Check out this little bastard! It was one of those paintings that painted itself. Some paintings seem to just flow like magic while others fight for it. My friend Ginny came over to paint with me yesterday and the painting just emerged. It is a 9x12 on a panel, the name is "Crescent Lake," the unframed price is $175. The subject is a beautiful glacial lake in Olympic National Park, captured one evening in October as the sun was setting. My friend Melissa and I were returning from the coast and I almost wrecked the minivan in the process of pulling over when I saw the light on the lake.

Among my other works in progress now I am hoping to work on a small series of miniatures about this size. I'm thinking birds and landscapes alternating for a small installation.

The murder continues--it is on the verge of being genius or being overworked, once again it is hard to tell. ("Murder in Progress," my previous post involving a painting of crows.) I will show and tell when it is finally done.

Happy Holidays!
Dawn

Murder in Progress

Bwahahahaha! Murder on the Sound! Ok, so I'm inordinately pleased with my blog title. (Wasn't "Murder in Progress" a Goya painting?)

Yes, I am in the process of painting a herd of crows which, technically, is referred to a murder. After the last piece ("Bird, Reborn") I felt the need to bring more birds into my recent landscape series. I superimposed various crows over the landscape image, working to create movement and direction in what is otherwise a very still piece.

This is a work in progress. As you can see from the detailed pictures the birds are still very rough. I particularly like the last image I posted here because they look like poorly formed pterodactyls painted by a two year old. Yay!

The refinement process involves me working on the birds with some detail then pushing the negative space into the birds to help shape the contours. It's the taffy pull of oil painting, that back and forth in the figure ground relationship.



(See what I mean about these birds? It takes a skilled and creative artist to call these little lumps of paint crows, but no fear. We are, in fact, on track with these buggers.)

Bird, Reborn

Here's a new technique for you. I wanted to work on a different underpainting technique in response to my new environment; basically I wanted to start with less chroma in the underpainting and keep adding subtle color layers as I built up. In other words completely different than my usual underpainting which starts out technicolor and gets toned down with each layer. The result is this quiet introspective piece. I am very pleased because the emotion and atmosphere are exactly what I was reaching for.

To add to the newness of the technique I used a new-to-me product by Holbein. It's one of their foundation colors, a fast drying line of color they make just for underpainting. This one is Foundation Greenish. Holy crap--this stuff was made to paint the light effects of Washington State. (And, presumably, those of Japan as that is where Holbein is produced...)

I did not take pictures of the process--sorry! I will try to do so next time I employ this technique: I was just so excited by the results I plowed right through.

Title of this piece is "Bird, Reborn." If you look closely you will see a little bird sitting on one of the poles; it was a total accident of paint that made it appear, or, spiritually speaking, the bird wanted to be in the painting so it appeared. In any case, it made the piece. The bird is a very powerful image for me right now; the fact that the bird is reappearing as a living entity is a very good thing for me to see and actualize.

18x24" on archival panel