I resolved not to do another blog post until I had another of my own paintings to share. No sooner had I made this resolution than the weather went downhill. I'm not a "hardcore" plein air painter (you know -- painting in a hail storm with the medium turning to frozen jelly) so I waited it out. Yesterday it was nice and I found time to get outside and paint.This little 8" x 10" depicts my backyard storage shed. I built the shed a few years back with help from my good friend Eric Herzog. It's a Cape Cod and sits tucked in beneath the branches of a giant mulberry tree in the back corner of my yard. I planted a sycamore tree back there a number of years ago, which has matured nicely and shades the front of the shed. I've been wanting to do a painting of it for awhile, and yesterday seemed as a good a time as any.
I'm pretty happy with this one. I'll probably tighten up the drawing of the shed a bit, but I'm pleased with the composition and color. Especially the color. We all struggle with green ("all" defined as: "Bob Baker"), but this time it really clicked. For this one I blended Permanent Green with, variously, Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna and Ultramarine Blue. Like all great artists I also concentrated on making sure the negative space isn't simply dead space: there's cool color there, even if not readily apparent. But what really made the thing pop was judicious use of Cadmium Red (appropriately -- or inappropriately -- blended with other secret colors). It also helps to have an energentic Collie barking his head off and running circles around you as you paint. Thanks for the inspiration, Sparky!
