Painting the Greens

TOP Image:
Edge of a Wood by Theodore Caruelle d'Aligny (French), oil on paper, 1850-55, 
from the Metropolitan Museum of Art "Art 2015 Calendar", March 17.

BOTTOM Image:
My copy of Edge of a Wood (by Theodore Caruelle d'Aligny) ,
done in oil on gessoed panel, 2015

While traveling through  several southern states (Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana)  during March and April, I became aware of how many greens there are in Nature—especially during the Spring season!

Arriving back in Albuquerque, I decided to practice mixing greens and to copy a painting done by Theordore d'Aligny, since there were quite a variety of greens in the image.

Thinking this would be a simple exercise, I was surprised that I ended up spending 3 days painting and tweaking the colors. Considering the human eye can distinguish about 10 million different colors, I should have figured that getting a "perfect" copy of this painting would be more challenging than I expected.

Still, as they say, "Practice Makes for Improvement."

Thanks for taking a moment to read my blog. Enjoy your day!
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Image 2 and text ©2015 Carol L. Adamec. All rights reserved.

Return to Plein Air

Backyard Blooms, 2010

Original: oil, alkyd on panel
Unframed size: 8" x 6"
Contact Artist to Purchase

This past weekend, I was pleased to be one of nine artists selected to participate in the "5th Annual Art in the Gardens" plein air painting event in Leesburg, Florida. The event lasted from 10am until 2pm, during which time I painted the view you see posted above while enjoying several nice conversations with the garden tour goers and the generous homeowners who made their garden available for the event.

It was a lovely day and felt really good to get outdoors to paint! Painting all those greens over the summer really paid off, too, as I'm pretty happy with the way the sunlight on the lawn turned out.

Now that the weather is cooling down, I'm looking forward to regular forays into Florida's scenic spots to do more plein air painting.

Thanks for taking a look and I hope you're having a good week.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Text and image ©2010 Carol Adamec. All rights reserved.

Water Greens

Golden Frond, 2010

Original, oil, alkyd on panel
Unframed size: 6" x 6"
To purchase, contact the Artist

For the past two weeks, I've been working on and off on this little painting, and yesterday it came together. It's so hot here in Florida that I think it's influencing my painting. As you can see, I've "heated up" the palm fronds with touches and edges of yellows, oranges, and reds. Against all those greens and cooler blues, those warm hues add some visual spice to this image.

Hope you are keeping cool, wherever you are. Thanks for taking a look. Have a great weekend!
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Text and image ©2010 Carol Adamec. All rights reserved.

Branching Out

In the Shadows
Original: oil, alkyd on gessoed panel
6" x 6" unframed
To purchase contact Artist

The Florida sunshine is so inviting for plein air painting, but the summer heat and humidity have kept me indoors for the past several weeks. In the meantime, I've been drawing, reading, and trying out some "experimental" stuff in the studio...most of which I will refrain from sharing with you, my dear readers. Let's just say, that some days I can't believe I actually learned anything in art school!

I did complete the little painting posted today. As mentioned in my last few posts, I have much to learn about painting the multitude of leafy greens in the Florida landscape.

Thanks for taking a look and keep cool this week.

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Text and image ©2010 Carol Adamec. All rights reserved.