Rooftops in the Negative

Watercolor, 5 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches

I’m still playing around with negative painting. I’ve always been fascinated with rooftops, so I decided to try some negative painting with rooftops. It’s very loosely based on one of my sketches, which is pretty darned loose too. Anyway I like the way this turned out. I’ll have to try some more of these. I might try it a little differently next time though.

This was one of those times that I had a huge ah-ha moment. I haven’t done that much watercolor and I’ve struggled to find a style of my own that I was happy with. But lately I’ve been working on Linda Kemp’s Watercolor Painting Outside the Lines, Jeanne Dobie’s Making Color Sing, and Stephen Quiller’s Color Choices. Even though Stephen Quiller’s book isn’t strictly watercolor, I saw the connection between all of them. I could feel my style mentally taking form. Now all I have to do is find a way to make it take the form of actual paintings. So it looks like more practice is in store.

Radio TV Hospital

Radio TV Hospital
9 x 12 inches, acrylic on panel

I started this painting a while back when I wanted to try out some gessoed panels. The subject is a tiny oddly shaped building near Pope's Tavern in Florence, Alabama. It used to be a Radio TV Hospital. There was something about the odd shape and the broken sign that appealed to me. In reality there were a lot of houses around the area but I decided to simplify the painting so I could focus on the building. I might do a little more tweaking but basically it's finished.

I learned a lot while painting this. I'm still not used to this gessoed panel. Even after all these layers of paint, it feels slick compared to canvas. Maybe I'll try another brand after I finish these or even make my own. I spent a lot of time trying to get the perspective right since this isn't a normal box-shaped building and since I don't paint that many buildings. I'm glad I did. I used yellow to highlight the sunny side of the building instead of white. I'm not sure if it's obvious from the photo but this worked really well. (Thanks to James Gurney for all of your posts on color and light.) The painting started out as an experiment that I almost abandoned a couple of times, but I'm glad I stuck with it.

Struggling and Experimenting

Work in progress. Acrylic on masonite panel.

A while back I bought a couple of small gessoed panels. Normally I use canvas, but panels seem to be convenient and easy to store. So the other day I decided to try them out. I also wanted to experiment with colors and glazes and such. It was a real struggle at first. I was totally unprepared for the slickness of the panel. Add in my other experimentation and I almost tossed it. Now I'm glad I stuck with it. Once you get the first couple of coats of paint down, it gets much easier. This is an old, oddly-shaped building in town. I've always wondered about its history. I've still got a lot of work to do on it but it's coming along.

Abandoned Art

This week's Challenge for Inspire Me Thursday was to search our studios for art that had been abandoned and finish them or to make a new piece of art from something that was abandoned. At first I couldn't think of anything because I really try to finish my pieces. Then I remembered this one. I probably started this around 1990. Talk about abandoned! Several times I was going to either toss it out or gesso over it. Then I decided if I'm going to throw it out anyway, I might as well experiment with it. I tried several things but ended changing some of the colors a bit, bringing some of the green down into the buildings, and painting in some smoke from the chimneys.

The changes weren't that major but I feel better about it now. I still like the general idea behind it. I've always been inspired by rooftops so I'll probably try another similar painting one of these days. So thanks to Inspire Me Thursday, it didn't get thrown away.

Rooftops, acrylic on canvas, 9 x 12 inches.