The Challenge Goes On

I'm continuing my less-than-an-hour, 9x9" paintings. It's been fun getting back into the swing of painting fast! I recommend it to loosen you up.

My agreement with myself was that I would show the good and the bad, so here you are:

6.

On Wallis paper, toned a lavender color, using all my soft pastels again. It was interesting to go back to the sticks after using the Pans for several pieces, however quickly I painted. They seemed a bit...thick! Weird. I'll adjust soon enough, I'm sure, and with the new SpectraFix as a final coat the dust is minimized a lot. (Great stuff!)

My evaluation... Well, it's a bit stiff. I like the sky a lot. The turquoise touches in the lower mountain range are too blue, and the rusts might be a bit too vibrant there. But I stuck to the deal: less than an hour!

7.
Also Pans and sticks on Wallis. This one pleases me. I simplified the foreground enough to let you get out to the tree and the lavender flowers. I love the distant hills and field behind it. The color makes me happy. I like the underlying composition, too.

8.
Pans and sticks on Wallis. I'm not crazy about the greens in this. Too blue in the distance. The dark trees are drawing the eye a lot, but I don't want to overplay the darks in the fore so I've let them rest. If I switch the values so the darks are in the fore (making it more accurate to reality, that is) the balance changes in a way I don't like. I really like the orange-yellow-purple strokes, though, and the shapes make me happy.

9.
On Pastelmat. I held a class devoted to color and how it enhances mood, so this seemed like a natural one to do. Yes, you may recognize it as the same resource photo as #4, but done in reds.

I like it a lot. I painted on a canary yellow color that I like. It made the progress interesting, as I built the turquoise blues and lavenders over the yellow. I really like the foreground shapes and the smaller shapes in the lower sky. The color is fun (though I think I should blend the turquoise in the center more)--those red clouds really make me happy!


10. On Pastelmat, using sticks as the UNDER painting and Pans used on top! A bit of a switch, but I like it. I'm quite pleased with this one. I have a lot of experience painting these sunlit hills and I feel that this one really captures the essence of the light.

I like the blocky approach to the sky, and I'm quite taken with the colors in the foreground shadows and the little highlights hitting the tips of those branches. If any criticism, I'd say maybe the width of the shadowed area and the hills is too similar, but then again it's a 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 painting, and that's really not bad, IMHO. So basically I'm satisfied.

I'd love to know your reactions. Which one do you like best and why?

Deborah Secor

deb@deborahsecor.com