Forest Watercolor finished!

After many months, the Forest Watercolor is Finished!

Without further adieu:

                             

"Forest, Full Spectrum", Watercolor, 60"x40", Marjorie Glick, 2011

After all is said and done, I want to let the painting speak for itself. Every painting I do has special meaning for me, but at the same time, I just want to put this out into the world and leave you the viewer, to have your own  experience of the painting. I hope to exhibit this painting in the coming year- I'll keep you posted as to where that will be. There is big difference between seeing a painting in person in its true size as opposed to on the web. 

Exhibitions this summer

"Magical Place" Watercolor, 36"x48", 2008, Marjorie Glick

Isalos Gallery

 Main Street

 Stonington, ME

http://www.isalosfineart.com/marjorie-glick/

http://www.isalosfineart.com

There is a beautiful selection of my works on display here this summer including the large scale watercolor pictured above.

ALSO:

 The Deer Isle Artist Association

 15 Main Street

DeerIsle, ME

This is a group exhibit called:

Color Chorus

August 14–August 27, Reception Sunday, August 14 

Don Bardole, Anna Dam-Volkle, Jill Finsen, Marjorie Glick, Alisa Harding-Stein, Donald Mallow, Rebecca Poole-Heyne, Robert W. Starkey, Cynthia Stroud-Watson, Gudrun Tarr

http://www.deerisleartists.com/

If you are in the area, please stop by!

Watercolor Progression: Forest Watercolor Nearly Done!

Here is the Forest Watercolor nearly complete! It has been a while since I've posted. The work on this painting has been going very slowly because I needed to get the colors on the rocks just so. I prize a watercolor in part for its cleanness and that means that once you alter a light tone from warm to cool, you can never get it back. So I gave a lot of thought (to the point of feeling stuck) as to the color of the large ledge. In the end, there will be hints of peach, cream, lavender, turquoise, and mauve. This is one of the things I love about working large: so many colors! One of the corner stones of my work is in painting a "remembered image". This painting embodies that. It is painted from a photograph from a place I visited over 25 years ago. I didn't have time to make a sketch at the time so I memorized the colors as best I could and recorded my impressions in my journal:  jeweled light, being inside the color emerald, dappled shimmery light, and thousands of  hues of peaches, mauves, yellows, and aqua on the rocks. What I remember most is the awe I felt at the beauty of this place. I hope I've conveyed it. There is still more to do: over hanging spruce branches, and unifying the shadows, and more dapples.

Fresh Air

Here is a recent large scale landscape watercolor called "Space and Grace". 

This is a favorite view from a place called Cove Meadow, which is 

owned and lovingly maintained by my friend Lindsay. The path through

 the trees was created by Lindsay. The title of the watercolor, "Space and Grace",

 says it all. In this case a picture is worth a thousand words... Enjoy!

                                
                              

   "Space and Grace", Watercolor, 35"x60", Marjorie Glick, 2010

Watercolor Progression: May

I have been deep in concentration- so much so, that I've been lax in posting my progress. I'm often seduced by a compelling image at the outset so I don't really think about the detail and the time it takes to render those details to create a vivid and very real image. This part of the painting contains a lot of improvisation. To create a sense of depth, I'm  rendering  the space one sees through the trees: something that exists mostly in my memory and not in the reference photo. To get a better sense of the detail,  be sure to click on the above photo see a larger image. 

My paintings always have a great deal of depth. The composition extends to inside the painting as opposed to just a 2d surface. I love the perspective in this piece with the path and rock face converging to a point in the center of the painting which takes you deep into the forest and up into the tree tops. The white space that remains is key to this illusion and will be done all by memory and my experience of being in this forest. It is the key component to the image. In the reference photo, there is just a huge incoherent tangle of branches. Since I walked the trail, I remember  what  lies behind this tangle of fallen branches. 

 Here is a detail, only a first layer. Once the painting has all its first layers in, I begin to heighten the colors, the details, and the illusion of depth. This watercolor is about my experience of being in the forest. It is a beautiful morning, with splendid dappled light. Being in this forest in this light, gave me a tremendous sense of well being. I was here 25 years ago but I still remember it quite vividly.  I'd be curious to see if its changed. Most natural places are not the same. I've wanted to paint this for a long time and the colors have stayed vivid in my mind for all this time. At the time, I made a note to remember: Rocks: dappled light; pale creamy yellow, peach, lavender, turquoise and purple, Moss: an amazing emerald green. jewel tones. 

Watercolor Progression Thus Far:

 For your viewing ease, I've pasted the entire watercolor progression post with new images added here:

Here is the photo(above) I'm working from for my newest watercolor (40"x60") with a working title of "Forest". You can click on any of the photos to view them at a larger size. It will take me several months to complete this and in the beginning of a large painting with this kind of detail, I feel a bit daunted but also excited because I know at some point in the process, the painting will take on a life of its own. I have an idea of how I want it to look and feel, but in the end, it will be something entirely different, beyond what I can imagine now. Please check back every few weeks for updates to this post. It's a rare glimpse inside my process. Sharing my process is an experiment for me, it is my intention to make more tangible, to you the viewer, what goes into the making of my watercolors.

The next two photos show details of the bottom left and right of the watercolor

 I'm painting this watercolor in sections rather than big washes because I want to capture the detail and textures of the rich forest floor, mosses and rocks.

Watercolor Progression Continued

I have added new images to my watercolor progression post. To see them, go to the February 2011 post titled Watercolor Progression and scroll to the bottom. Here (in this post) are but a few of many sketches I have made for this painting. I'm in the thick of it now: I have to make many color decisions before I can move on. If I don't, I will lose the clarity. I like watercolor most when it is clean and not muddy. Today was a thinking and sketching day. There is the image in my memory, which has to be reconciled with the reference photos and what the painting needs.... To this end, in contrast to the slow pace of the large watercolor, these sketches are fast and intuitive.

Pardon the messy studio- no cleaning gets done when I'm this far into a painting!