Season of Plenty (Provence painting complete)

Just a quick post to follow up on the W.I.P. I shared on Wednesday...Here is the painting, now complete (more or less).

  "Season of Plenty" Oil on linen, 16x20" To purchase, please contact me.

There is some glare in the photo so I may need to attempt a reshoot this weekend. Nevertheless I think it gives a pretty good indication of the final. I managed to maintain my single primary palette to completion, just to prove I could do it. But I am not sure if this color- limiting exercise was to the benefit of the painting, so I will set it aside for a few days and think it over before making any adjustments.

Provence lavender lay-in (W.I.P.)

This has been my first real opportunity to paint in over a week. It has been really hot, muggy weather lately, so I've decided to stay close to the studio and scour some of my old photo archives for landscape subject matter. In doing so, I came upon some of my images of an area of Provence that I visited in lavender season almost 10 years ago (!) called La Drome Provencal. Here's a 16x20" composition I've mapped out:

I have more to flesh out in terms of both shadow/highlight and detail, but I've started with a basic block-in to nail down my composition. Up to now, I've used the same color palette as the previous painting I posted of Lake Como. But when I started to lay in the lavender I had the overwhelming temptation to reach for a cooler, more transparent red (like alizarin crimson) to add some brilliance. I have held off up to now.

What I aim to see is if I can acheive the proper color relationships in the painting without having to resort to any other colors than the three primaries I've chosen. Alizarin Crimson (permanent) has long been my default red when I paint in a single primary palette. While it is a beautiful transparent color, I sometimes feel it is almost too garish in my mixtures.

So I feel it is worthwhile to try and acheive a luminous, vibrant quality to my paintings without having to resort to over-the-top color. Being somewhat of a color slut, this is not an easy challenge for me! We'll see if I can hold out to the bitter (better?) end!

Upping the Ante

It's been a while since I've listed a new "Art for Food" auction for the Central Virginia FoodBank, so I'm upping the ante by listing a new acrylic painting. This is a 7 day auction with an opening bid of $24.99. This one does have a low reserve ($50) but it's still a bargain and 95% of the proceeds go to the FoodBank.

"Lavender Valley" Acrylic on heavy acid free card Click to bid

It's been a while since I've worked in acrylic and I had a lot of fun with this one. I'm listing this one in the evening because I'm heading out for most of the day on Friday to do some plein air painting. Have a great weekend!

New painting of Provence lavender for auction, just $25

Announcing a new "Art for Food" charity auction for the Central Virginia Foodbank (CVFB). I admit it isn't easy to put some of these works up for auction, but it's a good cause, so what the hay. I love this little Provence lavender painting and I hope you will too... and I can always use this work as a study to make a larger piece in oil. Opening bids are just $24.99 and 95% of the proceeds will be donated to the CVFB:

"Summer Garden" (Provence, France) Watercolor/pen & ink on Arches heavy watercolor paper, 8x10" Auction starts at 12:30 EST on 2/07/08

This auction has ended, but you can bid on the latest auction here!

"Summer Vineyard", Provence watercolor vignette

Last minute Christmas shoppers have kept me incredibly busy (and thankful) this week at the gallery, so I am finding little time to blog and do much needed computer work. But I do have a new little Provence watercolor painting to share.

"Summer Vineyard" Watercolor/Pen & Ink on Paper

It might not be quite "season appropriate," but if you're like me, there's never a bad time to dream of summertime in Provence.

New painting details uploaded to the website

It took me a while but I finally got around to uploading some of the plein air paintings I've blogged about in recent months:

   

Details and purchasing info for these smaller paintings  of the Eastern Shore of Maryland are in my gallery of Mini Paintings, as is the recent little autumn scene. In another section of my website, I've uploaded these two Eastern Shore plein air paintings in my gallery of water-related scenes: 

 

 And finally, I mentioned yesterday that I was considering doing a touch more to the little lavender watercolor. Well, I didn't do much but I couldn't resist a tweak, and you can see the final image in the Vignettes section of my website. As with my other Vignettes, this one  may be purchased online  via Paypal. Update: This painting has sold!

Now that I'm getting caught up, I have some new work to upload...stay tuned!

A Provence Watercolor Vignette and a Newsflash

 

It has been a busy week tending to other things, so not much blogging. Above is a little watercolor vignette of one of my favorite subjects--the Provincial countryside! I may go back and add a little detail to the lavender rows...not sure. This is a small piece, a 4x6" image on 5x7" paper, so I kind of like the simplicity and freshess right now.

