Evolution of a Work - 'Summer Morning, Farm Lane'

I really like the atmosphere of a hazy, early morning in August that comes through in this pastel.  The place is also special to me- it is a few miles from where I grew up in Chester County, Pennsylvania.  I had returned to my 'homeland' on a painting expedition, wanting to connect with some of the beauty of that area, which certainly led me to be an artist.

'Summer Morning, Farm Lane' - completed
(collection of Linda and Dave Miller)

For a week straight, I got up with the sun and painted all day.  This particular scene presented a practical challenge, because I only had a limited set of pastels with me, and could not find the full value and temperature range of colors that were crucial to the painting.  I had the correct colors in oil paints with me, but did not have a canvas of the right proportions for the composition that I wanted.  So I decided to do an underpainting on pastel paper, establishing the values and drawing the full composition.  The spacing  between the trees I also felt was really important, and I paid careful attention to the drawing aspect in this underpainting.  After completing this underpainting on pastel paper, I then also painted a second oil sketch (on canvas) to establish the correct colors - I could only include part of the composition due to the shape of the canvas.

"Summer Morning, Farm Lane' Oil Sketch
(collection of Tim Kelsey)

In this full color plein air oil sketch, I really wanted to capture the strong dark shadow masses in the trees, contrasting with the bright, sun lit area.  The greens in the ground area also differed greatly in temperature and value as they receded into the background, and I really wanted to get these right because they were so important to the atmosphere.  I ended up liking this sketch as a finished work.

After returning to the studio, I followed up on the studies I'd done outside, and using the oil on canvas as a color reference, I returned to the monochromatic painting on paper and applied pastel over the oil.  I'm really pleased with having found a way to get the spacing of the trees and colors as I wanted them in the finished work.  It really did take some improvising on the spot!

If you compare the two paintings, you'll see that the pastel's composition includes more of the scene to the left.

Framing away!

I've been super busy framing pieces for the show, which opens in one week.  It takes a lot of time and attention to detail, and is very different from the skills required to create the art.  However, I'm finding it really gratifying to see the pieces glow in the frames, and hanging side by side as a group.

I really like each of the pieces in my upcoming show, and seeing them together, I am pleased how they bear the marks of the maker, and clearly were created by the same hand.

In this photo, I'm doing one of the final steps involved in mounting a pastel in its frame - the piece is already 'sandwiched' between a mounting board and mat, and I am securing these layers in the frame with little metal 'points'.  Right after this, I put on black backing paper, and add the hangers and wire. I do use archival methods and materials, and pastels are known to last a long, long time.    

Alice in the framing room, affixing the back to pastel.

Frames sighted!

Yeah!  Thanks to leads from a friend, I found several frames that I like very much!!!! If all goes well, they will be here in time for my show opening in two weeks to add the 'icing' to my oils on canvas.  I can't wait to see them ready for exhibition!

Evolution (Resurrection?) of a Work; "Round Bales- Cluster of Four"

Sometimes when a piece is done, it isn't really done.  I 'completed' this painting, 'Round Bales- Cluster of Four,' about seven years ago, and framed it.  But every time I looked at it, something just didn't feel quite right to me about it.  So earlier this month, I took it out of the frame, and dramatically reworked it, and finally, I'm fully satisfied with it.

"Round Bales - Cluster of Four"  final version, 2010

As a point of comparison, here is how the painting almost looked when I first framed it in 2003.  Several things didn't feel quite right to me about that earlier version:

As originally framed in 2003

Frame hunting

Today was filled with art-related chores.  I'm in the midst of selecting frames for several of my recently completed canvases, and drove 80 miles searching for just the right moulding. The 'hunt' is still on, with several possibilities under consideration, but the magic 'ah-ha' still eludes me.... keep on searching!

I'm excited to be just over two weeks away from my joint exhibition at the Faustina Gallery in Lewisburg, and am about to begin a 'blitz' of framing to prepare the works for exhibition.  My husband builds most of the frames which I use, and I cut the mats myself- a rather exacting activity (every 1/16" counts, and there are many ways to make critical mistakes!), but I find it gratifying to bring the works through this final stage. I enjoy freeing the finished pastel from the drawing board, making final cropping decisions, and mounting it in a compatible frame, where it can then glow brightly on the wall! Very satisfying!

Evolution of a Work - "Autumn Evening, Round Bales Uphill"

I started working on this painting about six years ago, but most of the time it rested between stages, until the composition felt right to me.

"Autumn Evening, Round Bales Uphill" - completed

This painting began with an initial pastel sketch on location.  Back in the studio, I thought it would be fun to make an oil version on linen, with its beautiful texture.  Below is my initial start of that oil.  I like to begin loosely, and let the shapes and colors get a force of their own.  At this stage, I ran into a problem where the triangular shape in the bottom left corner just didn't relate to the rest of the painting, which had more arc-shaped forms.

Initial oil sketch on canvas

It took a while to find the answer, but I ended up removing the triangle, and brought more light into the foreground. You can see that the background now has more depth as I've layered on more color.  However the painting still lacked unity, so I remembered back to what I connected with at the time I first sketched the scene outdoors- the patches of bright light striking the ground, slanting in during late evening.  So I made the colors more neutral to harmonize with each other (see the image below).

At this stage, it had to rest quite a while because I wasn't sure what else to do to fix it.  The foreground seemed not to hold the eye, so I took the drastic step of adding more hay bales to balance the masses, and to move the eye from foreground to background, with places to investigate on the way in a circular motion.  Compare the image below to the final version above- in the image below, my eye tends to zip right to the row of bales and freezes there- in the final version, my eye circulates around and things feel in balance. 

