The Cello Scroll Blues

 

@ 2012 R.L. Delight, Duet painting in progress, close-up

I am moving into the color portion of the painting and since I felt I needed to get a handle on painting the cello scroll, I started there. I would normally start with the bigger and darker shapes but decided to approach this painting a bit differently. It is going agonizingly slow. Even though I drew the scroll and painted it in the grisaille, I still had to do a lot of adjustments. There is still more to be done as well but I will be leaving it here for this first pass with color.
I had a lot of struggles with the scroll which led me to post the following on Facebook the other day:

5 things I learned while painting today:
1.Cello scrolls are freakin hard to paint and make my eyes cross.
2. Fear likes to sneak up behind you and put you in a choke hold.
3.Being an Aries/Taurus mix means that I will stubbornly hang in there until the fire within can toss Fear off.
4. Cello scrolls have a subtle intricate beauty that can take your breath away.
5. Cad. Orange is my friend.

Ah, the fear part. I was struggling trying to get it to look right when I stepped back a moment to evaluate why I was struggling. I realized I was nudging it around and getting nowhere because I was afraid I would lose what I already had and would never get it back! I realized that I really needed to wipe out part and rebuild the shapes. I took a deep breath and did just that and things went a lot smoother. I tell you, fear can really trip you up if you aren't careful! The vigilance never ends either.  I will get a bit more time in on the painting this week and then I will need to get another painting started next week so progress will slow down even more.
It should be an interesting week. Hard to believe it is already the middle of July.
Hope all of you out there are staying cool.
-Renee

Wrangling a Painting

After a few days break over the weekend, I got back to the painting in progress that was causing me such grief last week. I knew a bit of time away would help. This is very much a painting in progress as it is passing through its ugly duckling stage. All the colors are blocked in and now I am going through again and adjusting tone, half-tone, and colors as well as slightly tweaking the drawing part as needed. I need to lighten the dark shadows on the teapot a bit as they look too dark, and too blue, to me now. I am satisfied, so far, that I got the wayward teapot size and shape under control. It was going wild there for a bit. I will be moving around the painting and bringing everything up to the same level of finish before adding more detail.
I mentioned in a previous post that I am reading A History of American Tonalism: 1880-1920. I really am enjoying the book even though it is physically challenging to read such a huge tome. I decided to try something I read on the white tablecloth when the painting is at the right point for it. I will describe it, whether it works or not, when I get to that point. I am not even sure if it is an appropriate technique to use but I like to experiment and think it is worth a try. I am aiming to get to that point for the next post on Sunday.
I have been exploring more artist blogs and will have a few to share when things slow down a bit. We are having lovely, stormy, winter weather here on the wild north Oregon  coast. Just right for long cozy days in the studio!
Will be reporting on the progress soon!
-Renee

Disciplinary Action

I now have my own definition for disciplinary action which is simply: the act of regularly showing up and doing the work! Not that I am completely undisciplined, but I am returning from the holiday break with a renewed determination and purpose. It has been quite a week for me and I am scrambling to keep up with everything I am learning and getting into place. But, first things first! I did make sure I painted everyday. I am starting to get back into the swing of things again but progress is slow. I am looking forward when I can work faster. I know it will come with time and practice. Here is where I am at this week on this little painting. A warning though, it is still at the ugly in-between stage.

The background fabric is really interesting. It looked fairly neutral when I chose it but it has all kinds of strange colors in it. They are providing a lovely challenge for me that I am really enjoying even though it slows the process. I was also very distracted (I will get to that in a moment). The other day when I was painting and nothing seemed to be in the right place and I was struggling to make things work. I eventually realized that I forgot to turn on one of the lights I am using! Oh dear, as I said, it takes a bit to get back into the groove after even a short absence.
This week has been very exciting, and rather distracting, for me as I am continuing to make important changes. Ah! One of those changes is to post to this blog twice a week instead of one longish post once a week. So, more about those changes and their results in a couple of days!
I am curious, have you been making changes, big or small, in how you work? I would love to read about them in the comments or on your own blog!
I will be back on Wednesday with more.
-Renee

Slow but Steady

Progress has been slow but steady on my still life painting. I finally got all the color in but need to make a few more readjustments on the small pitcher before taking an update photo of it. I need to wrap up the painting as I am itching to move on to several quick color studies. This has been a good lesson for me. That said, I am working out a composition for one of the paintings I have been wanting to do for quite a while.
In the meantime, it is plenty busy around here. In the past, I always enjoyed seeing the baby cows and sheep in my neighborhood. Now, I get to see baby seals and seabirds! The other day I was walking Twill on the beach when I came upon a marked off area with people stationed at various points routing folks around. It was right down from my house too. Turns out a baby seal had been born that morning and would be on the beach until the tide came up enough for it to rejoin its mother. I ran home and grabbed the camera then, after taking a couple of pictures, ran home and grabbed my painting gear and loaded it into the bike trailer I made. I grabbed a quick bite of lunch and rode down to the beach to join the seal warders and paint. I stayed until the newborn seal pup got back into the water around 5pm. Hopefully the mother was waiting for it somewhere in the waves. A representative from the local park ranger was busy shooing people away as the baby swam south in the surfline. Here are a couple of pictures. It was such an interesting day.

 

The middle picture is of my bike and trailer at rest of course. This was the first chance I had to test out the trailer and it worked just great! Twill was only there a few minutes as she came down with my husband. We were stationed at a good distance. I had the biggest telephoto lens we own on our camera. The mother seal will abandon her baby if people get too close. Hopefully this one didn't.
This beautiful area continues to inspire and amaze me. Next week I plan to have an update, perhaps the final one, on my still life.
-Renee