principles - excursion

 

Here are the inside principles I set for myself .... while painting these scenes outdoors. Double click on image to see details enlarged.

• Pushing myself to go wide from left to right.

• Managing information down low and high up.
• Making these elements work in the painting.

 

Had I chosen to draw a crazy a cartoon, or put figures upside down in outer space, or go impulsively abstract I could have done that. I HAVE done that!!

 

THIS time--

• outdoors: in the wind, the sharp morning air, hunkered down, looking out across
• including nature elements, selecting some but not all, ignoring too much detail
• dealing with fleeting clouds, shifting reflections, changing shadows, all the motion
• focusing on light tree trunks in front of dark spaces
• making close tree rows recede
• choosing the colors I want, mixing colors on the spot, happy that acrylic dries fast
• going back to the same location multiple times at the same hour each day to catch a certain kind of lighting
• every brush stroke counts

 

Compare the following two images of the same work, Water's Edge.

 



      To me, the result was monumental. Managing information up high above my head and down to the grass beneath my feet. Using nature elements while working outdoors.

 

     At the end of my painting period (June and July), I made changes based on what I had liked in the other works, such as lightening the horizon, defining the shoreline and duckweed patch. The result was pleasing to my eye.

 

Excursion exhibit -- will be posted upcoming week of August 12 

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