In the Studio Today...Christin Coy Workshop & Mill Valley Coffee Shop

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

I started 2 paintings in one day, today! Wow...! You know you have a deadline when you start 2 good sized, detailed paintings in a day. The paintings I started today are local shops in Marin County; The red awning of the Specialty Coffee shop in downtown Mill Valley, and the Gospel Flat Farmstand as you enter Bolinas, California. I now have a total of 6 paintings for the Mill Valley show, and I have about 5 more to go. I chose some large canvases, so the paintings should fill in the Depot Cafe walls with some good negative space around them. If I have 10 new paintings, I will be delighted. If I can finish 12, that will be even better... but quality versus quantity, always. Spoken in the voice of Ellen Degeneres, as Dory in "Finding Nemo"..."Just keep painting, just keep painting, just keep painting, painting, painting...". By the way, if you've read this far, this marks my 202nd post on my blog! I reached 200 posts with out even realizing it!

"Ride to the Coffee Shop", 16" x 20", o/c.
Work in Progress... (Will detail 4 bikes in scene when complete).

Actually, the real reason for the 2 paintings in one day... I had a workshop this evening with artist, Christin Coy. It was a great session. Richard Lindenberg, who used to work for Sennelier Professional Oil Paints, was on hand to give a color mixing lesson. It was fantastic. I haven't mixed colors in a color wheel format in many years, but it was a great reminder, and I learned about "Chinese Orange", a color specifically commissioned by Cézanne. It's sort of a burnt umber, rust orange red color, but has a great transparency to it so it can be used to varnish, or when mixed with white, it is more opaque.Christin taught me to pre-stain my canvas with an acrylic color and water, to give it a warm undertone and get away from starting with the blank white of the canvas. The color I used was a warm sienna red color, which was perfect for the reds in the awning of the coffee shop.