On the easel- Provence outdoor cafe painting WIP

After spending so much time painting small pieces, it is nice to be working on something large again. This is the beginning stage of a 36x24" oil painting of an outdoor cafe in the Provencial village of Rousillon. I painted a small study of this scene some time ago and I have been wanting to create a larger version for a while.

Even as a full time, near daily painter, it's always a little scary posting a work-in-progress because I don't exactly know how it will turn out. I have a pretty good idea, but from time to time  a painting may not come into fruition in the way that I expect. But, that's all part of making art, I suppose-- a little trial and error, and a lot of practice.

It might be a little hard to tell what's going on at this stage, but what I'm painting is a village square with lunchtime diners seated at umbrella-covered cafe tables. I've started in my typical manner of putting down my design with a light wash of ultramarine blue and cad. red light or permanent alizarin, thinned way down with mineral spirits. I'm drawing with brushes, but also just with a rag, wiping in and rubbing out as I develop the composition.

While I'm still keeping it pretty light and loose, with architectural scenes I do a bit more drawing and shading than I might with pure landscape. This does not mean that my compositional decisions are done, however. Sometimes I will make changes, shift, add or subtract things as I am further along in the painting process. But I've gotten a good start and I'm ready to jump in!

*UPDATE: See the progression of this painting demonstration from start to finish here!

Video- Tour of Jennifer Young Studio & Gallery

Taking some time over the Thanksgiving holidays to spend with family , so for now I leave you with a little tour of my studio/gallery featuring my last and perhaps one of my favorite shows to date, "Luminosity". The groovy music, by the way is by David Webb.

If you don't see the video player above, clicking this link will take you to the video in a new window.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks to EmptyEasel.com for featuring my landscape paintings!

A few weeks ago, Dan at Empty Easel was kind enough to feature my plein air painting demo on his art site. I'm thankful to him again, because today he's given me a very nice a write up about the latest landscape paintings I've created for my current show about the luminous landscape. If you have an interest in the arts, do check out his site. He regularly features the works of artists he's reviewed from around the internet, plus he has wonderful tips for art and painting as well as Internet art marketing. If you're an artist, consider submitting your work or an article yourself for a possible feature.

...And if you're in the Richmond area, my show "Luminosity" is still on view until December 1st, so come by my studio/gallery this Friday during the art walk if you can,  or just contact me to visit the gallery at another time.

Landscape painting W.I.P. - Still exploring fog

A cold has me moving a little slowly but today I'm painting and I thought I'd share a work in progress of a foggy morning in the Virginia Blue Ridge mountains:    

I've started with a pretty simple drawing with a very thin earthy mixture, using both brush and rag to indicate my general composition. In case you can't tell what this is, a fence and a pathway lead down towards the center of interest; a foggy line of trees. What I really like about the composition is the strong lines that draw me into the scene, juxtaposed by the softness of the hazy atmosphere. I've included some telephone poles and lines in my initial drawing because they were a part of the scene, and I liked how they echoed the other lines on the ground. They may remain...or not. I may also move that path over a little to the left or widen it a bit, but I will know more once I get further along.

For these fog paintings I find it is easier to start with the lightest values of the sky and more distant trees, building darker values as I work my way forward. As I'm going along I'm painting pretty quickly and thickly, testingand comparing values with a palette knife of color on the canvas, as in the 2nd image. Right now I really want to keep my edges soft, so I'm using a rag quite a bit in this early stage to push paint around, blend edges and make corrections.

For this fog painting, what I have in mind is a scene with somewhat warmer hues than what I've achieved so far. Even though the fog is thick and there is a diffused light rather than a direct light source, the sun was burning through and giving everything a warm hazy glow.

The problem is that warm colors can so quickly jump out and push the distance forward, so I'll need to discover ways to deal with this. I should have a better idea of how to proceed after I block in the foreground.

My plein air demo featured on EmptyEasel.com!

Just a quick note of announcement to say that my plein air painting demonstration is being featured today over at Empty Easel.com.  Thanks so much to Dan for the feature! I've referred tothis site before, and I'll say it again...If you haven't yet visited this content-rich website, I highly recommend a visit. Empty Easel has a lot of great articles, tips and features especially useful to the artist.  His section on selling art online  is unlike anything I've seen elsewhere. Dan takes a serious and in-depth look at different online venues, with side-by-side comparisons of features, costs, ease of use, etc. Lots of data to mull over here and elsewhere on the site. Check it out!