Saturday, January 16, 2010

Plein Air, Hay Bales, French Easel, Art Tip #22 Brush strokes

" Painting the Barley Fields"
Copyright 2010 J.Bellinger
Oil
5"x 7"
Private Collection

The reference for this little painting was a photo I took of my good friend and student, Vickie. The ranch we are on is the same one with the old dairy barn (previous post). It was a very hot day and soon after we had our easels set up the automatic sprinklers came on..while it felt refreshing we scrambled to move our set-ups out of the reach of the sprinklers.

Art Tip 22#: Use the largest brush you can to get the job done. This will help you stay "loose" with your brushstrokes. For tiny paintings, 6x6, 6x8, 5x7 I try to use #6 or #4 bright for the whole painting.

Use all edges, sides, tip, corners of the brush. Put the stroke down and leave it. Try to hold back any blending til the end..you may not need any blending. The action of laying one color over or next to another can result in all the blending needed. Don't forget to get back from your painting..the eye can do the blending. Result: a fresher more painterly feeling.




Daily painting, Sheep, Domestic animals

" Trailing of the Sheep II "
Copyright 2010 J. Bellinger
Oil
6"x 6"
SOLD
An alternate title to this little painting could be "Happy Sheep"...I really enjoyed painting this image. The day I photographed the sheep going past my house was warm and sunny. I stood low in the barrow behind a phone terminal box to be obscure and not frighten the sheep. This put me at eye level with them and I loved the shots I took.