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Last week here at Haliburton School of Art and Design Advanced Individual Studies I painted a view  of the native perennial meadow from the little blue cabin in the meadow that we call the Cabernet. Here is the sketch and the painting:

 

  

 

Our mentor suggested that I might do a short series of these with doors and windows. Henri Matisse did a number of this type of composition. I guess if it is alright for Matisse , it is alright for me. 

For the second painting I channelled Matisse and painted a made-up view of the meadow from the cabin. I used a powerful value contrast to show the difference between the inside and the outside of the cabin. To simplify the composition, I left out the pathway around the meadow so it looks like you would be stepping out into the blooming flowers. The perspective of the table is also tipped. Here's the sketch and the painting:

 

 

The strong dark area is a low key blue and a high key blue in matching values. The water bottle matches value to the dark area as well but is in the low key complimentary orange colour. 

Within the dark area are 2 focal points— the white bottle cap and the very unrealistic orange binocular lenses. These are small areas with a lot of power to draw the eye because of the value and intensity contrasts. Together they balance the larger lighter area on the right that is very active but with lower intensity colours. 

In these paintings, I have scraped off the texture in the areas of the door and  window frame. It certainly changes the feel of the paintings. My shapes are painted flat over the texture (as in no contour) but these shapes are physically flat as well.  A little change.

Feedback welcome. Have a great week!    click here for to read previous blog posts from Haliburton and more.

Rockies Range 15x60" is an unusual painting being so narrow and wide. Not good for Instagram or Facebook.  It was important to make sure the viewer would go back and forth across the painting with interesting areas to find along the way. 

The pure white snow caps across the top contrasting with the intense blue takes the eye skipping across the canvas to the far side. The various horizontal shapes of the  mid ground  all move back and forth until the eye arrives in the near foreground and finds the unrealistically orange fenceposts which  provide a focal point at each end of the painting. Enjoy! 

I've had a good week at Haliburton School of the Arts Advanced Individual Studies and am looking forward to the second week coming right up. Nothing to do but paint paint paint! 

Below is a quick phone snap of this  work. There is another painting on Instagram you might be interested to see: The view from the Cabernet. The Cabernet is a little blue cabin set beside the native perennial meadow. Enjoy!