Amy Mann's painting a day

Friday, April 24, 2009

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Day 2 of Bazille copy

Here's a link to my copying blog to see my progress on the Bazille copy. http://amyilenemann.blogspot.com/

Friday, April 10, 2009

New copy begun!

http://amyilenemann.blogspot.com/

Today I copied at the National Gallery. Click on the above link to see my first day's progress.

Monday, February 16, 2009

"Studio Window" (final) oil on linen, 48"x36"

I went back over the window frame to darken it, and also darkened in value the two plants and pots on the left. Also softened the shadow on the grass across the street. I think it works better now.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

"Studio Window" oil on linen, 48"x36"

I may tweak it a bit more, but I think it's done.

Friday, February 6, 2009

"Studio Window" (in progress) oil on linen, 48"x36"

Wow, my last post (and last painting) was dated January first! Well, I have been working on a large painting, so I thought I'd put a picture of it in progress. I can only work on it when the sun is shining, and the snow is melted. I'm going to try to finish it in the next few days (weather permitting) and will post the completed image then.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

"Yellow Crane on Red", oil on canvas board, 6"x8"

Happy New Year!

It has been a VERY LONG TIME since I have done any painting! I guess I underestimated how returning to work, even part-time, would mess me up. I have been spoiled. But it's a new year, and I am determined to get back to painting. So even if I get a full-time job, I hope I can paint, and post, more often in the coming year.

This painting is awkward and muddy, but it's a (re)start. I was surprised to see that yellow+red=green (in the shadows on the yellow paper, but not too obvious in this photo.)

A Painting a Day?

Well, OK, if you're paying attention, you've probably noticed that I don't actually post a painting a day. What with two teenagers, a dirty house, errands to run, meals to cook, etc, I can't always devote the studio time. But I'm trying!

These little paintings (all 6"x8", because I have a whole box of that size canvas board) are done in one sitting, usually about 1 1/2-2 hours. I mix all my colors from a limited palette of Permalba White, camium yellow, cadmium red light, cadmium red dark, alizarine permanent, ultramarine blue, manganese blue, and dioxazine purple. I'll occasionally reach for other tube colors, but for the most part I mix everything from these. I don't have any black, so I have to mix that, and I mix all my greens and most of my violets and grays (the dioxazine purple I mostly use to mix rich browns in combination with cad yellow.)

Since the paintings are done in one sitting, the paint is always wet, so I have to lay it down thickly and with a light touch to avoid picking up what's underneath, if I want to cover over something or make a correction. Premixing my palette results in fairly large piles of premixed colors, so I can just scoop up a big brushful of paint. I do my premixing with palette knives, which saves a lot of paint from going to waste.

The objects I am painting are shown life-size or larger, and very close up for the most part. I am very interested in color, as you may have guessed. I try to match the color that I see, and I spend a lot of time looking at different areas of the setup through a paper-punch sized hole in a gray card, a "color isolator". This helps immensely in figuring out what color something is.

For all the paintings, you can click on the image for a larger, more detailed view.