Not far up the road from us is an empty field where they’ve done some logging and left a few trees. Very early one morning we were walking toward the village and the sun was just coming up behind the trees. I went back another very early morning and was able to get the shot I had in mind. I love the way the light plays through the trees and on the vegetation in the front.
Comes the Dawn oil on birch panel 11 x 14 $400 unframed but ready to hang
Here’s a drawing I did for notecards to benefit the library. It has taken me forever and a lot of white out and casein white to cover up various smudges. (I am not a neat person.) Thank goodness it’s finished. I worked fairly large but still, all those little windows nearly drove me crazy. I may have one more ink drawing in me before the deadline but it has taken a lot of time. I do enjoy having the project around to work on in the kitchen while I’m doing other things but I could have done 5 paintings in the time it took.
I’ve been working forever on a tiny painting in casein–my new enthusiasm– a milk-based paint and very forgiving. It’s a fairly tedious technique using a lot of cross hatching to get smooth coverage. The beauty is, if you don’t like it, you can wipe it off, even days later, unlike acrylic or oil. Eventually it hardens and after that it’s there forever. It’s an old old medium. This painting was much harder than others. The little plastic figures I used for models are so small it’s hard to measure distances. But I think I finally got it right. Whimsy is one of my favorite things; I guess I haven’t outgrown toys.
Anachronism casein on birch panel 9 x 12 $400 unframed but ready to hang
While we were in L.A. Gavin and Jill took us on a delightful hike in Eaton Canyon–beautiful mountains, stream beds and, most exciting, rattlesnakes! After G. & J. left us, I picked a spot with a great tree for a painting–quite a distance from the car. Ed and I lugged my easel and gear down into the canyon and I got myself all set up when I realized I had forgotten my brushes. Time was limited and I didn’t want to schlepp all the way back to the car so, since I had vinyl gloves with me I decided to do a finger painting. It was actually a lot of fun and quite different, smearing colors around. I had to be very careful about where I placed each blob but wound up actually liking it quite a bit. When Jill saw it she asked if she could have it and of course I was pleased to leave it with her.
Andrea Doughtie, Rural Painter 