Sigh, summer break with the kids all here is proving very challenging for me to stay focused on painting. I'm not able to focus whatsoever when they are all milling about, even though they are all old enough to fend for themselves. This is where I really wish I had a studio somewhere else, but oh well, I'm just going to have to come up with things for them to do.
This week I've been reading some books on oil painting, one by Kevin MacPherson and another called the Art of Oil Painting by Walter Foster publishing. I highly recommend them both but I think I prefer the second one because it has 10 chapters, each featuring a different artists style with several step by step tutorials by each.....I could paint for a year with what's in this book!
I began with some "starts" in Kevin Macpherson's book, the 3 plein air landscapes (above) that are just different viewpoints from my front porch. The idea was to just lay down shapes of color and very little detail.....I divided a 16x20 canvas board into 9 areas, I will post the entire board when completed.
The other tutorial I did was by an artist in the Art of Oil Painting named John Loughlin....I was intantly attracted to his bold bright style, and his New England themed subject matter, so I painted his version of white birches. I really enjoyed the ease that I was able to follow his instructions in the book.
I need to rephotograph it, the blues are showing too dark and the shadow in the trees isn't showing up at all.....hmmm
