Outdoor Painters Society Associate Members Show and Sale

I joined the Outdoor Painters Society a few months ago. When I got an email announcing that they would be having the First Annual Associate Members Show and Sale in Corsicana, Texas, I thought I would enter the show. It will be in August and run into September. Each associate member could submit up to 4 paintings. They guaranteed that one painting would be accepted, and no more than two would be accepted.  So I submitted four paintings, and two were accepted.  The two that were accepted were the two of the Golden Gate Bridge that I had painted while in San Francisco for PACE19.

I happen to have photographs of both paintings "in progress" at the Golden Gate Bridge back in April when I was at the conference.

"Golden Gate Bridge from Crissy Field" in progress, 4/25/2019

"Golden Gate Bridge from Crissy Field," oil on 11x14 linen panel

"Golden Gate Bridge from Lands End" in progress, 4/27/2019

"Golden Gate Bridge from Lands End" oil on 12x12 canvas panel

My next step is to follow the very detailed directions to box up both paintings and ship them to Texas. They will keep the shipping box to ship them back to me after the show - unless one or both of them sell. Ha! I'd have to have them both sell in order to recoup the money I'm spending with shipping them to Texas. I'm not expecting either to sell. However, at least I have paintings in an official art show, and I'm listed on their web page as one of the "contributing artists."  And that's exciting!

Dramatic Cloud Study

I took the following photo and wanted to paint the scene - with the clouds being the dramatic focus.

So I painted it. Here is my first attempt. Now, I have had two different "cloud lessons" from Rachael McCampbell over the past couple years - and doggone it, I STILL can't do clouds well.



So, after being totally unhappy with those clouds, I scraped off the sky entirely.


Then I painted it again.


Okay - it sucks. So I left it - figuring that if I let it dry a little overnight, it might work a little more easily.  Right now it's just a mass of paint. "Muddy" is the term that comes to mind. I will tackle it again in a day or two.

One thing I considered was that I used an Ampersand Gessobord for this painting. The Ampersand Gessobord has a very slick surface. Maybe I should have tried one of my Belgium Linen panels. I may re-do this scene on one of those. The other thing is that maybe I'm putting on the paint too thickly. I tend to be overly generous with my paint, and that makes it more difficult to finesse things like clouds. So there are two things to work on for this painting.

Stay tuned for more attempts. I know I can get the trees and the grass and the hay rolls to look right. They don't look right now because I've just blocked them in. But I know how to paint them. It's just the clouds right now that have me stumped.

#Oilpainting, #paintingclouds, #marycarolart, #cloudstudy

My Palette

I have learned so much over the past few years as I've taken workshops and classes from so many different artists.  Each of them has his/her own preferred palette of colors.  Kevin Menck has 4 colors - titanium white, cad scarlet, cad lemon, and ultramarine blue.  Kathie Odom has 20 different colors - about 6-8 different reds, blues, and yellows. As I have painted more and more, I've settled on colors that I seem to use more.  I've developed the palette layout that works best for me. It's what I use when I'm at home or doing plein air painting on my own. When I take a class from another artist, though, I tend to use that artist's palette so that I can follow his/her guidance more easily.

I remember hearing an artist that I admire very much comment last year that he can always tell when an artist uses a limited palette because there isn't much vibrancy to the painting. I don't agree with that, but I DO enjoy more colorful paintings. I have proven that I can use a limited palette - and using one has helped me understand color much better.  However, for my own use, I prefer to have more color choices. I like having a couple of each primary color - plus a brown (burnt umber or Van Dyke Brown) and a black (Payne's Gray or Ivory Black), a yellow ochre, and light gray/blue.

On my palette, I place titanium white along the far upper right. Then across the top, I usually keep a cool and a warm red, and a cool and a warm yellow, and, on the top left side, I put a cool and warm blue. Although I can mix purple, I like to have at least one purple simply to save time and  make it easier. And last on the left side are a couple shades of green. The four colors along the bottom are what I call my "modifiers." I use them to modify (darken, lighten, cool down, warm up) other colors.

I keep those basic colors at these locations on my palette.  Then occasionally I switch out colors or add other colors, depending on what I'm painting.  This palette works very well for me.

#marycarolart, #artistpalette, #oilpalette, #limitedpalette, #oilpainting

The cotton fields of home

I remember throughout my childhood seeing cotton fields as I drove or rode around the countryside in Georgia. Now when I drive to Georgia to visit my mother, I pass quite a few cotton fields. Cotton fields are strikingly beautiful! I love the look of the cottony whiteness covering the ground.  I've stopped several times on my way to or from Georgia to take photos to use in painting. Finally, this past week, I followed through and painted one of the fields.  I painted it while I was visiting my mother. This field in my painting is actually in Alabama - just a few miles from the Georgia border.

I like the trees - I'm not sure about the cotton. Overall, I like it - although I'm not sure I have it where it looks definitively like a cotton field.  It could be a white-flowered field.  There wasn't a creek in my photo, but I felt the painting needed something more of interest. So I added the creek and the rock in the foreground.  Otherwise, it follows the photograph fairly well.  If I "widened the lens" there would be a house on the far left.  I may re-paint it and widen the perspective to include the house.