Tuesday, January 12, 2010

New Acrylic Painting In the Works




I started a new acrylic painting over Christmas and am just now getting back to it. 

A few years ago, my husband wanted to cultivate some seedlings in our garden so I had him dress in overalls with an old straw hat.  Since he was using the hand cultivator for the delicate plants, I thought it would make an excellent photo opportunity for a future painting. That future painting is this one.

I'm using the Golden Open Acrylics that I got some time ago and just haven't had the time (nor the inspiration) to use for a painting.  I thought they'd be perfect for this subject though.

As you can see, I've just basically blocked in the colors and this is in the early stages so there's not much detail nor variation in the colors I do have.  Someone once told me that paintings with a lot of green in them were boring and awful so my job will be to make this painting interesting.  North Carolina is a very green state and we have a lot of pasture and green trees on our property.  It would not be very true-to-life if I changed that but I do intend to vary the shades of green and try to keep the focal point on my husband and what he's doing.  There will also be fencing around the pastures that will perhaps add more interest.

This is another one of those paintings whose subject is way out of my comfort zone so I'm posting so you'll all hold me accountable to finish it!

4 comments:

Teresa Mallen said...

If this is way outside your comfort zone, it sure doesn't show! My first impression was wow, what a fabulous job on the foliage!!! So in my opinion, don't fret over the greens here, they look terrific already!!! Also, kudos on getting hubby to dress up for the photo shoot! I hope the garden was a success. :-)

Unknown said...

Well, It is looking to be a wonderful art pc. I can't wait to see the finished pc. Your work is nothing but incredible in all that you do!!! I love it all! Hugs Lisa PS I love Green in paintings! :)

Unknown said...

After seeing this Jan. I am not sure anything is out of your comfort zone. It's coming along great. love the trees. they look very realistic.

Can't wait to see the next update.

Jan said...

Thanks everyone. I'm getting ready to start the figure but my palms are sweaty, lol

Teresa, my dh has a wonderfully green thumb and we rarely have anything less than a stellar garden! I'm glad you like the trees and don't think it's too much green!

Thanks, Lisa. Green is my favorite color so I don't mind green either! I think of green for growth (& also money! lol)

Thank you too, Dors. This is definitely out of my comfort zone especially since I've got to start blocking in the figure now!