Hi Frank, I spent some time really looking at this one. It has a wonderful expressive quality in the way you portray the sweep of the land. This piece has a great balance of purely aesthetic qualities, the forms and colours etc. and a sense of place. You handled the trees with a real elegance and subtlety. I love it.
Hey Frank, this is really lovely, beautiful composition. I love the way you lead into the subject using the road and the stone wall. Very impressionistic! Again, the texture of the linen adds much to the piece, too. I ordered a dozen 8X 10 panels from Raymar as you suggested and very much enjoy working with them. Still snowing here, would love to be in Mexico dust and all...
Thanks Eric, I tried to keep it as simple as I could for a subject with lots of details.
And Jack, thanks. I liked the way the path and wall wound its way up the hill too. That texture of the linen really shows up depending on the angle of the light when I photograph. Like I mentioned to you, I shoot them in full sun, because I think I get more accurate color. I'm glad you like those panels. They are my favorites.
By the way guys, I added some text to my post that I left off yesterday.
frank, i am always astounded at how you can find the nuances in every little bit of shadow and light. your shadow areas in this are just lovely. i agree with eric about the way you portrayed the sweep of the land and your eye just lands on this stunning little white church, i can almost see it in my mind, lit up by sunshine.
Thanks Christine, I really appreciate your thoughts.
February 13, 2008 at 10:13 PM
[Image] "Boca de la Cañada", 6" x 8" oil on linen, 2008 Private Collection
The little white church in this painting is in Boca de la Cañada (Mouth of the Canyon). There is not a lot of spring color around here yet. In a lot of places there is a fine white dust on everything. I had to rely on a simple value plan and not bright colors for this one. (Side note added Feb. 13th) I meant to mention that this was done in two sessions in the studio from a recent photo. The first day I used the photo as reference. I found myself getting caught up in too much detail for this small size. I did not need every rock and branch etc... For the second round, I did not look at the reference at all, and I found that I could simplify the painting quite a bit.
posted by Frank Gardner at 12:12 PM on Feb 12, 2008
""Boca de la Cañada""
6 Comments -
Hi Frank, I spent some time really looking at this one. It has a wonderful expressive quality in the way you portray the sweep of the land. This piece has a great balance of purely aesthetic qualities, the forms and colours etc. and a sense of place. You handled the trees with a real elegance and subtlety. I love it.
February 13, 2008 at 8:25 AM
Hey Frank, this is really lovely, beautiful composition. I love the way you lead into the subject using the road and the stone wall. Very impressionistic! Again, the texture of the linen adds much to the piece, too. I ordered a dozen 8X 10 panels from Raymar as you suggested and very much enjoy working with them.
Still snowing here, would love to be in Mexico dust and all...
February 13, 2008 at 9:15 AM
Thanks Eric, I tried to keep it as simple as I could for a subject with lots of details.
And Jack, thanks. I liked the way the path and wall wound its way up the hill too.
That texture of the linen really shows up depending on the angle of the light when I photograph. Like I mentioned to you, I shoot them in full sun, because I think I get more accurate color.
I'm glad you like those panels. They are my favorites.
By the way guys, I added some text to my post that I left off yesterday.
Thanks for your comments!
February 13, 2008 at 10:03 AM
Oh, we had a real hard rain the other night Jack and it washed all that dust off.
February 13, 2008 at 10:05 AM
frank, i am always astounded at how you can find the nuances in every little bit of shadow and light. your shadow areas in this are just lovely. i agree with eric about the way you portrayed the sweep of the land and your eye just lands on this stunning little white church, i can almost see it in my mind, lit up by sunshine.
February 13, 2008 at 5:45 PM
Thanks Christine, I really appreciate your thoughts.
February 13, 2008 at 10:13 PM