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Sunday, January 31, 2016

Metamorphosis of a Mushroom ... or ... Process of Painting a Red Russula

A photo I took last Fall was my inspiration.

Sketches and value idea for background.
I wanted to create a vignette, which,  as I understand,  is more focussed, and three areas of the painting run onto the edge of the work leaving a fair bit of white.

I masked the mushrooms, and did a thin wet-in-wet application of   dark brown, then dropped in some green .

I needed help figuring out how to paint the grasses - who better than Albrecht Durer? He created so many exquisite watercolors of animals, landscapes, and intimate little scenes like this one.

I thinly applied some green around the mushrooms, then while wet, used a rigger to drag and flick some of the green outward.

Masking off

I then started [one by one] darkening the blades of grass with varying shades of green. I painted the large fungi  [fungus?], and dabbed drops of blue in the smaller ones. I also started on the underside of Big Guy.
I took this photo with AV mode, and it is quite bleached out.

Here they are right now. It is quite a detailed work, but I must admit I love working on all the  intricate bits - it's somehow soothing for me right now. There is still much more to be done, but the basics are here.
The colors I am using are leaf green, indanthrone and quin. burnt orange for the grass, and for the rest - aureolin, cobalt blue, quin. red, quin. sienna and alizarin crimson.

I apologize to all of you whose blogs I follow - haven't been following very well. Life is more hectic than I like right now. I am one of the executors of my aunt's will, and that means a lot of sorting, digging for information, talking with lawyers ... UGH! I find that at least one of the things I love doing has to be left out daily - today it was walking Maggie, my dog. But she did get out with my friend. Bruno was ignored for a few days, other than feeding and watering and making sure he was OK. Today he had a good grooming session and some TLC. Planning for classes takes a lot of time, too; I am teaching a watercolor course and a drawing course. The drawing class is harder for me to teach - drawing comes so easily to me [been doing it for decades] that I don't really have to think/plan as much as for painting. So appreciating and understanding a student's difficulty with drawing takes more effort and time.  And of course there's the part-time work as a dental hygienist. But I have made a decision to retire very soon, and I feel very good about that.

Anyway ... that it for now. I will try to post once a week, and keep up with all you bloggers.

Thank you for dropping by!!

12 comments:

  1. The mushroom painting is coming along beautifully!

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  2. Great mushrooms Kathryn!! I love the realism and botanical approach in these artworks. Irina

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  3. Look what you are creating!! It is beautiful!
    We know about hectic life too,,, its just not good to be so busy and no time for fun!
    love
    tweedles

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  4. Wonderful work, Kathryn! I wish you all the best with all your hectic activities.

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  5. great looking mushrooms, really like how you painted the underside
    being an executor of a will can be so stressful, so hopefully you are not getting too stressed

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  6. This looks really good, seems like quite a difficult task, but my confidence in you is immense, I am sure this will be another stunner :-)) Loosing a dear person is so heartbreaking, but what comes afterwards can be quite traumatic , I speak from experience :-( Wishing you all the best ! xox

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  7. green and red are always pleasant color combo, beautiful!

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  8. I came back to see again!
    I know your there somewhere,, with that magic paint brush!
    love
    tweedles

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  9. Dear Kathryn- what a great subject and as always love seeing your beautiful process. I understand how other things take precedence over the things we enjoy doing. Just glad you take time to share your art and stop to visit when you can. Hopefully life will get less hectic in time.

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  10. Looking good so far :) And don't worry about not posting - sounds like you need some down time when you have time. I know how going through other people's accumulations over years can be wearing (my sister and I did it for my aunt who lived in my grandmother's house so really 2 generations of stuff all over). Took weeks just to clear out stuff we knew we didn't want.

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  11. Good evening Kathryn,
    You have a lot on your plate... Please take time to take a breath.. I hope that when you retire it will ease up a bit for you..
    Love your painting! Art is so good for the soul.
    fondly,
    Penny

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