items from my kitchen in pen/ink and watercolor