This week on the easel: Val d'Orcia W.I.P.

Just a quick post to share what is in progress on the easel this week: My studio time (which includes painting, but also varnishing and framing, website updates, emails, blogging, photography, sales/marketing, office work, etc.) is now limited to a few hours every other weekday. Painting takes precidence, but every now and then I really must play catch-up with "everything else". So it was with Monday, and I only had time to do the layout in sepia:

Upon my return to the easel, I tackeled the block-in (first pass) which is still mainly shadows and midtones:

Time ran out before I was able to get to the hilltop buildings, but I was happy to have covered the rest of this 24x30" canvas in about 3 1/2 hours. Because I can't always get back to an "open" painting, I at least want to return to a canvas that is brought to the same level of completion in all areas.

This is a view I have painted before (a number of years ago) and I am returning to it now to see if I can use a looser approach. There is quite a bit of information in this scene, and my aim is to relay a feeling of the variety in the landscape of Tuscany, but in a more unified, simplified manner, without articulating everything in minute detail.

The Dog Days of Summer

The "dog days" of summer, at least in my garden, are here. Every August to date, I peter out in my gardening prowess. Basically I tell my plants, "If you can survive 'til fall, more power to you. I'm done!" This summer, I'm afraid the "dog days" actually started much earlier....as in, early June! With a baby-turned-toddler, my poor plants have been in "survival of the fittest" mode for a while now. Where I used to be shuffling plants around all summer, pruning, weeding, and planting anew, I am now happy if I can water my pots between the baby's naps and my now very limited time in the studio.

Somehow, though, it all works out. At least, Baby E thinks so. She loves the garden, such as it is. She wanders around, and when she's not attempting to eat the sticks and mulch, she points to "dis" and "dat" and turns to me expectantly for an explanation of all flora and fauna.

Here she is sitting amongst the flowers in front of my studio earlier this month:

From her perspective, there are no "dog days", there are just days. No judgement, just wonder and enjoyment...and a total disinterest in discriminating the flowers from the weeds. All are equally delicious in her eyes (or, should I say, mouth?) Discrimination serves a worthy purpose for sure, but I can't help but think that I should be so lucky as to see my garden, and for that matter, my paintings (and for THAT matter, my life!) from Baby E's perspective every so often. I have a lot to learn from her.

Season of Plenty (Provence painting complete)

Just a quick post to follow up on the W.I.P. I shared on Wednesday...Here is the painting, now complete (more or less).

"Season of Plenty" Oil on linen, 16x20" ©Jennifer Young

There is some glare in the photo so I may need to attempt a re-shoot this weekend. Nevertheless I think it gives a pretty good indication of the final. I managed to maintain my single primary palette to completion, just to prove I could do it. But I am not sure if this color- limiting exercise was to the benefit of the painting, so I will set it aside for a few days and think it over before making any adjustments.

Provence lavender lay-in (W.I.P.)

This has been my first real opportunity to paint in over a week. It has been really hot, muggy weather lately, so I've decided to stay close to the studio and scour some of my old photo archives for landscape subject matter. In doing so, I came upon some of my images of an area of Provence that I visited in lavender season almost 10 years ago (!) called La Drome Provencal. Here's a 16x20" composition I've mapped out:

I have more to flesh out in terms of both shadow/highlight and detail, but I've started with a basic block-in to nail down my composition. Up to now, I've used the same color palette as the previous painting I posted of Lake Como. But when I started to lay in the lavender I had the overwhelming temptation to reach for a cooler, more transparent red (like alizarin crimson) to add some brilliance. I have held off up to now.

What I aim to see is if I can achieve the proper color relationships in the painting without having to resort to any other colors than the three primaries I've chosen. Alizarin Crimson (permanent) has long been my default red when I paint in a single primary palette. While it is a beautiful transparent color, I sometimes feel it is almost too garish in my mixtures.

So I feel it is worthwhile to try and achieve a luminous, vibrant quality to my paintings without having to resort to over-the-top color. Being somewhat of a color slut, this is not an easy challenge for me! We'll see if I can hold out to the bitter (better?) end!