Here's a photo of the finished work that I've decided to title: " Bennett Valley Pond " ~ 28" x 28" ~ oil on canvas ~ 2013 ~
This will be one of my entrees in the Marin County Fair Fine Art Competition that will be juried tomorrow. (June 22, 2013) at the Marin Center Fairgrounds in San Rafael, California.
It represents many hours of painting...
I decided to add a pair of Canada Geese to the painting of the small pond in the vineyards off Bennett Valley Road near Santa Rosa, California that I've been working on. I still have a ways to go, but I'm nearing the finish for sure. This is oil on canvas ~ 28" x 28" ~
Mahalo for stopping in,
Timo
Nearing the finish on this new one in progress..."Little Bennett Valley Pond" ~ oil on canvas ~ 28" x 28" ~ 2013 ~ Timo
Another few hours of painting on the little Bennett Valley pond brings it to this stage of completion.
Adding strokes of the essencial colors starts bringing this painting of a small vineyard pond into focus. Every touch of pigment brings it a little closer to reading as real in your mind's eye. Creating the illusion of looking into a scene rather than at it...
Mahalo for your interest. Timo
~ Martin's Vineyard ~ oil on cavas ~ 30" x 40" ~ 2013 ~
In the final stages of completion, the oil painting that I'm calling "Martin's Vineyard" is starting to really come into focus. It will be a nice painting when it's done...And, that will be soon...'cause I'm stoked to do a new painting of the Ocean after this Vineyard / Landscape.
Stay tuned for more...Don't go back!...I'll be right away!
Mahalo for visiting my blog.
Aloha, Timo
Martin's vineyard on Sonoma Mountain Road here in Glen Ellen is fairly high up on the mountain, but there's still a bit to look up to from there. The Autumn colors in this backlit afternoon view combine with the cool shadows to give this painting it's full spectrum look. I'm getting looser with my application of pigments as the years roll by...I don't really want a photographic realism. Just a strong suggestion of the subject that occurs when I use the intense color of my memory combined with the reference that the camera gives me. Each new color that I introduce helps create that illusive suggestion.
The Van der Kamp vineyard view of Sonoma Mountain is back on the easle and I made some good progress on it yesterday. I decided to extend the nearer tree group to achieve a better compositional balance. I'm working lighter and brighter colors over the darker and cooler tones of shadow that I established earlier on in the painting process.
Bringing the illusion of Sunlight into a painting is simply a matter of keeping the reflective color in the shadows very cool and the lighted areas warm and bright.
I thought that I had better subdue the yellow a bit so I added some strokes of a redder hue to suggest vineyard in the forward area. Autumn colors in the local vineyards are really something to behold.
Here's the finished commissioned painting that I call "London's Vineyard" ~ 16" x 32" oil on canvas 2012.
Sorry it's been awhile since I updated on the current painting project, this misty vineyard in it's full spectrum of Autumn elegance. It has progressed toward completion, but still has more details waiting to be attended to.
Mahalo for checking in.
Timo
Autumn vineyards here in Sonoma County California take on a wonderful spectrum of vibrant hues starting in the lower areas around the middle of October and spreading to the higher elevations as the temperature drops there. Until the all the vines are saturated with color and the show is just spectacular in some vineyards...Making for many opportunities to find good inspiration for paintings or photos. If you haven't seen this firsthand then you really ought to make a visit here during this season to come out here and witness the display.
Aloha a hui hou!
Timo
As I add more and more daubs of pigments to the canvas the picture begins to awaken and take on more of a life of it's own. Each touch with the brush adds to the illusion of seeing the morning vineyard through this small window of painted canvas.
Mahalo for stopping in.....
Aloha Ohana,
Timo
Some more color...Deep Cadmium Yellows and oranges...Warming it up. Stay tuned for some reds coming up next!!!
For those of you who are interested in keeping tabs on my work, please become "followers" of this blog and you'll be advised when I post (I think...)something new. Please comment too!
Mahalo Ohana.
Aloha,
Timo
As I add more colors to the vines they gain in the appearance of having volume. Painting in a realistic style is basicly about creating the illusion of three dimentions on a two dimentional surface. Attention to color is very important in achieving the sense of reality in the picture that brings it up to a place where your mind will fill in all blanks.
Mahalo for stopping in.
Aloha,
Timo
Continuing the shadow colors into the areas between the vines really defines the essense of the visual flow in this fairly simple composition. The shapes precede the colors of the grapevines so the perspective will be accurately rendered.
Stay in touch...
Mahalo & Aloha,
Timo
I underpainted the area occupied by the grapevines with a Naples Yellow Light to brighten the colors that will follow and then started defining the negative spaces between the rows of vines with a shadow inducing combination of Alizerine Crimson & Ultramarine Blue loosely blended together roughly half & half.
Lots still to do so come back soon and see how far it's come along.
Mahalo & Aloha.
Timo
A little more on the new Vineyard painting that I started a few days back...Visual information gathering momentum...The hillside beyond that at first appears to be the sky...A closer wooded hill almost totally obscured by the heavy morning mists...a wall and more trees emerging closer still on the left...
There is way more to come...!!!
Mahalo & Aloha,
Timo
