On the Rocks

On the Rocks, 10 x 8

Show update: Wendow in Austin will be hosting a large portion of my work until February or so. The work will be up as of Tuesday, December 1--wine and cheese from 6 til 10 that night. If you can make it, I'd love to see you there! Wendow is having several events that week to kick off the Christmas season--if you live in Austin and haven't been there, definitely check it out--it's one of my favorite stores here. The owners have fabulous taste in antiques and other home furnishings and accessories (not to mention art!).

This post is a scene from our class up at Mt. Bonnell (overlooking Lake Austin). Again, somehow I became enamored with the trees and rocks instead of the water.

-julie davis

Mt. Bonnell Trail

Mt. Bonnell Trail, 10 x 8

Our last plein air class met at Mt. Bonnell Park overlooking Lake Austin. It's hard to be up there and not paint the water, but the shadow on this trail was too compelling.

I'll write more about this later, but for those of you in Austin, a good portion of my work will be on display and for sale at Wendow Fine Living on 38th as of Dec. 1.

-julie davis

A Clear Path

A Clear Path, 8 x 10

sold

One of my daughters and I just returned from spending the weekend in NYC, and I didn't have much time to paint today for hitting the ground running, so I grabbed a photo I've used many times and decided to try more muted tones than I've used for it in the past. One thing I'm definitely accomplishing this fall is painting "larger", faster (as in 8 x 10 is larger than 6 x 8). :) I'm still taking about an hour. The real fun is getting to paint for several hours--rare, but so much fun.

-julie davis

Canyon Path

Canyon Path, 8 x 10

Working with the same palette here of my black mix, cad yellow, and white. It works for the gray days or mornings when the light is not over the treetops yet. This path winds along Lost Creek here in Austin.

-julie davis

Dog Trot

Dog Trot, 10 x 8

sold

Today our plein air class met at a park in central Austin--this historic dog trot house was adjacent to the playground. (A dogtrot house is basically two log cabins with a breezeway between them under a common roof. The breezeway provided a cooler covered area for sitting, and I guess, a space through which the family dogs could trot!) I painted half of it--go figure.

-julie davis

Family of Five

Family of Five, 8 x 6

sold

I didn't have the courage to post what I painted today at Red Bud Isle with Laurel Daniel--just go look at her post from today and that's what we saw--what I painted didn't turn out, well, quite like that. :) So you're treated to a painting from a photo I took while in England last spring--at Blenheim Palace--amazing lawns that went on forever, majestic trees, cold weather and gray skies.

-julie davis

Shadow Family

Shadow Family, 6 x 6

This is a smaller study from the photos I took in class Wednesday. Groups of tree engage me--if trees each have their own gesture, then groups of them pose--some serious, others playful, some inviting, others off-putting. This bunch has a shadowed area that seems an invitation to shelter.

-julie davis

HIllside Gathering

Hillside Gathering, 8 x 10

Another limited palette exercise, this time using various combinations of orange (aliz. crimson and cad yellow), green (ult. blue and cad yellow), and deep purple (ult. blue and aliz. crimson). Our class met last Wednesday in a park on Lake Austin--I thought I'd forgo the water and focus on a clump of trees. Unfortunately, I had a sick one at home so I didn't get to stay to paint en plein air, but I did a sketch, took some photos, and went straight home and painted.

-julie davis

Value Chart, 4th post (and last!)

Value Chart

This is the last of the chart postings for now--they're not the most exciting posts, but I loved the way they allowed me to explore more limited palettes, and practice correctly identifying the values in the planes of a landscape. Laurel suggested I put the colors from which I mixed each palette at the top of each set of values--a very good point! Laying out all that tape had me stressed out enough--it's no wonder I missed something. :)

-julie davis

Value Chart, 3rd post

Value Chart, 3rd exercise

This morning's challenge was with cad yellow and indigo (mixed from ultramarine blue and cad red). The three top colors are 1) mostly indigo with a bit of yellow (adding white as I went down the column), 2) about an equal mix of each (again, adding increasing amounts of white all the way down), and 3) mostly yellow with a bit of indigo (you know the drill).

I may try this exercise again someday soon, but using different scenes--the change may be helpful--getting a little used to this one.

-julie davis

Value Chart

Value Chart

Halloween and a four-day weekend for the kids delayed my progress on this, but I'll get there. I'm not thrilled with my judgement on the values in this second exercise--too light on the ground plane. On my very first experience with this exercise I'd gone too dark on the ground plane, so I think was reacting to that.

Again, I used a limited palette in hopes of challenging my brain to think in values and not necessarily in local color. Here I used a mixture of cad red and a green (which I mixed from cad yellow and ultramarine blue).

-julie davis