My Favorite Things

Since I said that I was going to paint the previous post's drawing, I felt obligated to wait until I had actually painted it.  I've done several other paintings in the interim, but wanted to be sequential.

Anyway,  this rock is one of my favorite things to look at while sitting on the dock every afternoon.

I decided to paint it with a very limited palette:  yellow ochre, burnt sienna and ivory black, which I've just recently added to my palette.  Neutralized primary colors: yellow, red and blue-black.  the yellow ochre forms the under wash and the light shapes, the burnt sienna is the midtone, and when mixed with black you have the darks.  Texture was kept to a minimum while tone and value changes were done wet-into-wet for a nice contrast between hard and soft areas.

I have some more paintings done, some in my sketchbook and some in my head.  This always happens in September.  I start seeing paintings everywhere, and love experimenting.  Perhaps it's the shift in the light which intensifies the shadows.  Maybe it's the realization that time is limited and I must make use of every day. 

Good luck to all my friends in Florida who are dealing with storm damage and flooding.  You're in my thoughts.