path – Page 2 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Up the Hill

I started this painting a few weeks ago, at the first class at the local adult school with a new teacher. This is from a photo I took some time ago. I was at the bottom of a hill, looking up.

This painting has taken a lot of time – several hours – but the work has been worthwhile. I have been applying the various principles I am slowly garnering from hours at the proverbial grindstone, memorizing techniques, concepts, whatever. For instance, I think this painting actually has a nice sense of depth and perspective – something I have struggled with for a long time. The light on the trees also pleases me, as do other bits and pieces of it.

I have also learned just through doing how to get the heavy body acrylic paint into a more viscous and enjoyable mess to paint with, and that is a big help! It’s a combination of matte medium, water, and the paint itself. I dislike the plasticky quality so often that accompanies acrylic paints, so even thought my colors are bright, I think they moosh together fairly well.

I’ll ask my teacher’s opinion when I see her next week. Meanwhile, here is (to my eye at present) finished work. Below is the photo which is the basis for this painting.

The Hill

More browsing through history! Today, a trip back to the spring of 2017, a hike on a pathway behind the local botanical garden. Obviously there was some rain that year as there are green plants!

One thing I really enjoy doing is making panoramas out of a whole series of images. Sometimes I fail to get enough to create a good study, and that is where Photoshop comes in. I did a lot of filling in of empty spaces, and if you look closely you will see repetition of the cloud in the upper right corner, and plants in the lower left corner. That is what happens when I hand hold my Nikon Df camera and a long lens – this was the Tokina 100 macro lens. I think I took about 50+ photos here. I like to use a macro lens for panos because of the sharpness that is inherent in such lenses.

Altogether, I like what I did in post here. The coloration and composition are pleasant and summery. I also think it is a photo worth using as the basis for a landscape.

Garden of Delights

I have been out of touch with a lot of my “real” and “normal” life because I have had cataract surgery in both eyes these past several weeks. It rather limited anything visual, but now I can see and do things without my glasses even though parts of the world are blurry. My eyes are certainly sharper than they have been in ages, colors are brighter, and in a few weeks I can get checked for new specs. Meanwhile, I have done some painting, and now, some post processing of images I took awhile ago. This is from a restaurant we ate at several weeks ago whilst up in the Morro Bay area of California. I would love to have this as my own garden!

I plan to find some photos I took in the last 6 months and re-edit them with my “new” eyes. It will be interesting to see if my editing has changed at all as far as vividness of color. This photo was vivid in and of itself and unedited prior to surgery, so no idea what is going to happen!

Under the Trees into the Unknown

I have not been too much into cameras or photography for weeks, but with the weather changing and my garage getting straightened up (a months long project!), at least I am finding an interest in something other than my messy house!

An element of mystery always catches me when on this trail. It is not through a particularly dramatic landscape, but its overgrowth always enchants me. As evening falls, it is the stuff of dreams or fairy tales or nightmares.

I will leave you to your imagination.

Old One

Early last summer, or late last spring, I visited a park with a friend. It is in Los Angeles, above the 118 freeway, so if you frequent the area you might recognize the photo (below) and the painting (above).

It is the kind of park I like – open, easily accessible, and then winding away from the city into the canyons beyond. Since my friend cannot get too far, we never have gone deep into the canyons, but perhaps one day I will go further than I have. It has some lovely tended areas and then wilder areas, but what I particularly enjoy are the oak trees.

This is the view from the pathway returning to the city, and this tree never ceases to find a soft spot (hopefully a sharp spot with good focus in a camera!) when I visit. I think we all have trees or buildings or places we enjoy revisiting.

More pointillism, more gouache.