Copyrighted © 2009 by Linda Warner Constantino. 6" by 8"- oil on linen board.
This little building at San Galgano, Italy was irresistible. It had rained earlier in the day and in the early evening all the greens were so saturated. I find painting greens always a challenge.
plein air painting in Tuscany, small painting
Copyrighted © 2009 by Linda Warner Constantino - 8" by 10"- oil on gessoboard.
When I woke up this morning it looked ominous. We have been having a lot of rain lately, but it cleared and got very hot around 8:30 am and out I went. This location is actually behind the local mall! I tried to work quickly but without reworking my strokes. I have found with gessoboard it helps to use a medium (classic - mineral spirits, stand oil, linseed oil) otherwise the porous nature of the board sucks the oil out of the paint and looks chalky the next day. I also like the consistency of the medium on this surface. When painting on oil primed linen I usually do not feel the need for a medium.
Copyrighted © 2009 by Linda Warner Constantino.
"Olives"
6"by 6" oil on gesso board.
$100 plus $5 shipping. Email me if interested.
It's hard to believe I have not posted in almost a month. I am teaching an overload at school and designing and illustrating a wine label. It has been just crazy!
So getting back to the easel has been approach/avoidance. I wanted to paint but was afraid I forgot everything. Why is that? I also did not know how I would paint it. There is part of me that can be as tight as a botanical illustrator (in watercolors at least) and another part of me that so enjoys a loose painterly approach to realistic subject matter.
I decided to photograph the stages of this painting on the left. Of course this put the pressure on it to be a great painting but I decided to do it anyway. I am still mourning the loss of my good camera that I dropped in the tub a few months ago(do not ask). The camera I am using is alright but does not take as good photos. Anyway, here are the stages.
Copyrighted © 2008 by Linda Warner Constantino.8"by 8" oil on gessoboard.
I am not sure but I think this is one of the original homes at the Coastal Discovery Museum on Hilton Head. It is located by the marsh and is part of a homestead donated to the museum.
I painted quickly this day and it is fine line one walks when painting any kind of architecture. In a moment too much detail and too much adhering to perfection seems to suck the life out of the building or makes it look very amateurish rather than simple and painterly. I tried to stay simple and loose. I like the way the sunlight looks on it but I am still chasing the quality of my brushstrokes.
Copyrighted © 2008 by Linda Warner Constantino. 8" by 10" oil on gessoboard.Sold
I went out to paint today with a few friends. It was initially very foggy and then lifted rather quickly though it remained partly cloudy. I started one painting and wiped it off. I was trying to paint too much. Finding the lowest "visual denominator" is always a challenge. Then tide started moving in rapidly, too. So between the weather and the tides I was painting "to beat the clock."
I painted a bit larger for this one to help me prepare for a 16" by 20" painting that I will be working on in the studio. As ever it was great to be outside painting!
Copyrighted © 2008 by Linda Warner Constantino - oil on gessoboard - 6" by 6".
I am now on my winter break and have more time to get back to painting. I admit to being a bit rusty and having lost a little contact with my brushwork. I had to wipe this one off and start again.
This is the last Meyer lemon off of one of my trees in the front yard. They are just the most beautiful lemon color and smell and taste so good.
Copyrighted © 2008 by Linda Warner Constantino. 7" by 5" oil on gessoboard.
>I felt like I was getting into a bit of a rut with color and such.I went and bought more fabric and tea towels. I love tableware but painting elipses is always tough. I just wanted to stay loose with in general and not get committed to a level of geometrical detail that is not my style.
Copyrightd © 2008 by Linda Warner Constantino. 7" by 5" - oil on gessoboard.
Here is a little study I did from a photo taken this past summer up in St. Andrews-by-the-Sea in Canada. I was attracted to the geometry of the roof tops against the wildflowers in the garden. I love doing these quick little sketches because they suit my attention span. I am interested in so many things. Recently I bought some pastels and will try some studies in them. I think I am just an art supply "junkie." Each medium has its own set of characteristics that attract me for different reasons.
Copyrighted © 2008 by Linda Warner Constantino. 6" by 6". oil on linen panel.
I got up early to paint this at 7am due to the heat. I have been wanting to paint this boat for a while. Maybe I liked it because it is the color of an eggplant.(Sounds a bit crazy) but it sort of looked like one sitting there in the water.
Any way, boats beat me up. I took this painting back to the studio and finally ended up repainting it. As usual I was attracted to the colors and shapes and the way the light was hitting it. I really wanted to stay loose with this one.(Re-occuring theme) because there would have been way too much to paint if I got committed to detail. I think technical things scare me so I tried to just regard it as shapes and color in a very interpretive manner.I have a feeling boats are going to a big theme when I go up to my workshop in Canada.
Copyrighted © 2008 by Linda Warner Constantino. 5"h by 7"w - oil on linen panel.
It is unbearably hot here on Hilton Head and since I got a late start this morning, I decided to paint the backyard of our Arts and Crafts bungalow-style home. There is a lot going on with the foliage. My husband loves to plant and it is very lush! There are a couple of giant oaks that move the shade across the yard. So for this painting I was trying to capture the feeling of the dappled light and shade in a very small painting format. A single brushstroke had to define a whole plant.
