Corner of Sunshine

Today's Sun Day Art blog post is in honor of my father and mother-in-law who are preparing to sell their beautiful home in San Miguel De Allende, Mexico. 

I love finding spots where the sun is slipping around a corner.  It makes me want to soak in the moment because I know I can't hold on to it.  This sunlit corner caught my eye when we were visiting my father and mother-in-law.  The warm tile, clay pots, and stucco walls filled the corner with glowing reflected light, as well as the direct sunlight filtered through the flowers.  Ten minutes later, the allure of this corner had slipped away until another day...

I chose to crop the photo so that the focus was on the fleeting sunlight.

Starting with a little 6x6 study, one of the (very) subtle things that I enjoyed about this composition was the way the white plastic chair serves to soften and add interest to the bottom left corner.

Corner of Sunshine, 6x6 Oil, sold

And here's a larger 20x20 version.  Love that sunlight!

Corner of Sunshine, 20x20 Oil, sold

Me and my dad :)

Artistic License

One of the great things about painting, as opposed to photography, is the ability to easily change a subject from "how it is" to "how it should be" (or at least how my mind thinks it should be!)  Here are two paintings -- oldies but goodies -- that show what I mean.

This scene has wonderful shadows, but the strong sun washes out the colors and makes the grey look particularly, well, grey.  My artistic license allowed me to paint the lively colors of reflected light that I wanted to see on the planter.  Much more fun this way!  

Planter in Spring, 12x12 Oil, Sold

I was painting this scene on location during an unusually hot Spring day when all of the flowers that should have graced the terraced stairway were long past their prime.  No matter.  I pulled out my artistic landscaping license and the flowers bloomed anew!

High Noon at Lynda's, 9x12 Oil, Sold

Fruit of the Vine

On an anniversary trip to Italy several years ago, we were driving through Tuscany and came across this lovely vineyard.  The soft, dusty blue skin of these grapes, destined for a fine wine on someone's table, are so unlike the standard red and green grapes that I buy at the grocery store.  What a gift, these fruit of the vine!

On a 16x20 canvas I started by sketching the basic placement of the grape bunches, vines, and leaves.

One of the things that I loved about the photo was the way the dark values all connected in interesting shapes.  So in this step my goal was to paint the dark areas in a way that simplified the busyness and made sure I stayed true to that original inspiration.  Everything that I left unpainted (below) would remain a light value in the final painting.     

Just a few strokes later (ha!  not really) and here you go:

  Fruit of the Vine, 16x20 Oil, available

Down Under

In 2014, we took a trip to Australia (highly recommend!)  On our drive up the east coast between Cairns (pronounced "Cans") and Port Douglas, we stopped at this beautiful, but desolate beach.  I suspect the crocs and stingers (deadly jellyfish) had something to do with the desolation, but nonetheless it was an incredibly peaceful place to take a break from driving on the wrong, um, I mean the left, side of the road.  The sun was setting, the shadows were long, and this weather-worn branch rose from the sand in a graceful statement of solitude.  Simply lovely.

 By the way, I wasn't joking about the crocs and stingers! :)

I cropped my original photo to focus more on the graceful shape of the driftwood.

Then I covered my drawing with warm colors (okay, it's all orange) to contrast with what I knew was going to be a cool painting.

In this step, I covered the dark areas to make sure I liked the way it makes the eye move around the composition (I do!)

After establishing all of the "under structure", the rest of the process involved trying to make sure I didn't mess it up!  :) 

Down Under, 8x10 oil, available

Azalea Glow VI

In honor of the white blossoms that are currently covering my azalea bushes (yay, Spring!), here is the process that I used to create one of my azalea paintings.  

I particularly loved this photo because the buds are like wrapped presents pointing to the lovely gift they contain.

I started with a paint sketch of the basic shapes on an 18x24 canvas...

First layer of transparent paint...

Second layer of transparent paint...

Beginning the leaves, painting dark parts first, then light...

Beginning of thicker paint on the blossoms and buds...

Finished the leaves and tweaked a few things.  Happy Spring! :)

Azalea Glow VI, 18x24 oil, available

Here's the reference photo again for comparison:

Yard Guard

This gorgeous rooster was one of the many that my husband and I saw as we were building latrines on our recent Rotary service project in the Dominican Republic.  While his colorful plumage was eye-catching amidst the dusty gray backdrop of his surroundings, it was his prideful attitude of "yard guard" that really caught my attention.  He was protector and defender of his family's turf, dust and all.

I made a couple of changes in my initial sketch to improve the readability of the scene:

1) Lowered the background tire so that the rooster's head would end above it and not look like he was wearing a giant halo,

2) Modified his tail.  As beautiful as it was, I didn't think it would be believable in paint.

After settling on my composition, I painted over the sketch lines and let them dry a bit before moving on to thicker paint.

One final change I made was in the rooster's stance.  I changed the angle of his legs and added a shadow to emphasize his defiant posture.  He seems to have a bit more personality this way :)

Yard Guard, 6x8 Oil, Sold

Framed:

Fiddling with the Light

I loved the simple composition of this scene as I looked down on this violinist during our trip to Italy several years ago.  It was a hot day, but he found a cool spot to play in the shadow of a giant pillar.  His music was lovely.

While the composition was simple, the perspective was not.  I probably went a little overboard with the detail on my initial sketch for such a small painting, but I really didn't want to finish the piece and then realize the perspective was askew.

After my sketch lines were fairly dry, I quickly covered all the warm sunlit areas in transparent yellow and and the cool shadowed areas in transparent blue. You may need to put on sunglasses for this...it's pretty bright!

The final painting is much softer.  My goal was to stay true to what originally inspired me (the simple composition) while "fiddling" with the warmth of the reflected light on the pillar and the musician.

Fiddling with the Light, 6x8 Oil, Sold