"Daydream of Nature"
7" X 5"
Oils
$45
Today I decided to do something really different.
I had the golden opportunity to paint in Tuscany. However, on that European trip, we went to London, then to Paris (which is the ultimate place I wish to go paint at some day, perhaps Monet's garden, or the "Left Bank"), and then to Tuscany, the place to paint! BUT...as my luck would have it...while getting off the plane in Pisa, I pulled a ligament in my right arm (my painting arm), getting luggage off the carousel. Since the painting trip was pre-paid with no refunds (I learned a lesson there), I was well, "screwed". I didn't realize how bad it really was until we got to Paris, I couldn't even hold up my NIKON camera to take good photographs of the Eiffel Tower. All I had was my camera phone and a much smaller camera I take for travels. (Yes, I travel HEAVY with equipment, light with clothes.)
Long story short, I never got to paint in Tuscany, in fact, I really didn't even like Tuscany, (to paint, I mean), I though it was way over-rated! (Personal opinion.) I found nicer landscapes in Ecuador's Andes Mountains on a later trip. However, I am not a stupid woman, I know there are plenty of places to paint in Tuscany and the surrounding areas, I just didn't have the ability to go and explore, so my husband and I went to Paris instead again, where he played in the European Poker tournament and I explored the city alone (which I LOVED), and sometimes with him. I was not allowed to go in the mothership of all purse stores, Louis Vuitton. That could have been dangerous! (I made it up later in Venice, Italy where I purchased NINE purses instead...I think my husband learned to not deny me in the future. After all, I was "hurting" physically and needed a new purse to cheer me up! Haha!)
So here I am on top of the Eiffel Tower, and that peach colored thing around my neck is actually a make-shift sling the French doctor had me make out of a scarf I had purchased. I couldn't paint, but I could still do sight-seeing and wow, did I ever!
Not being able to paint a Tuscany scene while in Italy always was a thorn in my side. So today, I decided to go online and find a pretty picture and be inspired by it. Wow, there was so much from which to choose!
What I wanted to share was the other painters who went on the trip packed "LIGHT", with their supplies (no, I still haven't learned my lesson with that one), and they could have probably produced their painting with three to five colors plus white...I used to be able to do that when I was younger, but I've gotten spoiled with formerly owning an art supply store where there was a plethora of colors! Yes, that overabundance of colors probably caused my pulled ligament in my painting arm, but I'm not about to change, because I love variety and I don't like to be limited, however, just for this 30 day challenge, I may just end up doing a painting with a few colors...and yes, after having the surplus of colors like I do, it would be a true challenge to paint with only a few colors. Also, now I do not have the ability to "squint" anymore after having eye surgery. Other artists are so unaware how much an artist squints while painting, and I had to learn to adapt. The use of an iPad has helped me tremendously, ask me about that!
Today's little 7" X 5" painting took 16 colors! (I told you I was spoilt.) But I only used one brush! A #4 Royal Round Brush, SG250...it's a cheap one but it's got a soft grip and it did the job. I also did not paint with Liquin, a favorite product of mine, but instead just used turpentine.
The colors I used were:
Titanium White
Cadmium Yellow Light
Naples Yellow Hue
Diarylide Yellow
Flesh Hue (Use that more than I realize)
Thalo Blue
Thalo Yellow Green (One of my favorite colors)
Permanent Green Light
Oxide of Chromium
Cadmium Red Light
Rose Madder Hue
Alizarin Crimson
Alizarin Crimson Golden
Cadmium Barium Red
Quinacridone Orange
Thank you for reading about my fun story of how it came to be that I painted this little painting.
Oh, I nearly forgot, I did an underpainting of pink to cover the canvas. I did it a long time ago in acrylic colors, and my guess was it was a flesh colored hue with white, I truly can't remember. It made painting the sky really easy because the underpainting shines through.
Creatively yours, Kathleen
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