January 29, 2007 by Carrie L. Lewis.

Landscape Study #30 2007
When Everything Turns to Gold

January 27, 2007 by Carrie L. Lewis.

Landscape Study #29 2007

It has been a long time since I painted a mountain. There just aren’t many of them in either Michigan or Kansas. Tonight, though, I looked at the current landscapes in progress and was not overly thrilled by any of them. I did work on two, but finally picked up a blank card and just began painting these mountains. Life, righ now, seems filled with mountains of a different kind. Why paint mountains? This image is purely imaginary, but I am hoping, some day, to get to the Rockies and see real mountains. Until then, these will have to do.

3-1/2″ x 2-1/2″
Original oil on triple-gessoed, archival 4-ply mat board.

$25 unframed … Inquire

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January 27, 2007 by Carrie L. Lewis.

Landscape Study #28 2007
At the Edge of the Wetlands

I finished two landscapes tonight with the same palette. Similar colors but completely different looks. It was a tough call which one to post. I like them both and they are both very nice. In the end, I chose this one because it is the more unique of the two. It started out as a Flint Hills scene, but I ended up wiping out the hills in the background and redoing the foreground area. This the result and I am especially pleased with the water in the foreground.3-1/2″ x 2-1/2″
Original oil on triple-gessoed, archival 4-ply mat board.

$25 unframed … Inquire

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January 25, 2007 by Carrie L. Lewis.

Landscape Study #26 2007
Five at Twilight

Today’s original ACEO is the first in which horses have appeared in a secondary role. Since beginning this study of the landscape in miniature, I have been very careful to stay away from animals of any kind so that I was focusing on the landscape as the primary subject, rather than in a supporting role.

But I knew before I finished this painting that it required horses. And not just any horses, but the wild horses I have seen roaming parts of the Flint Hills. In order to keep them from becoming the primary subject, though, I kept them small. Browsing, resting or wandering along the top of a ridge in the near distance.

3-1/2″ x 2-1/2″
Original oil on triple-gessoed, archival 4-ply mat board.

$25 unframed … Inquire

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January 23, 2007 by Carrie L. Lewis.

Landscape Study #25 2007
Dawn’s Early Light

One of the great surprises of moving from Michigan to Kansas is how different the skies are. The color is about the same, but the clouds are different. There is very little twilight in Kansas compared to what I grew up with in Michigan. At the high point of summer, the sun shines on the north sides of the buildings.

Another phenomenon I have seen here in Kansas is the spotligt beams of sunlight that often pierce the skies at sunset. Shadows, too, sometimes stretch across the heavens, spreading over the zenith, then converging again on the opposite horizon.

I did not set out to paint that sort of a scene when I started this painting last week. I was experimenting with colors and color applications. When I finished work on Saturday, this painting was little more than an evening sky and a dim landscape.

When I looked at it this afternoon, intending to flesh out the landscape, I couldn’t think of anything really spectacular to do with it. The pond I had painted in last week seemed out of place so I filled it in. Trees didn’t seem like the right thing. Clouds didn’t even seem to fit into the picture. What I ended up doing was brightening the patch of sky where the sun was about to rise.

That’s when I thought of the shafts of light I had seen in the past. Could I do something like that and make it look believable? Why not try?

So I put a little bit more white and yellow paint on the painting, then pulled it upward with a finger. Two quick strokes, slightly divergent, and that was just enough.

3-1/2″ x 2-1/2″
Original oil on triple-gessoed, archival 4-ply mat board.

$25 unframed … Inquire

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January 22, 2007 by Carrie L. Lewis.

Landscape Study #23 2007
Storms Building

I started my painting week today by preparing several mat board cards for new paintings. A new batch had been cut and gessoed last Saturday, so the work I wanted to start today was that of putting down the first layers of paint. Since oils take so long to dry, painting some skies seemed like a good way to start the week. And to warm up for the more serious work of finishing paintings.

It certainly seemed to work. By the time I completed that task, two new ACEO Landscapes had come to life. Neither one was planned by anything more profound than the Good Lord’s creative prompting and some quiet time.

“Storms Building” is the first of those and it was suggested after I added the darker colors at the top of the sky. I had intended that to be fresh sky, but after dropping down two work on the horizon, another idea came to mind. “That’s not sky,” it said. “That’s a high, dark cloud.” From there, the rest of the idea developed. The conclusion of the matter was that there was a storm cloud just beginning to rain directly overhead, just coming into view. Further off, there was another thunderhead, with the bright, golden highlights of the sun making it glow.

Since we were doing some new and interesting things, I decided to fill the foreground with lake and separate the waters above the earth and waters on the earth by a tree-lined shore. There are places like this in Michigan and it was almost like a visit home to finish “Storms Building”.

