Country Church - Work in Progress

-
Do you have a favorite painting or drawing?


Here is my latest work in progress.  It's a small country church based on the watercolor below, which was completed on location years ago in Bowdoinham, Maine.   It's at a stage where I'll set aside awhile to see if there is anything else I'd like to add when I look at it with "fresh eyes" so to speak.


I had the good fortune to strike up a friendship and correspondence with the illustrator Bob Harris for the last decade of his life.  He was so generous with his advice and so encouraging.  He'd often laugh and say how difficult it was and how important it was  to know when a painting was done - before it was finished!  It's so easy to overcomplicate subjects and to leave little to the imagination for the viewer.

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see."   Edgar Degas

I really do like this watercolor sketch below, not because of how it turned out or any technical learning from the painting.  It does have a special place for me because it was the first painting I'd done on location once we'd moved up to Lisbon Falls.  I have so many impressions and memories of trips up and down this road with so many more subjects to paint.



My favorite painting or drawing?  The next one!!

Below are a few quick compositional sketches for the charcoal drawing above.  I did these sketches within 5 minutes and then moved onto the charcoal.



I'll likely do some paintings based on the finished sketch as well.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lone Pine - Cape Cod

-
Image
Lone Pine -Cape Cod  Acrylic 12" by 16" (Doodle Bug) Art is about discovery and the journey, for me at least.  Last week I went down to work on a subject for my next painting, and I ended up going in a completely different direction.  But that's a different story for a different day.   This particular painting was done from studies completed on location last year as well as preliminary sketches done from those studies and blogged about previously. I was captivated by the light and the dunes on the Cape.  The patterns of light on the dunes, the surf, as well as the shapes of the dunes themselves were such that one could paint them every day and have a different painting result every time. With this painting I also really wanted to experiment a bit with the sky and even though the initial subject of interest to me was the pine, I actually came to enjoy working on the surf - a small but important part of this composition.   To me, the pine had a
Read more

Study Ice Breaking - Androscoggin River parts B and C

-
Image
This large charcoal (18" by 24") was done to expand upon the small pen and ink sketch done from on location observations.  I added a few elements such as the additonal open water in the foreground.  The next step was the color compositional study below.                                    This compositional study (9"x 12") was a double experiment for me - one in terms of subject matter.  Had never attempted an ice dominated subject before - am quite excited about the possibilities.  It's a short season but one that, for me, demands more study. This was also an experiment in terms of ground for the painting.  I used a watercolor block for this.  I was pleasantly surprised at how even a lighter weight paper (in this case 140 lb paper) didn't buckle.  I'll definately continue to utilize watercolor blocks, particularly for on location paintings. I decided to leave the foreground as is for now - time will tell.  In some ways I like it bet
Read more