Welcome back!
I have a short statement before I begin. Last week there was a little bit of controversy here (not here at BooTrib, but at the dailykos posting of this diary), something not usually seen in the Saturday Painting diaries. I will again set forth my “credentials”, such as they are, as I did when I started this series. Although I have considerable college credits in sculpture, I am wholly untrained as a painter. I have painted for more than 30 years, starting at a very young age but never got around to formal study. As such, I can’t offer what a trained artist could. I can only offer my observations based upon my experience.
Furthermore, I usually paint from photos that I myself took at a particular scene. The new project that I am starting this week is an exception in that it is not my photo, but I have been to the site a number of times. Unfortunately the subject matter that most interests me is across the country and time/funds prevent me from going back as much as I’d like. This past summer I did one installment of this series plein air, but most of the time photos and my own memory must suffice.
Finally, I am partly color blind. I have some trouble with browns and greens and subtle shades. My paint colors are occasionally a little funky.
Of course, I do not make my living as an artist, I paint only for my own pleasure. Nevertheless, I will continue to offer these weekly diaries. Hopefully they will provide, at the very least, a brief respite from the Republican treachery that is the subject matter of so many postings here.
Enough about that. (Did I say that this would be a short statement?)
The subject of our current project is Black Mesa, seen in the photo below. The mesa is located in the Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico.
Directly below is my painting as it currently appears. I painted the outline of the mesa and then painted the sky above. The final sky will be lighter in color and with clouds. Notice that I have cut off a bit of the scene, a necessity given the shape of the 8×10 canvas.
These initial lines are important in that they place the main elements. I probably should have left more space for sky and less for the foreground but I’ll go with it this way. It’s a good idea to avoid making the foreground and sky equal in size, something that I learned while doing photography. Making one or the other larger makes for a more interesting result.
Well, I’ll have more next week. Thanks for stopping by to read this. See you then.
