MFA Blog | Fall 2020

I started off with this image, and planned to do a set of 6 of these, but lost interest in the image itself

This is a big mess, but i was experimenting with a few things at once 😂🤦‍♀️

I am trying to get in some practice with faces/figures between landscapes paintings

This is the first painting using this image with variations to follow. For a little background info, I took this photo while sitting in a park two days after the terrorist attacks in Paris in November, 2015. The innocence of the boy in the photo contrasting with the somber adults in the background stuck me. These are a few variations I tried, just trying out a few things (all are 9x12):

This was limited palette using ochre, umber, cobalt, and white. Thinner layers.

This was trying to create something higher key (I looked at some Monet colors before I did this one). It almost felt like the "Romantic Paris" we might think of.

This one was limited to yellow and umber, with the exception of the boy. I was trying to paint from memory how it felt/the flashes of color I saw when the attacks were happening and we were looking for shelter.

And this is a start. This one is acrylic, and I was using a sort of split complimentary method. I plan to go over it in oil and see what happens.

Is it weird that I kind of liked this as is? I went in and painted over it, but the under paintings are so fun and free

i hated the way the turned out. I tried to steal turners palette but failed miserably

Layer 1 practice after demo

Layer 2

Another practice, not so pleased with this one. might try it again or go back into this one.

Work in progress. deciding what to do with the foreground. The thin hazy paint is kinda fun but I think I want to add in the foliage

this one will be lots of layers. Hoping it turns out. Kinda experimenting

Getting wild with color in this one. not finished, but I’m having fun with it

also not finished. but I’m practicing and hopefully improving

WIP^ will fill in the boy and background more

I don’t know if I love this, but originally I imagined it as a series, representing the loneliness that can happen when someone is there but not really there or you wish they were and they’re not.

palette knife

in progress - experimenting with

graphic/geometric elements in the work (kind of expanding off of the idea from the painting of the Beijing overpass)