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Tuesday, September 3, 2013

REST STOP

Diane Mannion, REST STOP, 8x10" oil on canvas
#3 for the 30/30 Challenge

PLAYING WITH LIGHT

This was more like wrestling a three-hundred pound alligator than playing with light.  Started two paintings at once this morning but this one wouldn't let go.  I can paint a field study in a couple of hours, bring it home and frame it.  But working from photo reference is much more difficult and takes hours and hours longer.  Go figure!  Thunderstorms today, stayed in the studio instead.  But tomorrow... rain or not (auto-painting if it rains) I'm out there!

Main subject here is light.  Loved the way it hit the gate but was a challenge to paint architectural details in a loose, painterly fashion without getting too tight.  The woman's a throw-back to my illustration days, easy to paint a figure from imagination, but the danger for me... paint a painting, not an illustration.

Thumbnail value study.  Visualized the dark and light patterns before beginning.
Toned canvas with Indian Yellow and sketched with magenta.  
Massed dark patterns with ultramarine and a bit of white.
Blocked in color masses.  
And after hours and hours of fiddling... the final version again.

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