This acrylic painting is of the Carmelite Sisters By The Sea Sanctuary just outside Carmel, California and off Highway 1 which runs the lenght of the California coast. The overcast, maritime, cloud layer was kissing the top of the hills behind the sanctuary. I'm always struck by the serene beauty of this edifice surrounded by a golden field of grass and verdant hills. This scene was painted on a 12"X16" Belgian linen board. I will be teaching about 18 workshop students how to paint this starting with very broard shapes of color and tones to final refinements. The workshop is this Saturday at University Art, an art materials store here in Sac. town with a fantastic upstairs studio with north light exposure no less!
14 comments:
Nice. Very!!
I can almost see the nuns peeking from the shadows.
Nava: Until I painted this scene, I had no idea what the bldg. was for except that it kinda looked like a mission. Thanks for the thumbs up.
oh my last comment got eaten by the sucking void of the web.
What I commented on was the progression of development from the beginning blocking of contrasted colors, to the finished painting which is terrific.
I like how you form and shape the details on the foundation of those early steps.
Keep on.
Bonnie: It's the only way to fly...establish big shapes of color and value, then start to refine. It's the refinement that can become a bear!
I love your work! Thanks for showing the different steps on this, it's a great lesson!
Thanks Theresa! I like your h2o paintings.
I have a silly question. Was it difficult to layer the white building over the dark background?
I have been enjoying your site and artwork and also appreciate you showing the steps in this one.
Great work and style! I will be watching for more work. I especially enjoyed the rice solo paintings and your trials and tribulations painting with oils. I am an oil painter myself. Truly enjoyed the humour.
Annonymous: It's very easy in acrylic, especially, to layer the white monastery over the dark green background. Acrylic dries very fast so all I needed to do was add a nice thick layer of titanium white. And that layer dried fast (bout 5 to 10 minutes), after which I added a few more layers of subtle off white hues. Thanks for dropping by!
Theresa: You have a Vietnamese community there in Missouri...how fortunate! Of course here in California and particularly here in Sacramento, we have a huge Asian population. How fortunate for us!! South east asian food is my family's favorite (my wife, Cheryl and my daughter, Amy). We also have East Indian, and middle eastern peoples here...more great food to partake in! Your art on your blog looks very exciting so I'll be visiting often.
Beautiful painting!
I think I know this spot. I was there a few years back. It's kind of eerie when the fog rolls in.
Silvina: I found out at my acrylic landscape workshop last Saturday (we painted this scene so now I have two paintings) that you can walk the grounds surrounding the sanctuary. I'm thinking about taking my easel next time.
Very interesting to see that process... The acrylic process seems like the opposite from watercolor.
I stumbled across your blog, and found it interesting so I'll be back and try to learn something. THANKS!!
Mariam: Acrylic is sooo different from watercolor. More intense color mixing, and you need to often add some white to the mixes. With h2o, the white is always there (the white of the watercolor paper). No anxiety...it's an opaque medium... if something is not right, just paint over it. You can do this to your heart's content. Do it with h2o, and you end up with a steaming pile of you-know-what!
Post a Comment