with minoan celebratiopn
DETAIL of celebration 22, following the modifications and improvements i made yesterday, especially to the figures.
10:26 AM: yesterday i worked more on celebration 22, which i had last worked on 3 weeks ago. gazing at it this morning, i think it’s a much better painting now. here’s a detail:
2:29 PM: i made more modifications to celebration 22 and am done early for the day. we’ve got another intense thunderstorm happening & i’m ready to be home.
ABOVE: celebration 22, 32x36” as she looked on 8/16/24, and on the right following todays work
11:55 AM: following an intense thunderstorm with heavy rain & hail this morning, the sun is back out. i wasn’t happy with celebration 22; there was way too much going on, taking our eyes away from the 4 stages of exercises of the girl gymnast from the 2024 paris olympics.
12:22 PM: i think i’ll continue mking modifications & post when i’m done.
panoramic landscape painting 1, 5x28” gouache on paper
panoramic landscape painting 1, 5x28” gouache on paper (there was somehight falling on the plastic covering; i’ll post a better shot tomorrow
4:23 PM: as i went through a number of landscape paintings in gopuache on paper, i came across these two. during that period i was making paintings on paper. some of the landscapes that i found inspiring, usually in late afternoon light, required thati painted imany of them as i sat in the car. these are two of them. lots of prep goes into this; i needed to have all my materials readlily accesable in the car, which needed to facing the right direction so that i could see the landscap but not have any direct sunlight falling on the paper or the palette.
studio view this afternoon, with many celebration series paintings hanging on my east wall, the most recent is in the center
DETAIL of celebration 26, 36x36” oil on portrait linen.
12:40 PM: this is one more detail of celebration 26, which i completed yesterday. so today i’ll be stretching more canvasses so that i can start something new tomorrow morning.
celebration 26, 36x36” oil on portrait linen, as she looked at the end of my painting day.
3:09 PM: i worked on celebration 26 on & off from noon till now. i’m calling this a breakthrough for what seem to me obvious reasons. i was attempting to modify the composition to allow all 5 figures to work together in the composition. and i think, in the final half hour of working on it, i was able to do just that and more. the and more refers to that unplanned, unexpected flash of light that guides your hand and brush to do what no planning could ever accomplish: majik!
if you click on the detail to the right here and make it full page on your computer, you’ll see what i mean.
celebration 26, 36x36” as she looked at the end of my short painting day today
1:58 PM: i had to cut short my painting day today so i could get to the doctor in alamosa & have my gum boil checked out. they’ll likely prescribe an antibiotic till i can get to the dentist on tuesday.
i was able to do more work on celebration 25, partially filling in the drawings i made of a drummer and a woman on the beach shooting a photo with her phone. i went over the black surrounding the female basketball player with dark grey, since the black was too strong.
celebration 26, 36x36" as she looked at the end of day one
3:15 PM: i had done some prep work on the sienna ground of this one a few weeks back, and let it sit while i worked on completing celebration 25. this afternoon i launched into it, first making drawings in black litho crayon of assorted figures in my growing menagerie. today i focused on the jumping basketball player, who first appeared in celebration 25, and a female bather, hands in the air, jumping into the sea. we’ll see where she takes me tomorrow, which i’m anxious to learn!
12:53 PM: yesterday we both had our new covid booster shots at the pharmacy in alamosa. so today we’re predictably achy and tired. we’re taking the day off, so instead of posting what i’m working on today in my studio, i’ll be posting recent and not so recent paintings and commenting.
going back about a year, this is a 6-19-23 creek watercolor which i made on site at one of our local creeks, which are about 8,500 ft. altitude and run down from the 14,000 ft. sangre de christo mountain peaks.
celebration 25, 24x32” oil on portrait linen
2:56 PM: i introduced a new figure into the composition today, a female basketball player from the 2024 paris olympics. so now both female figures were participants in the olympics. i think the overall composition has improved, and the painting now, as i gaze at it hanging on the same wall as others in the series, looks like it belongs.
3:47 PM: after whiting over the entire painting this morning and starting a new composition, i decided to wipe it and return to the original composition, with the skateboarder & the seated student viewed from above.
snce then, i’ve been re-working the skateboarder, however i was interrupted by issues starting our car. so i spent the rest of the afternoon, making an appointment to have it checked out a week from today. until then, we’ll leave it parked in opur driveway and keep our fingers crossed that it starts up next tuesday morning, when we’ll drive 4 hours to the dealer in denver & pick up a rental vehicle.
that said, i did manage to do some good work on the skateboarder figure, and will pick it up again tomorrow morning.
