Collage of My September Paintings

Collage of My September 2014 Paintings

Last month, including reworked paintings, I finished 25 paintings!  As many of my readers may know, September was the month of Leslie Saeta's 30 in 30 challenge.  I didn't participate in it, because I learned from experience that it was unnecessarily stressful.  I don't need the external stimulation, because I am an artoholic who cannot live without art!

By the way, I started a new series of "Cityscapes" with a new section on my Etsy store.  As a big city girl from Seoul, Korea, I love what big cities can offer--monuments, museums, parks, bridges, boulevards, bustling neighborhoods, etc.!  In the coming weeks, you will be seeing lots of paintings of my favorite cities--Paris, London, New York, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Venice, etc.

"Sunny Hydrangea Garden" (oil on linen; 8" x 8") sold

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I have a soft spot for hydrangeas.  Their huge heads of pastel florets that grace gardens in late spring tug at my heartstrings as few other flowers do.  Now the weather has turned chilly, the image of a sunny garden with hydrangeas abloom is perfect to lift my spirit.

"Summer Garden with Hydrangea" (oil on stretched canvas; 12" x 12") sold

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Before

Something about "Summer Garden with Hydrangea" bothered me.  It felt like a faded old picture.  I decided to rescue a painting nobody seemed to care for.  I punched up the darks, got rid of the dominant sap greens, and played up the violet-yellow green complementary color scheme.  My new summer garden painting looks kissed by the sun, don't you think?

"Bountiful Hydrangea" (watercolor on Yupo; 10" x 8") sold

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Hydrangea has got to be the most bountiful plant ever.  One small pot of hydrangea will grow to be a huge bush laden with beautiful flower heads!  I wasn't sure whether I could paint such a complex, tight subject on the "uncontrollable" Yupo.

After I put down the initial washes of the blue flowers, warm shadows in the foreground, and cool darks in the background, however, I could envision the sunny hydrangea bed coming to life.  I proceeded to develop the leaves and flowers.  If you step way back, the painting reads even better.  I am proud of myself for pulling off "Bountiful Hydrangea"!

"Hydrangea Garden" (oil on linen; 10" x 8") sold

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"Hydrangea Garden" in the original state

Hydrangea and astilbe in a summer garden by a white picket fence.  Perfect! Unfortunately, my first try was so chalky that I almost scraped the painting off.  The chalkiness was caused by all the "grays" I used at the block-in stage.  That's the trouble with using too much white paint, because these muted, grayed colors are made with lots of white.

Do you remember my experience during Gregory Packard's workshop in May?  When one mixes primary, secondary and tertiary colors with white, colors become "duller," but also more nuanced.  I am still following his example, mixing big batches of "grays" before starting a painting, which I continue to use for the next painting or two.  As you can see in the above example, I have yet to master the fine line between "sophisticated" and "chalky".

I let "Hydrangea Garden" dry and went back with darks made without white paint.  I painted lighter leaves on top of the dark passage and punched out sun-lit petals and creamy astilbe.  Do you agree that I saved the painting from chalkiness?

"Hydrangea and White Picket Fence" (oil on linen; 8" x 8") sold

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Hydrangeas are blooming!  There is something irresistible about hydrangeas AND a white picket fence.  They pull heartstrings as nothing else.  So romantic and nostalgic.  It doesn't matter whether your mother's garden had these.  I do have a white picket fence; I have a small pink hydrangea bush.  But they are separated by a lawn and driveway!

So, during the hydrangea season, I haunt the Green Spring Garden's Park in Alexandria, VA, which is just a stone's throw from my place.  The gazebo, which I have painted a gazillion times, is surrounded by a white picket fence.  When hydrangeas bloom, it looks even prettier.  For the past few weeks I checked the growth of the hydrangeas several times to make sure that I wouldn't miss them at their peak.  My patience was rewarded at last.  You will be seeing more of hydrangea paintings!  

By the way, the winner of the print of "Summer Garden" is Sandra Land. Congratulations!  I would like to thank 50 fans and followers who participated in the drawing.  I will be giving away an original painting in early July.  So stay tuned!

Do you remember this gazebo?

"Rose Arbor" (oil on linen; 8" x 10")

"Rose Arbor"
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"White Picket Fence" (oil, 11" x 14")
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"Summer Garden" (oil, 10" x 10")
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"Victorian House" (oil, 11" x 14")
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Some paintings evoke strong feelings of nostalgia and longing.  Perhaps it is a porch, a rose arbor, or a white picket fence.  One wants to step into them and become part of the care-free place and time that these paintings promise.

"Hydrangea and Baby's Breath" (oil on canvas; 16" x 12")

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Still life setup

Once a term we paint large-headed flowers in John Murray's still life class. As my teacher hates the ubiquitous sunflowers, we usually end up with spider mums.  Aagh!  On Thursday night, when I saw him bringing in a bouquet of gorgeous flowers, including hydrangea, my heart skipped a beat.  He also got some apples, which seem to be the theme of this fall.  But as practice makes perfect, I am no longer disturbed by apples.  Bring them on!

