I’m taking a couple of weekdays off, and since I bought new canvases in town yesterday—I was so excited because they were buy one get one free—I’m hot to paint something. (And of course, to not think about next week’s election or the still-constant thrum of the hurricane Helene mess.)
And I thought you might like to see what items are on my list of things to paint, and hear my reasoning about why I want to paint it, as well as what might make it difficult for me.
There are dozens of images in my painting file, but the four currently at the top of my list are (in no particular order):
1. Dutch Creek Rapids
We used to live on Dutch Creek, and there are so many spots to enjoy there that I can’t even remember which one specifically this is. I guess it might not even be Dutch Creek, and instead might be the Watauga River, or the New.
But the water is clearly running high in this photo, so it brings a bit of drama, which I like. I’ve recently painted Goose Creek with some success, which is encouraging.
What made the Goose Creek painting difficult was not the water (presumably the star of the show), but the trees! Who knew they would be so hard? Well they are. But I did it before, so…
I cropped this photo for a square painting. Because, of course, I bought a square canvas (two!) yesterday.
2. Ducks On The Road
This is a photo from our neighbor’s house up the road. I have kinda been wanting a long and narrow canvas for it, and yesterday I bought one. Two, actually. (Love me a BOGO sale.) (I’ll shut up about this now.) (Probably.)
It will be challenging because I’m not sure how to get clean white ducks onto a darker background. I find light color on a dark background very challenging in oils; could be because I’m still a beginner. You’ll notice in my recent Blaze’s Barn oil painting that I was unable to get bright whites for the lines on the road. Oils muddy up easily, especially since I paint alla prima (all at the first / all on one day / wet into wet).
3. Freddie’s Shed Owl
A neighbor up on our mountain (Hi, Freddie!) had an owl visiting one time in her shed! And it let her take its photo, amazingly. This just begs to be painted, doesn’t it?
The only problem is scale, I think. The owl is quite small, compared to the window frame. But the owl is what interests me. I feel like I’m a reasonable mimic, but it’s always a struggle for me to shift things from the original image.
4. First Snow of the Season
I took this photo just the other week, and I love the way the light hits the mountains in that one spot. Not sure if I can convey that in a painting, but it would be fun to try.
The utility lines will be nearly impossible, though, with my shaky hands. Parkinson’s is annoying.
When I had this problem in watercolors, I used pencil instead, which worked wonderfully, especially since I could wait until the paint was dry, then let my hand rest on the paper as I put in the lines. You’ll see this tactic in “Leo & Lucky”, where I used pencil for the fence wires. (And to answer your question, no, pencil won’t work on oil.)
Feel free to chime in and tell me your favorite photo, or which one you think I will choose. Better yet, SOLVE all my (painting) conundrums for me! 😄
I don’t know if I could pick a favorite. They are all good!
I just started working on the ducks one; it is much more challenging that I expected, because of all the fine hand control needed. Parkinson’s just makes that much tougher. So I worked for a while and I’ll work for another bit on it tomorrow… That will be a first for me, since I normally paint the entire painting in one day. But needs must!