9.19.2008

Barrett House Meadow

The hurricane sky called and I had to paint. A jumble of clouds provide the background story with a penetrating shaft of light as the star.

The historic Barrett House is on the DC Federal Prison grounds near the Workhouse Arts Center and these mounds are between it and the one lane bridge on Furnace Road.

As so often happens, this painting looks incredible from a short distance. The depth is distinctive and exciting. Tis a keeper.

Barrett House Meadow
8x11
Pastel on Wallis
SOLD


Third Place Winner in Landscapes at Infinity Art Gallery, January, 2010.

Art Prints

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am completely blown away! Absolutely gorgeous paintings.

Your use of color and boldness and your trees and clouds just come alive. I am struggling so much with a painting because of the trees and sky - I get a bit of a mind fart about it.

You are so very gifted.

Do you enjoy oils more than pastels?

I can't wait to hear about your gallery showing one day.

You are a very gifted artist!


Much love,

Julianna

Anonymous said...

Man if only you could have seen the territory @ Plum Creek!
thanks for the link
XOXOXO Val

Bonnie said...

Hi Julianna!
So glad to have you here. You paint so much more precisely than I and produce such beautiful, award-winning pieces. For me, it's more emotion and color.

I think it's handy to look at others' work. For clouds and sky, please check out my links to Poly and McPherson. Maybe you'll draw some inspiration.

As far as enjoyment, it's different for each medium. I like how close I am to a pastel for it to do its job. I like how I've adapted the paintings to be very user friendly = future post. Although I would not have said this previously, I like how sparce they are in shows/galleries and sometimes I think they're appreciated more.

Oils are grand, but they take so much to set up and break down that for smaller bits of time out painting, I prefer pastels. I like how they kinda sorta are finished after a few days of drying to where you don't have to worry about smudging them. I like how the brush sometimes gives you something you didn't intend, but like anyway, kinda like a bush for free!

Hello to my friend, Val!
I am so sure your scenes are very different than mine, beauty I've never been exposed to before. I've been to Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean multiple times, but I've never seen a desert or the SW. I want so much to go out West and see that version of a big sky.

Anonymous said...

I am freaking out a little here because one of my favorite books is "fill your oil paintings with light and color" by Kevin Macpherson! My art teacher told me to purchase it when I first started taking classes from her (a year or two ago?).

One of our group classes was using a lesson from his book. I didn't particularly like the subject matter but went along with the lesson. I think I have pictures somewhere. I actually referred to his book many times whilst struggling with my trees.

He inspires me to keep my paints clean. I love clean, crisp colors.

Julianna

Bonnie said...

Julianna,
That would be a fun class exercise. I've looked into McPherson's DVDs, too, but haven't made the leap. I do have his book, Painting Inside and Out, which is helpful for the areas you mentioned.

He has a vineyard painting in it that is inspiring; you'd love it. I'd already toured though some vineyards locally, looking for just the right view, pretty much found what I wanted at two places, then I saw the image in his book and he had just the right view!

I am hoping to paint at a vineyard with NoVAL next month. I am hoping for just the right view. Finding it is compelling!

Maybe I'll include some vineyard research shots in the plein air slideshow.

Good luck with your entries!

Anonymous said...

Hi Bonnie, Lovely painting. I especially love the color in your clouds and sky.