Maintaining Unity & Complexity in Art, My Painting Lake Rock Formations, Degas

In my above painting, Lake Rock Formations, I was attracted by the light, shadows, local colors, and overall form of the rock formation.  I was concerned about the different values (gray scale) of the planes breaking apart the overall shape and form of the rock. While I did connect some planes of similar value, my concern remained. I painted a simple background to contrast with the complexity of the rock formation. The light is coming from the right front side. My critique group felt I had maintained the overall form of the rock formation. It is best sometimes to connect shapes of similar values, i.e. dark values, to maintain unity.  In Degas' above painting, New Orleans Cotton Office, Degas has painting multiple figures of different values. He has maintained unity by connecting the dark values.

 

In my painting there are 3 bright light areas. The largest area done in impasto was my focal area. I painted 2 other areas in a more muted light so that the brightest area was to some extent repeated.

This is a digital painting using traditional oil painting techniques and a painterly approach. I used virtual brushes and paints (Corel Painter 12 and Intuos5 drawing pen and tablet).

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Ice on Lakes in Art, My Painting Chilly Winter Lake, Monet

I am not certain I have completed my above painting, Chilly Winter Lake. In this painting I wanted to convey a sense of cold, chill and ice. I had a problem when I first painted the iced lake. The sky temperature was warmer than the lake. A lake will reflect a number of colors (hues) including the sky, colors beneath the ice and its surroundings.  I studied a number of reference photos. The ice in the photos looked a muted light blue. When I used my eyedropper tool I found the ice was a mixture of hues (color) but primarily a muted blue green. I again painted the lake and made the ice light values (gray scale) of blue green with some pinks from the sky color. This made the temperature of the ice warmer than the sky. I was careful to lighten, gray and cool the ice as it moved back into space.

 

In Monet's painting, Floating Ice, the water reflects hues from the sky, trees and bushes. The ice particles on the water are warm temperatures of muted pinks and oranges.

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Wind, Movement in Art, Edges, Direction, My Painting Sailing Wind & Speed, Homer

In my painting, Sailing Wind & Speed, I wanted to convey a sense of wind, speed and movement. I used edges of shapes to meet my goal. Initially the edges of the boat, mast and sails were all blurred to create the feeling of movement. My critique group felt I had achieved my objective but needed some harder edges in the mast, sails and boat to bring the boat forward in space. I carefully added some hard edges to the mast, sails and front of the boat. Since there are still blurred edges in these shapes, I feel my objective was not changed. The boat, sails and mast are a triangular shape but the shape’s direction is to the side from the base of the triangle. This composition results in an unstable shape. The shape contrasts with the brown triangular mountain in the background that rests on its stable base. I also created tension using the orange color (hue) of the boat and the complementary hue, the blue water. When I first painted this scene, I had 3 seated figures in the boat. I felt this did not enhance my goal of movement and placed 1 standing figure in the boat. I still kept the uneven number of figures; a better design element.  The artist Winslow Homer was a master at creating boats in movement; see his above painting, A Fair Wind. I extended the white mast into the sky to tie the planes in my painting together.

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