Sunday, 6pm ~ A Painting a Week

Freitag, 10. August 2007

Sunday, 6pm

In my last post I decided to concentrate on building two bodies of work - Everyday Still Lifes and Plein Air.

This Plein Air painting is the result of a rather hurried and too-short-for-me painting session last Sunday. I meant to paint part of a little pond but realised the evening light was just not right for that view. So I turned and searched the area... and settled on this view. Nothing spectacular really - what caught my interest was the long shadow on the grass contrasting with the sunlit area. Needless to say the shadow moved way to fast for my liking...

I'm not sure what to think of the end result... it's definitly green! I read another great post on Larry Seiler's Blog about his use of "Pigment Soup" - one common colour (often greyish/neutral) that's mixed into every other colour used in a painting. This pulls everything together and assures a harmonious look. I guess that's a way to master those greens - I'll keep it in mind for the next piece!


"Weiningen, 6pm"
acrylics on canvas panel,
30x24 cm

Letzten Sonntag wollte ich den Blick auf einen kleinen Teich in der Nähe malen, aber das Licht am Abend war nicht wirklich geeignet. Also habe ich mich kurzerhand mit dem Rücken zum Teich aufgestellt und dafür diese Wiese gemalt. Der lange Schatten, der sich (viel zu schnell!) über die Wiese legte, war mein Fokus bei diesem Bild, aber ich hatte dann doch etwas zu wenig Zeit nach meinem Geschmack. Das Resultat ist... nun ja, sicher mal ziemlich grün!

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8 Kommentare:

Helen Read hat gesagt…

Lovely! You did a fantastic job with the lighting and color!

Jennifer Rose hat gesagt…

Yes, the lighting on this is very nice and great texture on the trees. :)

Sue Johnson hat gesagt…

Regula, I understand your attraction to everyday objects and experiences. I browsed through your still lifes and liked them all--the fruit, the treats and coffee, the tomatoes. The eveyday sights and moments are a big part of what makes life pleasurable. I know things around me catch my eye and I think, "That would make a nice picture" Then it bugs me until I make it into a picture.

Regula Scheifele hat gesagt…

Thanks Helen and Jennifer - I admit I like the lighting but am not too satisfied with the painting as a whole. That's why I painted a second version that I'll post soon.

Regula Scheifele hat gesagt…

Sue - thanks for visiting my blog!
I guess what attracts me to those everyday things is the implication of people behind them: the coffee is ready to be enjoyed, the treats even more so...
Ok, sometimes things bug me after I painted them.... ,)

Making A Mark hat gesagt…

What I find is that in reality (ie what we see in front of when painting plein air)every green always goes with every other green.

What's usually more important is finding the right complement for a particular green to grey a green down or darken it.

Regula Scheifele hat gesagt…

Katherine - your comment about how "every green always goes with every other green" reminded me of something Carlson said in his Guide to Landscape Painting (speaking about values and shapes):

"Nature can afford to mix things up, but a picture must be an ordering of the material into masses."

So while seeing is the all important first step, the second would be translating what you've seen onto the canvas...

Making A Mark hat gesagt…

Oh I do agree. But I think Carlsson is talking about values and value shapes which are of course the first priority when working out what to paint. Hence the 'value' of thumbnail sketches. ;)

However once clear about overall values and design considerations, we get back to colour and what to do with all those greens.

What I have found valuable is to look at greens in value terms - and then how these can be mixed to get certain sorts of values with a particular colour emphasis. However I prefer to use pure colours rather than neutralised ones to do this.

The main thing is finding an approach which works for you and how you see things in your light and your environment. Good luck with your experiment with painting greens.