Culvert St Series 4

Culvert St 120909



Our first major snow-storm Winter ‘09.  I decided to begin this painting today because today is a Snow Day!   All plans for travel and work, postponed.  Snow was falling when I began the painting, around 9:30 am.

#1 is the result of my first hour’s work.  For the most part, I used inky washes of Cerulean Blue (CB) and Cadmium Orange (CO) and started with the sky.  I wanted it to look flat and gray and low key.

I used Burnt Sienna mixed with the CB & CO on the chimneys and the utility pole.

When I say ‘inky’ I mean that the washes are thin (watery, runny)  but also full of pigment, even on the snow-covered roofs, although there’s much less pigment in the wash on the roofs than in the other parts of the painting.  I more laid it on than I did work it in.  The only area that is truly the white of the paper is the snow on the utility pole.

I don’t know much about working with CB & CO; this is my first trial in experimenting with this set of complementaries.  So far, I’m pleased with the dull and leaden quality of the mix as I see this morning as dull and leaden.

    ****

December 10, 2009

In photo 2, I’ve pushed the mid-tone gray comprised of CB & CO about as far as I can.

I’m not happy with this painting as a complete painting.

I decided to darken the entire painting with another complementary mix; Cerulean Blue and Burnt Sienna, results shown in photo 3.

I wet down the sky area being careful over the roofs, around the chimneys and utility pole, then I mixed a puddle of  CB and Burnt Sienna (BS).  Before I started working paint into the sky area, I re-wet the sky area at the roofline and around the chimneys and pole.  I started working the paint in, starting at the roofline, holding the paper upside down.  As I worked down – to the top of the sky – I used thicker and thicker paint & less water – the opposite of a classical graded wash, which starts out thick and ends up thin as the painter keeps adding more and more water, less & less pigment.  I had gotten the paper quite wet before I started to paint, so the paint spread out smoothly at the lowest place of the sky.  I used quite a bit of pigment on the brush, but the paper being so wet diffused the paint nicely.

I’m happier with the way the sky contrasts the snow on the utility pole.  The painting still has the leaden gray quality I wanted, also some color.

The only pigments I used in this painting were Cerulean Blue, Cadmium Orange and Burnt Sienna, as described.

I also re-worked the roofs and the houses with varying degrees of CB and BS & deepened the darks on the pole with pure CB.

The painting still isn’t quite finished; I still have some details of the pole to add in but since it’s gotten dark, I’ll have to wait until daylight tomorrow.  I’d thought I’d like to put in the snow, too, but the snow stopped at noon and I lost my motivation.  I’m still thinking about it, though.