| Point Mugu Coreopsis © Marian Fortunati 16" x 12" Oil on RayMar Canvas Panel |
I've been doing a lot of thinking lately (which is always a dangerous thing to do). I love to paint and I especially love to paint outdoors. Those paintings begin to add up. Recently on two different occasions, I had reason to search through my stacks of paintings to look for specific paintings that someone has requested. I realized a few things while pawing through the piles:
- I REALLY have a lot of paintings stacked up.
- I REALLY need to clean up and begin to burn or dispose of many, many paintings... something I have been reluctant to do and thus have become overrun with stacks of paintings.
- I've become a much better painter over the years... Even though some of those old paintings are still among my favorites, the ratio of dogs to ones I like is getting better.
- As my skills have developed, I'm realizing that some of the work I liked when I was painting several years ago, I no longer think is very good.
- I need to paint for myself instead of painting for shows. If a show deadline is approaching and I have good work to enter (AND the show will be beneficial ... not just another show), then GREAT!... If I don't ... forget it... It's not the end of the world.
- I've come to the point where I don't need to finish a painting as frequently just so I can post a blog. I don't want to post my "dogs" any more. I'll post if I complete a painting I'm happy with. It may not please everyone else but if I like it or I learned something from it, I'll do a blog post.
Happily on Friday, I received word that my work will be in two shows that I've been hoping to get in to. Additionally I got a call from the gallery where I have several paintings and they sold two more of them. Yippee!!
I created the painting in this post using a photo I took when I was at Pt. Mugu painting with David Gallup and his other students. We painted in the studio again last Monday and this is what I chose to work on. Although David is able to design paintings from memory and uses photos only to help spark ideas, I tend to rely on them for composition. I sometimes move things around, too. Since it was the play of light across the tops of the coreopsis that attracted me initially, for this painting I did a value study at home to sort of practice ahead of time. I used a board with a reddish ground and blocked in the dark values to begin. As I worked, David reminded me to try to connect the darks into large shapes changing the colors but not the values, thus better unifying the painting and allowing the viewer to enjoy different parts as the eye roams around. He said to graduate the color but keep the value the same to preserve the large shape. He talked about using the values to round out the form of the coreopsis' feathery leaves. The time just flew by.
One of the fun things about being in a class is to watch the other students as they work. We have some fabulous artists in that group and it is a joy to see their work. Although we are all very different in our styles, I try to listen when David talks to them about their work as well. I enjoy this class a lot.
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