Warm & Cool Colors: Friday Debrief

I worked mostly on one new painting this week. This painting of crepe myrtles measures 36 x 48 inches (the size of most the paintings I’ve been doing lately). It’s challenging to photograph. I know that I’ve got the warm/cool color harmonies marvelously balanced when I find that I cannot get all the colors to register accurately. So, it’s one for the collector and the in-person visitor. The predominant color is a rosy salmon color that’s very bright. The foreground is brilliant yellow. It has lots of blue highlights throughout, pale blue-violet clouds, and rich greens for the middle ground foliage.

I need to connect the far right crepe myrtle to the ground and maybe make a few subtle adjustments to this and that, here and there, and it will be complete.

I made some drawings this week too, but my pride and joy is this painting. It has lots of mark making in it.

I feel like Pere Bonnard has been hovering near by. If you like my painting, please share it with your friends. And thank you for reading and looking.

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did I mention I’m on Twitter?

If you’re a Twitterer, you can follow me here:

http://www.twitter.com/AKuschan

I post some of my art there and I retweet some amazing art too!

did I mention that I’m on Instagram?

I’m on Instagram!  And you can follow me via the link below.  And this painting illustrated above — What the Sky says about the Road — is on view at the Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria through the month of June.

https://www.instagram.com/alethamkuschan/

my old haunt

Been busy this week cleaning and organizing my studio — and getting ready for an even bigger cleaning event — the BIG SPRING CLEAN!  So not so much painting in the last few days.

However I did go to the National Gallery of Art yesterday for a few hours and while I was there I made this drawing after a Rodin sculpture.

Spent some time looking at still lifes too in anticipation of my switch from landscape to still life which is coming, coming — soon!  Every time I am out where cut flowers are for sale I am thinking also about still life.  Soon, soon!

Here’s what I was looking at:

crepe myrtles in acrylic

First swipe at the landscape of crepe myrtles in a long format.  The canvas measures 18 x 36 inches.

I’ve almost persuaded myself that it’s not January.

“Koi Silk” at the Art League

Got a chance to see the January exhibit at the Virginia Art League and to photograph my oil pastel Koi Silk in situ.  I love the framing which was done by Carriage House Framing.   The whole thing measures 41.5 x 29 inches.

Here’s another view for scale.

The exhibit in historic Old Town Alexandria goes through February 4.

Here’s a link for Carriage House Framing.

http://carriage-house-picture-framing.business.site/

 

even more paint on the pond

Building up the “pond with lilies” in acrylic paint.  It measures 20 x 24 inches. After beginning it with drawing, I have kept to the scribbly sensibility.

It all began here:

https://alethakuschan.wordpress.com/?p=20171

pond, starting to paint

The painting that began with little blue ball point pen drawings (of previous posts) continues.  I’ve started putting the paint on.  The free wheeling beginning influences the way I go forward with it. The painting measures 20 x 24 inches.

 

second pond drawing

Here’s another quick thinking-out-loud drawing made with the Bic Velocity pen, well smudged.

I love, love, love, love, love drawing this way.  Totally carefree.  Just see something, put a mental line around it, and a physical one to parallel the mental one.

It’s like sight reading in music.  Once you start, you keep going.  Make mistakes, but don’t mess with the rhythm.

first pond drawing

Here’s the first drawing for a new painting.  I don’t make the drawing as a thumbnail sketch since I won’t refer back to the drawing once I begin painting.  It’s just another form of rehearsal.  I like to think about the shapes a few times before beginning.

I also just love drawing. I love scribbling with the loopy, meandering lines of a pen.  This is not the Bic Cristal that I usually use.  This one has got a much bolder line.  It’s a Bic Velocity.

I found that the best time to smudge is right after you’ve drawn the line.  The ink doesn’t smudge so well once it has dried.  I wear gloves — otherwise my finger tips would be the same color as that deep blue ink.