I'm very excited to share the artist profile that Cat Acree wrote in Nashville Arts Magazine. Check it out! I will be in Franklin this Friday, July 1 at Gallery 202 for the Franklin Art Scene from 6-9 PM. Please stop by and say hello if you are in the area.
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Last year I wanted to paint some white azaleas, but I didn't have any growing in our yard and I wasn't brave enough to go around the neighborhood asking for some. This year Spring had a little surprise for me. Out of nowhere I found a small white azalea plant in our back yard, it had about a dozen blooms...oh I was happy. I cut almost all of them, picked a few purple ones from our neighbor, Ellen's yard and got to work. It took a while to finish - this is the largest still life painting I've completed, but it was so much fun to paint. Here it is: Another one for some detail: Thank you for visiting.
MT At the beginning I wanted this painting to be mostly blue with the white hydrangea as the center of interest, with the addition of a little gold here and there for variety. I had the flowers and vases set up but I thought something was missing. I looked at it for a while and then decided to try adding the red cloth behind the hydrangea. As I stepped back to take a look, a song started to play in my head: Lady in Red. [I think is safe to say that most Nicaraguans know this song, it's played very often on the radio during the "Clasicos de los 80" segments. It's very popular. There is a Spanish version of it too, it's called Linda Mujer (Pretty Woman) and the lyrics are a little different. I think you'll agree that the video is breathtaking.] Originally, this still life was bathed in a soft light coming from a window on the left, which is the light source in many of my paintings. I wanted a little more drama so I closed the blinds and illuminated the composition with a flash light. I loved the increased drama - and decided it was time to put the paint onto the canvas. The concept for this painting is very similar to the previous one, only in this one I used a yellow color scheme and a different light source. The red cloth pushed its way into this one as well.
I really like these paintings, I hope you like them too. Thanks for visiting! There are different ways to start an oil painting and they all affect the look of the finished piece.
In the first painting (The blue brush) I started with an thin wash of burnt sienna, a dark translucent orange, that gave the finished painting an overall warm look. In the second painting, after adding a few more elements to the composition the same process was followed, with this painting, however, I started with a light blue mixture that resulted in a painting with a cooler feel. I wish I had taken a few pictures of the process to post here, maybe I'll do it next time. |
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