"Lavender Patch by the Barn" (oil on linen; 9" x 12")

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"Lavender Patch by the Barn" was painted last summer during the plein-air painting workshop with Bobbi Pratte at Fairfield, PA. It had been an exceptionally hot spring AND hot summer last year.  Regardless of the sweltering heat at the lavender fields of Willow Pond Farm, we painted away, sweating profusely.

After the morning session and a nice luncheon buffet, the workshop participants were supposed to rest and take a siesta.  Did I?  Of course not.  I noticed a lavender patch by the barn glowing in the afternoon sun.  I sat down under a big tree and painted the scene.  I worked on it in my studio later in the summer to the current glory.  I am quite pleased with this painting, and that is why I am sharing it again for Leslie's challenge.

Anyhow, when the class met for the late afternoon session, I was pooped out.  Did I rest?  What do you think?  I painted again!  In two days, I produced five paintings all together, breaking the class record.  Here is what I learned from my experience.  DON'T OVERDO IT!  I was so burned out that I didn't go out to paint again for the rest of the year.

"Lavender Patch by the Barn" (oil on linen; 9" x 12")

After
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Before

The scene that inspired the painting

"Lavender Patch by the Barn" was one of the paintings done during the workshop with Bobbi Pratte at Willow Pond Farm in Fairfield, PA in June.  I painted the lovely scene in the shade of a big tree. As the painting progressed, the sun moved, enveloping the purple lavenders in the back in shadow and highlighting those in front. Perfect!

The teacher and several of the workshop participants loved the painting very much, so I figured it must be good and I should like it too.  But deep inside, something bothered me.  I will tell you all about my doubts and how I worked things out of system. 

Bobbi was thrilled to see me working so hard while everybody was taking a well-earned break after lunch on the first day of the workshop.  She was particularly happy with my choice of the painting subject.  She would have painted it herself if she had not been so busy taking care of students.  She gave me several good suggestions, one of which was "don't paint the white wall of the barn too high-keyed" because it would come forward.  She told me to paint it grayed blue.  So did I dutifully. 

But that dingy blue wall in the back kept nagging me ever since.  To me, it was a depressing color in a happy, sunny painting.  It just didn't belong there.  The white wall, although in shadow, had a lot of light bounced back from everywhere.  Thus, while keeping the value low enough, I brought light back to the wall.  The painting finally began to sing.  I made a slew of adjustments, but the most important change was the afore-mentioned barn wall.

The whole business made me wonder.  What is the right thing?  Do I always act upon what the teacher says?  Or do I trust my own judgment and do my own thing?  For last two months, I have been taking a break from classes, workshops, and even paint-outs with friends.  In other words, I have been doing "my own thing," figuring things out on my own, and allowing my own voice to sing my own song.  I see big changes in my work and I like my new style.  I will go back to the classroom in the fall, but I don't think I will always follow the teacher's advice.  I will continue to do my own thing.

"Lavender Fields on a Summer Afternoon" (oil on linen; 8" x 10") sold



"Lavender Fields on a Summer Afternoon" (after)
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"Lavender Fields on a Summer Afternoon" (before)

The scenery captured in "Lavender Fields on a Summer Afternoon"

"Fair Lavender Fields" (oil, 11" x 14"; after)

"Fair Lavender Fields" (before)

The scenery for "Fair Lavender Fields"

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you may remember my experience during the lavender workshop with Bobbi Pratte in June.  Well, it's been a month and a half since the unforgettable workshop and I have completely recovered from painting six paintings in two days!  I felt up to revisiting these paintings to see what I could do to make them sing.

Although nothing beats the freshness of alla-prima paintings done on location, the truth is that they are not always the best work an artist is capable of.  There is so much pressure--heat, bugs, fatigue, limited time, etc.--that if you capture the essence of the scene, you should give yourself a pat on the shoulder and do a little victory dance. 

I uploaded the photos of the sceneries I captured in the paintings above to show you how I edited things while painting on site.  I didn't just slavishly copy what was in front of me, did I?  So much thinking goes on while painting that one feels exhausted just for the brain exercise!

