Moonrise, Eucalyptus Grove - 30/30 Challenge 2016

Moonrise, Eucaplyptus Grove,

 Oil Monochromatic Wash on Claessen #13 Douple Oil Primed Linen Canvas, 6"h x 8"w, 2016 #15

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This is a little monochromatic oil wash painting I have done in Kevin Courter's nocturnal painting workshop. the dark passages are completely transparent (no white used), and value variations are done through thick and thin of paintings. I worked a lot to try to create interesting edges and overall shape of the eucalyptus trees, and varying the colors subtly by using a bit more red or green in creating the dark color mixture used here. Trying to convey a quiet, subtle mood and had a lot of fun doing this... 

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Savannah Moon - Day Twenty of the 30/30 Challenge

Savannah Moon, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #22

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $40)

Day Twenty of the challenge -- today I am playing with limited palette again, starting with a concept of nocturnal and aridity, I used mostly Raw and Burnt Sienna with a little Indantrine Blue added to cool down the mixture in distance, and just used a large 1" flat sable brush to make various wet and dry marks to indicate foliage. Linear marks were added later with a rigger or scratched into the wet paint as it dried to suggest branches. The moon was lifted in the end with a stiff-haired synthetic rounds. As I have mentioned before, limited palette makes it especially easy to explore quiet, somber moods, and create a sense of mystery. I added the distant group of trees when evaluating the composition and found my foreground foliage shapes have slowly crept up toward the middle of the picture as I was painting, despite my initial planning and composition sketches warning myself not to do so. And the small, distant tree shapes serve well to break this center-symmetry, providing much-needed pictorial relief. Reminding myself I need to stop more frequently while painting to evaluate the development of the composition and avoid such problem in the first place! :-P Lol...

Moon Rise over Rockies -- 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge, Round 3, Day 3

Moon Rise over Rockies,
 Watercolor on Richeson Stephen Quiller #140 Cold Press Paper, 7"h x 10"w, 2014 #3

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $45) 

So, there is not much doubt what theme group this one belongs to... Yepp, it is "Mountain". The majestic Rockies to be exact. It started as an idea of wanting to paint an image with my favorite palette -- purple and sienna complimentary duo. I thought these colors are just perfect to capture that magical moment of approaching dusk after glorious sunset, when a pale round moon slowly rises into the sky. I tried to be very deliberate about mark-making in this one, making every brush stroke count and use it to carve out shapes that are interesting and suggestive. I am influenced to a great degree by master watercolor artist, Stephen Quiller, in the way of making subtle, indicative, ambiguous and beautifully designed shapes -- ones that remind viewer of tree, rock, bush, undergrowth... But never delineate any of these "things" to one hundred percent exact. I am a firm believer that a good realistic painting needs to be aesthetically pleasing in both the way that representative shapes contain in it, and the abstract marks that sculpt out such shapes. Without one or the other a painting would either be a mere copy of the object or a haphazardly piled heap of calligraphy, each one individually flamboyant but lacking a solid foundation to build upon. 

In the mean time, if you have an image of a beautiful landscape, or a flower you like, or anything you might want to see painted, please email them to me at arena.shawn@gmail.com. I will paint them and post them here. From every 10 paintings I make from them, there would be a random drawing, and the lucky winner get to take a original back home for free! Interested? Then send me your photo!

You can now buy high quality Giclee prints of many of my sold paintings, both on paper and canvas, as well as some note cards with my paintings here: