Welcome back.
This week we will be starting an entirely new project, but first some old business. Seen in the photo directly below is our last project in a plein air style frame. I was able to buy it for $14.99 at a craft store! Such a deal. Usually I have to go order from pleinairframes.com to get better frames but once in a while I get lucky. It actually has a silvery finish that may not come through in the photo. I think that it suits the painting well.
On to the new painting. I wasn’t ready to leave the subject of Victorian houses and will be painting from the photo seen directly below. This time around I am using my own photo, taken in Cape May, New Jersey when I was there just a few days ago. Cape May is the promised land of Victorian structures, having more than 600 in a square mile. It is well worth a visit.
I will be doing this piece in my usual acrylics in an 8×10 format.
I started with a dark underpainting to cover lines that were on the canvas from an earlier Grand Canyon piece seen here a few cycles back. It was completed on another canvas while this one collected dust. It will finally prove useful here. On the brownish background I painted the outline in a pink color, only because that shade was handy and would show well against the brown. The current state of the painting is seen in the photo directly below.
That’s about it for now. I’ll see you next week with more progress on this piece. As always, feel free to add photos of your own work in the comments section below.
Paint me a picture of your thoughts.
B2 – I have been away from the internet and was afraid I would miss the completion of the Las Vegas, NM Victorian house. Glad to see it framed – it came out very well! I really like how you captured details like the porch trim and the way you created the distancing effect on the other buildings.
I look forward to your next house 😉
(You’ve gotten me curious enough to check out what defines a “Victorian.”)
Thanks tampopo!
Victorian homes span roughly the 1860s/1870s through the turn of the century. There are perhaps half a dozen styles: Italianate, Second Empire, Stick, Princess Anne, Shingle. Most people are familiar with the turrets and gingerbread of Princess Anne. Shingle style houses are the most progressive, emphasizing overall form/volume over decoration. These are my favorite. You can see a number of these in Newport, Rhode Island. (Sorry, I’m a lay student of architecture of that period.)
That period was followed by arts and crafts architecture, sometimes included with the Victorian styles.
Yikes! Princess Anne should be Queen Anne.
Are you apologizing for sharing your knowledge and interest?!
I’ve just spent a bit of time reading about and looking at photos of various Victorian houses (the internet is amazing!). I really wish history was taught differently – the where and why of houses would make an interesting starting point.
I really like this one, boran! The sky, the bushes, the depth of that upper window…very nice. I like the frame too.
Thanks, CG. I was truly fortunate to find that frame in the size that I needed.