I initially misread the color temperature of the hydrangea and blue cloth in the shadow by making them too warm.  The mid-class critique put me back on the right path.  Wow!  John said that "Hydrangea and Baby's Breath" was the best painting I have ever done in his class.  Of course, I've heard him saying that several times before.  Either I am in an upward spiral course of artistic growth, or he is a terrific morale rouser!

"Under a Willow Tree" (oil on linen; 8" x 10") sold

"Under a Willow Tree"
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"Morning Garden" (oil, 8" x 10")

"Summer Garden" (the improved version; oil, 10" x 10")
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"Capitol Hill in Summertime" (oil, 15" x 8")
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"Capitol View from the US Botanic Garden" (oil, 15" x 8")

Paintings are like your children.  You nurture them; you pour your heart out; you even lose sleep over them.  Once you do all you can, you wish them well.  You want them to shine--get into juried shows, receive awards of excellence, and admired by the public.  Whether you keep them in your private collection or sell them to collectors, you want them to be loved.

Alas, paintings do not always turn out well.  Unlike children, however, there are things you can do to improve paintings.  After they sit around in my studio for a while, I seem to gain certain detachment.  I can see things that I didn't see before.  Composition can be tweaked; drawing can be corrected; values can be strengthened; colors can be made richer.  Or, they may be retired so that I can get on with my life. 

In this positive spirit, I am working on a series of old paintings to see if I can make them better. Why not?  After all, all paintings are just a playing ground to grow as an artist, aren't they?  Paints and canvas may be transformed into an exquisite work of beauty that transcends everyday experience.  If it doesn't, well, no harm was done.  Nobody died in the process.  Ha!

"Summer Garden" (oil on canvas; 10" x 10") sold



"Summer Garden"
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"Hydrangea Bed" (oil, 7" x 7")
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"Hydrangea Garden" (oil, 7" x 5")
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I had so much fun painting "Hydrangea and Picket Fence" the other day that I decided to do a series.  All four paintings were based on the photos I took at Green Spring Gardens Park in Alexandria, VA last Monday.  Some days you are just darn lucky!  Do you see the white picket fence that surrounds the gazebo in my painting below, which I painted in April?  



"Green Spring Gazebo" (oil, 11" x 14")
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I have been impatiently waiting for the hydrangea season, because I know that they have hydrangeas planted all around the gazebo. For whatever reason, hydrangeas and a white picket fence are a match made in heaven. They just look perfect together.  They evoke a nostalgic, cottage-garden look that pulls our heart string.  You may not have a hydrangea bed in your garden; you may not even have any garden at all.  But don't you wish you have hydrangeas blooming by a white picket fence in a friendly neighborhood where neighbors look out for each other?

"Hydrangea and Picket Fence" (oil on linen; 6" x 8") sold



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Reference photo

I love hydrangea.  The Chinese characters for this multi-colored flower mean "water chrysanthemum."  Isn't it interesting?  I guess the name has something to do with its cool palette, which ranges from blue, mauve, violet to yellow green.  Yesterday, I went over to Green Spring Gardens Park in Alexandria, VA to take pictures of hydrangea bushes.  I have a couple of them blooming now in my garden; one is so enormous that it should be classified as a tree!  But neither is near a charming picket fence.

Ideally, I should have painted them on location, as I have done last year, when I painted "White Picket Fence".  But I knew better.  The picket fence surrounds the gazebo at the park, which attracts a lot of small children for play.  A few minutes of solitude in the hydrangea heaven was soon distrupted by the invasion of three kids with their moms.  I myself used to take my daughter there for fresh air and exercise when she was a preschooler.  So it was time to pack up.  I painted "Hydrangea and Picket Fence" in my studio, wishing I could see the colors in the shadow better.  Oh, well.

"White Picket Fence" (oil, 11" x 14")
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'White Picket Fence" (oil on linen, 11" x 14") sold

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Sara during the group critique session

A hot day!  Today Sara Poly's plein-air class went to Green Spring Gardens Park in Alexandria, VA.  I knew exactly what I was going to paint--hydrangeas against the white picket fence.  I had unsuccessfully tried the same subject twice last year, and was smarting from my failures.  I had scores to settle, so to speak.  I settled comfortably in the gazebo, which you can see from the above photo (say hi to my teacher, Sara, who is holding my painting during the lunch/critique session).  Everything was going swimmingly until I was mobbed.

I can't say I am a veteran plein-air painter--I have been at it only for two years.  Still, I had experienced my share of the usual difficulties, such as bugs, winds, heat, coldness, noise, crowds, etc.  An entire class of second-graders on a field trip decided to take shade and have lunch in the gazebo!  This was new.  My things got knocked over; I was pushed over; and several children became art critics.  What could I do?  I turned into a painting stone, completely ignoring the goings-on around me.  My art class had to wait for our turn until the kids left, and saw everything.  They shook their heads; some chuckled.

Considering the duress under which I had to work, I think the painting turned out well.  The class--my class--who have become good, fair critics, gave me an excellent advice about the big, trapezoid-shaped brick patio.  It had to lie flat and be broken up somehow.  So I introduced the wooden board leading into the picture on the far right and cooled the top portion so that it would recede.  What a day!