I've decided to change the "Art Sketches" category of my website to "Vignettes". The above image details and the change to the site are not yet live, but that's part of what I am working on this week. I think Vignettes is more appropriate and encompases both watercolors and other media in small format. I will be doing a lot more of these in the coming weeks as I prepare for my next opening in early December, entitled "Small Stuff".

Speaking of small stuff, here's the other thing I've been working on: I'll be releasing a series of mini-prints soon. These are archival prints of a selection of images in mini format, sizes ranging from 2.5" x 3.5", to 8 x 10". They'll be offered matted with acid-free materials, and they are soooo cute! I've been color correcting and proofing all week, sometimes tearing my hair out, but I expect to launch this line by the beginning of next week. Let's hope I'm not completely bald by then!

Painting lavender

Here is an exerpt of a recent email I received from a student of painting, inquiring about painting lavender:  "I just cannot get the lavender/periwinkle  color  figured out. How did you make it? Do you recall? Thanks again. I've much enjoyed reading your blog and your artist's  tips.

 Cheers,  T. J."

Dear T.J.,

Well, color mixing is a very ingrained habit that happens when I'm "in the zone" so to speak. Typically for lavender what I'll most often use is Ultramarine Blue (deep) mixed with Permanent Rose (W&N) and white. Distant lavender looks cooler, so I might use a bit more blue Cerulean or ultramarine, and less rose. It just takes a lot of experimenting, but after a while color mixing becomes pretty intuitive. -Jennifer *** 

Painting lavender is so much fun, and I feel so fortunate to have traveled to Provence during lavender season. One thing that struck me was the way that lavender changes color temperature. Sometimes it looked like a deep blue jewel, other times a violent purple, and still other times the red tones would come out so that it looked more heather.

"First Light", oil on canvas, 16x20" Price:$1175.00 framed

As with anything in landscape painting, the color temperature of your subject is very much dependant on the light. Morning light appears warm until you compare it to light in the evenings. At high noon, the light is directly overhead, so your subject looks flatter and devoid of shadow areas. To get the best understanding of the effects of light on a subject, it is imperative (for me) to go out in nature and paint what I see. I paint from photos all of the time, but only after I have done a considerable amount of painting, sketching and observing of the subject at hand on location. Photographs are a great resource, but they can lie! It is fine to paint from photographs and study them and the work of others while you are learning. But painting from nature can be the best teacher of all.

New giclee print offerings

Here are two paintings I completed recently that I am having reproduced as limited edition giclee prints:

"Off The Beaten Path II"

"Along the Route to Dieulefit"

 

My giclee prints are offered in limited editions in a selection of sizes from small to quite large. They are perfect for home decor as well as corporate art, art for hospitals and art for hotels. I expect the prints to be released in January 2007. Please contact me if you would like to be notified when they become available, or if you would like any additional information about the prints. To see my current print offerings, please visit this link.  For more information about the original oils shown here, please click on the images above.

New Gallery Photos

I thought I'd post some photos of the new gallery space, which officialy opened last Friday night. We were swamped the entire night so I did not get ONE picture of the actual event! It turned out well--hectic but fun. We're both still recovering from total exhaustion, but at least we made it through "phase one". Phase two is still to come--moving my art studio part into the building. We hope to have that accomplished by mid January at the latest. Front room:

This is the wall to the right as you walk in the front door. The flowers on the table are from our new landlord!

This is the left wall of the same room--A great spot for the paintings in my mini collection:

This is a view of the right hand wall as you continue on into the middle room.

Here's a shot of the same wall looking back into the front room:

Here is the opposite wall in the second room. The picture to the far left is an original oil painting of Tuscany. The pictures to the right are canvas prints on the walls, and paper prints in the rack. People were amazed at the quality of the canvas prints, which looked so much like paintings that I had to tell them they were prints and not originals.

   

Heading out from the 2nd room and into the third room. This is where the band played opening night:

Rounding the corner into this third room, here is my wall of Key West paintings:

   

   I had these paintings framed differently from the usual gold because I felt like the solid gold was too formal for this subject matter. I like the linen liner and the platinum colored frame with the bamboo motif for these sunny Key West pieces.

   This last room will undergo some changes. The front two rooms with the hardwood floors will remain gallery space, but we'll use this area more for work space (to be determined), though we'll still hang some art here. Down that hallway is a fourth small room and a bathroom with a utility sink.

   Jennifer Young Studio & Gallery is located at 16 E. Main Street, Richmond, VA, 23219. Currently we are open from 6 to 9 p.m. during the First Fridays Art walks, and other times by appointment. Please call 804-254-1008 (1-877-DIAL-ART toll free) to visit the gallery or to inquire about the paintings you see on the website.