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Friday, March 30, 2018

Thoughts Behind a Daily Painting

'Just the Beginning'         9x9          pastel          ©Karen Margulis
available $155
Sometimes it works. We have a concept in mind for a painting and it comes together. We make the choices that lead to the mood or feeling we wish to express. I wanted to create a painting that captured the fleeting moment when dusk slips into evening. The moment when a hush falls over the landscape. It is a soft quiet time. We start to hear the night noises emerge and the dampness of evening approaching. That is what I wished to create today.

I began with a 9x9 piece of Uart 500 grit sanded paper. I wasn't sure how I would start the painting until I had the paper up on my easel and I spotted a few Derwent Inktense sticks that I had left out on my shelf. The colors were perfect. Red violet , violet and blue. They would make a good underpainting especially when I wet them with rubbing alcohol.

Underpainting with Derwent Inktense blocks and rubbing alcohol
I put on some music....one of my favorite movie scores 'The Theory of Everything'. It allowed me to slip into the landscape and become a part of it.  I enjoyed responding to the underpainting with a limited palette. The dark values of the land and the brightness of the twilight sky made me believe in the scene. I was pulled into it and before I knew it I found myself completing the painting. When I thought I was finished I stepped away and then it occurred to me......I needed some fireflies! I added a few and called it finished.

2 comments:

robertsloan2art said...

Wow! This is one of my favorites. I love nocturnes and this captured exactly that moment when twilight is deep and dark, fireflies are out, the last of the sunset fading. I had no idea you could dissolve Inktense with rubbing alcohol! How very cool! I love Inktense for an underpainting, but it's a different look whether you use water or alcohol to spread the underpainting and seal it in. Gorgeous result. You totally captured the atmosphere in this one. Draws me right in.

OtterTail said...

Nice! It feels inspired.