DEMO COMPLETED

Yesterday's post showed the photo reference for this painting, as well as the sketch and the work in progress. After lots of design adjustments, the painting is finally finished.

When I started the plans for this demo, I was inspired to do a painting of the new 'old' barn which the Women's Art Club of Cincinnati has been refurbishing for the last couple of years. The barn is really, really HUGE, and the weathervane on top is exquisite - a little lady chasing a rooster who is chasing a hen. In the painting, I not only moved the weathervane down where all could see it, but also moved the hen so she's flying on other side of the barn.

This painting began with a grid layout to help create a more contemporary look to the old barn, which for me is symbolic of the new steps the art club has taken in purchasing this historic building. The paint brush seen in the original sketch vanished as I reconstructed the composition this week. A few other things were changed considerably in order to establish a stronger design pattern.

I so appreciated being able to show the women last Saturday how much fun it is to paint on YUPO. Once the painting was completed, I added the words "Cincinnati OH" and "Women's Art Club" as well as the date the club was founded, along with some special textural effects to enhance close up interest. Double click on the painting to see the details and wording better.

Let me know what you think ..... it was a lot of fun exploring how to make it all work together. Soon I'll make arrangements to donate it to the Women's Art Club, all ready to be framed.

"THE BARN" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 35 x 24" COLLECTED

YUPO TO MARKET

'Day Two' of our workshop was a really good one. More mind stretching info from George James about creating meaningful art helped us as we explored ways to express what is meaningful to us.

This painting, on YUPO, drawn with a Derwert watercolor pencil and painted with transparent watercolor, is about 26 x 20". I've posted my reference photo below as well as a photo of another painting done last summer from the same reference, for comparison.

My goal for last summer's painting was to create an impressionistic look on YUPO. For this new painting, I was more focused on creating a contemporary look.

The paper was gridded out first, then I constructed the drawing, making a specific section within the grid most important. The grid lines on the YUPO were there to encourage me to play more with the design elements rather than be realistic. The grid also aided me by helping keep a flat look to the painting. (Normally a paper is gridded out to aid in transferring a drawing from one paper to another. This type of grid had an entirely different purpose.)

Proper perspective or realism weren't my concern at all. The main thing I wanted to do was create a dynamic painting of a special place, and I wanted the painting to appear flat rather than 3-D when it was done.

Creating shapes within a good design was a lot of fun to work out ahead of time. I incorporated John Salminen's process of using just ONE good white shape to start the painting.

A very kind woman named Grace purchased the painting on the last day of the workshop, and it was hard to part with it so soon after painting it. (But I don't have to get it framed:-)

'Europe's Best' (Below on YUPO) with reference photo used for today's painting as well as this one - - -