House and Garden, Alcudia (work in progress)
Twos and threes must be better than sixes and sevens, so I figure that's where I am now. Above is how I left House and Garden on Thursday evening. I always think there's a potential danger in trying to show rows of stone in a wall by drawing them out by hand. It often tends to look artificial that way. Yes, it is an artificial wall, but I'm sure you know what I mean. What you see here is an experimental method - I put the picture on its side on the easel and dribbled thin paint down the wall. Then I turned it round and did the same from the other side.
House and Garden, Alcudia (work in progress)
Today I worked on the stones themselves, fitting them into the lines provided by the dribbles. There's more to be done, but I think it's working. I'm suspicious of this photograph, by the way. I think there's a red dominance that isn't actually in the painting. I'm sure there's more yellow/orange in there.
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Church and Rooftops, Alcudia (work in progress)
I was unsure of how this one was going when I started in on it again today, but the rows of tiles on the roof in the foreground, even simply rendered as they are at present, have pulled it together.
I'm looking forward to working on both of these again next week.
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7 comments:
I like the rooftop much better than the wall. They seem to lead you into the picture whereas the wall feels a bit like a barrier to entry.
What was your thinking behind the two compositions?
One of my ongoing compositional themes is to do with horizontal banding which helps to emphasise the picture plane. I don't tend to think of bands as barriers, although I can see that if they were to be looked at like that, the rooftop picture is helped by having the bands bridged by chimneys.
Nice one Harry.
These look fresh.
I like the warmth they project.
Regards
I really like the colours in house and garden Harry. So vibrant. A little red dominance yes, but it's warmth. Love your sketchbook too..reminds me I should be working in one too.
Trevor -- thanks. Your comments are always appreciated.
April -- glad you like it. And as for sketchbooks, I should be working in one far more than I do.
Today I dropped in for the very first time to your blog and at the spot was very fond of your two pictures listed under 'Twos and Threes' (and all the others, of course).
Especially I was totally surprised by the very different impact both pictures had on me when looking at them starry-eyed. The 'rooftops' were kindly inviting me to enter the scene, like Katherine Tyrrel already stated, and made me feel at home. And the wall in 'garden' nearly was refusing my eyes (again I like to agree with Katherine) to have another glimpse at the well-fenced garden, making me feel some kind of envy although I was nevertheless appeased by the whole picture. This makes a lot of sense to me. Refusing should be something walls should be capable of doing (giving some kind of fierce security to the fenced in), while roofs should give more unhurried shelter to the roofed ones (the more if chimneys indicate warmth and homeliness), which in turn should attract any un-roofed spectator.
I am nothing but an amateur when it comes to drawing so I may not be able to express my feelings intelligible – my english may add some more mischief, too – but I hope I have expressed my spontaneous enthusiasm regarding your pictures correctly.
Greetings
Susanne
Suzanne - thank you. I think you express your thoughts very well indeed. I've been thinking over this business of "barriers" in pictures. The concept of a barrier in a picture which stops you moving into the picture doesn't chime with what I try to do, but the wall is, of course a barrier in the real sense. It keeps you out of the garden and creates a sense of mystery about what's on the other side. So there's an element of that in the House & Garden painting, but mainly I just like a) the patterning of the wall and b) the compositional theme of banding.
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