More Iris Farm Dividends

Our second trip to the Hondo Iris Farm this season was more prolific art-wise than our previous photography session. We spent several hours painting on site, as well as photographing and drinking in the beauty of even more hundreds of stunning irises.

No painting can truly capture what our senses reveal. My first feeble attempt at grasping the "feel" of the garden in the context of the Hondo Valley is here--a 5"x7" palette knife oil on black board, "Iris Spring."

I learned, once AGAIN, that I am much happier and more comfortable working on a dark ground as opposed to white. My second effort was painted on white linen and required far more struggle! More tomorrow.

I wonder if John Singer Sargent was right when he said, “Color is an inborn gift, but appreciation of value is merely training of the eye, which everyone ought to be able to acquire.” Maybe I have trained my eye; maybe not enough.

A Three Painting Day!!

New paints are always an inspiration! Having received four new Gamblin "Radiant" colors--Yellow, Blue, Turquoise, and Green--I couldn't resist doing entire paintings using only those, plus white and a red. The three images are today's fun results! Each is about 5"x7". The iris, which I call "Flash Dancin'," is done on black gessoed board. The sunset is linen on board, and the wildflowers are regular canvas (you can see a little puckering at the top--not stretched yet).

Of the three, I especially enjoy the results of the sunset and the iris. I feel I didn't achieve quite enough contrast with the wildflowers, which was the first effort. I'm pretty pleased with the photos of the paintings--not too bad for phone pics!

Using a limited palette and creating new effects is a great way to learn and develop as an artist! Plus, there's almost nothin' more satisfying for an artist than to have a three painting day!!!

Today's quote is by Francois de La Rochefoucauld: "Some beautiful things are more impressive when left imperfect than when too highly finished."

More Monotype Experiments

I was short of extra working time yesterday, but wanted to play with an idea about using oil paint on a black gessoed board to create a monotype image. Realizing that I needed some sort of flexible application, I tried using palette knife on wax paper to apply the design, since I was using a rigid support for the final product. I also had been working with alkyd paint earlier, so that's what I used.

Since it's almost spring, I had in mind a dandelion as the subject. The outcome was pretty pleasing, even if it doesn't necessarily look like a dandelion! The main thing I learned is that I want to leave more "edges" around much of my subject to gain more black. This photo, taken with my cell phone at night, is a little less sharp than I'd like, but I wanted to share it, anyway.

I may try adding to the surface today, to see what can happen. At any rate, I'm having fun!