Windy May

[Julia]

This is another plein-air painting of mine, pretty big, 28x36 inches, I did most of it en plein-air for about 4 hours, trying to catch the sky and its reflection first of all. But I had to leave that place, so finished the painting in the studio, the grass in the foreground. C&C is welcome.

[JamieWG]

Wow, Julia, that is a big plein air piece! The largest I've gone plein air is 24x36 a few times, and it always took me three sessions on location! Beautiful saturated colors here, and yet it has a feeling of softness. It must have quite a striking presence hanging on a wall.

Jamie

[JanB]

Fantastic :clap: :clap: :clap:

[Marc Hanson]

Hey Julia, very nice. Are you working on board, stretched canvas, canvas on board....? Just curious.

[Bill Foehringer]

I feel like I'm lookin' over my shoulder as I'm rowin'! Very nice one Julia! BillF

[Julia]

You are SOO supporting, guys.

You know i don't really like this piece. I don't know why. Probably because i felt kind of depressed and nervious while doing it and i got really annoyed when i realized i had to leave asap (some family problems) and had not chance to finish it en plein-air. When i am inspired i am capable to do the painting in two sessions, 3 hours each.

But in this case I don't really like the composition, but there was a small option... not much in the view, only the turbulent sky and the reflections. I guess i was after the sky first as it was so beautiful and contrasting, there were stretches of cobalt blue closer to the horizon and more warm violet and ingido hues up. Actually there are different blues in this work. The water looked more calm and blurred, but there was still some movement...and i had to take care of the cloud patterns. Now i'm thinking may be i should crop the bottom of it, leaving one third to the water or leave it as it is... what do you think?

Thank you for the info about Kahn, i will look him up and special thanks to Marc, i appreciate your opinion a lot, as i think you are one of the most gifted and outstanding landscape painters of our time - your pastels are fantastic..

I always use a stretched canvas (stretch it myself) and my goal now is to handle big canvases, as Monet did. This is a difficult task, but possible. I also want to bring it up as a new thread :cat:

[Diyart]

Hello,
I think it is always very difficult to paint a wide flat area and you
answered the question of composition very well. I find this work very appealing, quiet and meditative.
Martin

[israelyang]

I agree with Martin, and your value here is very good.
Many people try to paint like the impressionists, I think you are one of the very few who do very well here(wetcanvas), one of your painting 'snow in the city' on your website I enjoy very very much.

israel

[Bertoni]

Julia:
Your sky is stellar!!! :clap: Impressionism is alive in that sky!!! :clap:
Is the Kahn you mentioned Wolf Kahn? If so, I have his book which is absolutely superb. It's an Abrams book by Justin Spring!

[Julia]

You are right, only the sky is good, so i will definitely crop it from the bottom... you replies kept me from ruining it by painting something new over it or just slicing it with a knife :evil: just kidding

[Phyllis Rennie]

It's beautiful as is, Julia, but I think cropping the bottom gives it a stronger focus.