Dinner with Friends
30″ x 24″ Oil on Masonite

Many of you will recognize this painting as a rework of the painting Dinner With Friends painted at the beginning of the year and destined for the Grand National Rodeo Western Art Show & Sale. That painting is a small format painting (10″ x 8″) on Raphael linen canvas.

Recently, an interest in larger paintings has combined with an interest in seeing if I could improve on this image. The result is this new painting of the same title.

This time, I am working on gessoed masonite. The masonite was cut to size, then prepared with a light sanding on the smooth side, followed by three coats of acrylic gesso all the way around. I used a house painter’s brush (about 2″) for this task and brushed the gesso in a different direction with each application. Horizontal on one pass, vertical on another pass and diagonal on yet another pass. The result is a texture that closely resembles canvas.

When I want a smoother texture, I sand before beginning to paint. If I want a super smooth texture, I sand between applications of gesso.

Once the panel was prepared, it set around for three to four weeks while I decided what to put on it. Once the idea of reworking Dinner With Friends occurred to me and I realized that a 24×30 is exactly three times larger than an 8×10, the fate of this panel was set!

Because I already had a drawing prepared and knew what I wanted to do with the new painting, all I had to do was enlarge the drawing to full size and transfer it to the panel. The only other markings I made on the panel was to divide it corner to corner with diagonal lines to determine the center. None of the primary or secondary centers of interest should be placed in the dead center, so I needed to have that marked out.

I then transferred the horizon line, the rows of trees and the lines delineating the major shadows. I also roughly drew in the horses, but did not spend a lot of time on the drawing. I want to put a lot more interest into the horses, so will be reworking them more heavily throughout the under painting process.

October 20 - 23, 2008

Colors Used: Titanium White and Raw Umber

Painting began with the under painting. The under painting is a fully or nearly developed painting in just two colors. Local color is glazed over the under painting after values and details have been established.

Ordinarily, color choice is automatic. Raw Umber has been my color of choice for many paintings. But this time, with a painting that is predominantly green, I decided to try an under painting with Burnt Sienna. The reasoning behind that decision was that the more red color of Burnt Sienna would be a better complement for the greens. So I began painting with Burnt Sienna and Titanium White, beginning with the sky. That area had only a very light hint of color. Each element thereafter had more color to create the look of distance.

In the first painting session, I got all the way down to the open field between the middle ground trees and the big tree just behind the horses before having to stop for the day.

By the end of the first working session, I was beginning to question the use of Burnt Sienna. For one thing, the slightly pinkish cast of tinted Burnt Sienna was not at all what I was looking for.

Other issues included the fact that a reddish under painting probably wasn’t the best way to create the atmospheric perspective necessary for the distance or for the chestnut horse that is the center of interest. What could I possibly accomplish by glazing Burnt Sienna or Burnt Sienna?

So I spent the second working session on October 21 going over the more important elements with Raw Umber and Titanium White. I didn’t mess with the sky very much since it doesn’t usually require much of an under painting. But the trees and the fields did get some work.

The new under painting color was blended into the previous layer, since it was still quite wet. That allowed me to push edges around and to move elements a little bit, as well. The places where Burnt Sienna still peaked through were quite pleasing, too.

The last painting session for the week was a quick and loose blocking in of the foreground using a palette knife to apply paint and a large bristle to smooth it out somewhat. I put the panel on the easel upside-down, applied color in big blocks, then blended them very lightly with the bristle, pulling color upward (according to the landscape orientation).

Some parts of the horses were painted over, but that’s all right. I will be giving them more complete attention once this week’s work is dry.

This painting is available for sale. Pre-Completion Purchases receive a 10% discount off full retail price upon payment of order deposit. Payment in full in cash earns a 20% discount off retail.

Interested buyers may also request basic changes to the painting such as changing the color and markings of the horses.

©Copyright 2008 by Carrie Lewis. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Carrie Lewis’s website.