Painting -Step 7

A few more highlights and low-lights added. I'm satisfied with the sky and most leaves, sunlight on road... Now working my way down the painting adding more layers. Funny how you start to make judgments as the project ages. It's always rolling around in the back of my brain while I do other things. Makes me think a lot about the kids and their families etc. Almost like having company. This represents the end of 2 days work. I hope it will feel finished in 2 more days.

Painting Step 6 Are we there yet?

It's starting to take shape - really a life of it's own. Several corrections to make even though it was gridded out, the flag, for instance is lining up with the tree trunk - very bad - no tangents allowed. The skin is coming - but needs more work, etc. How much expression do I work in? I want to keep it loose....hang on for the ride...what do I tell my kids? Acrylics are very forgiving - paint over it!

Painting Step 4: Whites and warms

Painting Step3: Add the color

Like I said before, this is where I hang on for the ride. Adding the blues and cool pinks.

Painting Step 2: Transferring to canvas

I gave an old canvas a coat of burnt umber for the under-painting then used white transfer paper to trace the image - and we're ready to paint! Got a little ahead of myself with the blues - my personal favorite.

Painting - Step 1: Contour drawing

One never knows where a painting will end up. You sort of hang on for the ride. First step after deciding on the subject is rendering a rough draft in the size you want. A contour drawing works for me. It's based on the family watching a parade. Lots of action and almost a confetti of colors and actions. I liked the idea of light and shadow - cool and warm colors.

Art show in Cheyenne

We're pulling together a few pieces for a show in Cheyenne this fall.

I've been intrigued with the effects of colored pencil on dark charcoal paper.

Here's a great little home in Evanston. The sun was catching it just right, accenting the clean lines against the dark trees.

The other is on the Bear River outside of Cokeville.

A couple of projects

Here are a few of the products. The bottom one is mine, partially completed. Some projects took all week as with the city scape, others took a few hours. Just depended on the artist's vision.

Dangerous Class

Class work involves glass work- lots of sharp shards. The scraps are stored in large bins according to color. So you put on leather gloves and go searching for just the right piece to complete your pattern. The colors are wonderful together, but just like pottery glazes, they don't always fire in the same color.

The Sinks

Mid week we visited the Sinks west of Lander. The river had flooded just a week or two earlier and sandbags were still in place at the mouth of the canyon. Water just boiled into the mouth of the cave - just a little clearance. Here the class is at the overlook where the water reappears. The trout below were huge.

Riverton Glass Class

We had the opportunity to attend a wonderful glass art class this past week.

The instructor is a master at warm glass fusing techniques, so we learned so much about firing to get different effects, etc.

The scenery around Riverton and Red Canyon was wonderful, the weather just a touch on the cool side, which made it very nice and the company (Mike) was fun.

Mike is so good with the glass tools -saws, grinders, etc. He makes a plan and really develops it. He picked up the name "Psychadelic [sic] Mike" because he let the class talk him into using really bright happy colors on this train. His first choice was always in the browns, blacks and reds. But now he's looking at oranges, blues, pinks, yellows, etc. You can see the periwinkle blue glass waiting to be cut.