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 WATERCOLOR & GOLF

This time it's golf. Lots of golf balls, various sizes, help add interest to the painting. Or maybe you see a moon?

The painting started out somewhat differently than the other YUPO paintings I've done recently. I still used a grid to 'flatten' the picture plane but had some compositional problems with this painting. (See the original post below.)

I've revised the painting from the post late last night. The first posted painting was half green if you measured all the green areas, and the vertical tree trunk lines weren't anywhere else in the painting.

Creating a strong "Z" in the painting strengthened the composition a lot. Adding grasses in the bottom part of the painting helped subtly repeat the linear lines of the tree trunks. Floating in a few more golf balls and action lines lended more of the excitement of a golf game to the painting, too.

Cobalt Teal Blue was glazed over some of the tree foliage and remaining green areas to calm them down. Even some of the tree trunks were quieted. Finally, spotting in a few stronger orange shapes as well as lots of small dark splats of paint helped add movement throughout the painting also.

I wanted the energy and the expectancy that you feel when you're out there on the course to come across in the painting. It was fun to paint, and it led me around more than I led it. Kind of like golf! Or like watercolor?

My son and I have often discussed how golf and watercolor are so similar - the fewer strokes, the better the results... it's frustrating so much so that you hate it and yet you love it... some days you cannot do anything wrong and some days you play/paint like you've never held a club/brush before... it's immensely challenging.

"A GOOD DAY" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 26 x 20" COLLECTED! already:-)

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 - - -