Jeanne's Peaches Plus One

                                                    

Jeanne's Peaches Plus One   watercolor/cold wax/wood   14 x 11 x .75         

Wow...this new blogger is a bit tough to figure out and, quite frankly, I just hate the time that it takes to figure it out!

The challenge with this work was to paint something in a jar....this situation causes the subject to receive light in a more diffused way...shapes merge and separate with less distinction.  It is a terrific lesson in painting what you see, rather than what you know to be true.  In this case, I chose a GIANT jar of peaches given to us last Christmas.  Because it is so very lovely, I cannot bear the thought of actually using it!  

And....this work was fixed with cold wax and fixed permanently to a wood cradle...an exciting frameless option for watercolor paintings.

                                                         

Farming

Farming   watercolor   19 x 11

is a difficult endeavor, although it holds a rather romantic notion in our minds...one of simplicity and honesty, I think. 

My goal in painting this work was to focus on a foreground of semi-nothingness, a quilt work patterning where values and color tonalities have minimal variation.  And, I realize that this challenge may have been far more easily accomplished in oil than watercolor.  For the reference photo, I pulled off of a major highway and hiked to the edge of a local farm.  The terrain was horribly uneven and difficult to maneuver.  I chose a spot leading up to the farm that best seemed to illustrate my goal.  The sky was minimalized.  The buildings were done in just a few strokes.  Most of the work was, of course, in the foreground, where I attempted to achieve chaos and uncertainty.  I am satisfied with this attempt, although I found myself yearning for more opacity, as transparent watercolor has a limited range of workability.

All in all, I feel that this work totally exemplifies the difficulties of farming.

Steeple

Steeple   watercolor   20 x 12 

During the virus shut-down, my walking path is fairly regular...a small loop around the small community where we live.  Steeples have always intrigued me...this one just atop an abandoned medical building.  While not particularly engaging, it still represents, to me, an uplifting, a reaching toward the optimistic, the infinite. 

Originally, the background colors were very bright, leaning the work more toward the typical watercolor painting.  I could not resist the urge to pair the transparent with the opaque, so a wash of Chinese White was applied to the background, quieting the sky and moving the structure to the forefront.  I am not quite sure I am happy with this decision, but the sky area is now more akin with what we experience here in northeast Ohio.  I definitely have an allergy to happy happy skies. 

Over the years, I have also some to dislike, in my own work, the more primary application of paint to replicate shingles and bricks. So, in this case, the end of an eraser was dipped into a giant puddle of paint, creating a more secondary, chaotic and imperfect application. 

I am pleased with this more interpretive consideration of the subject.