A Jump Ahead

In The Interest of Time . . .

By the time I finished the first page of this blog, I realized that writing and posting would take up time that would be better spent painting.  And so a lot more has been done since my last posting, however there's lots more work to be done.  Below are some animals I recently painted in.

Pair of Sandhill Cranes

Along with this pair of sandhill cranes, I began putting in grassy areas and shrubs along the banks.  Loved painting the sandhills, hated painting the grass.  Every element has to be considered by how it will look from at least 12 feet away, as it will be hung high in an open room.  I played with darkening the sand--which looked more believable close up--however at a 12-foot distance the contrast was lost and it looked uninteresting.  So back to the drawing board.  I may add more creeping vines and dead foliage, if it doesn't interfere with contrast and values.

Below are my favorites - spoonbills.  It's a thrill to see these colorful beauties flying overhead, which I witnessed just a week ago not a mile from my house.  Their pinks seem brighter when in flight against the teal of the sky or whites of the clouds.  Since they are small and will be seen from a distance, I bumped the color up slightly.  The painting is mostly greens, browns and blue, so these little flying jewels popped the whole painting.

Spoonbills, the "Flying Jewels" of the aviary world

More trees along the River

Added Palms and trees along the river bank, along with creeping vines and bushes, trying to stay true to what is actually along the Sebastian River based on photo references.

Grasses and vines, along with water reflections were added.

Beautiful Morning Glories

I spotted these beautiful cobalt blue morning glories growing on an old stump along the railroad tracks and had to have them.  They were the most beautiful big morning glories I had ever seen.  So I came back with a hand spade to dig them up, but could not get to any of the roots, so I ended up just ripping off some of the tangled vines.  I put them in a vase of water, set them on my lanai and forgot about them.  Lo and behold, they rooted!  I planted them against a trellis archway leading to my lanai (porch) and am now waiting for my first flower.  So now I am happy to say they are memorialized in this painting.  Viewing them at at a 10-foot distance they probably won't be very impressive, but they are there anyway.  Nice addition of color with all that green.

Added encroaching foliage in the form of saw grass, lantana and grass along the foreground banks, in addition to breaking up the outer bank shore for less uniformity and more interest.  More work still has to be done on the outer bank to make it a bit more wild looking, i.e., old Florida.

Little Palm

 Added a little palm I found in one of the River pictures, however I had to paint it twice because the lighter palm fronds got lost in the river, so it has rather dark palm fronds.  I'll be painting in some vines or sawgrass growing at the base.  The blob of grass on the bottom right side was how I basically blocked in the grass areas before painting grass blades which is quite tedious.  The oak across the river needs moss also.

Twin palms

I added these twin palms on the far right side of the painting last week, and today began painting the blocked in grasses out in preparation for painting an opening in the sawgrass for a bobcat to be lurking out of.  That will be fun to paint, but tricky with the perspective seeing I have to make a dark opening in the bushes for him to contrast out of.

Whenever I'm doing a painting, when the painting is considered by me to be finished, it really isn't.  It's that time when I set it up on my kitchen counter to rest for a few days, with a clip board underneath it.  In this way I can see it with a fresh eye for a few days, and make my notes on the clip board when it passes into view as I walk by it each day.  I may notice an off-color, a needed value change, elimination of an element, etc.  Plus Bob, who is not a painter, will give his critique which I may or may not pay attention to.  He's usually right though darn it!  The size of this painting dictates the number of finishing touches, which are many.  It will not have the finished look close up like a fine art painting, but there are corrections that I will make even though most people will never notice, and there are 5 pages of them.  I divided the canvas into 4 sections--A, B, C and D, with each section being 3 feet, with blue tape.  Each section has a separate page for revision notes, with one extra page for overall consistent corrections.  Most will be minor and take little time, but there are dozens of them in total, and probably more to come as I continue painting.  Depending on what crazy unforeseen events may happen, I should have this finished in a week or so.

Well, that's all for today, I should have been painting instead of blogging, but I did work on a gem of a pelican painting today too, aside from working on the river painting.  Life is good when at this age one can be so productive and create something that will be enjoyed long after I'm gone (which I hope is none too soon!)

Judy Burgarella,
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