Lunamoth

Winter Trees

It just seems natural to be painting winter scenes while there’s all that snow outside.  This little painting (5 x 7 inches) was done with a limited palette (pthalo blue, titanium white, burnt umber, mars black) and sketched in quickly with painting knives and then detailed with brushes.

My painting class is going to publish a calendar showcasing our work.  This was decided on in December, after one student brought in a professionally produced calendar of a particular artist’s work, and we thought we could do better (we are, really, a modest bunch, but somehow this idea caught fire with us).  Of course, December is a bit late to start thinking about putting together a calendar for January, especially with the holiday break at the end of the month.  So, flying in the face of tradition, our calendar will start in March, 2009 and run til February, 2010.

I’ve been collecting paintings from the other students and the teacher for Frank to photograph, and I’ll be arranging for the publishing of the calendar.  It’s a fun project.  At the moment I have five paintings leaning against the wall in the downstairs hall, waiting for their closeups, and every time I walk past them I’m struck again by the talent and the different visions of the people with whom I spend my Friday afternoons.  We all struggle with doubt over our ability to put something worthwhile down on canvas, but we all end up with some marvellous outcomes.  The best pictures happen when we can set aside those doubts and just meet the canvas head-on with an idea and a brush loaded with paint.  Everything magically comes together and we can step back and look and think, “that’s pretty good!”.

This week’s class will focus on portrait painting.  I’m looking forward to it, not just for the opportunity to get into it myself, but also to see what my fellow students come up with.  There’s lots of trepidation going into this particular venture, but I’m quite sure some amazing paintings will come out of it.