BRUSHWORK EXERCISES, PART 2

PALETTE KNIFE

I know, it doesn’t look like a tomato, but this is exercise two of the tomato series. The idea here is to break attachment to realism, and throw a wrench into the works. Palette knife is unfamiliar to almost all of us, and we struggle to produce something that looks like a tomato. (In my case, a rock, since I ran out of tomato photos.) The problem, as I see it, is in creating soft edges. I can either find some way to blend with the knife (not happening in my world), or create an intermediate color to soften the edges that need it. Because this rock has a lot of edge variety, it challenges my ability to express it. Later I try a tomato. Much better.

OPEN STUDIO FAVORITE

CLOUD ROUNDUP

This started out as a class demo, during which I painted the clouds and the trees against the sky. Having painted several times in the late afternoon at the boat launch, I used my color memory to enrich this painting, inspired by photos of a highly mobile cloud bank I caught one afternoon.

SUNSET V, STAGE 1

Again, painting alla prima. Only this time I go back. There are some shapes bothering me, and I feel a need for more light on the right. Will post the finished painting later.

SUNSET LENS, STAGE 1

Painted basically alla prima. The painting feels mostly done, but I need to live with it for a while.

After a few days, I add some transition shapes to the clouds on the bottom left. Then I am done.

BRUSHWORK EXERCISES, PART 6

STROKE COUNTING

This is an exercise in making every stroke count. The rules I gave myself were: Count every stroke. A stroke begins when I put the brush down, continues through any direction changes, and ends when I lift the brush. That old habit of repeatedly stroking in the same spot... won’t work for this. Some interesting things happened. I found myself slowing down, making long, thoughtful strokes. No automatic mark-making. Is that a good thing to continue in everyday painting? How much consciousness is useful in getting paint on the canvas? Even though every stroke involved prolonged decision making and slow execution, the painting was completed fairly quickly. Maybe a lot of the marks I usually make on a canvas are the equivalent of “ahem.”

BRUSHWORK EXERCISES, PART 5

EXPRESSIVE BRUSHWORK

Building on the previous exercise, we now block in the main shapes, but then lay more expressive brushstrokes on top. Lately, I’ve become interested in the effects of stroke direction. Just pulling a long line of color makes a difference in the energy of a shape. I like solid strokes for solid objects, lines with movement for water. Here, the apple seemed solid to me, but I tried to add some roundness with the brushwork, and even a feel of growing in the stem.