Come Over - Small Still Life Painting with Daffodil SOLD

Come Over

5 x 7 inches

acrylic on gessobord panel
SOLD

Trying to coax a little Spring to come to New England! Hard to believe a year ago we were in the upper 70s, this year we are still pretty much buried in the snow. The kids actually had another snow day this week...they may be in school until July at this rate!

I don't normally talk method too much on my blog (maybe I should?), but for this painting I did work a little differently so I wanted to mention it. Sometimes I start with a thumbnail sketch. If it is something that is already clear in my mind, then I sketch it out directly on the board or canvas - a pretty quick, rough sketch - I'm always eager to get to the paint. Then sometimes I do a very quick sketch over the pencil with paint, and I very quickly lay a first layer of a wash of local colors. The whole beginning process is very fast, I just really want to get to the painting part  ;-)  For this painting, I took more time with the beginning stage. I started with the sketch, but then for the first layer, I did a full monochromatic painting, values and everything, with a thin wash of burnt umber and burnt sienna (I used each one on a different part because I wanted to see which one I like working with better). That beginning layer still happened fairly quickly, but I feel like it made the rest of the painting go so much more smoothly. Many of the kinks in the value and composition were worked out in the first layer and it was so cool to watch it come alive as I added more layers of color. Ironically it made me feel a little freer to make changes, etc. to my original vision as well. I didn't know if this method would work with acrylics (I've only heard of it in reference to oils), so I was pleased to see how well it went. I will definitely be using it more often!

Anyhow - this painting will be going to Newburyport Art Association, Newburyport, Massachusetts for the Spring Members Show, March 29 - April 20, 2013.