The Greater Salem Artist Assocation will be holding their Winter Show on December 3rd & 4th at the Kelly Library 234 Main Street Salem, NH.
The hours are:
The painting is coming along well. I completed the shirt and one hand holding a coup stick. Also, the breach cloth, pants, some fringe and one knee sash is done. The background and grass is near complete. I just finished the moccasins and ankle bracelets.
There is lots of fringe to do, as well as his other hand holding a tomahawk. I’ll adjust the face and hand tones last. My next posting will show the completed painting.
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Joanne K. and Nancy S. are making good progress on their paintings. Joanne has completed the far distance, and is working on the middle distance, reflections and foreground water. She will add some foreground shore and birch trees next.
Nancy S. is closing in on completing her painting. Next, she will add more detail on and around the two shacks and the rocks in the foreground. Nice work on both paintings!
I began the next phase of the Native American Dancer by making a color sample to work out the colors I would use to block in the first layer of over- painting (lower left corner of the photo). I ended up with Cadmium Red Hue, and darkened this with the Vivid Lime Green for the folds of the shirt.
The skin tones were Burnt Sienna and White, and the buckskin pants were Yellow Oxide, Cadmium Yellow Medium, and White. The sky is Cobalt Blue, White and a touch of Raw Umber to get the gray clouds. This was all done with #12 and #14 soft round brushes.
I developed the dancer’s posture and light and dark areas of the clothing. Next, I’ll lightly sandpaper the dancer and grass with 220 grit sandpaper and start refining the details of the hat, necklace, and face before moving to the shirt and pants.
The layout, under-painting and first layer of the over-painting went quickly, but the details will take up the bulk of the time. I’m often asked “How long did this take to paint?”, so I’m tracking all of the hours spent on a log. Thirty one hours to date!
Posted in Painting Process, Paintings
I started to paint another Native American dancer this week. The photo was taken at a Pow-wow in September, 2010. The work is 36” X 48” and my second largest work to date.
I rolled and scraped three coats of gesso on the canvas, then scaled up the photograph onto several sheets of Bristol Board. I transferred this drawing to tracing paper, and laid the tracing paper over the canvas. I made a piece of homemade carbon paper by rubbing a #2 pencil all over a small piece of tracing paper, and lay this under the larger tracing paper. I used a #2 pencil to outline the large areas on the tracing paper, moving the “carbon paper” along as I worked. Light pressure will produce a light pencil line on the gessoed canvas. I don’t use commercial carbon paper because the imprint will bleed through most acrylic paints and ruin it.
I started the background and dancer by blocking in opposite colors of the sky and clothing. This under painting improves the final color as the work progresses. The dancer has a pink shirt and buckskin colored pants. There are only a couple of small feathers, rather than the many feathers of the last Native American dancer I painted (scroll down to see that one). I’ll add more photos as I make progress.
During a recent art show at the Methuen Public Library, a painting was stolen on the second day of the show (see below). This belonged to a fellow artist, and is titled Perkins Cove. This painting won a second place ribbon in the acrylic painting, professional division of the show. If you have any information about the painting, please call the Methuen Police Department at 978-983-8698. Thank you.
Fine Art by Don Whittemore 