Personal Art Blog

Sharing the lessons I teach at the Artist Guild and the personal discoveries in my art.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Mountain Meadow Flowers



Mountain Meadow Flowers

11x14in  oil on linen. Demo - Not for sale.

I did this a demo in class this morning. It is from a photo
I took in southern Colorado. We were driving to our destination
and I nearly dropped my jaw when I saw this amazing carpet of flowers
in the middle of nowhere. When I opened my mouth to yell, stop the car,
I found my own Mr Wonderful was already pulling over.
The years together do have their benefits!

I am not sure what flowers they were, but they looked to be in the wild aster family.

Artist Note.

This months focus in class is painting on a colored background.

I covered the canvas with a pinky/purple color and I lifted
out the light of the sky.

I chose this color as it would give me a good idea
of the placement of the flowers without having to put paint on top
too soon. I like to keep everything in a transparent paint quality
for as long as possible. Two reasons. It is easier to lift off cleanly anything
you are not comfortable with, and I like the dark areas to be painted
as transparently as possible. Richard Schmid along with many other artists,
stress this theory.
Unless I am making soft grays I never use raw umber. (as a dark)
I do use a beautiful transparent brown by Rembrandt which is
wonderful mixed with Ultramarine Blue or Viridian to achieve
rich, non chalky darks.


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6 comments:

  1. Lovely color Julie...I would love to watch you demonstrate painting this!

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  2. Excellent painting Julie i love it this color Ford For Sale

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  3. Beautiful painting Julie! Love the pink flowers. I bet they were stunning in real life because your painting is.
    When you mentioned the brown, are you are talking about Rembrandt's Transparent Oxide Brown or is there another one? Transparent Red, Yellow and Brown are such wonderful colors.
    I also ordered the brushes you talked about in an earlier post and I love them.
    Thanks so much for taking the time to write artist notes about your work. I look forward to reading them.

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  4. This must have been some view because your painting is just beautiful!

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  5. Lovely color Julie...I would love to watch you demonstrate painting this!

    X2! Wonderful piece, I see why its not for sale.

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  6. I noticed the thumbnail to this one as I visited your blog today...GORGEOUS! The carpet of flowers caught my eye just as it would in real life if I were driving by.

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I love that you are taking the time to comment and thank you for it. I am sure other readers will enjoy them too. If you cannot comment through this format then email me at juliefordoliver@gmail.com
Cheers,
Julie