Figurative Painting: "All American"

oil on canvas 20h x 16w

Here is the finished painting and slide show, on the side bar. I have captions within to show some of my thinking as I painted.

I can't really say how long it took over the six or so days I attended to it. For Labor of love...time is not.

And I will need a last look..in a few days and better photos for posterity.:-)

I hope you all enjoy the process. I appreciate your feedback so far..I look forward to your posts!:-)))

Will be offline for some RnR beginning Wednesday.

Happy 4th of July, my American friends!

Portrait: wip

part 3 and part 6 today. Tomorrow the full figure!( I think:-))And maybe a slide show for this one too.

The bottom is #3. You can compare the two. Brush work can me seen readily in the closeups. Sorry for the enormous sizes, but I haven't yet bought the software to reduce them, for my new mac. Am trying to work with the camera browser. The top image a a wee bit out of focus. It is not your eyesight!

I have softened the face and am darkening the background. Adding some bright notes on the dress. The last step will be a cool glaze over the background to push it back and quiet it down.

I am so enjoying the slowing down to attend to many issues while painting. I think I will put away the idea of a painting a day for now. I am still a daily painter in that I do paint every day, so I will be posting pretty much 3 times a week or so. I prefer the larger format to the 6x6, so one a day is a bit herculean to expect. So..don't go away, I am still here:-)).

I have plenty of things to paint!! And that is what I am going to do.

I will post more things like this in the future. Hopefully with an eye to instruct again. I very much appreciate people who share their time and talent in this fashion, and often visit those sites, so I would like to do that, too.

And of course, do the occasional Challenge. I have enjoyed those very much and the camaraderie it has bred among us.

I am so very thankful for that.

So, see you tomorrow.

Back to the easel.

Portrait WIP underpainting#2

Adding color now...

Portrait WIP underpainting

I have lots on my plate this week, and am working on several portraits. This is one that I am particularly excited about. It will be a portrait of a native american woman in her regalia. I took the photos while in Denver last September at a festival. Just the beginning here of part of the underpainting for her face. Teaser for the weekend.

Treetop Studies:A prayer of thanks

treetop 1pm

5x5" treetop 7 am

Do you ever have one of those days that you say..to heck with the plan...just do what you feel like doing, right now? I really planned on beginning another figure painting BUT...I got distracted with morning's glory.

I live in the woods and enjoy my canopy of trees immensely. This am I got up about 6 with the golfer hubby and had coffee looking out my studio window at the sky and just decided to select the area of my choice and learn more about time of day, values and those nerve wracking summer greens.

No time limit. But the first one took about 1/2hour total. I revisited it later in the day and just painted over the same canvas. Why?

Not because I am miserly, but to force myself not treat every blessed image as sacred to keep.

Well... not on the canvas anyway. Just on film. To study. To be thankful I can see. To pray in paint.