Tangled up in Blue

"Tangle up in Blue" oil on 16 x16 gallery wrap canvas

This painting will be featured at the 910 Arts "Spirits Bright" Show Nov. 30-Jan. 7

Happy Fall Friday all!  For my “Tangled up In Blue” oil painting, I abstracted this close up photo I took look down at the pathway in Wash Park near my studio. (One of the things I miss most as my broken toe recovers is taking pics in the park as the season changes.)  Natural elements likes leaves, pebbles, twigs, etc.  provide me with all sorts of shape, color and texture inspiration for abstract paintings like this.

This might make a good painting...

My other inspiration for this painting was exploring a range of blues which I used to balance the primarily warmer leaves.  For me, I find I can get the blue range I want (in oil paint) with just 2 key blues: Ultramarine (which tends to lean blue violet) and Pthalo (or Thalo ) blue which tends to lean to the blue green.


The good news about these two "workhorse" blues as many of you know is that they are quite affordable pigments compared to genuine cobalt or cerulean. Also, while I usually use the standard 37ml size tubes, for larger paintings I don't mind using big tubes (200ml vs. 37 ml.) of student grade ultramarine and thalo (Winton, Dalery Rowney, Gamblin Sketch). The large student tubes of these 2 blues are usually still single pigments so I find they compare quite favorably to the pro lines. Briefly, here's a short article about pro vs. student paints. 

Note you would likely see a difference with student grade cobalt or cerulean. These are usually hues" or "mixes" of several pigments such as ultramarine and white to keep the cost lower. And because they are often multiple pigments they can cause mixing headaches so I tend to avoid them.

Speaking of thalo, we’ve all heard the caveat about thalo taking over a painting, your palette, your clothes, your home…At this point, I’m sometimes asked why use thalo at at all? Simply, because I love teals, turquoise, emeralds, mint, limes—And I need thalo for those mixes. Here’s painter Kathleen Hebert’s  view on why she loves thalo.

Before I go I wanted to give a shout out to any of my East Coast readers and followers who may be dealing with the storm this week. For those of you who’d like to help out with Hurricane relief DPW is generously hosting a Hurricane Sandy art fundraiser where you may donate a painting or buy a wonderful piece of art,  You don’t need to be a DPW member to participate. Thanks and have a wonderful weekend!

Fruits of My Labor

"Let's Make Pie" oil on gallery canvas

"Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness." -- Jane Austen

Happy fall everyone! I've been painting almost everyday in prep for my gallery group show next month.  Much like changing your swing the week before a golf tournament, you wouldn't think this would be a good time to suddenly change the way you've painted for years.

But recently I decided to start painting directly from the photos on my iPad. (Note I also have a laptop that I manage my photos on so I take the photos with my 20x digital Canon and then email them to myself.)  Both these paintings were done from my iPad screen.

It took a few paintings to used to but so far I really prefer the color over my ink jet printer and of course it's great being able to "zoom in" on detail as needed. I don't think it will be long before I won't be able to paint without it. An added bonus is that with a tablet right there you can easily listen to music, podcasts, etc. at the same time. You could paint from your laptop screen as well--I just prefer a more compact tablet my easel. 

"Cherries--Sweet!" 8x8 oil on gallery canvas

I was born in Michigan—A state that takes great pride in their apples and cherries.  So these subjects were also a subtle nod to my childhood. More specifically, I selected these photos because I like the composition element and lighter value of the bags. Briefly, one  alla prima or “wet in wet” oil painting technique I’ve used here is painting the lighter value areas with a more textural impasto application of paint.

Often I use a knife (you could also use a cut credit card) directly on the canvas for this, but I also scrape up the paint from my palette and then scoop that paint off the knife with a brush. It may sound like extra work but you get a wonderful effect from this method. Thanks for stopping by--have a colorful weekend!