Some more cloud studies...

Clouds #5, #6, & #7

{approx. 5" x 9" (12.7 x 22.9 cm) – oil on gessoed paper}

Do you ever have goals that somehow evade ever getting accomplished?

I will share with you a goal I had for May and June. I wanted to compete 30 cloud studies by the beginning of July, and I have fallen VERY short of that goal. Sigh. These three studies were completed in May, I just was slow in getting them photographed.

With this series I am working with a limited palette and so far when I do complete some of the series, I am learning tons. Some progress is better than none...

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It has been awhile since I shared any photos of my two girls, Slim {my sweet Abyssinian kitty} and Naomi {my sweet soon to be one year old!}.  They get along great, and last week Naomi learned how to hold a string toy for Slim to pounce at, and it has been a great success.  

And any day now, we expect Naomi to stand up and begin walking, or maybe even running. Exciting times are ahead of us!

Another Cloud Study

Clouds 3

{approx. 5" x 9" (12.7 x 22.9 cm) – oil on gessoed paper}

Another cloud sketch

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And here are some recent photos of Naomi.  She is really growing and developing her own personality and interests... 

...so when she is more interested in other items, she does not bother to look up and smile for the camera...

...except when she is really pleased with herself, or eating some dirt, or both...



...and she is really moving!

{all these lovely photos were taken at River Farm, headquarters to the American Horticultural Society}

Cloud Studies

Clouds 1
{approx. 5" x 9" (12.7 x 22.9 cm) – oil on gessoed paper}

Hello,

After a dark and cold winter, spring is here and I am now drawn back into painting landscapes. To start the season out I have decided to tackle clouds, so in the next few weeks I will be posting a series of cloud sketches here.

The goal with this series is to learn to get comfortable with the different shapes and forms of clouds. I am inspired by what Carlson suggests in his book on Landscape painting.

I recommend that he [the student] make repeated and "tight" studies of the many skies that attract him. Even if these studies are mere maps, he will learn, while doing them, much that will be useful in his future pictures. pg. 107.

So this is what I am trying with this series, I have a stack of 70+ photos with clouds/skies and I am going to go through this stack and make a painting from each one. Some of the photos are not great, but I am going to try to make something out of each photo and learn along the way.


Clouds 2
{approx. 5" x 9" (12.7 x 22.9 cm) – oil on gessoed paper}

I am also using a limited paint palette with these sketches, the same I use when I am outdoors painting, it consists of: alizern crimson, cad. red, burnt sienna, cad yellow pale, sap green, winsor green, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, ivory black, and titatium white.