Franconia Falls

I think this acrylic painting is finished now. I will leave it for a couple of weeks before I varnish it to make sure I don't change my mind and see some other little thing that I feel I need to fix.  There is a point where too much fiddling around with the final details can ruin a painting. I don't want to pass that point, but as an art student, I'm never really sure when a painting is done. This painting is 16" X 20" on stretched canvas.

Meanwhile, I decided I wanted to paint a pond picture in dawn colors.  However, I got carried away with the palette knife and started something that seems to be completely abstract and doesn't look anything like a pond.  I don't know where I'm going with this one, but I'm having fun.

I did start this with a grid from a photo I had of Round Pond at Lake Pawtuckaway State Park, so I was intending to paint the pond with water lilies and pine trees, a little beach in the background.  The grid was so I could put the shoreline in the right space from the smaller photo. Anyway, I'll figure out something interesting to put on the background later on. This is an 11" X 14" canvas board, acrylic paint.

Franconia Falls - WIP

Still working on this 16" X 20" canvas. I have a class on Thursday and hope to get it almost to the finished stage then.  It has been quite challenging and I'm enjoying it.

This is the earlier view, before my last class. I had most of the leaves in.  You can click on the pictures to see a larger view and you will be able to see the differences easily. It was interesting getting the people in the painting. I just wanted them there to show scale. I wasn't concerned about detail since they are a minor part of the painting.

Paintings - finished & WIP

I finished the painting of the roseate spoonbills from last week.  I posted it to my website as well and printed out a few cards to test it out.  I'm not sure if I'll paint any more birds for a while. My mind is back on the trail painting idea.

This is a larger canvas, 16" X 20" that I have started of Franconia Falls (Lincoln Woods Trail) in New Hampshire.  It is an easy trail to hike. In the summer, people jump into the little pool made by the falls. The water is icy cold so I prefer to just look at it (even though I like swimming).  When the painting is finished, I will have several figures in it to show scale.  I think this will take me several weeks to finish. Yesterday I worked on the rocks for two hours in class and they still have a long way to go.

The photo below shows my first block in of the shapes.  I used a yellow ochre mix for the underpainting of the rocks and a neutral gray for the underpainting of the trees. I think this will work. I'm enjoying working on the larger canvas for a change.