FINISHED!....I think

"Blue Ridge" 24x30 oil on linen

      It is time to leave it alone!  I wanted to finish up today because we are going out of town for a few days.  Sometimes it is good to get away from a painting and sometimes it is not.  This is one I felt I needed to work on each day until completed.  Now I need to get it out of my sight so I don't fiddle with it.  At the last moment I painted in a little section of fence over by the tree.  It was an impulsive move and I hope I won't regret it.  When I start second guessing myself I am prone to overworking a painting and then ruining it.  I like this right now and I hope I feel the same way when I see it again next week.

Because my painting of the lavender fields sold quickly at the Art League Bin Gallery this month I have been asked to bring down another painting.  I will do that tomorrow and have selected a plein air painting I did in August of 2011.  The title is "From the Top of Sugar Loaf Mountain" and I am sure you can figure out that it is so titled because I painted it from the summit of that mountain.  In "Blue Ridge" the peak you see in the distance on the right side of the painting is in fact Sugar Loaf Mountain which is located in Maryland.  My plein air painting shows the view from the summit looking back towards Virginia and these pastures.  If you want to read about this painting and see it in progress go back to August 2011 in the archives and read my post there.

"From the Top of Sugar Loaf Mountain" 11x14 oil on linen panel

Third Painting Session on "Blue Ridge"

"Blue Ridge", 24x30 oil on linen

     I duked it out with Blue Ridge for the better part of today and I am still not finished.  I got off track with this one and created some problems that needed to be solved.  I am still solving them.

     To begin with my horizon line in my study was lower making the painting mostly about the sky.  As I painted the rolling pasture the horizon line rose as I became intrigued by the colors and undulations in the field.  This got close to dividing the painting in half.  I don't like that.  Especially when the sky is so blue and the fields so green.  Spring and summer here is REALLY green and I have to mix lots of different greens and neutrals to keep the painting from just screaming green!  Three other things I did to keep the painting from dividing in half were: 1. Add more receding clouds near the ridge line creating a greater sense of distance  2. Accentuate the line of the far end of the field where the sun was hitting.  I made this a light yellow to draw the eye more to that line which is below the half way point.  3. Add more blues and yellowish pinks to the foreground to echo the colors in the sky and clouds.  These things helped a great deal.
       I am still working on the lower right corner and like the old fence I added here.  I am painting with both palette knife and brush and the texture is pleasing. The cornflowers (blue) and buttercups in the foreground are just flicks of the knife.  Those cornflowers really help tie the foreground to the sky.  I had such a good time with the texture that I neglected to put the horses in the pasture.  The surface is a little too thick to do that now without making them look tacked on given the scale they would be.  I had planned on placing them midground near the clump of trees.
      I have learned quite a bit from this painting and I would like to follow it with another of almost the same scene.  I would like to make the horizon line lower in the next one and add horses as I originally planned.

"Painting Lavender at Willow Pond Farm" 11x14 oil on panel SOLD!

     I am happy to say that "Painting Lavender at Willlow Pond Farm" was sold at the Art League Bin Gallery this week.  I know the buyer and I am so happy that this painting will reside in the foyer of her home in Alexandria! www.jeanschwartzpaintings.com
    

Blue Ridge

"Blue Ridge", 24x30 oil on linen (in progress)

     The weekend was a spectacular one!  I spent Saturday at the annual Spring Horse Show at the Madeira School and Sunday was Mother's Day which I spent being well pampered.  If I were a still life painter I would be busy trying to capture all the beautiful flowers that were sent to me by my son's and their families and my husband as well as the gorgeous bouquet of red roses I received from the Madeira riders on Saturday.  I adore flowers! My lilac is in bloom right now and I cut a bunch to put in my studio.  Their scent just fills the room!  I am a former landscape designer so I go a little nuts at this time of year planning and planting flower beds and large planters on the deck. 

