February Morning at the Louvre, 24 x 30 inches, oil on linen (WIP)This is one of the first cityscapes that I started specifically for the upcoming solo show. I've been working on it off and on for a few months now, although total time spent thus far is probably 15 - 20 hours. I'm not keeping track. Unlike my landscapes, this one has a lot of process; glazing, staining, scraping, redrawing and repainting. It is because architecture is so drawing intensive, and my initial pencil drawing isn't all that precise so I do a lot of correcting as I paint. Also, because I'm only working on it a little bit at a time, the paint dries in between sessions and I have to work wet-on-dry, which opens up a whole world of process possibilities which are not available if I were working strictly wet-into-wet alla prima.
Resisting the urge to paint every little detail is proving to be a huge challenge. I want to abstract and simplify, but not in ways that compromise drawing. I wish I had some sort of a logical approach to follow, but as soon as I think I've found one, it becomes a tired formula so I end up abandoning it and I go back to struggling. In the end, this struggling, and searching and trying this and redoing that is what makes my painting a record not of one morning at the Louvre, but of my expression. So goes the old adage, art is in the process, not the product.
Still, it wouldn't hurt to end up with a good product!
I haven't worked on this painting for several weeks now. I hope to spend some quality time with it as soon as my studio is available again.
Resisting the urge to paint every little detail is proving to be a huge challenge. I want to abstract and simplify, but not in ways that compromise drawing. I wish I had some sort of a logical approach to follow, but as soon as I think I've found one, it becomes a tired formula so I end up abandoning it and I go back to struggling. In the end, this struggling, and searching and trying this and redoing that is what makes my painting a record not of one morning at the Louvre, but of my expression. So goes the old adage, art is in the process, not the product.
Still, it wouldn't hurt to end up with a good product!
I haven't worked on this painting for several weeks now. I hope to spend some quality time with it as soon as my studio is available again.
6 comments:
I don't really know how to say this in correct English, but the size difference between the same-looking lantarnposts (streetlightpost!?) seems to be playing a bit with the sense of perspective. The three longer ones, on the left, look a bit huge.
Apart from that: great painting.
Good eye, rutger! I thought the same thing. The fact is, there are three different kinds of lampposts in this picture, and they're all different sizes. I didn't differentiate them enough to make that obvious, for fear that it required too much detail in non-focal areas.
I think what I will do, is to go back and give the bigger ones a different color or something to show that they're not the same lamp posts.
Good job guys, picking out the street-posts. I didn't catch it right away because I was drawn in to the wonderful dry-brush work where the light on the buildings meets the middle shadows.
If I can offer an observation as well, I'd say that my eye is also drawn toward the cast-shadow on the roof (just left of the forward standing wall with the circular window). It's the hard edged shadow that's catching me-- but I suspect you have a resolution on your to-do list (as I don't imagine you want me focused there).
Painting wet into wet, and then wet onto dry, are indeed two very different kinds of painting. It's like a whole new medium, really.
This is looking terrific Terry. I usually cringe at figures in scenes like this because they aren't handled well, but these folks are very well abstracted and don't take away from the image. Nicely done. (And a color differentiation for those street-posts will be interesting to see. Personally I might consider making them all the same size, so that perspective was my only concern.)
Can't wait to see where it goes from here.
In addition to the brushwork, I'm very fond of the limited warm/cool palette. What colors are you using here?
thomas, the cast shadow on the roof is indeed too prominent. I've painted and repainted the roof like 5 times already, trying out different things. The next thing I will try on the roof is a little more texture. We'll see how that goes~
The colors I'm using are the same as on my other paintings; Titanium White, Cad lemon, Permanent Red, Alizarin, Ultramarine, Cobalt, and Transparent Oxide Red. From these I mix a warm yellow and a violet to add to the line up.
I love your blog! Your color harmony is wonderful wonderful.
We linked to you at our blog, http://artstudiosecrets.com. Best wishes, Lisa
Thank you lisa! glad you stopped by :-) and might I add, your work is pretty dang sweet too~
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