Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Makin a Little Sunshine

I have to admit that it was a pretty gloomy day here in Portland today! The wind was blowing, it was wet and dark. I was planning on going to life drawing this afternoon, but opted to hunker down in my studio and make a bit of my own sunshine. Good thing too, 'cause my doc says I need the vitamin "D"!




Here's what I did and a couple of the reference photos I was using. The reference shots were taken in Wisconsin. Today, I was really working off the idea of the variations and inventing the color and mood of each scene rather than sticking faithfully to the reference. All three of these were done with a very loose abstract watercolor under-painting on Wallis Museum. I used a wide variety of brands of pastel.  I like how these turned out. They have some atmosphere and some attitude. I was listening to Weezer, All American Rejects, and a little Mazzy Star.

6 comments:

Angela said...

I love these!! I need to try being a little more loose with my pastels.

Caroline Simmill said...

These are good! and depict atmosphere so well. Thank you for posting your working process the other day I read it with great interest.

Jo Reimer said...

Yep, that's what I like so much about your paintings... they have attitude. You make your own kind of beauty out of what is and show us what could be with a little help from an artist with an eye for color.

helen said...

I like it when it's gloomy - but when the sun peaked out this morning, I was surprised and happy

Art Matters said...

These wonderful paintings are enticing me back to watercolour - but don't think I'll have your touch!
You have such a great way of translating the reference into a powerful image.

Marla Baggetta said...

Thanks so much for all your helpful and kind comments!!