Another lesson learned

Putting on a warm yellow wash over the entire picture from the previous post was enough to tone down the contrast and create a feeling of an evening glow. Who hasn't seen an evening like this?!

 

Afterglow, acrylic on canvas, 8"x10"

Live and Learn!

Took a half day workshop yesterday with Bob Burridge at the 2013 Art of the Carolinas trade show in Raleigh. The topic was "Loose and juicy landscapes" which is much of what Bob's paints, though he does delve into other subjects. The best part for me was learning about subtractive painting. For example, going from this.........

.........to this. Just by negative painting - that is, taking away everything that doesn't belong!

Afternoon on the Prairie

This is a rather fast knife painting, an approach perfectly suited to acrylic paint. The colors were mixed directly on the board and moved around only as much as needed to the shapes and light-dark contrasts. Even the colors in the tree (ultramarine blue and cadmium yellow medium) were moved just so as to create the shape. The fact that this minimal working of the paint still produced a mostly green hue reinforces the wisdom about how overworked paint can lead to mud!

As I said in another post, scenes such as this one are commonplace in the midwest and their beauty probably wholly unnoticed by most people. To me the play of atmospheric effects on farmland along with the change of vegetation with seasons is enough to inspire forever.

Afternoon on the Prairie, Acrylic on board, 11"X14", $150 (unframed)