Sandy Ackerman Landscape Painting 2012
Day 1
I had such a wonderful experience in the 2011 Landscape Painting Class that I was very excited to start again. Seeing all of the slides Nora showed us inspired some new ideas and I felt the need to edit what I was trying to accomplish this week. I decided that the common factor in all of the paintings I admired was the capturing of the light and decided that was going to be one of my goals.

Day 2 and 3
Carroll Road

24 x 30 oil on canvas

I painted this scene last year, but that painting was much less "finished" with a lot of ground showing. The painting from last year is posted on the 2011 blog. I tried to catch the light and also capture the depth and movement toward the back of the canvas. This painting took two morning to complete. After critiques on the second day, I had a discussion with Nora about painting realistically. I guess I was afraid to really go for realism because I thought it was easier to fudge a little and no one would notice lack of skill :D. (I am not talking about photo- realism, those cherry trees are only implied). Still figuring out who I am as a painter!

Day 4
I'm calling this Nora's Hill because she found this spot and this view.

24 x30 oil on canvas

Once again I am trying to catch the morning light and shadows as well as the depth and movement into the distance.The photo is a little dark and there is detail in the front left corner which you can't see very well here. This painting taught me that I need to draw or plan a painting more thoroughly before I paint so that I am not trying to solve perspective issues after I am well into the painting. I left out the road and then had to figure out how to keep distance between front and middle ground believable.With Nora's help, I think it's OK.

Day 5 (I think)

22 x 28 oil on canvas

Bower's Harbor

Still trying to catch some light effects!
It was a dark cloudy day. I wanted to feel like the clouds were coming up over my head in the painting. I played with glazing some light blue from the reflected light on the water onto the bottom of the foreground clouds. I think it really helped them keep their heaviness without being too dark.The red boat and the canoes on shore had to go-too distracting. The photo is dark and loses some detail.How do you light the painting without getting reflections or that glossy shine?

Next Day ( they have all blurred together)
Chateau Chantal
I felt a little brain dead and wanted to try something new so I wouldn't think so hard about it. After getting location advice from Andrea, and brushing in the sky and background, I switched to palette knife.

18 x 24 oil on canvas

I enjoyed the speed of the palette knife and the great textures. I am going to invest in some different sizes of palette knife and use them more often. Nora's suggestion of "chop chop swipe" worked very well.



Homework

                                                   

Each evening, except one (which I blame on my husband), I painted at the East Bay boat launch. I used a very ambitious 48 x 24 canvas and I did not finish the painting while in Traverse City. I have been working on it at home from the photos I took.

It still has a long way to go, but I will post a photo of it when it is finished.

So much is packed into one week, I think it forces you to grow as an artist because you have to solve issues as they come up. You can't put it away and come back to it later. Overall, I learned a lot from everyone. This was such a great group of artists.
I hope everyone continues to post updates. I would love to keep track of how everyone is progressing.