Finished

One Step Away

44" X 36"

Original Oil

After I took this photo, I glazed the vegetation in the bottom right with a warm burnt sienna-raw sienna mix with liquin. This toned down the attention the plants were drawing from the lion.

Color subtleties

At first glance, a lion's main body color appears tan. In creating the sense of form and depth, I am using warm and cool colors. The backlighting effect is further enhanced by having the body darker behind the lightest part of the sunlit mane.

Backlighting

Now that I have the main structure of his head worked in, it is time to work on the part which inspired the painting - the backlighting of his mane.

While the lion is a great subject for this piece, the lighting that morning would have drawn my attention if the animal had been a gemsbok, impala, giraffe, zebra, or any mammal. The sun had barely cleared the horizon and lent a pink glow to the landscape. Cast shadows were a striking blue.

Having a male lion walking right toward me really was the icing on the cake.

The eyes

When I begin on the head, I like to start with the eyes first. That way the lion will keep staring me down to do a proper job on the rest of him. To increase the intensity, I've purposely made the eyes look straight out from the painting so they will follow the viewer no matter what position he is relative to the piece.

New painting

Generally I like to follow a large painting with one more modest in size. Here I am going bigger. This next piece is 44" X 36".

There are some logistically challenging aspects to a painting this tall on my easel. My ergonomic horizontal hand rest enables me to easily paint anywhere on a wet piece. However, its vertical support bars limit how high and low a painting can be positioned on the easel. The entire top part of the piece requires me reach up. Granted, this is much less of a burden than painting the Sistine Chapel on one's back, but it is not as comfortable as working on something smaller or horizontal.

I saw this lion in early morning light on my trip to Africa this summer.

Tundra Thunder

Tundra Thunder

33.5" X 33.5"

Original oil

And More Moose

Continuing with the vibrant palette, there are purples and warm tones in his coat.

Next up, the highlights on his antlers and his sunlit side will be painted. I'll also be adding more texture to those areas. The little bit of sunlight on his back will finish the moose.
 After that, I'll be working on the foreground and then looking over the painting to see if any sections need tweaking. 

More Moose

Staying with the colorful nature of the piece, his neck has some of the purple from his antlers and the background, and his nose has some peach on the shadowed side.

Antlers

Moose antlers are so dramatic.
I was attracted to this story because I could explore red and purple shadows. 

The red shadow seemed a bit cool so I added some oranges to make it more lively.

This palette is more colorful than my usual ones for wildlife pieces. Rather than scaling back, I have decided to just go for it and see what happens.

Making changes

Sometimes I start a painting knowing there are issues/problems to solve along the way.
On this piece, it was this upper portion of the background.
After blocking in the colors (see previous post), I used a blending brush to really soften the edges.

I didn't like it at all. The whole section felt flat. Time to add some texture back in. I started with the topmost section and pulled through some of the darker green to make distinguishable trees.

In this painting there is a fine line between too soft and too busy. I'll be revisiting portions of the background once the moose is painted.

Fall Tundra

One of the reasons I wanted to paint this piece is the richness of autumn color in the tundra. At this stage, I am just blocking in color.

Square

Square paintings have been rare in my work. I find it much easier to compose a rectangular piece so this next work is a departure for me. A square format just felt right for this painting.

To make the work more dynamic, I wanted to place the subject slightly off-center, creating tension. The drawing and tonal wash are completed.

Oil Painters of America Winner

I'm thrilled to announce that my painting Breath of Fresh Air has won the Animal Award of Excellence at the Oil Painters of America's Western Regional Show held at Mary Williams Fine Art in Boulder, Colorado.

Finished

Desert Gems

Original Oil painting

26" X 44"

Thanks for following this piece. It was fun to work with such a unique landscape.

MANITOBA TRIP

I just returned from 2 remote camps in northern Manitoba. A big thank you to Doug and Helen Webber who made this possible.

Helen, Doug, Me, my husband Jim

 Accessible by float plane, we were surrounded by wilderness and the timing coincided to watch the tundra put on her fall colors. Snow joined us both on the tundra and at the second camp in the boreal forest.

We saw lots of the creatures which inhabit this northern clime: polar bears, arctic fox, peregrine falcon, hudsonian godwits, eagles, caribou, moose, snow geese, sandhill cranes, tundra swans, and we had some surprises. 

How about witnessing a hawk take a snow goose out of the air, or a mink by the water's edge looking for northern pike fish scraps after an afternoon of fishing? A spruce grouse (in a spruce tree of course) and a Harris's sparrow were my first sightings of these birds. Barely feeling the below freezing temperatures, we marveled at the displays of northern lights.

