Wings Over Winecountry, Colleen's place (1 Viewer)

[nickderry]

some very exciting stuff - the two females are beautiful!

 

[username]

I am very much enjoying watching your paintings develop Colleen as it is always fascinating to watch 'art' materializing in all it's forms...:cat:

All the best....!

 

[timwootton]

The pair study is framable as is - it's very elegant and serene.

 

[phil baber]

Cracking canvas! And what a superb composition. Look forward to seeing this evolve...

 

[sfrissell]

I spent a lot of time this spring watching this species at my local refuge. You have caught their individual look beautifully and the grouping is very typical. Great work.

I continue to be amazed at how quickly you have become an accomplished bird painter! I suspect a solid art background is a big part of your success coupled with a love of wildlife and nature in general.

 

[colleenc]

thanks all for the, supportive comments, this one has a mind of it's own in some way, so just trying to let it come out.

Yep Sid all the time in school including a lot of graduate schools( never stayed in one place long enough to get a degree, just have lots of credits) and then happening along the way with a couple of very strong teachers, and a stint producing semi abstract work for a highend gallery, gave me really solid ground. Really its all the same... value, color, form, edges. But I don't seem to translate things well and each subject seems a new challenge.

What is new is the realism and the animals, which started about 5 years ago. The learning curve for realism and traditional oil painting has been steep but so enjoyable. I feel I'm just on the edge now of finding my own unique expression, had to learn so much first, about the birds then the technical parts....but now, anyday I hope to see my own "voice" emerge...I have a strong attraction to the waders, which I can actually see and observe, instead of the little ones that flit about and I can barely see with older eyes( I do remember how well I could see as a younger person and find this somewhat frustrating.)

well the only way for my own touch to emerge is just to paint more...so back to work.

 

[colleenc]

whew this one is really breezing along, ( esp compared to the portraits8-P)

I did a new thing here, and toned the canvas with a quin.gold from Dan Smith I don't usually have these modern colors on my palette. Their great advantage is they retain chroma even when very thin and in mixes. so under all the grey is this lovely golden yellow that is lifting the grey very nicely. I used it still wet tho wiped thin, and this makes color harmony easier as there is a "mother" color in every mix( one way of getting harmony in a painting is to mix one color into every one of the mixes you make, harmony is a by product without fuss that way......


also for friend Liam who may come back in a while, I've happened on the very best.... covers everthing you need to know beginner to advanced,..... well produced,..... easy to understand,..... perfect way to get a painting education without some long schooling.... DVD.

Robert Glenn mentioned it on his site, Richard Robinson is a young New Zealand painter whos very good, very savvy, easy to listen to and has distilled just about all of the books I've ever read into lessons. You can get the whole DVD or just download chapters and very reasonable too for all the work he's done. I got a few chapters on color, and tho some is stuff I knew, the way he organizes it is so concise, and I did learn some things too, in spite of all the study I've done. Here is the link plus there is a lot on youtube free...What I think is super is he really gets it all from beginning to more advanced, and I will never have to explain or teach anyone again I can just point to his excellent site, and go back to my painting. :-O He's also very handsome with soft lovey eyes( ah youth!)

 

[peter mathios]

Great painting! I love the grouping of the ducks and their behaviors- very natural looking!!!

 

[Strandman]

Peter's comment on the grouping seconded- just the right mix between repetition of forms and differences.

I like that idea of toning with golden yellow- might have a little play with that over weekend.

 

[solitaryVSong]

Nice to have one breezing along I'll bet. It looks quite natural.

 

[colleenc]

Thank you Peter that's quite a compliment.

Ed, make sure you use a transparent color, that lets the light shine from the white canvas, as opposed to say yellow ocher, which will obscure it some.

 

[phil baber]

Colleen,

This is SUPERB! Full of character and life.

Your character and your life!

It is your identifiable style that shines out here, and I adore it...

 

[RussB]

Just been admiring your wildfowl, Colleen. Fantastic studies, all of 'em. I'll read more of the thread later (Glastonbury calling - only on tv, mind!) I love wildfowl and don't really see enough on here, so I certainly drooled over these. All the awkward angles and bumps are in the right places and capture of the light is brilliant. Yes, certainly some LJ in this one. Looking forward to seeing more quackers, especially of this standard.

