Lots of Lemons!

Lots of Lemons

More experiments with pure color. This one is very yellow, but it is definitely lemons!  Yellow is such a fun color to paint - it has greens and reds mixed with various yellows.  Hope you like it!

Lace if fun to paint also- you can make it as detailed or simple as you wish, and it still gets the message across.

Enjoy! Nancy

Art is a Necessary Thing

Have reworked the peony from the last blog to soften edges- I think it looks better, but perhaps needs to be softened even more.  But now I am wondering what a darker background would do- will try that and post result.  Sometimes it is just trial and error to get the final result you want.  I do love the objects together, though.

Art is a Necessary Thing

Art is a Necessary Thing

Am still painting more Turkish boats, but detoured for a while to try a beautiful peony.  I added the Chinese porcelain vase, but still feel the peony is too bright with too many found edges. Will keep working with it, and will post the finished version later to see which you like best.

Again, every day painting is a journey, tremendous fun, and just plain hard work!

Every Day is a Journey

Every Day is a Journey

Color harmony (and its relationship to color theory) is proving to be difficult to grasp in full.  I have been painting a series of Turkish boats and have had much trouble deciding on color theory for each painting. Some have worked, some not.  Although I was happy with the brushstroke work and overall mood of the one below, I am not happy with the color combination.  Back to the painting easel to retry it with a different and hopefully more harmonious color mixture.  If anyone reading has struggled with this issue, I would love to hear from you with suggestions.

Well, every day painting IS a journey. 

Every day is a journey

Still more Turkish boats,  trying to get workable color schemes. Here is another trial painting sketch, which I decided to paint on a much larger canvas with more buildings and then was quite unhappy with the result. Lesson learned- sketch the WHOLE  drawing with charcoal to be sure it is what I want on the final canvas.

Back to the drawing board! 

For love of art

Painting is a daily journey. Some days are great, others no so much. Below is a journey of a color study completed after a return from Turkey. The boats are wonderfully homemade and heavy, each one unique, with colorful blues and reds. Not so sure this one will translate into a bigger canvas with the right color harmony yet.

New Website!

Just launched my new website. Please take a moment and see my portfolio of paintings, as well as sketches from my recent trip to Turkey!
http://nancybartmessfineart.com/portfolio.html