windy sultry day, mulling over my painting

There’s a strong south wind blowing today and it’s overcast and sultry, spitting rain now and then. I had the door to the little backyard open for a while. The rose bushes are at the south end but that wind blew a single rose petal into the house.

I mentioned previously that the roses were blooming. 

This is the sister to the monster rose bush over in the shop yard that I cut back drastically last month. While I was doing that this one in my yard just outside the fence around the little backyard exploded with growth. It will also get cut back severely when it stops blooming. These both came from cuttings I took of the one I had at my city house that my neighbor gave me as a cutting off her rose bush. I actually made three. The third I sent to Mary Moon and it now lives in Florida.

I’ve been working on the background of my painting. I’d like to get it finished before Monday. No particular reason for the Monday deadline other than I just want to be done with it. As I posted, the first little wash was a bit of blue at the top and I really liked the way it looked but then Thursday I started adding the yellow and green of the distant foliage and I really am not happy. Now that the first watered down yellow base wash and the light green base wash has dried the yellow is so intense even watered down and I’m wishing I had just done a patchy blue all the way. I mulled it over Thursday night during wakeful times, trying to think of what to do. I even thought I could cut the tree trunks out and place them on a new sheet of paper which would allow me to do a different background and also give a little dimension to the finished piece. (I may still do that). But because this is typical for me, not liking where I’m at in a process, whether I’m carving a model out of wax or sketching out a design for an etched glass commission or doing anything really, I’m just soldiering on.

Yesterday I took a wet paper towel and lifted some of the first yellow wash pigment and then used a sponge to splotch on the next orangey yellow. Then I waited for the paper to dry so I could add the last brownish yellow with a brush though I may put a light wash of brown over the whole thing. Then go through the same process with the green shrubbery at the bottom.

Turns out I didn’t get any more time to work on the painting yesterday because yesterday was Marcmas! Our son came out for a visit from the city and our daughter came over with her traditional gift of bagels from The Bagel Shop in Houston and then we all went out for a late lunch and margaritas at the Mexican restaurant here, just our core family. Of course I love my grandkids and great grandkid but there’s something special when it’s just the four of us, when our kids aren’t distracted by their spouses, children, and grandchild.

I did a bit of the brownish yellow which looks more yellow orange, so here's how it was this morning.

It’s a little misleading as the tree trunks aren’t the ones I painted but are cut out from a copy of the picture printed on card stock, taped at the bottom and top to protect the ones I painted while I work on the background. I think I’m going use the sponge instead of the paint brush to add more of the brownish yellow and then the brush to add in some brown. I may even put a light wash of brown over the whole thing to tone down the yellow because I want the tree trunks to be the focus of the painting, not the background.

Ended up I used the sponge with the brown instead of trying a light wash. I'm more pleased with it now. Tomorrow I'll concentrate on the green tones at the bottom.