Window Scene

I seem to have a new series developing from these Jersey images, based on neighborhood snippets and window reflections. This is actually the fourth one I've done—I will post another one tomorrow but the first one is still under consideration. I do wish Google would oblige me by going back to Jersey on a sunny day to update some of the overcast snapshots... There are so many great images but I haven't quite mastered the ability to invent my own sunlight, replete with cast shadows and reflected light.

I did learn a helpful trick in Photoshop, for those of you who use that program as your photo editor. One of the things that cameras tend to do is underexpose shadows, especially in direct sunlight, so in order to bring more light and color into the shadows you can go to Image-->Adjustments-->Shadow/Highlight. Depending on the amount of contrast in the source photo, the default setting of 50% can usually be lowered to about 25% for best results.

Window Scene, oil on canvas panel, 10x8 inches.
©2011 Amy Tennant

Jersey Dormer

This month the Virtual Paintout is going to the island of Jersey in the English Channel. I found some good hedges again and I have a few thumbnail sketches worked out for those, but mainly what I've been drawn to is the neighborhood details. Spartan yard plots, building geometries, window reflections, etc. One crazy neighborhood I came across had duplexes that were painted a different color on each half (nothing unusual there), but there were also two different styles of roofing material woven together in a seam running down the middle of the roof. How does that work?!

Dormer, oil on canvas panel, 10x8 inches.
©2011 Amy Tennant

Hedge Walls

Here are my latest hedge paintings, derived from Google Street View images of New Zealand. I went a little minimalist on the second one below, Green Wall, and I kind of like the simple geometry of it. It may have been inspired by something I read recently about trying to train yourself to see your painting on its own terms (an arrangement of colors, shapes, and values), and not just as a representation of something (a picture). It was a quote by artist Catherine Kehoe:

Try to forget that you are looking at a leg, or a pumpkin, or whatever it is. Forget the name of it, forget what you think the color should be. Forget rendering smoothly or making something "realistic." Think shape, specific color, relative value. Those three things will give you plenty to work with. If you get those things right, you won't need anything else. If you get them wrong, no amount of detail will make the painting live.

I like the idea of bringing out the underlying abstractions of a painting while still having them contribute to a recognizable image.

Hedge Cube, oil on canvas panel, 8x10 inches.
©2011 Amy Tennant

Green Wall, oil on canvas panel, 8x10 inches.
©2011 Amy Tennant

Crosslight, oil on linen panel, 6x6 inches.
©2011 Amy Tennant

Snack Tower

Now that I see it in print I think I might go back and add a few touch-ups, but here is the cheese and cold cuts painting as it stands. The background is a little flat, I think. And I could try to pretend that I meant for the bottom plate to run off the edge of the canvas, but really it was just that I sketched it in a little too loosely before I started. I couldn't bring myself to scrape off a whole plate of food just to move it up an inch. Next time, a more accurate drawing to begin with, and maybe an hour or so of ellipse penance.

Snack Tower, oil on canvas panel, 8x10 inches.
©2011 Amy Tennant

Monolith

I think I may do a few more of these hedge paintings even though I can only submit three of them to the Virtual Paintout, but in the meantime I'm working on a new painting of cheese and cold cuts. In the process of browsing around online for other cheese paintings, I came across Philadelphia artist Mike Geno. He paints cheese, meat and other foods, and also sock monkeys. Here is a sampling of his cheese series. Having an affinity for the single-subject series myself, and for good foodstuffs, I can't help liking his work, especially when it is executed in such a luscious, painterly manner.

Monolith, oil on canvas panel, 6x6 inches.
©2011 Amy Tennant

Looming

Yesterday I attempted a plein-air painting (working outside, directly from observation) and had frustrating results, so instead of posting that painting I am posting my next hedge painting for the New Zealand paintout. In the meantime, I am giving myself a refresher course on the elements of color theory: hue, value, intensity, and temperature. It's sort of like learning choreography - you have to go through the steps slowly and consciously at first in order to get them lodged into your muscle memory, so that when you actually do the dance you no longer have to "think" about it. According to the somewhat chalky landscape I came out with yesterday, I would say that alla prima color choreography is not quite planted in my muscle memory yet.

Looming, oil on canvas panel, 6x6 inches.
©2011 Amy Tennant

Turnaround

There is an abundance of spectacular landscape in New Zealand...unfortunately it has not all been visited by Google. I had a few places in mind when I started searching the map - Milford Sound, for one - but the little yellow Google man didn't have anywhere to walk down there. Another place I couldn't quite get to was the Vimutti Buddhist Monastery outside of Bombay on the South Island. I would never have known it existed except for the fact that Tim's step-brother is the spiritual director of the monastery. He happens to be visiting California this week and showed us pictures of some of the projects under way at the monastery, one of which is a new stupa. When Tim traveled there about five years ago he helped build this covered meditation path in the woods, adding another inviting element to this peaceful stretch of land.

But because this painting project is restricted to street views, I moved on from fjords and forest retreats to hedges along the roadside. :-) I found an area of countryside outside of Te Puke on the North Island that has miles of cypress walls, and I found them to be quite striking in their own right.

Turnaround, oil on canvas panel, 6x6 inches.
©2011 Amy Tennant