Wonderful trip with lots of great memories! 

The Foreground

With the foreground blocked in, I can start on the gemsbok.

More tree

I have moved between the tree and its shadow, refining one, modifying the other, until they work together.

The tree

This is one complicated tree. With my shadow painted, I am in essence backward engineering the tree.

Life

While the dead tree is cool and feels all desert-y, I wanted to include some of the living greenery which is found among these dunes. Each tree is an oasis of life, filled with chattering birds and offering shelter and green morsels for large herbivores.

Orange!

According to NASA Earth Observatory, the Namib Desert is thought to be the world's oldest desert. This age, and the accompanying iron oxidation of the sand, has created dunes which range from dull pink to brilliant orange. I found the color simply fascinating.

The dead-looking tree near the center of the painting was just what I wanted. Its shadows seem to dance on the orange dune.

More Dunes

With these closer dunes I get to liven up the color relative to the most distant dune. At this size, it is difficult to see some of the color subtleties which are needed to have this block feel like sand. Some of the oil paints I used: quinacridone coral, cadmium red, cadmium orange, cadmium yellow, naples yellow, and titanium white. I also worked in some of the lighter purple shadow color from the background dune.

Star dunes

What fascinated me about the the Namib Desert were the star dunes. This type of dune, which has three or more arms, is formed from an environment which consistently has wind from multiple directions. The dunes typically are quite tall, angular, and mostly stationary.
In Namibia, the color and accompanying shadows from the sharp edges are a painter's dream.

Namib Desert

After looking at thousands of photos and playing with composition, I finally came up with my Namib Desert painting idea.
Below is my drawing with a raw sienna turpentine wash for values. The painting will be 26" X 44."

25,000 photos

After a research/reference trip, I usually have lots of photo reference. With two cameras shooting in Africa, I came home with over 25,000 photos and videos.
How does one even start sorting through such a volume?

For years I have used Phase One Media Pro as my photo organizer. There are many on the market but I found this easy to use and the price reasonable. (and no, I do not work for them!)

My first step is to set up a catalog. For the Africa trip, I made a blank catalog with every bird, mammal,  and reptile that I saw listed under the catalog sets. I then import the photos which turn them into metafiles for quick and easy viewing. The original files are unchanged and from the catalog, it shows me the location of the original file.

Below is a screen shot of thumbnails.

Each thumbnail can be opened to the media size which fills the screen. From thumbnails and media viewing, I can see if I might want to include the image for reference when building a painting. At a later date, I'll start dragging images into the appropriate catalog set for quick and easy sorting of species and locations.
The 84.9 GB file of photos from one camera made a catalog of 1.8 GB
The 140 GB file of photos and videos from the other camera made a catalog of 1.4 GB.
The original images are untouched.
Even though the catalog images are much smaller, I can still see all the detail in the media size and have enough information to know if I want to look at the original photo.

That's all the technical stuff. How do I decide what to paint first?
I knew as soon as I saw them, they would be one of the first things I would paint. Namibia's Skeleton Coast star dunes.  Seeing them before and during sunrise was breathtaking. Mauves turned to pink to bright orange. I thought of sand dunes as boring flat yellow but the sharp edges of these dunes created brilliant purples and blues in the shadows. Wow. Add to that, probably my favorite antelope, gemsbok can call this place home. We saw them throughout this region.

Time to look at all the dune photos and every gemsbok photo. I'll also go back to my notebook filled with details. For good color reference, I might even have some sand still in my sneakers from climbing Dune 45!     ;)

Africa!

Just returned from a 4-week trip to Africa. It was awesome and one of my favorite trips there. This time I returned to South Africa and Namibia.

I could fill up a couple of months' worth of blog posts with my experiences. From climbing Dune 45 in Namibia, to walking among thousands of Cape Fur seals at Cape Cross, to climbing 1000 feet to a remote cave to see 500 year-old Bushman grain pots, to watching three month-old lion triplets come with their mother to get a drink at a waterhole, it was a trip to remember.

How refreshing to have the time to let Africa seep into me again. Sitting quietly watching, listening, breathing in the air. There is no substitute. 

Linda descending Dune 45

Cape Fur seal colony

500+ year-old Bushman grain containers

Note the coat - it got below freezing in South Africa.

Finished

Breath of Fresh Air

20.75" X 13.75"

Original Oil

Reflections

I've often painted water reflections. Here with the subject below water, the reflections are above not below him.

Green Sea Turtle

Painting detail

This green sea turtle was such to see while snorkeling. There were only four of us in the area and we didn't see him until he swam right up past us to grab a breath. Not bothered by our presence, he took 5 or 6 leisurely breaths, and then gracefully descended to continue feeding on coral. 

