Class Blog

I've kept a blog over the last two months about my impressions of what I've been learning from my experiential art class at UIndy. I am now actively working on getting 6 paintings completed. I have at least 10 that have been in progress. But now, I'm leaving the least favorable ones behind and am focusing on six that might make it to the final day of showing, which is Dec 7.

As a result, I've decided to stop blogging and just paint! So, this is my final entry for the class.

Rocky Mountain National Park #7

Here is a reference photo for the Rocky Mountain National Park. I visited there in 1999...nearly 10 years ago! I'm sure it looks about the same though! I plan on painting it on 3/4" MDF board.

Sedona Landscape, #4 - still struggling with this one

There are several paintings that I am struggling with. One of them is this one, painting #4.

I feel the picture I'm painting from is a good composition. I need lots of contrast and am working on that to make it a successful painting.

Sedona with Sunflowers, painting #3

I'm working on this painting of the Sedona Landscape to put it in a portrait orientation of a Sedona Landscape I had previously painted with a foreground of yellow flowers. I had originally wanted them to be sunflowers, but at this point they look like a mish-mosh of yellow and white!

Sedona 1

Sedonna 1 --
I'm working on having a better composition
by drawing out a more fluid design.

Sedona 3

I've just started this one. For now, it's the third painting, and as you can see will need lots of work, especially with the light source. I'm copying a previous painting I did, which was called "Sedona Sunflowers." I like that painting and thought I'd learn more by painting another one. The old painting is a horizontal (landscape) composition. This one is a vertical (portrait) composition.

Sedona River (#9)

This one was a start of a river in Sedona. It is not going in a good direction. So, I'm putting it aside for now and calling it "Sedona #9." I'm using a numbering system to help me prioritize what to work on, because I need to ensure that I have 6 paintings to turn in. This one may not get worked on further.

Grand Canyon 5

Field of Corn

This painting is in the Ulster Museum - National Museum in Northern Ireland. It's in the "Post-Impressionists" exhibit. It was painted by Roderic O'Conor (1860-1940). Field of Corn, Pont Aven (1892)

Calla Lilies #8

I painted this composition out of my imagination. I then remembered what the flowers were: Calla Lilies. I don't know why I painted them, perhaps because I love the color yellow!

For the course, I need to paint 6 paintings. But I would like to paint extra ones so that I can select from the best of the 6. This one is #8

Here is a reference photo I am using:

Today I printed off a few paintings. The first was "Talisman" by Serusier. And the second was Cezanne's famous Millstone in the Park of Chateau Noir. When looking at the masters, I feel a sense of huge inadequacy. Why would I even try to paint something as beautiful as they could! What is the point? I don't have an easy answer to that question. I just know that their artwork is so devastatingly beautiful, that it makes me want to submerge myself in painting as well, even though I am not a master and feel extraordinarily inadequate.

Post-impressionist Painters

Alfred Sisley, "The Seine at Bougival in Winter," 1872

When looking at this painting, I notice the blue colors even more strongly against the deep ground color where the trees are. I like the haziness in the distance, and the sky, wow...turquoise sky at sunset!

Example of Monet's Impressionism

Claude Monet, Impression, soleil levant, 1872

Cezanne!

This painting by Cezanne, Mont Sainte Victoire has two secondary colors that make a deep contrast in the painting. The two colors, orange and green juxtaposed next to each other create an exciting landscape!

The post-impressionist, Van Gogh, and my impression of him over the years

Green Wheat Field by Vincent Van Gogh, June 1889, Vincent Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Holand.

I've been to the Van Gogh museum every time I've been to Europe, which has been 4 times. The first time I went I was 17-years-old, traveling through Europe on an inter-rail pass. I didn't really know about Van Gogh, maybe not even the "Starry Night" painting. But I was hooked the first time I went. The last time I went I was 43 and remembered vividly that he repeated his compositions over and over. I know that is how he became a master at painting. He wasn't happy with just painting one image and then moving on to another. He painted the same image over and over, getting better each time.

Prizm

I went to Prizm today and bought art supplies for my class. I bought 3 drawing notebooks and am excited about drawing before painting. This was something my instructor suggested at my last class .

He showed me what I will call "the axis" method of drawing. It is to draw a matrix and place the major points of the drawing at the intersection, or "axis." He described a painting he'd done in which the lines of the drawing intersected the vertical coordinates. It was a window that was directly on the line, then a break from the line, then a part of the rest of the painting picking up where the line had left off.

I found that intriguing that there is a pattern that you can use to improve the composition of a painting. I will try out the axis method and start drawing.I sketched out one of my paintings from the photograph I have of Sedona Cactus. For some reason, I'm not able to get a good composition of it, even though Iv'e sketched out three drawings. I decided to abandon the reference photo and start over with a new photo that has a better composition. So, I sketched out a new composition and started putting colors on the canvas -- mostly yellow and blue. It's still got a long ways to go because the composition is still not where I want it to be.