Coming up for Air

I have missed a couple of posting days. Summer is here and there is much more going on in a day. I am sure the long hours of daylight are part of the reason! I have been putting in as much time as possible on my "Duet" painting but the progress is very slow, or so it seems to me. I have started in on the color finally. Here are the latest pictures of the painting in progress:

©2012 R.L. Delight, "Duet" oil on linen, 22"x40". Work in progress.

© 2012 R.L. Delight, "Duet" work in progress close up.

I had a bit of a challenge getting a good shot even taking it off the easel. There is a bit of glare on the painting. 

There is a call for art I would like to do a painting for and suddenly I realized I need to get going on it if I am going to make the deadline. The show is at the gallery where I volunteer as a docent. The painting above does not have any deadline and I am feeling I need to step away for a week or two. Not only do I need to refresh my vision for the painting but some of the paint needs to dry a bit before I oil out the painting to get a better idea of what the tones are doing. 

With the new painting in mind I got a few art supplies ordered. 

Art supplies!

 My mate made me another stretcher bar frame and I ordered linen and sizing. I also ordered some different brushes to try and two new colors to add to my plein air and seascape painting palette. I am trying Rembrandt brand greenish umber and green earth. The next painting will have a seascape in it as well as a still life of sorts. Notice I say "ordered"? Living in a relatively isolated area means most of my supplies are ordered online.

This week I will be busy stretching canvas, getting a few paintings framed and ready to submit to a local art show, and working on compositions. Evenings and weekends will be spent playing music with Sedona Fire and practicing my cello. It makes for a lovely full life! 

-Renee

The Cello Scroll Blues

 

@ 2012 R.L. Delight, Duet painting in progress, close-up

I am moving into the color portion of the painting and since I felt I needed to get a handle on painting the cello scroll, I started there. I would normally start with the bigger and darker shapes but decided to approach this painting a bit differently. It is going agonizingly slow. Even though I drew the scroll and painted it in the grisaille, I still had to do a lot of adjustments. There is still more to be done as well but I will be leaving it here for this first pass with color.
I had a lot of struggles with the scroll which led me to post the following on Facebook the other day:

5 things I learned while painting today:
1.Cello scrolls are freakin hard to paint and make my eyes cross.
2. Fear likes to sneak up behind you and put you in a choke hold.
3.Being an Aries/Taurus mix means that I will stubbornly hang in there until the fire within can toss Fear off.
4. Cello scrolls have a subtle intricate beauty that can take your breath away.
5. Cad. Orange is my friend.

Ah, the fear part. I was struggling trying to get it to look right when I stepped back a moment to evaluate why I was struggling. I realized I was nudging it around and getting nowhere because I was afraid I would lose what I already had and would never get it back! I realized that I really needed to wipe out part and rebuild the shapes. I took a deep breath and did just that and things went a lot smoother. I tell you, fear can really trip you up if you aren't careful! The vigilance never ends either.  I will get a bit more time in on the painting this week and then I will need to get another painting started next week so progress will slow down even more.
It should be an interesting week. Hard to believe it is already the middle of July.
Hope all of you out there are staying cool.
-Renee

Blue Skies and Fourth of July

Sea Star at Short Sands Beach

Summer has finally arrived on the Oregon Coast. As it is rare to have several warm calm days in a row, whenever they arrive people from all walks of life drop what they are doing and head outside if at all possible. The tides and weather conditions aligned recently and instead of painting in the studio, I took my easel out to Short Sands Beach which is located in Oswald State Park, a short 10 minute drive up the road for us. I wanted to get an oil sketch of a waterfall that cascades down to the beach for an upcoming painting. Next to my favorite Hug Point, Short Sands is another wonderful place to paint.  Short Sands is where all the surfers and their dogs hang out.
The U.S celebrations for the Fourth of July came and went. We had a busy day of celebration duties and the small town parade.

Band cam

Here is a picture of the parade from the drum section where I was playing and marching. My mate is in the dark blue shirt on the right playing trumpet. The day ended with the usual spectacular fireworks show on the beach after dark, which around here this time of the year happens about 10:00 pm.
I have been working on my cello/trumpet duet painting as well. I have taken the grisaille as far as I can go and will now be starting in on color. I will have a painting in progress report for the next post. Progress may slow down a bit if the weather continues to be fine. I would like to get more plein air painting in to use as reference for future paintings. Now, I have to grab our instruments off the still life table so we can go to our weekly jam session!
-Renee