Second stage - triangle removed

Evolution of a Work - 'Morning Shadow from Woods to Field"

I recently completed this painting of a scene I often pass while driving a tractor. 

"Morning Shadow from Woods to Field" - completed

I started this painting on location, and as you can see from the initial sketch below, it originally had different colors in the foreground. I added more distinct dark masses to 'ground' the foreground, setting the space distinct from the background.  I also played up the red area on the right a bit, to set off the green areas a bit (since red and green are complementary colors).  I softened the shadows, since although the purple color was beautiful, it kept drawing my eye to that spot alone, rather than allowing my eye to circulate throughout the painting.

Early sketch, cropped with tape from the larger painting

More fundamentally, this painting originally began as part of a larger piece (see the image below), which I didn't feel held together well as a complete composition.  Yet I liked both sides of that painting, so I visually separated and cropped them using artists tape and worked on each separately.  It is only when both paintings were done and ready for framing that I physically cut the two apart.  The painting on the left I call 'Windy Day, Fall Fields." 

More developed - but with only tape laid over the paper
separating it from the original composition

Evolution of a Work - "Back Field in Summer Sun"

This is a pastel painting of a hill on our farm.  I've always loved the clusters of white pine trees, with their big masses, how they anchor the hillside.

"Back Field in Summer Sun" completed

This is the initial start of the painting, begun on location.  You can see that my initial efforts in a painting are to establish the placement of forms in their relation to each other.  I usually carefully consider the overall composition before I start feeling out the masses and movement.  When I start, I usually like the mark-making to be free and loose, not thinking too much, but instead feeling until it takes shape.  In choosing the blue color, I needed its darker value to 'hold in place' the big shapes of the trees, and to create a sense of coolness. The foreground fields were a warmer, lighter green, with early spring grasses just coming through.  As I laid these in, I then noticed the slightly reddish tint of the dried winter grasses remaining, and quickly put that in so I could remember this when working on the painting in my studio. I really love this sense of discovery while working on location, which is a big part of why I begin many of my pieces en plein air.

Initial sketch

Back in my studio, I added more foreground color, and then used a wash (solvent and bristle brush to liquify the pastel) to unify the colors and shapes.  I often do this to help create the background of a painting, and then later layer onto this specific details.  The clouds started to appear to balance the composition.  The cloud on the top left in particularly helps balance the composition by returning the eye throughout the piece (rather than drifting off the top left).   I feel these decisions intuitively- it is only retrospectively that I think of them as 'action steps."  If I think too logically at the time, the painting becomes stilted and doesn't grow.

More developed

To finish the painting, I layered color over color in the foreground, to create a rich texture of visible strokes and to give the feeling of winter and spring grasses meeting.  I darkened and unified the pine tree shapes, restating the dark masses and value contrasts which had first appealed to me with the subject.

"Blue Sky, Orange Tree"

I've been working on my painting, "Blue Sky, Orange Tree", since late spring.  I started this while painting in our pasture one evening, as the sun raked sideways across the field.  The 'orange' of the tree is the sun light, not the tree itself.

Currently, I'm trying to bring out the sense of evening light catching the woods, coming in from the right.  But first I had to tame down too much color in the woods.  Initially I used translucent paint to allow the canvas to come through - like on the orange tree - but the rest of the woods was a translucent red which was over powering.  It needed to be toned down to set off the orange tree.  So then I did the hard step of using an opaque paint to cover over the red, making the background trees a neutral gray, quieting the other areas.  This morning I'm coming back with more of the accents of the light in those trees, using burnt sienna and purples.

I like the effect in the woods, but now I'm trying to resolve the foreground, and I keep feeling that the left hand side of the woods drops down too much. I want to raise it up and then get the 'catch' of light coming along that flat plane.

Evolution of a Work - "Valley in Bright Light"

Here's a recently finished painting that will be in the show.  I still remember the feeling of sketching in the field on a nearby farm.  The sun was bright but the air was cool, and I loved the shapes and colors of the fields stretching down toward the valley.  The light was clear and bright, accentuating the shapes of the hills.

"Valley in Bright Light" 2010  Pastel 11" X 15"

This painting began with a sketch I made on location in early spring, using hard pastels.  I hiked into this location, after talking with a local farmer to get permission to work on his land.  I loved the sense of exploration and feeling free, and in-the-moment as I walked the land with a handful of art supplies, mostly grateful for the warmth of sun on my back, and connection to the land.  It is in this that physical and spiritual worlds unite, and I feel uplifted with connection and gratitude.

The strong value contrasts between  the woods and fields were a major appeal to me on location, and I played them up in the final work by making the darks strong, yet a mysterious blend of purples and blues.

Initial sketch

Show is coming! November, 2010, Faustina Gallery, Lewisburg

I've been immersed in a flurry of completing paintings, bringing a series of oil and pastel landscapes to completion.  It has been fun, stressful, challenging, and rewarding to see these works "ripening".  With about two weeks to go, there is a bunch of framing ahead for me.  And then fun at the opening reception (Faustina Gallery, Lewisburg, PA, November 5, 6 to 10 pm). 

The theme of the show is 'Valleys and Ridges," and I'll show about 20 landscapes of central Pennsylvania in both oil and pastel.  I'm really pleased with the quality of the individual paintings, and how they fit together as a series.  I can't wait to see them hanging in a beautiful gallery setting.