French village work in progress

The weather's been great here lately, but I haven't had much of a chance to do any plein air painting because I've been working on a large commission. I'm not sharing that today because I want to "unveil" it to the client first, but I'm doing a happy dance that it has reached a state of completion that I am satisfied enough with to present it. 

All clients are special, but this particular client commissioned me to create a commemorative piece in memory of a beloved family member. This client is a lovely lady and so very sweet and kind, and the sense of pressure I felt for "getting it right" has been all mine. 

Often times  when I have labored over a large or involved project, there is no better palette cleanser than painting a new small canvas, fast and fresh, of a completely unrelated subject. 

I almost always seem to forget to photograph the painting after I paint the shadow patterns, but before adding the sunlit areas. Oh well, this is close. I didn't have time to finish yesterday because it was getting late when I started it and I had to pick up my daughter. I like this stage though, because if you get the majority of the shadow areas down in the beginning, you really see the potential and the armature it provides to the design.

Sunset Sail

Ever since my last blog posting, we have had rain, rain, rain. Needless to say, it thwarted many of my open days where I would have otherwise painted outside. The up side is that I finished the large 30x40" sunset painting I had started a while back, the progress of which I present to you now:

"Sunset Sail", Oil on linen, 30x40"

Make it Last

I thought I would again attempt another little slideshow progression of my most recent painting, to show you my process (in brief) from start to finish. I am definitely a novice at this kind of thing, so I hope you will bear with me. But they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so these  six would make it about 6000 for you, without having to endure my usual long-winded banter. ;-) 

"Make it Last", Oil on linen, 20x24" ©Jennifer Young

I wanted to think of a title that would evoke the feeling I had witnessing this moment in time, one beautiful evening on Ocracoke Island. I happily got to relive those feelings as I was painting this piece in my studio on a series of cold February days. Click on the slideshow for additional info. *Note: If you are viewing this in email you will need to visit my blog in a browser to see the progression in a slideshow. 

Winter Walk

Though I've been working on this painting for the past week, today seemed a good day to post about it. Outside it is a cold, slushy mess here in Ashland VA. It's a good day to sit by the fire sipping tea and reading art books--unless, of course,  you happen to live with a five year old. Then it's all snow angels, snow men, and snowball fights, until finally thawing out with hot cocoa. But there is something pretty magical about seeing the snowfall through the eyes of a child, and even a mere dusting must be thoroughly explored and exploited.

This painting was inspired by our very first snowfall in Ashland. My niece happened to be here visiting and she and my little daughter created some nice interest for the wintry setting I'm featuring here, which is located in the park that sits just behind our house.

The start..

Using very broad shapes, I loosely lay in my design using general notes of color and values.

I wanted to keep this piece soft and impressionistic, so I'm experimenting with scraping and applying with a palette knife in addition to my more usual brushwork.

A detail

Here's an up-close view of the little figures (my niece and daughter) who add a little life to this peaceful scene.

I had a beast of a time photographing this painting for accurate color, and I didn't bother to do any color correction on the sequence of progress shots above. The colors are pretty accurate in the final shot of the painting below, however. It was a really fun and different painting for me, and I enjoyed all of the soft edges and the subtle color palette employed to create the mood.

"Winter Walk", Oil on linen, 20x24",  ©Jennifer E Young

Bellagio Promenade

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been working on a large(ish) painting of the Bellagio promenade that leads to the Villa Melzi. It took me a little longer to bring this painting to a conclusion and, because I painted at night, my progress shots were too bad to post. So what I am sharing today is the final piece:

"Bellagio Promenade" Oil on Linen, 24x30" Jennifer E Young

 Because I had to work on this over a succession of days, I worked pretty lean until the last couple of sessions. In the end though, this bad boy has a lot of paint! Of all of the places I have visited so far in Italy, Lake Como in general, and Bellagio in particular, hovers near the top of my list for achieving that dazzling combination of natural and man-made beauty. The trifecta of pre-Alpine mountains, deep blue waters and classic Italian architecture dripping with flowers is pretty hard to beat.