Thursday, April 24, 2014

Transitioning to Spring -- and Coastal Plein-air

Portrait of Kelli, Oil on Binder board, 15 x 20
The painting at left is another product of the three-hour portrait sessions hosted by the well-known Providence artist Kate Huntington on Monday nights.  The model, herself an artist, was amazing in both maintaining and recovering her pose for this session.  Most of the artists at this session end up with a credible likeness, but if you want more finish, more quality in the visual effect, it is probably advisable to bring supports (canvas) no larger than , say, 12x16.   That situation was evident here.  Whereas the likeness, in my opinion, was good, more time was needed to fine-tune hues and soften edges, particularly in shadow edges on and surrounding the face.  Incidentally, I find the binder board (actually made for book coverings) works find in accepting the paint provided it is first gessoed front and back -- preferably at least two coats.





Resting Boat, 8x10, Oil on Board

The oil sketch (8x10) shown here was done on a sunny but rather breezy day .   The fun here was capturing the light and its effect on the still-grey hues of early spring.  The boat itself is not very distinctly delineated and is off to the left.                   The next painting (to the right) was done on the very next day in the same spot .  Here the light was not as strong.  A little more of the shore is shown -- at low tide.        This last oil sketch was done on a 9x12  masonite board.                  
 



No comments:

Post a Comment