Spencer Pierce Little Farm, plein air

Why does the blog heading become gibberish when I post it? 

This has mystified me for awhile. I'll see if I can fix it. If you know the answer, I'd love to hear it!

I promised I'd catch you up with paintings I completed while absent from my blog:

Here's a plein air painting of Spencer Pierce Little Farm, a beautiful place in Newbury, MA. Built in 1690, more than one hundred years before Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice was published, I couldn't help imagining a family life that was just as lively and engaging in this place. I plan to paint there again. You just need to turn your head and easel and there's another picture!

Meanwhile, I've tweaked some code and feel like I've just tinkered with the engine of a car. I also tried something a friend recommended. Let's see what happens. I'm going to post this now... Here's hoping the gibberish is gone!

Moving right along...

Here are two more plaster cast paintings, (around 16 x 20"), from Kelly Carmody's class. Raw Umber + Ivory Black were mixed together to create a relatively neutral dark and then Titanium White was added to create discreet piles of light to dark values. Once the paintings were blocked in using the 5 values, strings of light to dark paint were created and used to model form.

Learning to paint well involves learning to see and it really takes time and practice! These types of studies require constant comparisons of lights and darks. It's critical to keep the "lights with the lights" and the "darks with the darks" in order to achieve the effect of light falling across the form. It was challenging to judge the values. The darkest dark was not "black" and the lightest light was not white.

At many painting ateliers, students work on just one of these studies for months. Although I certainly understand how that approach can lead to great understanding and control, as an older, eager painter, I'm moving along very quickly, learning as much as I can from my imperfect studies.