Commit to the feeling not the photo

So I have been working on this 24x30” canvas off and on for some time. It was actually based on a series of photos I took on a drive not far from my home. I was after a particular feeling I had witnessing a warm, glowing evening sky in Hanover County filled with spectacular clouds.

It is oh too easy though to get lost in the details, and that is exactly what I did! The clouds became too busy. The highlights lacked color. The landscape below needed something. Ultimately I took a big ole squeegee over the whole thing and scraped the paint and blurred a lot of the details out. I took an oil pastel to it. I greatly simplified the clouds and kicked up the color a bit. None of that completed it, but it felt good and liberating, if still unresolved.

At that point I just took it off the easel and faced it against the wall, deciding to just move on to other pastures for a while. I came across it again the other day as I was cleaning my studio, and looked at it with fresh eyes. “Hey that really might be worth another go," I thought. I scoured my photo references for inspiration and found these grazers lit up with a golden light. I thought they would be perfect to lead the eye into the painting without detracting too much from my big sky.

“Gilded Grazers,” Oil on linen, 24x36” (SOLD) ©Jennifer E Young

“Gilded Grazers,” Oil on linen, 24x36” (SOLD) ©Jennifer E Young

When I paint landscapes from photos in the studio, (which is really quite often these days due to my requirements at home) I try to go more for the feeling than the photo(s). This is my chance to play with color and composition and not be a slave to recording what the photograph has already attempted. I really ended up having fun with this piece. I enjoyed the play of colors and painterly energy. I enjoyed being willing to lose what I had done in order to make it better. And finally, I appreciated the cows for bringing it all home.

Treasure Hunting at Avalon Pier

What a fall it has been so far. I thought once school started things would normalize (ha!) but the  schedule continues it's craziness. Most days lately I have just enough time (and energy) to paint, and maybe quickly post here and there on social media. Last week was major at my husband's job, and he had to pull some of all-nighters out of town while I played the single parent at home.

Unfortunately this blog suffers during times like these, and my rhythm tends to stumble. I don't feel comfortable venturing too far away from my daughter's school when my husband is also far away, so I opt for studio painting instead of painting in the field. The set-up and cleanup is just quicker and more efficient when I need to head for the pickup line at the end of the school day, or should Iget a call from the school nurse or whatever. When the weather is gorgeous and fleeting as it has been, this sometimes makes me feel a little sad not to go out to some beautiful countryside location and paint outdoors.

On the up side, the studio allows me to experiment and try new things. Not only can I paint larger (yay!) but  I can spend more time designing and composing. I can also decide how loyal I want to be to the image I'm working from, or whether I want to push that edge and see if I can manipulate the color more to create a certain color harmony or mood. So yeah, I was definitely going for a mood with this piece, and I have to admit I had a good time doing it!

"Treasure Hunting at Avalon Pier", Oil on linen, 24x30" ©Jennifer E Young

"Treasure Hunting at Avalon Pier", Oil on linen, 24x30" ©Jennifer E Young

Due to the cloud cover and my auto settings on my camera, my photo references were somewhat washed out in terms of color. So, much of the color is inspired by my memory and another plein air painting I did in the summer:

"Anchored at Sunrise", Oil on panel, 9x12" ©Jennifer E  Young

"Anchored at Sunrise", Oil on panel, 9x12" ©Jennifer E  Young

The image above has more warmth to it due to the time of day and the location of the sun so close to the horizon, but I loved the beautiful soft pastel colors in the sky and water and I felt that something similar would work well for the hazier light of a cloudy early evening, with just a tinge of the sunlight warming up the clouds as touches of blue sky break through. 

During our beach trips to Kill Devil Hills, I often walk down toward Kitty Hawk to the Avalon Pier and enjoy the people watching as I go. I especially love to see the kids playing by the shore, so in-the-moment and involved in their play. I know that feeling all too well. It's the way I feel when I'm painting down there, though my time always seems to end all too soon.

Coastal Shimmer

This has been the strangest winter. One week we have blizzards and the next tornadoes. Given all of this chaos it seems a very good idea to just cozy up in a warm studio and work out some ideas on some larger canvases. Granted, I'm still not painting on an enormous scale, but this 24x36" is the largest I've done in a while.

"Coastal Shimmer", Oil on linen, 24x36" ©Jennifer E Young

"Coastal Shimmer", Oil on linen, 24x36" ©Jennifer E Young

I kept the composition fairly simple. I wanted to see what I could do with brushwork and color to create the drama that I felt from the interplay of the sky and the dancing light on the water. This painting unfolded over a number of sessions and the paint is quite thick. I am currently searching for a way to be more expressive and less literal in my work. It is so, so much easier said than done! I am constantly fighting with my inner nature to control, to spell things out. My heart reaches for more expression, even abstraction; but my head still clings to realism. Somewhere in that conceptual arc lies my voice. I've been feeling around for it, and grazed against it a few times, but I still don't quite have it in my grasp. Nevertheless I did enjoy this painting. It's different than what I imagined it would be, but not in a bad way. And it's already given me some ideas about how I want to approach the next one. Onward ho!