Morning Mountains (Colorado Springs) Acrylic Mixed Media Painting

On Sunday morning, my painting was already wired and labeled, but I still wanted to do some cleanup. So I  got up early and went over my work, first of all making sure all the surfaces were covered. I made some minor adjustments, making sure that all the lines extended to the edge of the canvas. These were all tiny changes that would dry quickly. Soon enough it was time to go.  We headed down to Boston where I turned it in at @Galatea Fine Arts.  It will be on display in December int the Artists' Alcove, in the landscape group show entitled, "Light of Day".  

Morning Mountains (Colorado Springs) Painting as of Nov. 26. 2022

This is my mixed media painting as it looked at the end of the day on Saturday.  This may not look like realism, but still I relied on my painting reference (posted here Nov. 18). I started added acrylic paint in transparent layers to adjust the colors: brown to the purple area at the bottom, hunter's green to the lime green area, phthalo green to the first line of blue mountain. I added some blue shadows to the mountain, on the right where it would be in shadow.  And then I mixed some metallic gold paint with acrylic medium and painted a thin layer over the pale orange areas.  I added the sun (gentle morning pink) and I also added some sharp orange areas to suggest where the sun was hitting the mountains.  I was pretty happy with it, but there was still some cleanup to do, as you can see.  That would have to wait till the next day, also the same day it was due to be delivered in Boston.  I would have to get up early!  To be continued. . . .

Morning Mountains (Colorado Springs) Painting as of Nov. 25, 2022

Here is my progress as of Friday, November 25th.  Using my painting reference as a guide, I filled in the middle section of the composition with pasted paper in purple and dark blue.  Things seemed to be coming together at this point.  To be continued.

Morning Mountains (Colorado Springs) Painting as of Nov. 24, 2022

Here is my current project as it looked on Thursday night.  My schedule has been crazy but have been using little bits of time to paste little bits of purple paper on the lower part of this landscape. To be continued. . . 

Morning Mountains (Colorado Springs) Painting as of Nov. 23, 2022

I worked some more on this painting this afternoon.  (This is going to be a mixed media painting with acrylic paint, but I am using pasted paper to establish the basic shapes first.)  Today I added the contours of a green hill in the foreground, working from my painting reference, posted here Nov.  18th.  These are not necessarily the final colors.  I have a collection of colored tissue paper, and I am using papers in the colors closest to what I want. Later I will modify some of the colors with acrylic paint.  To be continued.

Morning Mountains (Colorado Springs) Painting as of Nov. 22, 2022

Yesterday I continued to work on this project, a mixed media painting, acrylic paint and pasted paper. At this point, I am still using pasted paper to define areas of the landscape.  As I worked, I  adjusted the top line of the mountain with purple paper.  To get the color of morning sunlight on the mountains, I layered pale pink paper over orange.    To be continued. . .

Morning Mountains (Colorado Springs) Painting as of Nov. 22, 2022

Today I worked on this painting for a little while.  First I used colored conte crayon to make some adjustments to my sketch, and also applied some areas of color, just to make it easier to see the different areas.  Then I started working on the sky, applying pale pink pasted paper.  This is how it looks so far.

Morning Mountains (Colorado Springs) Rough Sketch on Board

It's been a busy day but I managed to get my next painting started.  I began by trying to print out my painting reference on the computer.  It was taking forever, so I just grabbed some conte crayon and roughed in the basic composition right on the masonite board,  just using the image on my phone. Meanwhile, my printer spit out the image of my painting reference.  Although there are some mistakes in this sketch, this is pretty close to what I want.  I will need to adjust that top line, for sure.  Anyway, it's a beginning.  This is going to be acrylic and pasted paper, 16 x 20 inches.  To be continued. . . .

Morning Mountains (Colorado Springs), Reference for Painting

Yesterday I posted a photo that I took back in 2011 during a trip to Colorado.  After spending the previous night with friends in Colorado Springs, I left in the morning to drive back to Denver. But on my way out of Springs, I saw this view of the mountains in the morning light, and I stopped (in a shopping center parking lot) to take a picture.  Recently I decided I wanted to paint that scene, but the bottom half of the photo was full of cars. So I opened the image in Painter and used some cut-and-paste to get rid of wires, poles, cars, and trucks.  Then I used digital pastel to replace the foreground.  Then I kicked up the saturation just a bit and added posterizing effect.  Now I can use this as a painting reference.

Morning Mountains (Colorado Springs); Inspiration for Painting

It is time for another mountain painting.  I found this image on my computer,  a photo that I took back in 2011 during a trip to Colorado.  I had been visiting friends in Colorado Springs the day before.  I stayed over and left early the next morning to drive back up to Denver.  On the way to the highway, I stopped at a shopping center near Woodmen Road so I could get a picture of the morning light on those mountains. In Colorado, you don't have to go hiking to be inspired by a view of the mountains. You can be in a parking lot, and the view takes your breath away. However, I don't want those cars in my painting, so to get this image ready to be a painting reference, I knew I would have to make some changes. 

