Landscape Drawing & Painting Class 2012: Andrea Rose, Traverse City Blog

Class started on Saturday afternoon. My initial intentions for my artwork during this class came from a pastel lesson I worked on with my high school students last year where they concentrated on color harmony. I planned on creating work that followed more strict color combinations that belong to triadic, analogous, complementary and tetradic color schemes. I guess I imagined that some of my work would take on a very surreal quality working inside these parameters and I was excited to see how different they would be from other landscapes I have made.

Truth be told, I am really glad I came in with those intentions, but it didn’t produce the work I had envisioned. Instead I helped me focus on color mixing, choosing a strong base and developing shades, shadows and objects with attention to color relationships.

It definitely helped.

Sunday and Monday, Carroll Rd

The Carroll Rd. painting is important to me because it is not what I wanted to produce but definitely where I needed to start. It has been a while since I’ve ridden this horse and it shows.

I have found that I am attracted to the layers of a landscape, the colors they produce, the way they meet each other and the shapes the layers create. This piece feels a bit elementary. There are places that read as atmospheric background (top left). In the middle ground the lemon- green grapes vines appear to recede to the right in the center of the work through color and the trees below them have a soft, convincing feeling with their leaves and shadows. In the foreground the poplar tree is identifiable as such, but the stroke is so tight that I’m not sure if it belongs to this painting. On Monday when we came back to this spot I lifted a lot of stipple marks from the back and middle ground that had brought trees and bushes forward during critique. I softened those areas and added the foreground-mowed grasses mixed with flowers.

Photo

"Carroll Rd" Watercolor, 15 x 20

I then started the pastel of the cherry trees and the stick pile. I was attracted to the composition pulling back, the linear rows, and challenged by the mound of sticks. I really wanted to do this using a triad of colors- Blue-violet, yellow-green and red-orange. I guess it was a smart place to begin, but I didn’t stay true to the combination. Instead I worked on pastel technique, laying colors and picking intentional color combinations where areas met, created shapes, and where flowers grew. I struggled with the pile, how to create the texture without it being a floating blob, and with the foreground texture as well.

Homework: Finishing the pastel and rainstorm on the lake.

Photo

"Stick Pile" Pastel, 12 x 18

"Rainstorm on the Lake" Watercolor, 7 x 15

Tuesday, Bower’s Harbor

The weather was a bit threatening this day. The clouds filled the sky and shifted form and value as the wind blew. The wind blew hard enough to cause the class to be cold, but I don’t think anyone lost their easels. I wasn’t interested in the boats. The weather was the star of the show today and the clouds took center stage. Today the scene allowed the watercolor to behave naturally. I was able to be loose with the paint and its application. I snuck in two little houses that had gotten my attention across the water. They stood out bright against the trees and the dark water.

"Bower's Harbor" Watercolor, 15 x 20

I also started the pastel of the water’s edge. There is a pull to this composition and there were different areas to play with- the water, where it meets the sand, the grasses and their shadows, and the texture of the trees in the background.

Homework: Finishing the pastel.

"Bower's Edge" Pastel, 12 x 18

Wednesday, Old Mission Point

The water has receded so far back from the lighthouse that it’s hard to believe the change since the last time I was here. Traverse City had no ripe peaches or delicious cherries. The hot, dry weather really took its toll.

I wanted to paint the rocks that are exposed in the shallow water so I walked quite a ways out to get to a beautiful cluster of them. In the photo I took to document the spot, you can see the triangle of rocks that push back from the bottom right edge of the composition to the back left. I started with painting with a watercolor pencil drawing where I placed in that composition of rocks. I set down a wash and then a combination of base colors under plastic wrap for texture in the rocky foreground. The painting dictated the direction it wanted to go. I left out nearly all of the individual rocks I had drawn in. Watercolor wants to suggest things when given the chance and I am pleased with the way this piece turned out. Even though there are intentional marks and clearly planned applications of color, this piece is loose in comparison to the first painting.

Homework: State park beach area and a tree. I would like our audience to know that after painting all day in the sun it is pretty difficult to create masterpiece homework assignments! Most of them are studies and this tree lacks any texture even though I attempted it.

Photo

"Old Mission Point" Watercolor, 11 x 18

"Puddles" Watercolor, 4 1/2 x 10 1/2

"Puddles2" Watercolor, 5 x 7

"Sunset" Watercolor, 7 x 11

Thursday, Chateau Chantal

Ahhh the Chateau, a beautiful spot to work at. There are so many angles to view out from here and you can choose any number of subjects and compositions. On my last trip here I painted rows and rows of grape vines and I wanted something different. I chose a spot where two cherry trees had framed rows of shapes and colors all the way out to the water. My work is getting my loose. I am concentrating on the way the layers make shapes and where their points overlap. The colors were stunning even under the early overcast sky. As I worked my way forward, I decided to leave the trees out all together. Even though they were present on both sides of the composition, they would have framed it in a very unnatural way. I wanted to showcase the teal blue grass in the left foreground the amber grasses on the right.

Homework: Mitchell Creek. Entranced by the roots that found the water.