Welcome back.
This week we will be continuing with the painting of the (West) Cape May Victorian house. The photo that I’m using is seen directly below.
I am doing this piece in my usual acrylics in an 8×10 format.
When last seen, the painting appeared as it does in the photo seen directly below.
Since that time, I have continued to work on the painting.
I’ve continued to paint the body colors of the house. The color to the left side is actually a very light blue rather than the white of the photo. The shadowed color to the right is the same blue with less white added.
Also receiving attention are the windows. Those on the left side of the house are darker than the lighter blue ones to the right. These will change before we are done. They are too large and not the color(s) that I want.
Finally, the bay window has been painted on the left side. It has a shadowed three dimensional appearance. More shadowing will be added before we are done.
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.
Looks good, boran. Reminds me of an Edward Hopper painting that hangs in the NC Museum of Art.
Thanks SN. Hopper really did some great work with this kind of thing.
Hey SN, that’s a great observation and very apt.(I think I might even know which Hopper you’re talking about) As far as my making any substantial critiques-forget it-I just can never put into words what I think other than hey that looks good.. Being interested in art you’d think I might have picked up some insight and lingo in talking about paintings but I haven’t.
Well enough about me, like others I think there is a rather stunning difference in the progression of this painting and previous ones. More clarity and realism than the more impressionistic and rather hazy or gauzy effect of others. A beautiful starkness.
I don’t know how long you’ve been painting, Mr. B2, but I’m noticing an unmistakable leap in the quality of your work over a relatively short time. I’ve been following your posts for a few years now, and everything you’ve done has been of a high quality, but there’s definetily something happening over the last 3 or 4 months that’s hard to miss. This work, the last house before this one, and the river at the foot of those red bluffs you did not long ago, in particular show an evolution toward a better more realistic portrayal of shadows and reflections. The stream below that bluff was really well done. Water is such a hard element to interpret properly but you’ve really seemed to have turned a corner here somewhere recently.
Are you noticing this leap too?
…and have yourself a fine Fathers Day tomorrow :o)
Thanks, Super! I do feel that I can make a decent attempt at things that I wouldn’t have tried in the past. Sometimes it’s just a matter of pushing yourself a little harder. Also, I’m spending more time painting now than any other time in the last few years, a very big factor.
I remember when I first got into serious large scale graphis on the boats that I would look at other people’s work and shake my head in disbelief at the things they were doing, convinced that I could never, ever create the same stuff. Certainly not in the same quality. But as I attempted things that were more and more difficult I began to understand that I could break down an image into different elements that in and of themselves were relatively easy and hardly impossible to do, but that once layered upon other and different elements combined to make something more extraordinary looking. And like you, the more I did the easier and more natural it became to me.
Cool! :o)
sounds a little like life…
It does….and wouldn’t it be nice to just take an airbrush and color in the world the way I wanted it to be? Or the way you wanted it to be? The way we all need it to be? :o)
Airbrushes can also remove images that were once there, correct? I think I need that more than anything else right about now. 🙂
Oh yeah, that too :o)
Creating something from nothing…
or creating a little less of something!
A little like Beethovan who composed all his life, but decomposed after death.
Are you feeling better Super?
I noticed the same thing with Boran2`s work, although subtle through the course of one canvas, the change is obvious, from first canvas a few years ago, to this one now.
The lighting on the front part of the building is impressive. I don`t know if it`s the mix of colors or the texture of the brush, but it has the “age” of the house itself.
Knuclehead, I really want to hear what you think of next week’s installment. Please make a point of stopping by.
Boran2,
I don`t think that should be a problem.
I don`t think I`ve missed but a few installments in quite a long time, & now, with the suspense you`ve just inoculated me with, I surely won`t fail to visit.
Heh, heh,
pretty clever :o)
There’s not any one thing I can put my finger on definetively that’s improved in Boran’s art. Though in this one and the last house portrait there was definetily a more sophisticated application of shadowing. Maybe it was more realistically placed? Maybe it’s that there are shadows within painted panels that are made up more of a subtle blend of colors as opposed to a more stark or definitive shadow with an outline or edge? I think Boran is being more generally precise, as opposed to abstract, which he also really has a talent for.
How am I feeling? Actually, not much better really. This go round has taken a hunk outta me so far. Maybe I’m just becoming more functionally or dysfunctionally :o) you know…old and brittle? :o)
Super,
Some of my past comments address exactly what you`re saying now.
“as opposed to abstract, which he also really has a talent for” I felt the same way when I suggested he could stop painting on a desert cactus scene right then & it would in itself be a completed work.
Also in the last two, including this one, I have been interested in how the shadows are interpreted, as impression, or as realism, the latter, showing very well in this canvas.
As they say
Great minds think alike
& fools never differ.
Hopefully your youthful vitality will be back soon with the hopeful rebirth of the nation.
Nah, you’ve been old and brittle for years. Must be something else. 😉
Thanks to all for your many, interesting and kind comments.