Last Monday I went painting with two experienced plein air artists at the home of one of them. It was a beautiful evening, and the neighborhood offered several possibilities. I was very tempted to do a street scene, but because I had recently painted one with not so good results, I decided to paint something close up this time. Since I had made up my mind that I wanted to paint under the shade of a tree, the house next door to my friend's was the best choice. It was very interesting to see how the light changed in a period of an hour: walls that were bright with reflected light became dark an hour later. For that same reason, it was also a little bit exasperating having to change colors.
After we stopped working we proceeded to critique each other's work. Mine was basically done so their feedback was very important to me. They were very free with their suggestions and I felt I gained so much from them.
I'll let this painting sit for a while before finishing it.
This coming Monday we'll be painting in my garden.
4 comments:
I like this a lot, Adriana - great shapes and colors ... and iris! I'm curious as to what the other painters said about this. It's hard to be critical at all of a plein air painting since we are always in such a rush to get anything down (at least I am!)
Thank you Donna!
One of the things suggested was to add some specs of warm dark yellow on the bottom of the iris bed (it's hard to see from the photo, but as soon as I added yellow the change was remarkable: the whole painting became warmer. Highlights on the eaves were also suggested, and darker purples also on the bottom of the iris bed. I still need to lighten a bit the roof area and straighten the walls, etc., but all in all, I'm very happy with it!
The main reason I painted this close up scene was to avoid the rush I felt when painting a street scene with so many things in it; I guess I'm not ready for that yet.
Very nice - as usual. It's nice to see you paint s/t different. I can only say that because I know how hard it is to break away from landscapes. My only comment would be on the composition: the vertical division is almost down the middle. What would happen if you followed the Golden Rule, and exaggerated the entry element just a bit to give it more focus?
Mathew, Thank you for your comments. At the time I thought that vertical line in the middle was OK since the focal area was somewhere else. I'll probably put more emphasis on the door and downplay the light on the window shutter when I get back to it.
Post a Comment