"Autumn Central Park" (oil on linen; 8" x 10") sold

sold

I love New York City.  It is big, noisy, and a little scary for a suburbanite such as myself.  But, for culture--both highbrow and the rest, there is no other place like New York in the United States. My pet peeve is that I don't get to visit it often.  I have only three or four paintable pictures of this exciting city from my few visits.

The photo I used for "Autumn Central Park" wasn't taken on an autumn day at all.  It was on an overcast day in May during my family's mini vacation that I took the shot.  No matter.  I Photoshopped the picture, intensifying hue/saturation.  You just can't believe what you see these days, ha!

If you send me your pictures to kimstenbergart@gmail.com, I may make paintings out of them.  How fun is that!  At the end of September, I will do a drawing and one lucky person wins a free painting.  You can buy the painting anytime, but there is no obligation.  Thanks!

Today is Day Sixteen of Leslie Saeta's 30 in 30 Challenge.  I am halfway through!

"Autumn Walk along the C & O Canal" (oil on linen; 8" x 10") sold

sold

Before

The scene captured in the painting

In the last  entry, I talked about my harrowing painting experience at Chaco Canyon two years ago.  Here is another such story.  The tranquil scene above is the C & O Canal at Fletcher's Boathouse.  In the fall of 2009, I started taking Sara Linda Poly's  plein-air painting class.  I was absolutely enthralled with the idea of painting outside, but my skill level didn't quite match my enthusiasm as you can see in the original state of "Autumn Walk along the C & O Canal."  But there was another reason for my lackluster performance.

Having covered some popular sites in Alexandria, VA, Sara decided to take us across the Potomac River.  Unless you commute to Washington, DC or Maryland by car, many northern Virginians do not venture out in that direction and some of us get panic-stricken if we have to drive there.  It's like a foreign country to us.  I had never been to the historic Fletcher's Boathouse.  After crossing the river by Chain Bridge, I managed to take a wrong turn and ended up near Georgetown University.  That's when I got a flat tire!  I was rescued by a kind AAA guy, but by that time it was almost noon.  I seriously considered going home.

Not being someone who gives up easily, I changed my mind and eventually found my way to the spot, where Sara's class had been painting for two hours.  Did I say that it was one of those glorious autumn days we often get in the Washington metropolitan area?  There wasn't a breeze to disturb the reflections in the water.  I was glad to join the class.  But I was tired from my adventure; besides, I only had a couple of hours left to whip out a painting.

The painting had been hanging in my garage ever since that eventful day.  Yes, in my garage!  As you know, I have been reworking old paintings for the past few weeks and I am now near the bottom of the pile.  So I took the painting out of the frame, printed out the photo, and went to town.  I am rather pleased with the new and improved painting.

I don't know what the moral of the story is.  You really need a AAA membership?  Bad things do not always happen in threes?  The C & O Canal is a fabulous place to paint?  Never give up, never surrender?

"Washington Monuments on Autumn Day" (oil on linen; 8" x 13") sold

After
sold

Before

Early this summer, I went to the National Gallery of Arts with a couple of friends.  We were in the French Impressionism section, visiting with each other and admiring the artwork--multi-tasking at its best!  That's when I saw Claude Monet's "The Bridge at Argenteuil."  I stopped talking.  My friends also stopped to see what was happening.  I knew I was being rude, but I couldn't tear myself away from the painting.  They kindly left me alone for a few minutes.  I was in awe, in heaven.

I have a poor reproduction of the painting at home.  It absolutely has nothing of the glowing quality of the original.  I fell in love with Monsieur Monet for the first time in my life.  When he painted the scene by the river near the bridge en plein air, things may or may not have been exactly as what he portrayed in "The Bridge at Argenteuil"--the fluffy clouds floating by, the sail boat with a white triangular sail conveniently breaking up the horizon line, and especially the shimmering reflections in the water.  Will I ever be able to paint like him someday?

Which brings us to "Monuments on Autumn Day."  Gravelly Point along George Washington Parkway is located right next to the National Airport.  A great view of the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial is why several of my friends and I were there two years ago.  What you can't tell from the painting, however, is that my nerves were totally shot during the paint-out thanks to the constant noise from the huge jumbo jets coming down to land at the airport!  My stress level was, therefore, higher than usual, which might account for the general drabness of the painting in its original state.  I am quite sure that Monet never had to deal with the jet noise!

The colors of the polluted Potomac river can only be described as dirty-looking.  Peope fish there, but I sincerely hope they don't eat a large quantity of their catch.  I figured that there is no reason why I should stick with the "real" colors.  When I quit my teaching job to become a full-time artist, I assume I was issued the artistic license!  Invoking Monet, I did my best to make "Monuments on Autumn Day" shimmer.  Do you think I measure up to the master?

"Autumn C & O Canal" (oil on linen; 12" x 12") sold

sold

Before

The scene captured in the painting

Speaking of bringing life back to an old painting, please have a look at what I did to "Autumn C & O Canal".  I painted it at the end of last October along the C & O Canal at a place called Wide Water, just north of Washington, DC.  It was a chilly day, so my fingers and feet got numb within an hour into the painting.  But the light could not have been better.

Then why does the untouched plein-air painting look wish washy?  This is what happened.  When I started the painting, the sun shined on us brightly (there were about ten of us that day), as you can see in the above photo.  The shadows on the embankment were strong, the reflections of the fall foliage in the murky canal water were absolutely breath-taking.

Then the sun started playing peekaboo with us; clouds rolled in; it became completely overcast by the mid-afternoon.  In other words, the painting was a victim of the typical hazard in plein-air painting.  I got confused, couldn't recall exactly the brilliant, bouncing colors that used to be there.

Using the photo as a guide, I brought back the light to "Autumn C & O Canal."  I may have exaggerated colors a bit, but I like the improved state a lot.  What do you say?

"Autumn Central Park" (oil on linen; 8" x 12") sold

sold

Before

Reference photo

The other day, my teenage daughter opened a "wise" fortune cookie that said "a failure is an opportunity in disguise."  She asked me if it was deep enough for me.  Ha!  I don't put much stock in fortune cookies, unlike some people who go out to buy a lottery ticket on account of a particularly lucky fortune after a Chinese meal. 

Nevertheless, the incident got me thinking.  Hm.  I pulled out a "failed" painting to give it another shot.  It was sold on eBay last fall, but alas, the buyer failed to pay up.  So it wasn't my painting but the eBayer that failed.  All the same, I knew right away what to do. 

"Autumn Central Park" was based on a photo I took two years ago when my then college department took a bus-load of students on an educational tour to New York City.  It was mid-November, but we had an unbelievably mild, gorgeous weather!  We walked through Central Park, our destination being the Metropolitan Museum of Arts to see its world-famous Egyptian collection.

I am glad that I still had the painting in my possession so that I got another chance to work on it.  It had a good bone structure, so to speak, but my original execution somehow lacked conviction, especially in the foreground shadows.  The fortune cookie was right, don't you agree?  A failure, indeed, is an opportunity in disguise!

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

sold

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!