Orchard

"Orchard" (pastel, 8x10 inches) $375

Painting 8 of my 21-in-31 in March!

"Orchard" will be with me at the Bayou City Art Festival in Houston, March 29-31, 2019 (unless it sells first...)

This is my one self-defined "successful" result of the workshop I took earlier this month with Jen Evenhus. I almost didn't start this one; it was the last hour of the workshop on Sunday, and some of the participants had packed up already (as there are always a few who must hit the road early.) But Jen gave us one last assignment and (finally!) we were allowed to use our own pics! So, I took the lids off my pastels again and went to work.

I have to admit that Jen's workshop was one of the more challenging workshops I've taken. But in my experience, the more difficult they are, the more I learn. Frustration in effort can be a good thing in the long run. I mean, no-one but Jen Evenhus can paint like Jen Evenhus! Trying to brings on frustration, but in the trying are also included valuable things like discovery and exploration. Artwork cannot improve without occasionally moving into the unknown.

I took a roundabout route for this orchard landscape. When starting it in the 30 minutes or so of the end of Jen's workshop, I tried to apply her techniques for bold, large and loose areas of color, and I tried to keep my strokes fresh (not sure I succeeded in that, lol.)

Then, as I really did like the photo, I determined to "finish" this in my studio. My process then ran right back to my own habit of "copying the photo" (and using plenty of the small, impressionistic strokes that I picked up and incorporated from a workshop I took with Rae Smith in 2017.)

 (As an aside, I'm glad I was using U-Art or some other similar sanded paper for this, because it allowed for may layers and for washing in with alcohol in between!)

But instead of letting the image develop completely into a photocopy, I was able to put the photo aside in the final stretch and say "what does this painting need?" and then flattened out the values in some areas to simplify and give the eye a resting area in the dark tree on the left, and kept my detail markings mostly in the center and distant trees.

I can't say I learned all of this in Jen's workshop, but her idea of  the "beauty of imperfection," combined with really seeing the larger value patterns and simple shapes first, was sticking with me as I finished this painting.

The really nice thing about landscapes for me is that I feel I don't quite have "my own" ingrained style and technique yet for landscape painting, therefore landscapes are the perfect testing ground for trying out new things and with each workshop I take I'm able to add something to my landscapes that makes them better!

Check out the (upcoming) post on my Art Journal Blog showing Jen's demos (coming soon -- my son is putting together a slideshow video of her last demo "Gerber Gala", the painting she has put on her website home page!)

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