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Posts tagged ‘waterfront’

Peaceful Transitions Matter

In this new painting, ‘Village Under the Sun’, the imagery is filled with all kinds of transitions— from line to gradient, warm to cool colors, curves to angles, light to dark values, textured to smooth surface, not to mention the imagined overlapping and off-kilter architecture. And the changing unreal scale of buildings and people. Yet if handled well, all these juxtapostions can live peacefully together. Creating a kind of balance that despite its quirkiness and unusual views, still does create a recognizable world where we live well in the peacefulness of a place we call home. Contact Kennedy Gallery in Portsmouth NH for more information. Visit Ann Trainor Domingue website for more info.

Lesson learned: Living together in peace despite differences matters most. Let’s hope the upcoming election results in a peaceful transition or continuation for America’s sake.

A Painter’s Holiday

IMG_7304You missed a spot. Not what I want to hear when I thought the job was finished. But as a fine art painter, missing a spot can turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

At times in my thoroughness to completely finish a work I find I want to rework areas no matter if they are small or large. Just want to go in and tweak or wholesale change that line or edge or shift a color and modify a shape. It is a very tricky thing to do near the end of a painting process. So many aspects have already found a balance–not perfection–just a balance of color, shapes, textures, line and form. To ‘fix’ something after the major phase of developing a painting has passed can invite some real questions–can I match that color, what brush did I use to get that texture, why didn’t I see that earlier, why did I think that bold line looked good yesterday and not today? And many more.

IMG_7314If a painting has a problem ‘holiday’ of some sort, I take a holiday too, and wait a few days before ‘fixing/correcting/adjusting/leaving-it-alone’. My mind has so many things whirring around while painting–so many decisions being made at once–that getting back into that mindset I had while doing the original work is almost impossible. If I could it would help me make the right decisions to push this painting toward the finish line.

So taking a break to reevaluate the piece is my answer. Sometimes its as long as a lunch break or as long as a year. My sort of ‘time out’ for a piece as I determine whether it is ready for prime time or not. Or as in a few cases it has been returned to me unsold from a gallery  and I have a new chance to work out the holidays or paint it over if I believe it is just not good enough.

IMG_7561Lesson learned: Take your time when deciding how to improve your work. Sometimes a holiday is actually the uniqueness of a piece and doesn’t need fixing at all. Time will tell.

The finished painting is now available at Gallery Antonia in Chatham on Cape Cod. www.galleryantonia.com Working Days End, acrylic on canvas, 36×36.

Copley Society Artist Residency at Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA

Using golden Open acrylics--longer time to dry that traditional acrylics. Work quite well.

Plein air painting as the tide gets closer to my feet.

As I catch up with my necessary duties as an artist (marketing, organizing, packing, shipping, emailing, inventorying, etc.), I am itching to get back in the studio to explore and play with the exciting new approaches to my art I discovered during my month-long residency at FAWC in Provincetown on Cape Cod. From toying with more abstract thinking to working without references, from meeting new faces to meeting famous faces–Paul Resika, Berta Walker, Constantine Manos–I have so much to internalize about my experience. Good thing the winter hibernation season is coming soon. Not that I hibernate of course. But those nice quiet snowfalls will be perfect backdrop as I dig deep into my thoughts.

Details Inspire Large Work

High key colors in body ofwater with small sailboat imagery

Playing with heavy textures in my customary coastal theme.

Last summer I did a painting titled, Raking Light, a 36×36 that described a late afternoon low tide at a sandy beach in Provincetown. One small area of the painting approx. 5×5  inspired this enlargement at 24×24. I loved how the coarseness of the under-texture allowed the acrylic paint to sit up on top of the raised areas. And adding other color layers allowed those underneath to still peek through. Having fun creating new works this endless winter using this idea. No title as of yet. Ideas?

Detail that inspired new work

Detail that inspired new work

Struggling to Find It

Before and After the Struggle sm

Here is a quick look at what happens when I am not happy with the progress of a painting. I start scrubbing out areas and mashing others together looking for something that unifies the separate pieces that are not working well together. And the version on the right is the result. What for me is a resolved image and one that is a keeper. This sunsplashed scene is inspired by a snapshot of a building on the grounds of Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, NH.

Story Island begins in Maine

Preliminary sketch on canvas of segmented/chapters of 36x36 painting.

Preliminary sketch on canvas of segments/chapters

Determining color scheme along the way, not pre-thought.

Determining color scheme along the way, not pre-thought.

Final look at the painting process 36x36, acrylic on canvas.

Final look at the painting process 36×36, acrylic on canvas.

In this painting there are 8 segments, each could be a small painting on its own but I have opted to build all these into one large 36×36 to see if I could unify all pieces together on one panel. I have done small paintings of the segments in the past using other color schemes and slightly different designs. But putting them all together in a block-like fashion and hoping to retain a sense of order–not in a chronological or book style– but in a way that allows the viewer to make up their own idea of what this piece is saying to them. See more of my art at www.anntrainordomingue.com or sign up to stay informed on my FB Art Page at www.Facebook/anntrainordomingueart  Ann Trainor Domingue, messy, uncommon, friendly contemporary art inspired by but not beholden to the New England landscape.

Dockside Colors in Action

detail of 30x24 painting

detail of 30×24 painting

Scenes like this in coastal Maine–full of shapes and color, lines and forms, complex details and light–are scenes that I enjoy sorting out and abstracting elements to work with. I don’t know the exact outcome when I begin just that there are enough things that interest my imagination and then I begin the process of building a painting. See website for recent works http://www.anntrainordomingue.com

 

JoP Research Journal

2017 -> Visual Research Journal with spelling mistakes and links to image sources

clarkridgefarmdotorg.wordpress.com/

A family farm in Goffstown NH

Art Licensing Info

Messy, uncommon, friendly contemporary landscape paintings inspired by the New England landscape

Yuba Gold

Art and creativity with a touch of nature

Clear Blue Design

Thinking about design every day

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Messy, uncommon, friendly contemporary landscape paintings inspired by the New England landscape

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