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To live and enjoy every day to its fullest, use my gifts to help others, I travel to wherever passion finds me.

What Will She Paint?

So many friends I met here...!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

FINISHING UP PAINTING YOS FALLS

As promised I would give you the finished painting of Yosemite Falls that I started painting plein air on the Friday of our stay there.

Going over the bridge of Yosemite falls ,water from the fall sprays so heavily that I use my backpack as a shield from the "rain." Hubby is a saint, walking with me over this bridge at least four times, trying to find the right spot to paint. The spray of the water makes it too chilly and too damp to stand still and paint for a few hours.  Also, I like to avoid too many distractions of people walking back and forth in front of me.

For the sake of repetition:)

I finally settle on a place on the right side of the waterfall where huge trees shield me from too much spray of the water.
On first impression the way the huge bottom rocks are positioned, it looks like the entrance of a cave. This is how far I've come  with my painting till hubby comes back dripping wet from trying to walk alongside the fall.


Sorry this pic is taken in the evening time, and the lamplight is very yellow. 
The three greens I used in this painting are 
sap green, 
terre verte (a dark green leaning to the blue side), 
olive green, almost black, but mixed with cadmium yellow light, it gives a bright yellow green. 
With titanium white and ivory black I have a whole palette of green shades!


Season Upon Season, 6 x 9 Oil, St.Germain

There is a definite downward slope in the design, which is unusual in my designs. I learned much by painting this little 6 x 9 inch canvas.  
Painting this view made me contemplative. What I love about this scene is that it tells about raw nature. The smell of moss, where season upon season has free reign, about living and dying, about light and darkness. 



10 comments:

A 2 Z said...

Hi Jeanette,

Thanks for the visit. I've never been to that part of the world. I love how you portray it with the blues and the greens. Just beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

Anne-Marie

Dutchbaby said...

That's dedication, to paint in the mist of the ice-cold falls. The end result is beautiful - a great representation of the beauty of the location.

Annie Jeffries said...

And what I especially like about the finished work is that you did not focus on the falls. Yes, they appear to be visible in the background but the scene around it is so rich with possibilities. I'm glad you focused on that.

California Girl said...

Thank you for showing us the steps it takes to create a painting. This is so interesting. I enlarged the first one to see what the outlines & some fill in represented. You go through quite a process from the first part to the finished product.

Zuzana said...

That is a such a beautiful painting. Loved seeing the progression of your work.;)
xoxo

Unknown said...

Wonderful Jeannette! I love the way you've painted it to draw the eye down to the little pool of water at the bottom.

Rudee said...

So, this is one painting from start to finish? I'd be intrigued by any one of these as individual paintings and I love all of the green.

Vicky said...

I so admire anyone that can translate what they see in a medium such as painting. Its very enlightening to see a progression of the work you go through and then see the finished product. So talented :) Well done.

Jeannette StG said...

A2Z
Thank you! (forgot to tell about your post of Brugge-Belgium that I even bought those little wooden pins to hold the lave threads as in one of your pics, but I never got to it to make a lace project).
And then to think that as a teen I hated green:)


Dutchbaby,
Yes girl, I'm suffering for the arts!! (haha) But, I remember you had some trips to Africa where I thought, I don't know if I would like to sacrifice so much of my comfort to see elephants and other wild animals LOL.
Annie,
Yes, you caught my drift! One can only see so many paintings of waterfalls! You have an artist way of thinking, Annie:)

California Girl,
Thank you for noticing!
You'll find most serious artists are very deliberate about their way of working.
Of course, there are those happy accidents, but they do remain incidental:)

Zuzana,
What I like about the small landscapes is that it's intimate. Thank you, friend!

Jane (G),
You probably know as a decorative artist that how everything converges to the focus of interest is vital:)

Rudee,
As I'm sure you have that with your knitting -that sometimes you can't see on the finished project how you agonized about certain things and how much work, sweat and tears it took!
I have learned to love green, since there's so much of it in nature!

Vicky,
Thank you, Vicky:)
I've said it also to others that I just found out by accident that people like to see the process of beginning to end.

Midwest to Midlands said...

You must have great concentration to be able to paint and beautifully in such circumstances. Your hubby sounds like he is very support which is great.