Russ

 

[Dark Knight]

Hi Colleen , i think this wildfowl painting is great , i would love to be able to bring them to life like you have in this painting , really great :t:

PS : oh Liam has asked me to pass on his thanks for the art link

http://robs-birding.blogspot.com/

 

[colleenc]

, i would love to be able to bring them to life like you have in this painting,

http://robs-birding.blogspot.com/

Dear Rob,
this is a little letter to you and to any other young artist that comes to this group. This is a special place unlike any other forum I'm a part of. Everyone here encourages you no matter what level you are. The great artists here know how to see into your work and bring out your unique vision. This was what I needed too, even if I was already an experienced artist I was brand new to birds and had to start at the beginning last year. Below are some of my first sketches, not much, but with encouragement, wonderful mentors, and LOTS OF WORK ( around 40 hours a week I'd say both observation and practice.) I got to the level I'm at now.

I'm not an especially talented person, but I make up for that with dogged persistance, and practice. So I can stand in the same company of the more talented that are around me.

But this is about you and starting artists in general. All children draw, even if they only have a stick and dirt. ( I've studied childrens art so the rest is from those classes I took in college) Amazingly in every culture, they all draw the same way and in approximately the same stages. First they scribble, one day out of the scribble comes a circle, that becomes a head, and soon lines coming out of the head are called arms and legs, stick legs and arms. Onward as they develop outlines shaped in ovals making bodies, and other ovals for legs and arm. All of this is really the brain starting to relate to the world. They begin to create "ideaforms" shapes that are symbols for something, a person, a house, a tree. These forms are not what they observe but what stands for the concept.

In our culture at least, most of us stop drawing around 5-7 unless they are singled out as "good" in art. So if you start up drawing later, usually you begin where you left off, ie outlines around a general form that represents the idea. This is called drawing what you know not what you see. If your drawing is an outline of a flat shape filled in with color, you are accessing the development around 7-10. To get beyond that you can keep drawing and drawing until you grow your ability to see and record, or you can take a short cut and get into a basic drawing class, that will leapfrog you up to a more advanced level, that teaches you how to represent things in volume, with light and shade, how to break things down to basic shapes, and about your tools of pencil and brush. These classes can be boring, esp if you have to draw stuff you don't like,( I remember those cubes and cones:-O) But one class will really improve your ability see and then to draw what you want.

The first attachment below is the famous Lars, at 4-5 years. Pretty advanced already, as the arms are now ovals, and the forms show great complexity. but notice the bird has 4 legs.....at this stage his mind is still creating the symbols to represent the idea, blended with what is birdlike to him.

The other sketches are my first attempts last year to draw from life. Pretty raw and not promising of where I am now. And notice the first flight sketches, reverting back to the scribble stage! Nonetheless, Nick spotted some movements of flight in them and gave me the heart to go on, eventually I managed some decent ones, tho that is still the great challenge to me. I also started watercolor last year so put in the first attempt of that too.

So what I'm saying is if you are really serious about birds as art, you have to be willing to really work at it, over a long period of time, to keep on even when what comes out is disappointing, when others wonder what you want to do that for when you could go play video games, and in the face of seeing what the masters paint, and what you can do, wondering if you could ever do that. You can, if you are willing to put in the time to practice. According to studies it takes about 10,000 hours to achieve mastery in anything, but you can become competent with less than that.

If I create any decent work here, it's because I have such great examples to see and guide me. And the help and experience of people who've spent a lifetime with birds, willing to encourage me and let me hang around here.

Just wanted you to know that I didn't get good without paying the price for it...

 

[colleenc]

Well this was better in the first post, now its a real disappointment, the birds look lumpy and heavy, I didn't manage the pair well, the comp is too predictable and that gold color was a stunning help, now gone:C.....I'll have to try another. Still in the awkward stage between old and new ways.....the alla prima is best not painted over again, all the freshness gets lost, but I'm so used to fiddling, its a hard habit to give up, but I'm trying:eat:

 

[solitaryVSong]

I really think this is nowhere near as disappointing as you think, at least to me. The birds don't look dumpy to me and I think there is greater color unity now. And the light seems so much as I remember northern Pacific light.

It will be interesting to see what others say. But my guess is that most everyone will also find it a success. I certainly do.

 

[colleenc]

thanks Ken,

it's the old my vision and what arrived gap again....also have a bad chest cold and not feeling all that perky...I can say one thing, the grey fog thing is coming along, tho the camera can't see it, the nuances of color and tone are improving.

Still I think that certain something that makes a work come alive is missing, close but no cigar..

 

[colleenc]

found a great link to the comparison of lesser and greater scaup in reading it I think these must be greater, they were good sized and the head shape matches

and here is that I think cinches it, there were no tufts and no purple, and a big dark nail http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~jmorlan/male_scaup_id.jpg

 

[timwootton]

Absolutely disagree - this is a tremendous piece, very successful - I'd say.