"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Twisted and Tangled

This painting will be the lesson for my class at Riverside Art Center this coming Monday night.  It is loosely based on a photo of an abandoned house somewhere in rural Ohio.  I like the shapes of the trees -  very eerie and lifelike.  I always wonder what it would be like if the walls and spaces in the home could talk.  Was this a happy home?  Were there children playing in the yard?  So many questions!!!

The painting is 9" x 12" and is painted on 140 lb. Strathmore cold-pressed watercolor paper.  I used a limited palette in this - Indian Red, Sepia, Burnt Sienna  and Yellow Ochre.  Although it looks like blue in the sky, it is actually not - the camera picked up color that isn't really there. The lower sky is really a light wash of a mixture of yellow ochre and burnt sienna.

4 comments:

Autumn Leaves said...

How beautiful! (And I am fascinated by the fact that your camera changed the sky to blue!) This is really a beautiful painting and the type of place I'd love to have a chance to explore and photograph.

Ginny Stiles said...

The fantastic work on the branches, Barb...WOW. I've attempted similar with poor results. You are a master of it! I am so impressed. And I too think it's cool that the camera found blue in the sky! Either way...swell.

Have you had any snow melt up there yet?
We have watched your midwest winter with actual pain...we just can't believe it.

Barb Sailor said...

Thanks, Sherry! My camera is just a small digital one...it takes pretty good pictures but have had this problem before with the way it reads skies.
This would be a fun place to explore and take photographs.

Barb Sailor said...

Ginny, I am happy you like this!
Our snow is gone except for some places where it was piled sky high. Yes - this has been a painful winter - I never thought it would stop snowing. Hopefully things are getting better. We had snow again on Tuesday, but it didn't stay on the ground long. Boulder Junction is another story. It has been an extremely long winter in the northwoods, as you know. My friend Charlyne is back there after spending 2 weeks with family in Florida. She came back to more snow. She says the snow is unbelievably high. Wow! When are you returning to the north?
Enjoy your trip to the sea and have a wonderful zentangle workshop.