Betty’s Neck

Finished barn painting

coreyaber4 Comments

IMG_3069.JPG

I finished the woodpile and darkened a few areas this morning, then, when it dried, I put a thin glaze of nickel azo yellow and yellow ochre over the top to tint it. It is a little more yellow than in the photo. I think the tint worked well for the subject given the age of the barn. More drama.

I tried using cad red light more in the painting as a base for the wall. I usually use cad red light as an accent but I am learning to use it better in mixes.

I have been thinking more about Jamie Wyeth’s work as I painted this and will return to that in a later post. For now, thanks for reading.

Almost there

coreyaber7 Comments

IMG_3058.JPG
Up early and painting on Saturday morning is become a routine now. I focused on all the vines and the barn, closing in on the wood pile. I need to darken parts of the shadow side of the barn (it doesn’t look aged enough) and the big door on the bottom right so it doesn’t draw so much attention. It’s coming together more now.

Thanks for reading

Coming to the fun part

coreyaber1 Comment

IMG_3052.JPG

So far with this painting I have been standing up holding the brush(a quill or a 12 or 14 round) from the end, just putting in loose washes and mixing colors. The painting is starting to take shape. I can now get into the smaller brush work. That big empty spot in the center left is a pile of debris that will be fun the sort out. I think this isn’t going to have much to do with Jamie Wyeth work I saw. I got away from that as I was painting, and came back to my interest in Sargent. Unfortunately the composition doesn’t seem to be working for me. I may have to crop it interestingly to fix it now that I’ve changed my thinking mid way. Perhaps the debris pile will become the focal point. That will resolve itself as I get further into it, and even if it doesn’t, it’s good to be back at it with some more consistency again.

Thanks for reading.

Placing shapes and washes

coreyaber1 Comment

I moved this painting a little further this morning, laying in the some washes and shapes and working out the barn. The colors aren’t right throughout, but I intend to adjust them in the later stages. For this morning I just wanted to get the shapes in. This is probably not the best painting to use to think through what I saw in the Jamie Wyeth exhibit, but I think the point for me in this one is to just work on overall tinting of the painting, getting the right mood. More thoughts on Wyeth later. For now, here’s what I worked out this morning.

IMG_3045-0.JPG