More Square Landscapes

Far Away, acrylic, 30x30

It's called Sailing Away(aka Far Away as of 1/22) because, though it's hard to see in the photo, there are two small sailboats in the distance in this piece. They are far more noticeable in person. One is near the tree branch that obscures the horizon on the right and the other is further out, on the horizon to the left of center. See them now???(Ok, no one sees them, so I've changed the title to "Far Away" LOL) I'm pleased as can be with the way this series has started off, and I'm looking forward to the show in February. I still continue to be impressed with the way the Chroma Interactive Acrylics perform. I had a field day this morning finalizing the sky with glaze after glaze and a significant amount of scumbling thrown in for good measure. It would have taken weeks to use those same techniques and achieve the same sorts of results with oils. The pigments in the acrylics are also holding up to complex mixes for shadow colors as well as lighter brighter mixes without any muddiness for the darker mixes or garrishness in the brighter ones. Enoy, and stay tuned for more!

Willard Island Walk (On and On)

Willard Island Walk (On and On) 20x24, acrylic

OK I'm officially thrilled with the Chroma Atelier Interactive acrylics!!! This was a thrilling piece to paint because every effect that I wanted to achieve from a soft edged hazy distance to a brightly back lit tree, to fine lacy foliage at the edge of the tree to creating believable "sky holes" in the trees, to a shadowed path to fine lines for grasses was so do-able with these amazing paints. I changed surfaces and I think that helped some too. Instead of the regualr cotton canvas I painted the previous piece on this one is done on Yes! a canvas specially primed for all manner of watermedia. It's triple primed with their unique primer and the weave of the canvas is especially fine and tight so the surface is very smooth. It's also mounted onto board which gives me that firm support I prefer. I wish you could see the complexity of the surface of this piece. I'm going to try and get some good close up and post them so you can see the areas of impasto, the building up of multicolored layers and the transparency of areas that were washed in. I am so sold on these paints that I ordered more today! Oh, also my last order that arrived yesterday contained Forest Green a mix-up since what I really ordered was ultramarine blue LOL. However, I was too lazy to pack it up and send it back so I gave it a try. I NEVER use tube greens preferring to mix my own because tube greens never seem to be natural looking. I also prefer single and at the most 2 pigment paints. This forest green has three: transparent yellow, phthalo blue, and transparent red oxide, so I'm breaking another of my rules! I still wouldn't use it straight from the tube, but modified with other colors it does produce a really rich dark green, either cool or warm depending on what you've added to it. We'll see if this becomes a regular on my palette or if this tube dries out before it's empty from lack of use. Enjoy!