"Stones" by Lesley Spanos. A country lane in Kettlewell, Wharfedale, Yorkshire. M. Graham Gouache on paper, 6 x 6". Copyright ©2009, all rights reserved.

I’ve become a Challenge Whore. I’ve taken hundreds of photos I could use as reference, yet I roam the net at night, searching for something different to paint. It’s not that I’m bored with my own photos. It just seems that I get into a rut when I get to choose every subject. Sometimes I need an assignment to force myself to break the mold and learn how to solve new problems. Often the photos posted in these challenges are things I’d never paint in a million years. For example, quaint little country lanes and old stone barns are far outside my personal experience and so NOT ME. So I had to try it.

This challenge was found in the Landscape forum on Wet Canvas. Thanks to the photographer, Yorky, for sharing this photo with the artists.

Here are some images captured along the way:

Since I’m not comfortable with architectural elements, I spent a little extra time on the drawing.

Talk about the “ugly stage”! Diving in with watery gouache and some bright color for the underpainting. Bright yellows and reds work best for me underneath foliage. It keeps the greens looking more natural. All the colors of Fall are always present in foliage. They’re just masked by green chlorophyll. It’s my job to expose them.

See how dull it looks now that I’ve added some greyed greens on top? But the underpainting is still there, influencing the paint in subtle ways.

I actually liked how the bush on the left turned out…

… so why’d I have to go and mess with it some more? That’s the story of my life as an artist – I never know when to stop. Uggh. It was looking so bad so I had to wipe it off with a wet paper towel. That’s the great thing about gouache – you can erase! On the down side, because it remains water soluble you have to work really fast if you want to keep previous layers from lifting. You get only one chance to lay down a good stroke.

The photo reference was taken on an overcast day, but I found myself adding some sunlight.

Fixed the bush, sharpened up the details, and we’re done! Now on to that Lake Michigan rower that Karin posted last week on DSFDF…

"New Mexico Adobe" by Lesley Spanos. Oil on Raymar panel, 12 x 9". Copyright ©2009, all rights reserved.

I can’t seem to get enough of these art challenges. They so neatly answer the question of “what should I paint next,” while forcing me to explore subjects I wouldn’t normally choose. This painting is my answer to the Wet Canvas Southwest and Western Art forum challenge for May. The photo of an old adobe outside the Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico was kindly provided by Diane Cutter. (Check out Diane’s really cool woodcut of Karin Jurick’s dog Jack! It was completed after the deadline, so it didn’t get posted on the DSFDF blog.)

Here are a few images taken along the way:

I toned the canvas with shades of yellow and red acrylic, then sketched in some rough guidelines with ink.

Here I’ve started painting in oils, keeping with the orange theme. I make a mental note to myself to keep the shadows warm and the light cool.

If you’ve been following my blog, you already know that I’m an indecisive painter. I don’t start with a plan, and I don’t know what looks “right” until I see it. I’m the artist equivalent of the woman who tries on two dozen different outfits (some several times) before choosing one, or moves the living room furniture repeatedly to see what feels right. My paintings have to try on a few looks before I know which one I can live with.

For starters, I’ve tried painting what I saw in the reference photo, a series of white clouds. I liked the sky in the photo, but my version lacks punch. Really, it’s about as interesting as a bag of cotton balls. I paint it out and try…

…a simple cloudless sky. Which is even more boring than the previous version. You’d think it would be easy  to do a sky like this, and it probably is for many artists. Not me. Mine has that awful chalky look (in spite of using zinc white), and I can’t get the color right. I wish I had a tube of cerulean blue.

So, in frustration, I paint it out again…

…and slash in the hint of a distant storm. Hey, I like that! It makes the foreground pop. Okay, it’s a keeper.

See that mesa to the right? I like how it turned out, too!

And now it’s gone. I almost wish I hadn’t painted those trees over it. Parts of the mesa where supposed to peek through the leaves, but I got a little heavy handed with the foliage.

Then again, maybe it’s better this way. The composition was a little odd before, with a mesa on either side and a house in the middle. Now it has more of a diagonal flow.

Originally I wanted to paint a couple of saddled horses under the tree to give it that old west look, but I chickened out. I think I’ll just sign it and move on before I ruin it!