Pear Still Life

I painted this picture on a whole sheet that was trimmed to create a longer format.  This painting was so frustrating!  The problem was I was trying to do a large picture with very dark darks using colors that were more opaque.  (burnt sienna, yellow ochre, indian red).  Every time I went in to correct something or make something darker, the paint lifted.  After trying over and over again I finally gave up and called it a learning experience.

Indiana Farm

I started with wet on wet for the sky and some of the distant trees.

I did another wet on wet wash for the field, and splattered some other colors for texture.  I used dry on wet to the trees around the barn.  I formed the barn using negative space.

I contintued to add more texture in the field and different areas.



The final painting.

Cactus Study

I wanted to try a painting that was part loose and part tightly rendered.  I started by splattering different colors for the rocks and pebbles and rendered the cactus.

I continued splattering for the rocks, and then tried to loosely render some of the rocks immediately around the cactus.

Finally I added the spines on the cactus with gouache and touched up some values.  I added a couple of splotches of color here and there to help with the composition.

The final painting

Indiana Farm

Me and my sister decided to try painting the same subject to see how we would interpret it differently.  This is a farm that is near our home.