Negative Painting Practice

I am doing some more experimentation with negative painting. Here is what I have done so far.

First, an abstract landscape. I started with a wash of yellow, with some streaks of red. Then I layered in the washes for the tree canopies and the grass/trunks. I followed up with some more definition with a darker mix below the trees, washes of burnt sienna to give the tree trunks some texture, and some more color in the tree canopies.

Watercolor on 9 X 12 inch 140 lb. cold press paper

 The next painting is an abstract of leaves floating in a pond. I started with yellow and orange washes and dabbed in red and blue into the wet washes. I followed up with layers of color to outline the leaves, splashes of water to lift some of the paint, then more layers of darker colors to outline the "leaves" and other shapes that developed as I was mixing colors and splattering.

Watercolor on 9 X 12 inch 140 lb. cold press paper

Finally, an acrylic painting. This is an abstract of tree branches in spring, also done using a negative painting technique. My inspiration was a red maple tree, hence the red and yellow flower clusters that appear before the leaves in early spring.

Acrylic on 16 X 12 inch canvas

Trying New Things

Painting by Vicky Christensen, watercolor on 9 X 12 inch cold 140 lb. cold press paper

 I am continuing to experiment. I bought a new book by Linda Kemp, Simplifying Design and Color for Artists. She specializes in negative painting techniques and her paintings are full of rich color, texture and depth. The painting above is one of my negative painting experiments in watercolor. The composition leaves a lot to be desired, but I do like the colors and textures. I plan to be doing more negative painting in the future, both with watercolor and acrylics.

I also wanted to do a quick acrylic painting today since it has been a couple weeks since I have done one. I had a canvas that was already primed with a sky blue color, so I decided to do this close-up view of a flowering crabapple tree. I based this painting on a tree that I planted at my old house. It was gorgeous when in full bloom.

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic on 16 X 12 inch canvas

Adventures in Watercolor

Painting by Vicky Christensen, watercolor on 140 lb. cold press paper, 9 X 12 inches

I decided to mix things up and try painting with watercolors. Until today, other than the painting sessions with the ladies at Birchwood Arbors, I have used watercolor only for underpaintings for pastels. This is my first serious attempt to paint a watercolor landscape. I decided to paint a subject that I had already painted in pastels -- a scene from Giverny in Autumn.

I am happy with how this painting turned out. I know I have a lot to learn, but that's the fun part.

Painting With My Birchwood Friends

This morning I spent some time painting with my mother and a few other residents of the assisted living facility where Mom resides. Thanks Kris Swanson and Birchwood Arbors for letting me join your group in this fun activity.

Here are some photos, starting with my mother. She painted a snowy winter scene.

Autumn on My Mind

Painting by Vicky Christensen, Acrylic on 12 X 16 inch canvas

The leaves are falling here in Minnesota and frost is on the pumpkin, but the fall colors still abound. After spending a few hours painting rocks and twigs and watery reflections yesterday, today I wanted to do something very loose. I figured the best way to keep it loose is to go from my imagination rather than a photo reference. So here is the result. I started with a canvas that I already had painted with a greenish gray mix (leftover paint from a previous painting), used a 1/2 inch flat brush and the colors I had left from my last painting: ultramarine blue, titanium white, Hooker's green, cadmium yellow medium, cadmium red light, Payne's gray, burnt sienna and burnt umber.

Finished Painting: Rocky Pond

Painting by Vicky Christensen, Acrylic on 18 X 24 inch canvas

I have finished painting the rocky pond. I had to tweak the rocks on the left side of the pond a couple times because the reflections were giving me fits.

Work in Progress: Rocky Pond

Acrylic painting, work in progress

 I haven't painted for a while, in part because I just wasn't in the mood, and in part because I needed an inspiration. I was rummaging through some old pastel paintings last night and came upon one that I really enjoyed painting and thought it might be fun to try it in acrylics. The photo above is the work in progress. I was mid-way through layering in the foliage and got to the point where I needed to work on the rocks before getting back to the foliage. I started blocking in the rocks and working on their reflections in the water before stopping for the day.

Below is the pastel painting. The original inspiration is a photo I found in the Wet Canvas reference image library (http://www.wetcanvas.com/RefLib/showphoto.php?photo=88393).

Same subject, different medium (pastel)