 Snow on the River 12"x12" oil on canvas I'm not much of a winter plein air painter, but I do love snow scenes. What intrigues me is all the different colors of snow. Yes, there's some white, but there is sooo much else. The starting point for Snow on the River was a photo I took in Fairfield, CT. I used it as a framework to explore shades of blue and purple.  Icy Brook 8"x10" oil on canvas panel Icy Brook was also painted from a photo, taken with some risk since the bridge over the brook was pretty icy, and I had to dodge the cars driving by. Below I've included the photo, so you can see that it was really only a jumping off point for the composition, the colors and positioning of the grasses and shadows are all mine.  Icy Brook Photo I did have an opportunity to paint snow from life at our previous house. We had a bit of lawn behind the house and then some nice trees. The french doors and the screened porch both gave me a sheltered location to paint from.  Backyard Snow 6"x6" oil on canvas panel I've painted this same backyard snow several times, in oils and in water color. We don't get as much snow here on Buzzards' Bay, but I'm on the lookout for opportunities to paint snow from life in my new neighborhood.  Thomas Point 6"x6" oil on canvas panel Sometimes simple is best, and that's what I found with Thomas Point, a photo taken by my painter friend, Joelle Feldman. It's one of my favorite snow paintings ever.
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 Abstracted Exercise #2 - acrylic on paper My paintings are mostly realistic. They aren’t photorealism, because they don't look like photos. They're just a little abstracted, in the sense that I simplify. I’d love to get some other kinds of abstraction into my paintings, and I’d also like to learn to paint with acrylics. To these ends I’ve been taking an interesting painting course online with British artist, Louise Fletcher. And I’ve made a lot of progress with acrylics. It’s great to be able to use them indoors without having to worry about the ventilation that is needed for oil paints.  First Step in Creating 4 Abstract Exercises (note the masking tape)  Completed Exercises (note the tape has been removed) In order to learn different ways of abstracting I decided to take the class as if I was an abstract painter. The paintings here are some of the results.  Abstract Exercise #3 - acrylic on paper I've enjoyed using different tools to make marks, not just brushes and knives. I tried an old credit card, a crumpled tissue, and a Princeton Catalyst wedge, among other things. And I loved removing paint by scratching and scraping.  Abstract Exercise #4 - acrylic on paper It’s also fun to hear things that you have a lot of experience with from a completely different perspective. For me this was values, color, and composition. There is always more to learn! My next step is to experiment with these techniques and approaches in my landscape paintings. Once I’ve understood that, I can move on to abstracted boats.
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AuthorBobbi - Painter. Sketcher. Teacher. Boat and Dog Lover. Archives
July 2024
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