As I watched, I was transfixed by his reflections on the water's surface. Wouldn't that be fun to paint someday! Stay tuned.

Coral

There are different directions I could go with the coral. Bright and colorful, muted, a combination, or leave it off all together. I liked the idea of having something there, but really wanted to minimize its impact. A painting with intricate and colorful coral would be beautiful but not for this piece.
Using a limited palette creates a more peaceful scene and the reflections will aid in the story.

Water

With all the colors and reflections, I find this type of underwater scene fascinating to paint. I get to mix some vibrant teals. For the bluer water below, there are three mixed blues. Once they are on the board, my very soft blending brush is used to soften all the edges. This can take numerous passes in different directions.

Underwater

Someone recently asked me if I do underwater scenes. I do, but it has been awhile. Ideas started to roll around in my head of the colors and creatures I've seen on my last several snorkeling trips.

Finished

Introduction to Fine Art

15" X 13.75"

Original Oil 

Thanks for following along. This was quite the challenge for me and I believe I learned a lot. 

You may notice a color shift and a difference in contrast from my in-progress posts and this one. The previous photos were quick shots with my phone while the above is a scan of the painting before varnishing. The colors will be richer after varnishing but I generally scan first to avoid glare from the varnish.

Next up - wildlife. 

Red hair

My niece Olivia is the model in this painting. We actually saw this painting together in Barcelona. While I love the look of her red hair, right now I am wishing it was jet black with no highlights! This is the most difficult human hair I have ever painted.
The soft oranges and the golden highlights which weave in an out are only the start. There are low lights with richer tones and coming up is a flip at the bottom. This beautiful (and completely natural) hair is something I want to get right.

The girl

One would think after completing the Renaissance painting, the rest would be a piece of cake. But until this point, I hadn't decided on the color of her shirt. Do I make it pretty blue or green, or would a soft pink make the overall painting more effective. She still stands out from the wall, but does not compete with the busyness of the master painting. However, her skirt gives a nod to the flowers of the Spanish painting's rug.

16th century art

One commentator I read said that the Spanish painters of this era took the ideas of the Italian Renaissance and then threw the kitchen sink at them. With all the iconic references (lamb and banner, robe on the infant Saint John, various elements of Mary's life, angels in the heavens, holy book) and the local references (men on horseback, landscape, clothing), why is there a monkey in the painting?

Most of my paintings are of wildlife (did get to paint the monkey, bird, and lamb in this piece but hardly the same as a wildlife painting.) The delicate flesh tones of humans are not something with which I am very familiar. How do I even tackle this?
The first step was to grab my tube of flesh tone paint. (Not sure I have even used it before.) Hmm. The color is a bit pinkish and flat. Yellow ochre, naples yellow, cadmium red, burnt umber, and raw umber were some of the additional colors used. I do appreciate how Juan de Burgunya delicately portrayed the face of Mary. At each step (cheeks, chin, eyes, forehead) I referred back to his genius.

I have to admit that when I started, this type of painting was not my favorite. It seemed too contrived. But as I have explored (you might say every inch of this piece), my appreciation has grown tremendously. The composition, the placement of detail, the reds moving throughout the piece, the action of Jesus with a bird on his fingertip, the ribbon of water, and so much more contribute to a painting I now enjoy.

The Gown

The remainder of the landscape did not get any easier. Working on the columns on the left side took a very small brush so it is refreshing to have the larger expanses of color for the gown.
 I mixed three dark blues: the darkest dark, the slightly more gray/green dark blue, and the lighter dark blue for the wrinkles. The powder blue (cerulean blue, ultramarine blue, and titanium white) was mixed and carefully moved to a safer section on my palette to prevent contamination from the other colors.

The landscape

The intricate landscape is a challenge. Not only does the water change color, but there are buildings and people scattered throughout. My painting is 15" X 13.75" which is adding to the difficulty. In addition, I am constantly evaluating how much detail to include. Everything from the original Virgin and Child with Infant Saint John must be included but needs to feel painterly - Juan de Burgunya painterly.

The carpet

In painting the painting, there are many parts I expect to be quite difficult and which will take all my skills. The carpet was not one of them. Not only did it bend around the platform but I am adding the shadow from the girl. May I just say, "Aaaaagggghhhhk." And whose bright idea was this?

On the other hand, I thought the book would be quite challenging. For the dark of the spine area I used burnt umber as the base and moved out to the edges with yellow ochre and naples yellow to create the gold look. Once the white of the open pages was painted, it was rather easy to paint the Latin script with just enough detail to look like writing.