Available Art

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

My first big painting in 5 years?

First stage


The first stage

The first stage completed

Second Stage, I added warmth to the background
Second Stage, added warmth all over

Stage 3 and 4, kept adding color.  Its always at this point that I get so caught up in the painting that I forget to take photos!  Maybe next time I'll remember.

I think I'm finished but I'm not sure.  I'll have to wait and see.

I was very excited to do a large painting because its been 5 years or so since I've done something really big!  Of course once I got started my excitement turned into disappointment!  I was fine with stages 1 and the beginning of stage 2 but then it was driving me crazy doing the end of stage 2.  I figured out a couple of reasons why, #1 I wasn't using enough paint.  I figured that out last night when I was looking at a tiny 4x4 painting that I had done.  I just didn't know why my little ones were so lush and the big one wasn't.  Duh!  I wasn't using enough paint!  I had forgotten how much paint a large painting takes.  I had a teacher tell me once that you should only do 3 strokes at the most before loading your paint brush again.  I can't say that I always adhere to that advice but it certainly solves the problem of not using enough paint!  #2 I am painting green flowers!  One thing about painting green things...you really need to use colors other than green to make green.  I know it sounds crazy but green paint tends to make things look fake.  I think I'm pretty happy with the results but I will keep an eye on it to see if I change my mind.

3 comments:

  1. Way to go Amber! I especially love the brushwork and how you have shifts of warm and cool in both your background and flowers. I have experienced the same thing. It's hard to go big after working small for an extended amount of time.

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  2. Thanks Polly! You wanna know why I did it? You inspire me! I saw those nice big paintings you've been doing and I wanted to do one too! Actually you inspired me to paint glass and flowers too! I work with flowers all day and it never occurred to me to paint cut flowers! To anybody out there reading this...you've got to check out Polly's work its fantastic!

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  3. Hey Amber, just came over to your blog and saw that you featured my painting!! Thank you, what a sweet surprise. I am delighted and honored that you were inspired by my work.

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