I Have Been Painting Finally

Artist at Work January 15, 2010

I have so many of these pictures of my work table with paintings in progress that I have decided to start labeling them with dates. This is my first such picture for the new year.

As those frequent readers of Creative Journey know I generally work on anywhere from four to six canvases at a time of varying sizes. This is due in part to drying time for the liquid watercolors on canvas. But the paintings will share the same palate and ergo be a "set." I don't sell them in groups but I have had customers buy them in a group because they go so well together. These all share the same colors of blues which in this run includes cobalt blue. Not a blue I have used before a lot but it seems to be very good for the type of clear winter skies we are currently having here.

And these are all canyon pictures. Next round is churches. I am working on the sketches and transfer of drawings to platform while I am waiting for paint to dry. The drying period is particularly important for poured blue skies. There is masking to be removed and the next round of color is laid up close to the edge of sky. If the sky is even a bit damp it smears with removal of masking and leeches into the canyon walls.

In any group of paintings I am working on there are those that get out in front of the others. And it is generally the smaller ones. These two canvases below are 10 x 18, a relatively new size for me. I have worked that size vertically in my paintings Of the Valley and Spider Rock.

Mesa Arch and Landscape Arch

The painters of old were very fond of doing studies. These were generally smaller works on cheaper materials to study a new color combination or subject. With the market very good at this time for smaller works to fit on walls if not within budgets a study might as well be a painting. But if they don't work I simply take off the canvas and re-stretch new canvas on the bars.

In the first picture there is a framed watercolor on the left shelf which was one of my first water color renditions of Landscape Arch. I have it out to provide a perspective to the new version on the right in the lower picture. I have also done Mesa Arch before but when I was working more in browns and grays. I currently really like where this one is going but there is a lot of white to be filled in still ergo a lot of room to mess it up.

The higher center painting in the opening photograph is the painting I am doing of the sketch with the face in the arch posted here before. Meant to be a self portrait but we will see how honest I am about that.