Now, back in my air-conditioned studio, no longer sweating like a pig and about to pass out of heat exhaustion, and instead in full control of my faculties, I could clearly see what was working and what could be improved.  I didn't change much of the composition in either painting.  But colors are richer and there are lots and lots of texture!  Both paintings now sing LAVENDER, don't they?

By the way, painting lavender fields of Pennsylvania got me thinking.  Why not go to Provence and paint acres and acres of lavender fields?  Why not?  Or, as the French say, pourquoi pas?

"Cherry Blossom Festival at Tidal Basin" (oil on linen; 14" x 11") sold

"Cherry Blossom Festival at Tidal Basin"
sold

"Cherry Blossoms Cascading"
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I succumbed to the crass commercialism and painted "Cherry Blossom Festival at Tidal Basin" to make some money off tourists who will be pouring to Washington, DC to see the National Cherry Blossom Festival later this month.  Do you know that this year marks the 100th anniversary of the planting of over 3.000 cherry trees, which arrived here as a goodwill gesture from the people of Japan?  The majority of the trees were planted around the Tidal Basin; that is what you see in my painting.

In defence of my commercialism, I want to emphasize that it is not easy to paint cherry blossoms.  They are so flurry, dainty, and pretty that it is easy to end up with the saccharine-sweet pink fest of paint blobs.  Believe me.  I've tried to paint them many times.  "Cascading Cherry Blossoms" was painted last spring with the help of a former teacher of mine, Diane Tesler.  This weeping cherry caught my eye last year during the festival.  Here the subject is not the landscape around the Tidal Basin, but the cascading "waterfall" of pink flowers against the crisp blue sky.

Bobbi Pratte, another teacher, insists that one should never paint cherry blossoms too light.  Bobbi is absolutely right.  Just before "Cherry Blossom Festival," I worked on another painting of the same theme, featuring the Jefferson Memorial.  As much as I hated quitting, I had to give up on it, for it was a vulgar pink thing. 

In "Cherry Blossom Festival at Tidal Basin," with the Washington Monument as the focal point, I made sure that the backlit, overhanging branches with cherry florets were dark and warm enough.  Why warm?  It was an overcast day with cool blues of the sky dominating, although there was sun, so that the shadows were warm-toned.  This is definitely a feminine painting; but I hope it has an artistic merit.  What do you think?

"Southwestern Wildflower Meadow" (oil on linen; 11" x 14") sold

"Southwestern Wildflower Meadow"
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"Mule Deer in the Meadow" (oil, 9" x 12")
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Bobbi Pratte's landscape class is winding down, with just a few more classes to go.  She suggested that we should all do some field exercises, that is, paint fields.  I chose a southwestern theme.  "Mule Deer in the Meadow" was the first one I did, based on a picture I took on the way to the Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah during my family vacation in the Southwest last year.  I didn't know why the deer's ears were so big until a friend of mine told me that they were not ordinary deer, but mule deer.

I like the second "field" painting better.  It started raining by the time we got to Cedar Breaks National Monument.  At the altitude of over 10,000 feet, it was chilly although it was late July.  At one stop, we saw a breathtaking view of a wildflower meadow sloping down to the valley of spruces and firs.  The red flowers in the foreground are Indian paintbrushes.  There were also Queen Anne's laces and many other species in the meadow.

In my opinion, the biggest challenge in painting a field is to create the sense of depth.  What's in the background should stay there and don't come forward, no matter how interesting and beautiful they are.   On the other hand, it was really hard to keep balance between enough details and fuss in the foreground.  For instance, how do I not trap the viewer's eye in the foreground with brilliant red flowers in "Southwestern Wildflower Meadow"?

Making sense of the terrain is also a must, I think.  In "Southwestern Wildflower Meadow," it is clear that the meadow goes downhill, whereas everything is more or less flat in "Mule Deer."  I can imagine myself painting fields and meadows over and over again in the future to get to the bottom of it.

