You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘love affair with yellow’ tag.
I promised you a picture of my completed landscape painting today but I cannot follow through since it is not yet complete! I hope this picture of my work in progress suffices to give you an idea of the colour scheme, scenery and size. I will post another picture of the finished painting just as soon as I can.
Oil landscape painting in progress
There has been a painting germinating in my mind for a few weeks now that I finally began to tackle. Here are some examples of my thought process as I try to solidify my idea and my composition. If I’m lucky I can finish the painting tomorrow and post it. The canvas is 24 x 48 inches and will be the largest work in my upcoming October show. (For more details about that stay tuned!)
idea development for large landscape, sketchbook
more thumbnails, sketchbook
Somehow I got so excited about the upcoming county fair this weekend that I forgot to post a sketchbook entry on Saturday OR Sunday. Instead I rambled on about pig chases and vampire cats. My sincere apologies. I will make it up to you with this study from my small watercolour sketchbook:
Leaves on Yellow, watercolour on paper, 5 x 7
And I can’t forget to mention… my husband and I were on the front page of our local paper today for entering art in the fair! Gotta love small towns!
This week while at Oasis State Park climbing a sandy slope to look for a nice place to paint I stumbled upon a snake. Not at all unusual, but the largest I’ve seen in the wild in New Mexico.
I was walking under a tree when I noticed some very slight movement above my head. I looked up to find a tan/gray shape coiled in the crook of the tree. I paused for a moment and saw that it was on the move down the tree three feet to my left. Obviously I retreated to the car where I continued to watch. Snakey (I named him/her) then investigated the area where I was standing and headed for the car. Unfortunately my nature viewing ended soon afterwards because I had clearly disturbed Snakey and he or she was now moving intently towards me. I didn’t want to let Snakey get so close to the car that I might run them over, nor did I want to stick my head out the open windows to check his/her progress… so I drove away.
I parked the car at a safe distance and walked to a shaded picnic bench where I painted for a few hours (see post “Oasis” which shows another canvas from this day). In this painting, the tree on the right is the one I saw Snakey in.
Where I saw the Snake, oil on canvas, 8 x 10"
I described my snake spotting (in great detail) to some park employees and they helped me identify it as a Coachwhip.
Some neat things I learned about Coachwhips: They are often active in hot conditions when other snakes seek shelter in cool retreats. They spend most of their time on the ground but are capable climbers so are occasionally encountered in trees and on cacti. They are slender bodied snakes relative to their length and are extremely fast (believed to be the fastest in North America). If they are cornered, coachwhips will strike repeatedly (often at their attackers face) and bite strongly if given the opportunity (they can raise the first third of their bodies to reach what they want to bite). Though they are aggressive in defense, these snakes will not chase a person down and “whip them to death” as a common legend suggests. Phew.
So, this is just my shoddy internet research (Online Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Arizona among one of my sources) and I could be wrong in attributing some characteristics to Snakey when there are seven subspecies of coachwhips widely distributed across the southern US. But I got carried away with the fun factor of writing about snakes… I hope you forgive me.
There is nothing like a pool of water in the middle of the desert. Bizarre: yes, peaceful: incredibly so.
This was painted at the nearby Oasis State Park. Many people are attracted to the fishing hole here. On a busy day families are lined up along the pink stones dropping their lines in for catfish and guzzling sodas. The morning I set up my paints at a shady picnic table the only other people around were a father and daughter fishing quietly from camping chairs.
I’ll definitely be revisiting this gorgeous place to paint more… if only it was a swimming hole!
Oasis, oil on canvas, 8 x 10"
This is another painting done from the passenger seat of my car. Early morning I drive around trying to find a piece of shade to park in, open all the windows, set up the metallic window shade, hop into the passenger seat and set up my palette from the oil paints in the bin by my feet. Then I paint for an hour or two while guzzling ice water from a thermos and trying not to get too much paint on the interior of the car…
After this I explore a bit more looking for spots I might like to paint the following day before heading home to finish the oil sketch or work on bigger canvases in the studio.
By the Fence, oil on canvas, 8 x 10"
Here is another morning landscape study. One of these cows gave his neck a good scratch on this fence for fifteen minutes before joining the others for a snooze under the shade of the trees. I was pretty tempted to join them.
Snoozing Cows, oil on canvas, 8 x 10"
I had a wonderful morning adventure in my car which involved nearly running over a meter-long snake (phew, I didn’t) and watching cows, birds, rabbits and stray cats roaming the plains.
Here is one of two sketches I did from the passenger seat, trying not to get oil paint all over the dashboard and armrests! I had to work both canvases quickly before the day got too hot and unbearable. I packed a cooler-bag of ice water but still got a little dizzy in the open. I drove home after two hours and completed the paintings at home in the comfortable air-conditioned studio. I’ll post the other canvas tomorrow…
Bird on a Post, oil on canvas, 8 x 10"
Theresa the Tree, oil on canvas, 10 x 10", SOLD
Today was a day happily spent painting a “feel better” plant I received during my week with the flu.
Yellow Pot, oil on canvas, 6 x 6"