I have decided, at least tentatively, to title the new painting "Blue Ridge".  The scene is in Leesburg Virginia and in the background are the Blue Ridge Mountains.  This is the painting after the second day of work.  It is progressing well and will be finished shortly.  I have a bad habit of leaving the lower right hand corner of my paintings undeveloped until the end.  I don't know why I do this.  There are times when it proves to be problematic but it won't be in this painting. I know where this one is going.  I wonder if it has anything to do with being right handed.....

A very fragrant corner of the studio!

           

My lilac (syringa x henryi) and Twinkle

Starting Up!

1st day of painting (untitled) 24x30 oil on linen

     I finally got a good start on the new painting today.  I began with bright natural light but soon had to turn on the studio lights as the sky darkened with the approaching thunder storm.  I decided to call it a day at this point. The shadow you see across the sky of the painting is the top of my easel.

     It was a little risky starting this today because tomorrow I have an all day committment that will not permit me time to paint.  I filled as much of the canvas as I could and used a more loaded brush than I usually use at this stage.  I was planning ahead wanting to be sure to be able to work wet into wet on Sunday. So far so good !

                                                                                               I remembered to take photos along the way so you can see my process.  It is also good for me to have a record of what procedure I used.  There are actually times I can't remember how I painted a particular painting!

     This is the very beginning of the painting.  I used an underpainting of cadmium orange, alizarin crimson and yellow ochre, all in a very thin film. I used alizarin crimson and ultramarine blue to sketch in the composition.
     I really don't need my reference studies at this point as the painting will progress on its own.  I will be making decisions based on what works with what is already on the canvas.

     Little by little I am updating my website so if you haven't visited in a while here is the linkwww.jeanschwartzpaintings.com  I haven't added the Mini Series page yet but it is coming:)

Moving Slowly

Color study for new painting, 4.5"x 5.5" oil on paper

      I had planned a big start on the new painting yesterday but ended up with a very small one.  I have been under the weather for a couple of days and I feel like I am moving in slow motion.  This painting is going to require standing for long periods and I needed what little energy I had for my animals.  My horse and one of my dogs have needed extra attention this week and that was my priority.  By the time I got down to work I wanted to sit! 
       I did, however, make a silk purse out of a sows ear. I got at least a partial website update completed, got better photos of some of the paintings I want to upload, and thought more about the new painting.  I did this small, quick color study that I rather like.  It is a little different than what was first in my head but right now I think this is how I will proceed.  It will be an afternoon painting with the light coming from the west which is on the right side when viewing these pastures.  I want the breeze coming from the east so the movement goes towards the light.  I also graphed the painting out which is something I like to do when working from studies. It makes transferring the sketch to the painting much easier.  The photo below will give you and idea of what that looks like but it is a miserable photo.  That sketch along with the color study will be taped to the easel when I do the painting.  I may give one more color study a go before making the fnal decision.

Graph paper layout for the new painting

I was happy to have some bright sunlight in the studio today so I could get around to taking more photographs.  I have been  unhappy with some from the past and I will replace at least one image that is already up on my website.

I am really getting the itch to start this painting and want to complete it quickly.  I will be in and out of town shortly and this is not one I want to start and let sit until I get home.  I hate a stale painting!

"Daybreak on the Inlet" 20x16 oil on gessoboard
(Today's photo)

Recent Departures

"Waiting to Sail", 9x12 oil on linen panel

     Departures in the sense of leaving the nest.  Over the weekend this little plein air painting sold at the Art League Gallery.  It is always satisfying to sell a painting and even more so when you know where they are going.  I do not yet know the purchaser of this painting but the gallery will soon provide that.
     When I was at the Outer Banks I sold two more paintings.  One had been hanging over our mantle there for years.  A couple who had once rented our house purchased a home very close to ours.  They commissioned a painting from me based on my small plein air painting "Clouds and Gulls" that sold at the Salmagundi Club in December.  The new painting is 24x30 on gallery wrap linen canvas.  It too is titled "Clouds and Gulls".  I was happy to deliver that plus "Blowing" which is the painting that had been hanging over our fireplace since it had been painted. It was easier to part with it knowing it will be hanging on a wall in a house on the same beach with someone I know. I would be a liar if I said I didn't miss it:)

