This month, I painted small, in keeping with my desire to make things manageable. My outdoor paintings were painted on a 3.5″x5″ Moleskin pocket sketchbook; my studio paintings this month were painted on my Cheap Joe’s going-out-of-business stock of 6″ square Kilimanjaro paper.
Outdoor Paintings
Thanks to Lynne for getting me to go to to the Urban Sketchers Boston meetup for the first time; I met them in Mt. Auburn Cemetery.
I feel like my outdoor paintings are going through an awkward phase. My values have leveled up, but everything’s a bit fuzzy.
Indoor Paintings
Many of my paintings were done to test masking fluid. Others were done just for fun.
I took a not very good snap through a window to catch an amazing sunset. So I did a little 3″ painting based on it.
While shopping for art for my place, I bought some prints from my fave Shelby Thayne and decided make another swing at painting layered mountains in her style, as I learned in a class with Shelby. Mountain shapes were based on an Unsplash photo by Alex Diaz, but I adjusted the colors to my preferences.
For this last one, I stopped using masking fluid and decided to just have fun with one of the photos that I had posted on Paint My Photo. As the greens deepen in my environment, I was inspired to paint with lots of sun and greens. I’m happy with how deep my greens got, as this is something I typically struggle with. Perylene Violet turns out to be a useful addition to my palette as it makes these interesting velvety blacks with greens. I didn’t use any black!
Conclusion
Earlier in the month, I talked about feeling like I’m in an art slump, but I ended up happy with the work that I did this month. While I continue to struggle to find time to paint, I think shifting to small 6″ square tiles has helped me to keep things pretty approachable this month.
Next month, I’m planning to join Claire Giordano’s Beginner/Foundations class, as it’s included in my Adventure Art Academy membership and I think it will be a good chance to re-focus on the basics. I feel confident and non-beginner in my color mixing, but there is always more to sharpen in water control, values, edges, planning, composition, and landscape elements such as mountains, trees, and water. I think it will feel easy and fun to do some beginner projects.