"Autumn Brook" (oil on linen; 9" x 12") sold

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Reference photo

It was a picture-perfect autumn day when several members of the Art League Plein Air Painters went to Green Spring Gardens Park in Alexandria, VA.  It had been a busy, exciting week, and I was tired.  I walked around, taking numerous pictures of last roses, trees with their fall colors, etc.  But I couldn't settle on any particular view to paint.  So I continued walking down the trail in the woods until I came across the above scene.  This was it!  Except that I had left my painting gear back on the main lawn.  The thought of having to go back to fetch the stuff, drag it down by the brook, set up the gear, and actually paint the scene tired me out even more.

Among my artist friends I am known for my workaholic (or shall I say, artaholic) habit of painting fast and furiously every day.  Not that day.  I decided to give myself a break.  Gasp!  I sat by my teacher and friend, Bobbi Pratte, and watched her paint an overgrown garden.  We kept company, got to know each other better, and had a great time.  It's sometimes good to kick back and relax.

I painted "Autumn Brook" from the photo yesterday.  The background trees with their fall colors are brilliantly backlit.  Tree shadows caress the foreground and middle ground forest floors.  And there it is--a tiny waterfall in the center of the painting.  It was a glorious day to take a walk in the woods.

"Autumn Woods" (oil on linen; 12" x 9") sold

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Reference photo

I went to paint on the grounds of Madeira School in McLean, VA last Friday.  Before leaving the school, a friend of mine and I decided to take a walk to Black Pond within the grounds, most of  the 376 acres of land is wooded.  We got hopeless lost and ended up back at the parking lot!  The walk itself was lovely, though, as the sun had finally come out, casting dappled light on the path, grass, and trees.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I must say. 

I painted "Autumn Woods" in Bobbi Pratte's landscape class yesterday.  This term's focus so far has been trees.  I've noticed that you just cannot get away from trees if you are interested in landscapes.  Whether they are the center of interest or serve only as a backdrop, trees pop up in so many of my landscape paintings.  It will take many years of serious contemplation and practice, I think, to become truly at ease when it comes to painting trees.  Let the fun begin!

"Sea Caves of California" (oil on linen; 9" x 12") sold

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Reference photo

Some vacations are more memorable than others.  The trip to California three years ago was one such happy memory maker.  There was a family wedding, which was held at a beautiful vineyard in Napa!  Visits with family were special enough, since we don't get to see them often as we live so away.  But one additional week spent just with my own family in the glorious light of California keeps generating a painting after another.  I must go back to California!

As I am focusing on water in Bobbi Pratte's landscape class this summer, I decided to paint from the above photo taken somewhere in northern California.  (You know how it is--after a while, you don't remember exactly where you took the pictures.)  The picture doesn't show much color in the sea caves because they are in the shadow; but I can see many different color changes in the water itself.  In the distance, it is cobalt blue.  As the waves approach the sandy beach, it changes from cerulean blue to a blue tinged with ocher.  The wet sand looks lavender.

I like the design too.  Three concentric waves all point to the sea caves, which I painted with warm, dark paints.  Sometimes I don't have to do anything other than just paint as Nature took care of the design for me!

"Golden Light" (oil on linen; 12" x 16") sold

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Reference photo

I took the photo above three years ago at Glass Beach in northern California and have been wanting to paint from it for some time.  I liked the sunset sky and its golden colors reflected in the ocean water.  But I was put off by the dark lumps of the rocks.  That is what a camera does when it takes a brilliant backlit view.

When I showed the picture to Bobbi Pratte in her class on Monday, she advised me that I paint the water first, then add the rocks as dark shapes, and finally sculpt them with lighter colors to make them three-dimensional and rimlit.  Brilliant!  She also told me not to get fussy with the waves and ripples.  There is no way that I can copy these hundreds of ripples; just make them believable and DON'T go back after I put down brushstrokes that go in the same directions as ripples.

I did exactly as she suggested.  The painting went fast.  As it was almost done, I finished it later at night at home to take advantage of wet paints.  I simply love the golden light that seems to glow from within.  Thanks, Bobbi!