"Clouds and Gulls"24x30 oil on linen

If you read the post before we left for the Outer Banks you will remember seeing a painting being packed for shipping and two of my cocker spaniels sitting alongside.  The painting inside was "Blue Heaven" and that is the painting that now hangs over the mantle at our house.  I knew I wouldn't be happy with an empty wall staring me in the face!

Today was a really rainy day. Too dark and rainy to give me a good start on the new studio painting.  Instead I headed to the barn and thought I would do more sketches of Gypsy.  Turns out that if I try to sketch her in her stall she is entirely too interested in the process and her nose is about all I get to see.  Much easier to draw her when she is in the field!  After grooming her I headed back to the studio and worked on some more sketches for the painting.  I want to know the scene well before I start. I hope tomorrow I will have a start to show you.

"Blowing" 24x30 oil on canvas

Preparing for another studio painting

Gypsy grazing, pencil sketches

    Yesterday I mentioned that the Farmhouse series had stalled.  This was partly because I had a crazy schedule before leaving town but also because by the time we came home (we spent 11 days on the Outer Banks) the farmhouse had been obscured by the huge tree out front of it. We are having a very lush spring!  I started looking at other angles to paint it from and there are a couple that would work.  However, it sort of defeats my goal of showing the same view in all four seasons and in many different weather conditions.  In the end I decided to continue with my original plan and if the farmhouse can't be seen at this time of year, well, that is how the view looks right now.  So, I hope to be uploading some new, leafy minis soon:)

      What has been on my mind is a new studio painting I am about to start.  It is 24x30 and on linen.  I have toned the canvas with a wash of cadmium orange, alizarin crimson and yellow ochre.  I am waiting for it to dry.  I have loved the sparkling, breezy, jewel like days that we have been enjoying so far this May.  There are so many beautiful colors and so much movement and flickering light.  I want to capture that in a painting of the rolling Virginia countryside that I spent so much time looking at last summer when Gypsy was in the hospital out in Leesburg.  I am using our own pastures for my studies but will add the distant Blue Ridge in my drawings.  There will be horses.  That is where Gypsy comes in.  She is being my model for grazing horses and that is Gypsy pictured in the above page out of my sketchbook.

"Painting Lavender at Willow Pond Farm", 11x14 oil on gessoboard

This little plein air painting from last June when I was in Pennyslvania painting the lavender fields has some of the feeling I want in the new painting.  It was the kind of day we have been experiencing. Clouds floating across the sky, the wind rustling the trees and grasses, the light and color intense.  It is easy to capture that when standing right there in the field.  Will I be successful in the studio?
      This painting will be on exhibit this month at Bin Gallery at the Art League Gallery.  Looking at it puts me in the mood to be in those fields again and I soon will be.  In June I am attending the same workshop given by friend Bobbi Pratte and I am looking forward to being there and having the same room at Hickory Bridge Farm:)

"Storm Clouds Over Morven Park", 24x30 oil on linen

    This is another painting I will be paying attention to in preparing for the new one.  This is the view in Leesburg I painted last summer while Gypsy was there in the hospital.  It is looking towards the neighboring property of Morven Park.  The new painting will be looking in the other direction out towards the Blue Ridge.  I did manage to keep this painting loose.  I painted with both brush and palette knife and will most likely do the same this time.  My sky will not be stormy but more like the sky in the Lavender field painting.
     I need to break here because I am heading to the Art League with two paintings to enter in this month's show as well as the above plein air piece.  I hope to get underway with the new painting tomorrow!  Oh, and I am really getting serious about updating my website:)