Thursday, October 29, 2009

Waterloo Park Path

Waterloo Park Path (study), 10 x 8
sold

Finally back outside! It was a cool, overcast day, but our plein air class members were collectively very happy to be outside (last week it rained all day). Laurel had us painting with a limited palette of white, cad yellow, and a black mixture (alizarin crimson, french ultramarine blue, and raw umber). We mixed three different colors using only the black mix and the cad yellow, then mixed five values of each by adding increasing amounts of white. We were to continue to focus on the idea of the four value planes (sky, verticals, slant, and the ground).

It was a real challenge with the limited palette alone, not to mention this exercise demands that you nail the values. I wiped parts of this away several times, but once the lightbulb went off, I had quite a bit of fun. I enjoy the large contrast between the dark trees and the gray sky--much like the recent still lifes I did with the dark backgrounds, the drama in the contrast is appealing.

-julie davis

4 comments:

Stephen Parker said...

Very nice, Julie. And great job with the tree. I knew you'd make it work. I really like the few little branches you added.

Leslie Saeta said...

You really nailed this one. I know a limited palette can be challenging but the end result was worth it!

Kerri Settle said...

Beautiful! The values are great and I think you did great work with that limited palette.

Barbara Muir said...

Hi Julie,

Once again you've proven that you can paint a landscape with any combination of colours. I like the moody affect of this palette. It looks like the world outside my window on a very rainy day.

Gorgeous.

xoxoxoxoxoBarbara