In a little over a week I am heading up to Canada. I am taking a workshop with Kevin Macpherson for a week with the En Plein Air Masters Series. I am also painting with Michael Chelsey Johnson for a day. I am getting quite excited. I was so clueless at the first workshop I took about 10 years ago. I think I am very open to learning at this point. Actually, I hope I always stay that way.
Copyrighted © 2008 by Linda Warner Constantino. 6" by 8"- oil on canvas panel.Click on image to view larger. Click here to purchase.
These are not just any pigs. These are Cinta Senese pigs that are an endangered species domesticated at Spannocchia the Italian organic farm I was at this past spring. It was a grayish day today so I went for my photos to do this painting. I tried to place the paint on this one and try not to fuss with it too much.
Speaking of Spannocchia I have gotten the dates firmed up for next summer's Plein Air Painting in Tuscany workshop that I will be teaching there. It will be from June 21 through June 28, 2009. I should have the prices firmed up in the next week or two. Email me me if interested.
Copyrighted © by Linda Warner Constantino. Oil on canvas panel - 6"h by 8"w. Click on image to view larger. Click here to purchase.
Thunderhead clouds are like the "mountains of the South." You sense their massive size just by looking. These clouds were like out of a Cecil B. DeMille movie. I kind of felt like some kind of miracle was going to happen at any moment! :)
I painted is on a different surface than I usually use.I usually use a #13 Classens double primed linen. This is a medium surface canvas panel. Photoshop picks up the texture more. If I try to hard to downplay it it looks blurry. This is pretty true to how it looks.
Copyrighted © 2008 by Linda Warner Constantino. 5" by 7" oil on linen panel.Click image to view larger.
The clouds were so dynamic yesterday. Sunny one minute stormy the next. The marsh at the Wildlife Refuge is so flat.It reminds me of the tundra in Alaska where I once lived. Here I was just trying to catch a sense of these clouds.
I came across some newsworthy items for daily painters. There is an excellent write up about Duane Keiser and his new collectors' blog by Katherine Tyrrell of Making a Mark.She includes a kind of historical synopsis of his development.
Karen Jurick is planning a workshop possibly in nearby Savannah. Check out her site for more information.
Copyrighted © 2008 by Linda Warner Constantino, oil on canvas board 6"h by 8"w. Click on image to view larger. Click here to purchase.
I painted at the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge this morning. Acres and acres of marsh and lily pads! I did not know where to start. I did this little close up just to get acquainted. You cannot paint lily pads without thinking of Monet. Of course his paintings are gigantic and in some ways I think it would have been easeier to paint them on a larger canvas. What I was trying to do was a quick reponse to what I was seeing. Actually the bugs were bad. There are often challenges beyond the canvas in plein air painting! So here is my own little homage to Monet. I have even more respect for him now.
Copyrighted © 2008 by Linda Warner Constantino. Oil on Belgian linen panel - 6 by 6 in. Click image to view larger. Click here to purchase.
I could not resist these baby eggplants! I played around with the composition a bit because they are so strong in value. Also I finally figured out the light so that you can see more of the value and temperature changes in the eggplants. I do not know what it is about the shape of them, though. I just like them.
Copyrighted © 2008 by Linda Warner Constantino. Oil on linen panel. 7"by5"Available for $100 plus shipping. Email me if interested. Click on image for larger view.
I got a late start in the morning for this painting and it had to be the hottest day of summer so far, so I painted quickly because I could feel the sun burning the back of my legs. I was standing by the water and the tide was coming in too. Sometimes having to paint fast keeps me from fussing too much and helps keep the painting painterly.
Copyrighted ©2008 by Linda Warner Constantino.Oil on linen board 6" by 6" - Click on image for larger view. Click here to purchase.
I am getting pretty obsessed with the blue-green thing. I think it is safe to say. Even in painting landscapes it is the blues and greens that challenge me. I am still trying to stay looser, and a bit more interpretive with my still lifes. With my illustrator background I have a latent tendency to get hung up in rendering. When I start to render too tightly I am committed to a level of detail that I am not really interested in. I like mark making and the vitality it can bring to a painting. I find it easier to keep the brushtrokes lively in landscapes than still lifes but I am working on it.
Copyrighted © 2008 by Linda Warner Constantino - oil on linen board 8"by6". Click on image see larger.
I am still going with the blue green thing. Actually I can't help it. All the Arts and Crafts pottery in our house is some version of blue and green. Suffice it to say - another passion. I am still trying to stay looser with my still lifes. I also decided to sprawl a bit with the arrangement of objects since I tend to crowd my compositions a bit. I am trying to keep in the spirit of experimentation this summer and push myself out of my comfort zone.
I sometimes receive these little canvas mounted boards(2"by 3") from Artboards where I purchase my linen panels for my small paintings. I love the Belgian linen surface. It is smoother than regular canvas but not as slick as gessoed board can be. They are so small I haven't known what to do with them. I gave them to my young students that I taught earlier this summer and let them paint a "portrait" of piece of candy. They were highly motivated because they could eat it when they were finished! I could not resist painting one, too.
Copyrighted © 2008 by Linda Warner Constantino. Belgian linen on board - 8" by 8". Click on image for larger view. Available - email me if interested. $150. plus shipping
I went out to this gorgeous place on the May River near Bluffton SC called Palmetto Bluff. The place is like a dream with picturesque views. I went with my colleague, Don Rogers.We managed to have a good morning of painting before the "wall of heat" came down on us close to noon.
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