More of England

After I quit painting my wild and crazy version of Cambridge, I decided to go wild with brushwork but stay truer to color with a painting of Windsor Castle. The goal was to show a soft view of the castle but not too fairy-tale. It is 8x12, and I ran out of time in class, so this is what one hour produced:

I under painted each block of color in its complementary color. So the castle was a yellow, the front tree was purple, and the green tree was red. My overall color scheme would be considered purple/yellow although it almost goes purple, green, orange.

Sometimes It Just Doesn't Work

I was working on the painting of the canal that I posted earlier, but despite help from my teacher, it is one of my fails.

There are a lot of things that worked for it: the composition led the eye pleasantly, the colors provided  movement and contrast, and there were a lot of areas of complementary color. I also think the brushwork to the right of the paining was pretty good. But there was a lot that just didn't work for me. I could have kept working it, but I gave myself permission to give up. Maybe one day I will go back and start over with looser brushwork.

I have to admit it was fun to colorize Cambridge, UK! There was not a day of good sunshine when I visited, so if I want color, I have to invent it.

Seeing the Museum Differently

I took a week off from my class and my own painting to do some traveling. During my travel, I stopped off at St. Louis's Art Museum. (Best part--It's free!)

The art museum is more haphazardly laid out than any other I remember--although it might just be that I didn't understand the logic of it. In one room is impressionist, the neighboring one might have modern works, and the third will have art pieces of the Native Americans or artifacts of the Inca.

I whizzed by most of the modern art. Sorry! But I like abstract realism- is that the word? Where a real place or object is abstracted in form or color but you can tell what it is meant to be. Large pieces of artwork painting solid black or with lines just don't do it for me. I also flew through a special exhibit on Polynesia. It was pretty good because it had the meanings of the objects explained, but since I have never been and don't plan on going to Polynesia, I breezed by it. I wanted to see paintings!

When I saw this Monet painting, I suddenly understood the triadic color scheme of purple, green, orange. I had trouble understanding how to apply it before. Now, I would love to paint some other bridge with this lovely scheme.

I think the bright colors, especially blues and greens attracted me to this painting, but what made me stop and look at it for a while was the brushwork. I liked to see how all the different brushwork came together, the thing I struggle the most with now.

Take a look at the brushwork up close!
Also, it reminds us how realism and perfection don't always go hand-in-hand with good painting. Sometimes you just have to step away from the painting! (So often I hear us in class telling someone to stop, it looks great when the painter wants to keep going with it.)

This painting caught my eye for nothing technical but for subject. I have seen dark paintings of factories expressing the gloom, the depression. Instead, here the painting is pretty. It looks happy (probably more like an advertisement would want us to believe). Could it really have looked so idyllic? Or does it just show the painter's belief in industrialization?