Two chickens and a dog in oil.
We have had rainy weather lately, not to mentions storms causing trees to fall and roofs to fly.I am eager to get outdoors to paint plein air, bu in the meantime I honed my skills a bit with animal painting. My chickens, Omelette and Rembrandt and our German shepherd Lindiwe.
Omelette
oil on board, 30x40cm
Blocking in shapes for Rembrandt
Rembrandt
oil on board, 30x40cm
Lindiwe
oil on board, 30x40cm
blocking in shapes for Lindiwe in oil
on the easel
Hyacinths in oil.
I don’t have hyacinths in the garden, but I bought some forced bulbs and they ere just beautiful at their peak.I sketched them in watercolor, but struggled. So I left it for a while. Slowly but surely the blooms began to topple over, like hyacinths do and they started turning brownish in their color. no waiting anymore, I had to paint or lose them.
White hyacinth in watercolor
white hyacitnths
oil on board, 33X40 cm
Fall chrysanthemums in oil.
The chrysanthemum is the flower of the moment. all along pathways, in gardens, on balconies, in public parks, they accentuate the splendor of autumn color. The warmth and depth of ochres and siennas.
Fall chrysanthemums
oil on board, 40x40cm
Fall bouquet of chrysanthemums
Preparation for fall chrysanthemums
à bientôt
Ronell
Six roses in oil.
OK. I now creating needs to happen in uneven numbers for optimum composition and harmony…3,5,7, etc. Somehow I didn’t add the 7th rose. So now I only have six.
Six roses in oil
Oil on linen, 45x55cm
Painting in process
à bientôt
Ronell
Roses in the garden.
Painting flowers doesn’t come natural to me. But I never realized how much I will enjoy it. Especially when I can do it outside. Painting outside just has some magic to it, which only a plein air artist will understand. My plein air work is always much better than my atelier work, more intuitive, more spontaneous. My biggest problem is leaving the painting as it is AFTER I have returned to the atelier. I forget that I am an artist and I turn into a plastic surgeon. I see a little something that needs “lifting” and so I begin to I nip and tuck this beautiful plein air work up to a point here it becomes totally unrecognizable. I lose that fresh plein air touch and I end up with tired and overbotoxed painting. Sigh…
Generosa carmeline
oil on linen, 33x47cm
This is the completed painting I carried from the garden to the atelier. I was happy.
Roses 1: The first steps – getting in the shapes and the darks for shadows. A white canvas always threatens me, paralyzes me. This is a perfect way for me to lose that fear of the white surface I have to fill.
Roses 2: Almost done
Roses 3: Painting completed.
Roses 4: Back in the studio, the artist got kidnapped by the plastic surgeon and the painting transformed completely. All my hard work in the garden, my lovely strokes, the depth in my blooms…all gone.
And so another painting had been a lesson learnt the hard way. Studio painting is studio painting and plein air painting is plein air painting, basta.
à bientôt.
Ronell
Yellow and red nasturtiums in oil.
My garden is starting to run empty of flowers. A few roses and the nasturtiums are still hanging on though. We had a sudden spurt of cold and rain last week which gave the nasturtiums quite a knock and I hastily had to pick them before I had nothing left. So, painting was done in the atelier…not the same as painting sur le motif in the garden.
Yellow nasturtiums
oil on linen, 30x50cm
Red Nasturtiums
oil on linen, 30x30cm
à bientôt
Ronell
September 26: Three chickens.
It is very very hot and humid. Everybody is moving around like limp fish. The horses are in permanent rest under the apple tree, the cats don’t lift an eyebrow when I walk past the them and even the chickens lay motionless in the shade of the hibiscus bush. I was busy, or trying to be. I took down washing, hung the next basket full, every time walking past the chickens. When they didn’t move when by the third pass, I thought they might just keep that pose for another 30 minutes. Et voilà, indeed they did, or almost. This was fun.
..Three chickens..
oil on board, 30x30cm
.à demain..
Ronelle
