Saturday, January 29, 2011

Quick post today

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: paintinglandscapes@yahoo.com
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2011 21:29:40
To: <justinholdren.fineart@blogger.com>
Reply-To: paintinglandscapes@yahoo.com
Subject: Quick post today


Just a quick post from the Blackberry today. I am out sketching and looking for new ideas for paintings. Here is the spot I am at right now.
I'll have some new sketches posted by tomorrow.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Monday, January 17, 2011

Painting boats

"Docked at Calabash"
16" x 20" Acrylic on Canvas
*This one headed to Raleigh Street Gallery soon - email if you are interested*
This is a recently finished painting I did from some sketches and photos I had from a trip this past summer to the Calabash and Ocean Isle area of North Carolina. I have been working on a few different boat paintings and will post them when finished. Boats are challenging! I simplified the ropes and surface details quite a bit - it was all a bit distracting.
This is sort of an unusual composition, but I like the "in your face" aspect of the subject. Painting white boats is often harder than colored boats just because there are so few areas that are pure white because of the shadows and reflected light from the nearby objects. This boat was mostly in shadow on the side facing you, but a little sun was hitting the top front of the boat. I should have pushed the values even more to make the lighting more dramatic, but it's not varnished yet, so I may revisit this one and tweak it a bit.
On a side note, one of my gallery reps just emailed me today and told me they sold one of the new paintings I just took them before it was even hung. Wish that happened every day!