Reality

 

My paintings are realistic but I view reality with flexibility. The leaf in the middle bottom of the painting which stretches across two pickets had brown edges and the bent over edge had large brown blotches of dried plant. Could I have painted it that way? Of course. But, would presenting the leaf that way add anything to the story or would it be a distraction? I opted for turning back the clock on its life cycle.

 

In addition, the clump of leaves in the bottom left were much darker and hard to read. This left me with an opportunity to add dappled light to the group, change their position, and modify the stems.

 

I could have left out all the leaves and just had the flowers in the background but to me the fence would then be a barrier, a jail, holding back the flowers. The fluidity of the leaves helps add motion to the painting. The pink flower peeking between the pickets is also a deliberate choice, in this case to marry the background to the foreground with its visual proximity to the outside leaves.

White, but not white

 Shadowed whites can go in any number of directions: purple, blue, greens.

 

For the shadows of the white fence I opted for a gray-ish light blue-ish teal. There are spots which called for a cooler look so I mixed a bluer color to blend in to the main base color. 

The color gets darker on the pickets moving toward the bottom of the painting to convince the eye that there is less light. You will notice just under the bird the picket edge is lighter. So the pickets do not look flat, the lighter edge gives the feeling the pickets were painted with a satin or semi-gloss paint.

 

 

 

 

 

Pink

 

The garden which was the inspiration for the flowers had lots of color choices. There was yellow, a deep purple from some interesting alliums, blues from morning glories, and more. I decided these flowers with the added pops of pink would showcase this bird the best.

 

 

Flowers

 

Without most of the glare from wet paint you can better see the color of the background. I'm keeping the flower detail to a minimum so the focus will remain on the bird.

 

 

 

 

19 years

 It has been 19 years since I had the idea for this painting. While on the east coast I saw a bluejay near a white picket fence. Bluejays are birds I grew up in Rhode Island but are only rare visitors to Washington State where I live now.

It's hard to say why it has taken so long for this piece to wind up on my easel, though I didn't figure out the setting (the garden and the fence) until inspired by a garden in New England two years ago.

 

 

The background looks black in this quick phone photo but it is actually a deep green. 

I used Rembrandt Sap green, Richeson Cobalt Green Deep, Richeson Hansa Yellow, and a touch of Rembrandt Burnt Umber. The effect is almost a dark green suede.

 

 

 

 Some of the plant leaves are painted so they appear to either emerge from or disappear into the background.

 

 

Finished

 

Surf's Up

12" X 30"

Original Oil

 

Scanned image

 

The painting took longer than the blog's elapsed time but after not posting for quite a while I thought an accelerated post was in order.

 

 

Pelicans

 

Having the brown pelicans in the painting imparts another element of timelessness and movement. The painting is 12" X 40" so there doesn't need to be a huge amount of detail in the bird. In fact, if there were, the pelican would look stuck on rather than a part of the painting.

 

Starting on the next bird.