Monday, February 18, 2013

Color and Light

"Local color is the actual color of an object, uninfluenced by reflected light or color. At an early age, we were rewarded for coloring trees green & the sky blue, making it easy for us to believe in those judgements. As we become aware of the infinite variety of nature, we struggle to unlearn our color 'stereotypes' and open our eyes to color. If we could be open-minded about color names & simply react to light as it affects an object's color, we would begin to see! We must understand that local color does not express light or atmosphere; that in our painting we attempt to express the way that sunlight affects local color."
--Lois Griffel
Painting the Impressionist Landscape: Lessons in Interpreting Light and Color

Painting Along the River

Yesterday & the day before, I took my pochade box and set up on the Monte Rio beach. Worked on painting a scene of a house across the river. It has been a challenging painting for me due to the variety of foliage and the reflections in the river. I'm still working on it and it has a ways to go, and may not end up being anything worth saving. No matter; it was wonderful to be beside the river in the sunshine, watching the ducks splash around!

Monday, February 11, 2013

"River Nest"

This tiny cottage is in the tiny town of Rio Nido, which means "river nest" in Spanish. I've been planning to paint it for awhile, but wasn't sure at what hour the light would be best. Yesterday, had only about an hour to paint, so I decided to go check it out. Got there around 12:40pm and began the painting in the light you see above. I was so happy for the patterns of the shadows. Tried to quickly get down the light and shadows as it was changing rapidly. An hour later, the house was in total shade. I needed to see the lighting more, so went back today at around 11:30 and painted for about another hour. Not sure why my photo is so fuzzy; couldn't seem to get a good one today. I will probably work some more on the foliage, but the house is done, I think.