Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Hawaii Golf Course - Stage 1




My sister has wanted me to paint this Hawaii golf course scene, and I've put it off for over year. Something about all that GREEN. But today I decided that I had procrastinated long enough, so I pulled out a 16" x 20" piece of Wallis Belgian Mist sanded paper, took a deep breath, and began.

This is quite different for me, because I usually stick to subjects I know well. I've been to Hawaii, but I can't say I'm really familiar with the vegetation, landscape, or, in particular, golf courses! There were some differences to painting a scene in the Rocky Mountains, or the plains, that I knew I would have to incorporate. The biggest difference is the amount of humidity, which makes all the colors different. I hope I don't have a disaster as a result!
Because I have a tendency to work too "tight", and I try to combat that as much as possible, I start with a very loose, broad sketch, just laying in base colors, keeping in mind temperature and value. This is the stage that my husband usually says, "What the hell is that?" But it keeps me from getting into the detail too soon, weird as the painting looks at this stage. There's alot of red here, because it's the only way I can eventually get to all that green!!!! And, as a really good artist once told me, "in nature there's always a bit of red in every green". It ends up being a small amount, but, believe it or not, that little bit keeps the green from completely taking over.

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