Growing a Garden...In a Workshop

"Monet's Muse" 22 x 28in Acrylic on Canvas
ORIGINAL SOLD
Click here to view prints
It's summer again, and time for another Sojie Workshop.  This time the focus is on landscape and light, with guest demos and a variety of translations including traditional and digital media.

I wasn't sure if I would participate this round, as being pregnant makes it difficult for me to predict how I'll feel each day.  Scrolling through the photo gallery, though, I spotted one that called to me:  a photo of Monet's garden in Giverny.  I was lucky enough to be able to translate this photo, and the result is above.

(Click here to view original photo:http://www.redbubble.com/people/rhoufi/works/8918649-monets-garden-the-lake-and-the-lodge)

The great thing about the Sojie workshops is that artists are required to post works in progress.  For me, this means thinking carefully about each stage of the painting, and taking my time as I paint.  I usually paint in a bit of a fury, so these workshops give me a chance to grow and learn from the process of posting and sharing along the way.

I bought a small set of Golden acrylics, with pthalo greens and blues, which I built up in thin layers (another way of working slowly and with more restraint).

The painting was quite enjoyable, and progressed in the following stages:

 

Stage 1: I toned the canvas with some payne's gray and white, blocking in lights and darks.







Stage 2: More lights and darks, and some basic compositional elements included as well.  I worked a bit on the water, knowing it would be an important part of the background of the painting. 
Stage 3: I finished up the house and sky, and the light hills in the background.  I used a large brush to work in the middle ground greens, keeping the brushstrokes uniform to the forms of the plants.  Finished the lights and darks in the water, pulling some of the colors from the background and middle ground into the water.
Stage 4: Finished the middle ground flowers, added some foreground greens, and blocked in the form of the foreground tree to see if it would work in the composition.
Final stage: finished the tree and foreground flowers, using darks to emphasize the lights in the colors.

Anything from Monet's garden would be inspiring to many artists, but this particular piece came at a unique time for me.  I had recently inherited a book called Monet's Garden in Art, which features artwork from different guests inspired by the famous Giverny garden.  Shortly after, I read about an exhibit in New York that features a replica of Monet's house and gardens, which left me wishing I could afford to grab a quick plane ticket and go see it.  By the time I saw Rhoufi's photo, it seemed like a natural stop on the inspiration highway. 

Click here to see Rhoufi's profile:
http://www.redbubble.com/people/rhoufi

Click here to see more of my botanically inspired artworks:
http://www.nikihilsabeck.com/art-gallery/botanical-garden-art/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Inspired by Light (Pastels on Canvas)

Image
"Morning Glow" 12 x 16 Chalk Pastel on Flat Canvas Email nicolehilsabeck@yahoo.com if interested in purchasing Been trying to get back into the daily painting routine, which for me either means a small painting a day, or a larger painting spread over two days.  It's a bit of a challenge with the growing belly and a very inquisitive firstborn, but I was lucky enough to get a little extra inspiration from an odd source: Sunday's eclipse. We have beautiful views of the canyon and hills behind us, and I watched the light change on this hill as the sunlight waned throughout the course of the eclipse.  I noted how the normally stunning lights and shadows on this hill were blunted by the general darkening (as opposed to the usual sunrise or sunset glow).  I thought I would be a little more appreciative of those lights and darks and try a painting of the trees and hills the next morning. I completed this painting in several steps, having struggled a little recent...
Read more

Painting Cats

Image
"The Bookeeper" Click here to view auction After many years of painting cats, I've learned a few things.  Every time I start a new cat painting, it follows its own unique path, bringing challenges that I don't seem to face when I paint my more traditional material (landscapes, birds, floral and botanical pieces, etc.) For example, cats don't stay put for too long (unless they're asleep, and even then they'll often stretch and change positions when you're least expecting it).  To combat this challenge, I end up working mostly from photographs.  That means adjusting the proportions, since the camera angle causes some distortion depending on the position and location of the cat. "Eye Contact" Oil Pastel Not for Sale "Side Glance" Oil Pastel Available on Etsy  One of the reasons cats are enjoyable to paint is that they have strong facial expressions.  When I'm painting a cat, I get so focused on rendering the cat...
Read more

A Hot Mess of Water Lilies!

Image
"Balboa Water Lilies" 9 x 12 Chalk Pastel on Paper Click here to view large or purchase So, every time I take great photos to paint later it turns into a learning experience for me. We took a little day trip in September down to Balboa Park in San Diego, California.  There wasn't much left of the water lilies after some recent vandalism (a bunch of geniuses decided to have a water gun fight and ended up destroying the lilypond).  It was a strangely hot day for downtown San Diego-- part of a series of heat waves that dogged me throughout the last months of my pregnancy.  I was thrilled to get some pretty photos while down there, particularly of the lilypads and turtles. I love to paint water, but I forget how time consuming it can be.  There are lots of layers involved, and I ended up using fixative as I layered in the lights and darks in this piece.  I also didn't anticipate how difficult it is to depict those peaceful, floating lilypads.  Af...
Read more