3-1/2″ x 2-1/2″
Original oil on triple-gessoed, archival 4-ply mat board.

$25 unframed … Inquire

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January 22, 2007 by Carrie L. Lewis.

Landscape Study #20 2007
Kansas Sunset

Another painting of a sunset today. I have been pre-occupied with colorful skies the last few days and have worked on several ACEO landscapes featuring pinks, reds, oranges, yellows and purples. It is quite a bit of fun to play with these non-horsey colors and to explore the painted skies.

“Kansas Sunset” leans more toward the pinks and reds, with just a hint of Naples Yellow near the horizon. I also introduced a patch of water in this painting, though it is barely visible through the tallgrass on the foreground hill.

3-1/2″ x 2-1/2″
Original oil on triple-gessoed, archival 4-ply mat board.

$25 unframed … Inquire

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January 22, 2007 by Carrie L. Lewis.

Landscape Study #20 2007
Star Light, Star Bright

Evenings and mornings are favorites times of day. Since I am becoming more and more of a night persons, I see more evenings than I do mornings. Tonight, for example, the western sky was absolutely gorgeous. Not as brilliant as I have seen it, perhaps, but still painted a splendid shade of red and purple.

When I sat down to do my daily ACEO landscape after completing all of our many errands, the thing I wanted to capture was that all-too-fleeting splendor. I had a painting already started from yesterday and it was showing signs of wanting to be an evening scene, so that’s what I made it. After it was all painted, I used my color shaper to tap in a few stars.

3-1/2″ x 2-1/2″
Original oil on triple-gessoed, archival 4-ply mat board.

$25 unframed … Inquire

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Posted in Oil Landscapes | No Comments »

January 18, 2007 by Carrie L. Lewis.

Landscape Study #19 2007
The Gate

“The Gate” is one of two original oil ACEO landscape paintings from today’s work. They both turned out exceptionally well and they both feature lots of snow. I chose “The Gate” to post because it photographed the best while still wet.

Both paintings were started at the same time and are based on the same photograph. It is an old winter photograph taken up in Michigan and while I know it has to show a location within walking distance of my house, I cannot remember exactly where it is.

Interestingly enough, it is the same photograph I used to paint “Fresh Snow - Afternoon” and “Fresh Snow - Evening”, both 8×10 oil landscapes. The original pair was also painted simultaneously. No two of the resulting paintings look much alike and it is enough to make me start thinking about keeping one favorite photograph out and painting it regularly. But, that’s another project….

“The Gate” was painted with a limited palette of Titanium White, Payne’s Gray, Ivory Black and a little bit of Cobalt Blue. As with most of these little landscapes, paint is applied wet-into-wet.

I tried something new with this painting and attempted to smooth the paint surface with fine grit sand paper when I thought it was dry. Note the use of the word ‘thought’. The surface was dry, but the paint underneath was not and I came close to ruining the painting. A few more days to let everything dry and I was able to repair the smeared paint and finish the painting in good order.

3-1/2″ x 2-1/2″
Original oil on triple-gessoed, archival 4-ply mat board.

Visit ACEO Landscape Painting A Day for more information.

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January 18, 2007 by Carrie L. Lewis.

Landscape Study #17 2007
Phoenix

I call this painting Phoenix not because of the location. The location is somewhere in the Flint Hills of Kansas; nowhere near Phoenix.

Phoenix takes its title from the fact that it essentially rose from the ashes of yesterday’s work to become a finished painting, with it’s own identity.

This painting is the acrylic painting I started after finishing yesterday’s oil painting. At the time, I had attempted to paint the same scene twice, once in oils and once in acrylics, just to see how close I could make the two paintings. Oils are like an old friend, the medium I started with. Acrylics are a new acquaintance and we are still getting to know each other.

I was not at all happy with the acrylic version of that scene. The colors were too bold. The atmosphere was not at all the same, there was very little that I liked about it. It was, in fact, only a hair’s breadth from being sanded down and prepared for a fresh painting.

At the last minute, I relented. Later, I showed it to my husband and Neal made some suggestions. I decided to wait at least a day (maybe longer, depending on my mood!) and try his suggestions. I didn’t think I could ruin the painting, after all. What did I have to lose?

A glaze of Burnt Sienna tonight toned down those brassy greens in the foregrounds. A mixture of Burnt Sienna and Phthalo Green (blue shade) livened up the trees and deeper shadows. A touch of Titanium White and Phthalo Blue (green shade) put some sky holes into the overcast and that was pretty much all the painting needed. Like the ancient bird of renowned, “Phoenix” rose up out of the ashes and became Landscape Study #17 2007 and today’s ACEO Landscape painting.

3-1/2″ x 2-1/2″
Original oil on triple-gessoed, archival 4-ply mat board.