I fought the color and the color won

Shady Road © 2009 by Karen Mathison Schmidt
6 x 6 • acrylic on Gessobord

SOLD • private collection, Salem, Massachusetts

Well, when I came to the easel this morning, I had the idea that I was going to tone down some of the color intensity of this fauve-a-licious little picture. When I started painting, however, the colors stubbornly insisted on remaining bold and bright.

As you can see, I decided to pick my battles and let the color have its way in this one. (Yeah, that’s it ... I let the color win.)

Here are some close-up details, and following that are some more photos I took during my walk around the park on Wednesday. What a glorious day!

Falling Back

October Evening © 2009 Karen Mathison Schmidt
30 x 24 x 2 • acrylic on 2" cradled Gessobord


sides painted dark brown
gloss varnish for protection
& easy cleaning
unframed

$520 • PURCHASE this Louisiana landscape painting

I love this view of the north pasture, where a smallish pond has overflowed its banks because of the heavy rains we had all through October.

The daylight hours are getting a litter shorter every day now, and since I don’t like to paint by artificial light that leaves less time to paint. Added to the fact that this is a larger than usual painting, it took a little longer to finish, but oh, so fun to do! Lots of layered color glazes, and different textures. I used quick little brushstrokes and a lot of transparent glazing medium mixed with each of the colors (vermilion, cadmium yellow light, brilliant blue, fuschia, white -- layered on separately) to try to capture the radiance of the sky; and a painting knife for the heavy texture of the foreground grasses.

Here are some brushwork details, followed by the work-in-progress photos:

WORK-IN-PROGRESS photos:






In yesterday’s post you can see more detail on how I developed the foreground:

... and here again is the final painting: