Frayssinet shadows W.I.P.

I had a rough time painting last week. Plein air season is upon us and I have been waiting with baited breath for the weather to cooperate so I'd have the  opportunity to get outside again. But there are just some times when the odds seem stacked against me. Some of the prettiest, mildest days turned out to be mommy-duty days for me. My painting days were full of wind and intermittent clouds and showers. I did get myself outside but the wind and weather weren't cooperative and I ended up coming home with a couple of wipers. That's the risk of plein air painting. Just because you put in the time, it doesn't mean you will come home with a keeper. And with such limited time, it can be hard to justify the effort. So why do I do it? Well, it challenges me to think on my feet and  be in the moment. It gets me out of my comfort zone, and when its not frustrating the hell out of me,  it's pretty fun and exciting.

It also gets me jazzed for new paintings in the studio, which is what leads me to my current post. I started this piece after one of those frustrating wipers, and by comparison to my battle with the wind, it felt good to just paint! At this point I am just settling on my composition and laying in some of the shadows and highlights. This will be a painting of a little street in Frayssinet, a tiny village tucked in the Lot Valley of Southern France:

French village painting by Jennifer Young

Southern France painting by Jennifer E Young

I painted another version of this scene with different light and a different orientation before, but this painting will focus more on the little cottage to the left  in the foreground. The cast shadow across the top of the canvas is from my easel. Sorry about that! I'll try to get better progressive shots as I go along.

A good value

If you have been reading my blog long enough, you may find that I obsess a little over art supplies and gear. A few months back a fellow artist mentioned that a great tool for judging values was a Kodak Wratten 90 filter. So for a few months I was on a mission to find one that was A) big enough to comfortably look through (ideally 4x4) and B) low enough in price so as not to break the bank. After searching online and watching the bidding wars on eBay, I found the combination of the two criteria impossible to meet. Then one day it dawned on me that I used to have a little red value viewer tool that I'd picked up in a sewing store. I don't know what happened to it, but I thought I'd poke around on Amazon to see if I could fine something similar. Lo and behold, I stumbled upon this little number:

Like the Wratten filter, this value finder helps neutralize color so that you can more accurately discern the values in your reference. Not only that but it has 3 view finders of different aspect ratios that will work with a range of canvas sizes. It also has optional guidelines that you can overlay to check composition, AND a couple of value scales to check your paint mixtures.

The drawback is that the filters are red rather than the nice grayish neutral of the Wratten filters. This may not appeal to everyone. But with a $14.95 price tag it is a good option and specifically geared toward the painter. I have been using it with studio work and it does a good job at neutralizing color so that I can judge values with more accuracy.  I haven't used it outdoors yet but I think there it would be even more useful when making on the spot judgements, and I look forward to taking it along with me (hopefully this week) now that the weather is warming.

Hatteras Island study

I once had a painting of the Outer Banks that I loved; but for whatever reason didn't sell. It was in my inventory for a number of years, so instead of confining it to the bins any longer, I decided to embrace the fact that I still had possession of it. In fact, I decorated my bedroom around it, painting the walls a beautiful soft gray color that perfectly picked up some of the muted tones in the painting. Unbelievably, two weeks after I had my beautiful "new bedroom" complete, I received a call from a collector asking if it was still available. Yes, I sold it. I am trying to run a business, after all. I do have one or two pieces that I am trying to keep for myself, but for the most part, I'm just not one to turn down sales. So what does this have to do with the painting below? No, it's not the "one that got away" (you can see that one here). This piece is one of a few studies I'm working on in preparation fora large new painting I intend to hang (at least for a little while) in my now repainted bedroom. Well,  I had a nice big gallery wrapped 30x40" canvas, and a nice blank wall, so I figured, why not?

"Hatteras Dunes, Study I" 6x8" Oil on Canvas Jennifer E Young

This study is based on two different plein air paintings I did on Hatteras Island on recent family vacations. I am largely basing my composition on a piece called "Hatteras Island Dunes II". But because that painting was 8x10" (a 4:5 ratio), I have to make a few compositional changes to format the new piece to a 30x40" gallery wrapped canvas (3:4 ratio).

As you can see in this new composition, I have changed the direction of the sandy path that leads to the beach and rearranged some shrubs somewhat. I also felt like I wanted a bit more sky showing than in the plein air, so I have lowered the horizon a touch to allow for that. For the sky I am loosely referencing both the above mentioned plein air, as well as another plein air piece from last summer, which you can see here.

I don't seem to have any actual photos of these scenes to reference, so my sole references are my plein air paintings. This is a bit different for me as I usually use both a photo source and my painting when I work from plein air to studio. So it will be interesting to see if I can make this fly! My plan is to try at least one more study before launching into the big canvas, but this is a good start.

Sunlit Harbor, Varenna (painting complete)

Happy Spring everyone! It's been a looong winter, and I honestly don't think anyone could be much happier about a change of seasons than I am! Any way, to kick off the new season I will wrap up my painting of the Varenna Shoreline. Below you will see I've gotten the buildings of the village fleshed out and am just launching into addressing the water:

Varenna landscape painting in progress by Jennifer E Young

Next I work on getting the boats laid in, and adding a little more detail and highlights to the shrubs and trees perched along that wall.

Then the final touches of the masts and buoys are laid down. I use a liner brush to lay in the delicate lines of the masts, starting from bottom to top. A mahl stick really comes in handy here to steady my stroke. At this point I am nearing completion. I may go into it again, but I am going to sit with this a while and start in on something new. If it's not 100% done, it is close.

"Sunlit Harbor, Varenna" Oil on linen, 24x36" ©Jennifer Young

Light and Edges; Varenna painting progress (W.I.P.)

Here is some progress to report on the Varenna painting I've been working on.  In my last post I had pretty well laid out the background. But when I came back to the easel again I decided that before jumping into the foreground I should add a little more contrast to the nearest mountains and soften up some edges to the distance overall.

Painting edges by Jennifer E. Young

That done, I address the walled village of Varenna next. I want to establish the village before the water, so that when I get to the water I will be able to properly address the reflections. First, I set about laying in the darkest passages.

Lake Como Italy painting in progress by Jennifer E Young

Next I start in on the buildings. The direction of the light is upper left. This was close to 11 a.m., so the sun is high but not directly overhead. Even so, I think with the movement of those clouds and the way the trees and shrubs are positioned, there are some interesting shadows being cast on the buildings. I hint at this in my study, but in the larger composition it took some time and concentration to get it to look right.

Varenna Italian landscape painting by Jennifer Young

Here's where I am this morning with the painting. I'll be working on this today and again Wednesday, so assuming nobody gets sick and we don't get more snow  I will have some more progress to report this week!

Italain landscape painting in progress by Jennifer Young