This painting is on a full sheet of Indian Village handmade paper. The surface is a bit rough and sometimes unpredictable. I had never painted a painting of this size before 22″ x 34″ and thought it was high time to try it. I have actually had the paper sitting out, ready to be painted upon for a few months now, but it wasn’t until this week that I summoned up the courage to do it.
I chose this harbor scene, because I would have to do some washes, and they can be frustrating on a small piece of paper and I thought it would be luxurious to do on a full sheet. To my surprise, at first the paper was water-repellent! The paint beaded up and rolled into my lap. That was quickly overcome, and my problems became the normal ones, controlling my hand, the paint, and this unpredictable paper. Believe it or not, this painting is the study for a smaller one, which you will see here soon. Try to find the man in the painting.
I just finished the second attempt at this view, this time in a much smaller 12×16 format
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One of my favorite paintings that I did last year was of a scene in Grazzano Visconti, a tiny medieval town in Italy near Piacenza. The scene was so evocative, that two different people (my husband and I) took the same photo a year apart. The first one I painted was from my photo, and I just painted a second from his. I tried to use a technique called chiaroscuro, which means from dark to light. It is done to enhance the three dimensionality of a painting.
Once a year the Cascade bike club stages a ride. It’s called the Chilly Hilly. Over 30 miles of damp, cold hills. Officially the first ride of the season, people come out in droves for it. Bainbridge Island is a beautiful place, and the ride is lovely… In June, not February. But The Chilly Hilly ride is in February. I painted this cyclist as she muses about how hard this ride is going to be. She’s all ready; she’s trained for this, has a great new bike; but can she do it? Will she hold up to the weather and those hills? This rider did, and remembers facing that bleak dawn hoping that the temperature would go above 40 degrees fahrenheit. This is painted on a 7 x 12 inch piece of 300 pound arches. And an aside; the day I finished this painting, July 7th, would have been my grandmother’s 98th birthday. Happy Birthday Nonnie. This painting is for sale.
People like my whimsy kitties! Yesterday at the Blowing Sands art gallery in Ballard, WA as part of a fundraiser for the Feral cat Spay/Neuter project, I donated 4 paintings including Aggie in Red and two of these whimsy kitties. Both whimsy kitties sold! There was a big art walk that evening in Ballard, but unfortunately, Blowing Sands is a bit off the beaten path. I do think their fundraiser was a success, but the larger and more important pieces did not get sold.
