Lake Como painting progression

I am working on putting together a video post, but I have to get my 9 year old to help me with some of the technical side first.😅 So today I am relying on the good old fashioned blog post, sharing a step-by-step painting in progress.

I had such a good time with my last Lake Como Painting that thought I’d “laissez les bons temps roule,” (as the Cajun in me likes to say.) I chose a scene in Varenna from my photo archives, one of my favorite memories that now feels like both yesterday and a long time ago. I chose one of my favorite canvas sizes, a 24x30”, and a color scheme of jewel tones that always cheers me up.

My starting approach for the last year or so is to just very casually sketch out my composition lightly in sienna oil pastel. The Sennlier oil pastel is so soft and lovely that it erases my change of mind with a very low stain, and yet allows me to indicate some shading at the same time.

Once I am more or less satisfied with my composition, I begin laying in some of the shadow areas of my painting, to get a feeling for the overall value pattern of my painting.

I am generally trying to keep things very broad as I lay down the initial color. While not all of the water is “in shadow”, I decided to lay in the general color because I felt it would help me make a decision about the composition ( as you will see in the next photo.)

My initial idea was to include the foreground shoreline with a couple of rowboats, but at the same time I wanted to keep the distant horizon below the middle point, which pushed the shoreline down. After laying in the water I decided the shoreline wasn’t really doing much for me or the composition.

This is better, I think. Even working from photos in the studio, there is still a lot of decision making that goes into the process. You don’t have to be a slave to a photo and paint something in, just because it’s there in the reference. This is my painting, after all, and sometimes the best thing I can do for my work is to simplify. There may be a future painting with the shoreline boats as the feature, you never know, but sometimes it’s better to say one thing with clarity than several things with confusion.

At this point it was time to step away and make dinner, but I felt like I was at a good stopping point so this is where I left off last evening. I will still need to address the rest of that white canvas and make additional adjustments to the water and boats , but now I have a pretty solid idea of where I’m going next.

Life post-Covid19 shutdown +Lake Como painting of the gardens at Villa Balbianello

Hi friends,

It is kind of strange to be posting this blog at this point in time. I had imagined I would restart my blogging with happy news—posting from the road perhaps during my plein air festivals, updating you all on social media with paintings from trips to the beach, the marshes, and the mountains. But that isn’t the way things have worked out for me this spring, or, I suspect, for a whole lot of other people who have found themselves in home confinement during this COVID19 pandemic.

This spring I’ve been mostly occupying myself with helping my daughter with her home study, adjusting to school closures and time without her friends. I’m also busy trying to secure groceries (and toilet paper!) and doing a whole lot more cooking and working in the garden. I’ve been trying to get myself and my family grounded as I feel the earth shift under all of our feet. In an effort to find some equilibrium, I’ve been organizing and updating my art files and reference photos, giving my website a tune-up, and generally trying to quell the sense of overwhelm I feel rising up from time to time.

Quite frankly I have been doing a little mourning too, not because we have experienced loss or illness at this point (thank God) but just because of the suffering I’m observing in the communities in the country and around the world. On a purely selfish level, loss of the simple things I took for granted pre-pandemic is also present.

Just before the shut down I upgraded my exhibition space at Crossroads Art Center here in Richmond, from a “wall” to a studio.

My Studio Space at Crossroads Art Center, located in building 2

The March opening that was scheduled was to be my inaugural event in my new space. That opening went online, and the entire Art Center closed for a time to public entry, except for by-appointment showings. My plan for my new space was to set up and do a little painting there on a weekly basis, to meet customers and answer any questions, in hopes that I could be more accessible beyond the scheduled art openings. That plan is on hold for now. My studio is still maintained though, and Crossroads has gradually reopened with reduced hours and a 10-person-limit at a time, with masks required of all staff and visitors at the present time.

Like every other small business I am watching and waiting and hoping for signs of improvement. For now I am working in my home studio. It has, out of necessity, taken a back seat too this spring. But slowly I am adjusting and finding a little time to get back in there.

As I mentioned, I have lately been going through a lot of my files and photos, trying to get them organized. In the process I lingered over my past travel photos and I really enjoyed revisiting them—especially now when I can use any uplift. This is my first oil painting since before the schools closed in March.

“Giornata in Paradiso, Villa Balbianello,” Oil on linen, 20x24” ©Jennifer E. Young

It felt really great to be back in front of my easel and to completely lose myself for a time in this happy memory of my visits to Italy and Lake Como and the wonderful gracious people (very much in my thoughts lately) that my husband and I encountered along the way. This view was from the stunning terraced gardens of Villa Balbianello. I painted a smaller version of this piece a number of years ago, but I was interested to tackle it again, re-imagined. Click through on the image if you would like to read more about the painting and the place that inspired it.

"Plein Air Unleashed"

Last week I posted about a planned trip to White Stone, VA to paint with fellow artists in a relatively new plein air painting festival called Plein Air Unleashed. There were ten of us artists at this year's event, which spanned over a period of three days. 52 paintings were turned in to Allure Art Center at the culmination, to be displayed at the gallery during the month of May.  This is a fairly newly minted event, so it was pretty relaxed and low-key, which was fine by me as I always feel a bit rusty in the spring after my winter hibernation in the studio. 

This was my collection of paintings turned in at the end of the event.

White Stone is less than two hours from where I live, but I have never been to this area, nor anywhere in the Northern Neck. It's really quite a treat for plein air painters like me. The Northern Neck is the northernmost peninsula in Virginia. White Stone, Irvington, and Kilmarnock, where we painted sit at the southern end, where the Rappahanock meets the Chesapeake Bay. The area consists of small beaches, wetlands, marinas, farms, vineyards, and wineries, so there is a wide variety of subject matter to paint, with some really beautiful light and cloud formations from being that it is surrounded by so much water.

In all, I painted 8 pieces and turned in 7 (with one being a tosser). I can sometimes feel stressed by the more competitive events, but this festival was invigorating. It was great to be around other fine caliber painters and to just be able to submerge myself in nothing but painting for a few dedicated days. Here are a few on site photos of works-in-progress:

I felt fortunate to have stumbled on the info about this event through my friend Kim Hall, and hope to return next year. Here are most of the paintings I submitted for the show. I wish I had time to get a terrific record of the artwork submitted, but these photographs will have to do for now. 

"Afternoon at Hughlett Point", oil on linen, 11x14"

"Cloud Drift", Oil on linen, 9x12"

"Two Pines, Hughlett Point", Oil on linen, 12x16"

"Ready for Summer", Oil on linen, 12x12"

"Springtime at Windmill Point", Oil on linen, 12x12"

"Wind on the Marsh", Oil on linen, 12x16"

The exhibit at Allure Art Center will run through May 26th. The gallery is going to be posting highlights from the event and artists on its Facebook page, so even if you are nowhere near White Stone, you can get a taste of the event online. 

Sunset Sail

Ever since my last blog posting, we have had rain, rain, rain. Needless to say, it thwarted many of my open days where I would have otherwise painted outside. The up side is that I finished the large 30x40" sunset painting I had started a while back, the progress of which I present to you now:

"Sunset Sail", Oil on linen, 30x40"