LANDSCAPE

I have not left this house for three days, eventhough I have been provided a car by Mariafe and Angel. Thank you!!! I think they think I am crazy…..this strange hermitage while on vacation. But it is not an ordinary vacation. It is…a quest. A quest to get out of the rut of not painting, and being a tourist takes just as much time as having a full time job. If I was a tourist, I would not be painting.

“Hacienda Vista” Oil on Paper. This one kind of reminds me of Cezanne, which was by no means intentional. I never really got why he was such a big deal. I think it was because he started to break the world into simplified planes of color and value. Revolutionary for the time, when blending, realism and the Academy ruled.

This painting took two days. By the end of the day yesterday I was chasing the light, so I decided to take another crack at it today in the morning. Who said that landscapes were easy? I think what made this one tricky is the lack of a strong focal point.

Notice how I ignored the foreground fig tree and how all that stuff in the distance reads mostly just as “stuff in the distance”. Fairly non-descript. Notice how I simplify shapes and create lines of connection. Emphasize shadows. I really push angle relationships. My images are often made up of a bunch of triangular shapes.

Also, as usual, exhaggerating color. Although there is more color actually there in the landscape than this photo reveals. Photos by no means = Truth. And photo realism bores me. ( I mean…blow up the photo and have it printed).

More on Photos vs. Real Life in another post down the road. .

So here is the process. After I post this I am going to blow this popcicle stand, and go out into the world!