MUD(season) at Artistree

Today is the last day to drop off work for the local MUD(season) show at Artistree.  We've hardly gotten to the beginning of mud season this year with the cold and snow lasting so long.
In addition to "Early Spring, Cloudland Road", I am exhibiting the watercolor below.  In the beginning, the painting was oriented vertically.  But as I worked on it I thought that cropping a bit off the bottom would improve the composition so that's what I did....

stage one

"Barnard Brook Meltdown"

transparent watercolor and gouache - 7" x 7"

Here is the finished painting with some added color to suggest the coming of spring--and not a moment too soon!
Friday night from 5:30 to 7 pm is the opening of this year's exhibit in the new gallery at 2095 Pomfret Road in South Pomfret.  Please come and enjoy!

Early Spring, Cloudland Road

Winter wants to hold on to the cold but the sun is getting stronger day by day and the snow is diminishing.
I've been working on a watercolor painting of a huge tree on Cloudland Road in Pomfret.  The painting came together in stages which I photographed along the way.

In the first stage I am beginning by painting the lightest colors and then check to see how dark I need to go with the tree.

As I build in the darker shades of the tree trunk and branches, these begin to set off the snow on the branches and ground.

"Early Spring, Cloudland Road"

watercolor - 10" x 12"

The finished painting includes the shadows on the snow and the brush along the horizon.  The foreground snow is not pristine but we've gotten used to this leftover mixture of snow and dirt by the sides of our roads and driveways.  Mud season is here!

Yale Art Museum

On our way home from New York City a bit ago, we stayed overnight in Hamden, CT and after dropping our grand daughters off at school, went to the Yale Art Museum to see the current exhibition of James Whistler's work.

Whistler in his studio

The show is mainly his etchings from his days in Paris, London and Venice.  

Nocturne, from the First Venice Set, 1879–80. Etching and drypoint

But there are also a couple of his nocturnes painted along the Themes in London.  He is a master of these dark, mysterious works....

For this exhibit, the walls of the gallery are painted shades and tints of purple--an unusual choice that I found to work very well!  You can see a bit of the color surrounding the painting above....

"Life Force"

Today I've been working with a different palette--warm reds and orange.  Perhaps I need to see these colors when the landscape is still white and shades of blue shadows....
This composition is lovely and fat with dots of dark paint and the salt makes textures in the first wash....

"Life Force" - stage one

"Life Force"

watercolor and gouache - 4" x 6"

Some judicious straw blowing and a bit of negative space painting gave me this result.  I am liking these little experiments with loosely constructed work....