 

Bright November Leaves at Long Hill (with Prisma filter)

I added the Prisma app's "Flora" filter to the photo that I posted here yesterday.  I have already used the resulting image to send birthday greetings to a favorite friend who was born in November. 

Bright November Leaves at Long Hill

This is another photo from last week's visit to Long Hill Gardens here in Beverly, MA.  The colors were amazing!

Even More Beautiful November (Long Hill Gardens)

This is a closer crop of the photo that I posted yesterday.  What I liked best about the image is the red leaves, so I decide to crop the photo in a way that puts those red leaves in a more central position.  

Beautiful November (Long Hill Gardens)

Here's another photo from last week's visit to Long Hill Gardens, here in Beverly, MA.  The colors were spectacular.  Today I edited this photo to get this composition.

Dad in Uniform (Digitally modified snapshot)

On Veteran's Day, I usually post a war-time photo of my dad. The image I am posting today began with a snapshot that I found yesterday among his photos, sent to me a few years ago.  Sometimes these old pictures present a mystery about where he was during the war or what he was doing.* In this case, nothing was written on the back, no clues, no date, and only a bit of mystery. From other of army photos, I already know his unit spent camped out near a forest. But I liked the simple picture of my father in uniform, and decided to go with that.  The only mystery was why I hadn't seen this picture before.  Today I scanned the snapshot into my computer, and used iPhoto to do some basic retouching.  That's when I noticed that it looked like one of his front teeth was missing. Aha! So that's why I hadn't seen the photo before! (I had heard that he had lost a front tooth during the war.  The family story is he was drunk and when he was spoken to by the MPs, he refused to reveal his name, rank, and serial number, and got punched in the mouth.)  Well, okay. But I could fix the tooth. I decided to open the image in Painter and I replaced the missing tooth with a little digital dentistry.  I also noticed that you could see the shoulder of another person standing next to him, so I decided to crop that out, and the result was a better composition.  The photo was pretty grainy, so I added both woodcut and posterizing effects to get this image.  I will continue my efforts to solve mysteries, big and small, about my dad's time in the army.  But really, the details don't matter. He was an ordinary guy, and as he told me years later, he was scared, though you can't tell from looking at him here. No big dramatic tales to tell. Like a lot of other people, he did his bit against the Nazis. But knowing that he did his part to fight tyranny, even though he had a lot to loose, even though he had to leave his brand new wife to do it, even though he was afraid: that's the main story.  That's what I have been thinking about more and more. I try to remember his example of ordinary courage when the news of the day makes me worry about two-bit tyrants and creeping antisemitism. 

 *(For example, yesterday I was intrigued by 

a different photo of my dad with army buddies in front of a building, and on the back he had written "École Professionale," somewhere near Cherbourg, I assume. No time to track that down today, so I will leave that for another time.) 

Path at Long Hill Gardens

Last weekend, on the way home from Russell's Garden, we stopped for a walk at Long Hill Gardens.  The November colors were spectacular.

Bouquet in November (with Prisma filter)

On Monday, my daughter brought me this beautiful bouquet. Of course I took pictures. Yesterday I added Prisma’s “Oleander” filter and cropped the original to get this composition.

FIeld and Trees in November (Russell Orchards)

Here's another photo that I took this weekend at Russell Orchards, up in Ipswich, MA.  I was walking back to the car when I saw this view. I loved the colors and stopped to take some pictures. I cropped the original to get this composition.

November at Russell Orchards

Yesterday we went to Russell Orchards up in Ipswich, MA.  I hadn't been there in a few years, and there were lots of new things to see: new crafts for sale, T-shirts, a wine-tasting area with outdoor seating.  But the old standards are still there, including huge bins of apples, and warm cider donuts for sale.  The day was a great combination of spring weather and fall colors.  On the way back to the car, I took a picture of some fruit trees with bright yellow leaves.  Later, I cropped the image to get this composition.

Hawk in Spruce Tree (with Prisma filter)

Friday morning, I was out in the yard and a hawk circled overhead and settled in our spruce tree.  I got my iPhone out and took pictures. The sun was in my eyes and the bird was high in the tree, but I zoomed in and got a few pictures. In the photos I took, it was still pretty hard to see this lovely bird against the background.  So I explored the Prism app to see if there was a filter that would help and I chose "Monoke".  Then I imported the resulting image into iPhoto, adjusted the contrast and saturation again, and cropped the image to get this composition.  It took a bit of work to get a good image of this beautiful bird, but it was well worth it. You don't see a hawk in your yard every day!

Reposting: Mom at Crews Beggs (Digitally modified)

I have posted this at least twice before, in 2013 and in 2005. The original sepia-toned version of this photo is one of my favorites, showing my mom striding by Crews Beggs Department Store in my hometown. I am not sure, but I think it was taken by my Uncle Ike, a great photographer.* Back in 2005, I used Painter to add color. I am reposting today in memory of my mother, born November 2nd.

*He did business in Pueblo as Jay Phillips Studio.