composition Archives - Dora Sislian Themelis Art

Finished on Friday Doubled

Finished two paintings for today. Don’t get too excited, things could turn around again any minute.

Today I found the time to finish the painting of the little Greek church and when I was done I quickly turned my attention to my old photos from last summer.

There is something very appealing about the Greek countryside and the sea that I cannot resist. But I find I don’t feel too free when painting from photos I’ve taken there. I never seem to be happy about the compositions. Maybe I just really need to be there in person. This work feels stiff to me.

Inlet Church ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis
9×12 Watercolor Arches cold press paper

Then there are the photos I took last spring and summer of the vegetables, sunflowers and my garden then make me feel very comfortable when painting from them. I am not so sure why.

This second work was pushed out soon as I finished the Greece landscape. Feeling the need to paint something different right away, I grabbed this photo, cropped the area I wanted to work with, and headed straight to paint. No pencil drawing, just paint sketching. Maybe a little longer than twenty minutes?

Garden ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis
9×12 Watercolor, Arches cold press paper

I worked until I felt that I should stop. Much of this work was wet, but I pushed on, only waiting until it dried just enough to continue. Again, I tried to keep the water to a minimum.

Leaving out extra stuff, ignoring other things, just adding detail where I wanted to point out some things and that was it.

This work doesn’t feel as stiff as the previous painting. Maybe it’s me, but it feels so much better.

Sunflowers from Underneath

Under the Sunflowers (c)2011Dora Sislian Themelis
12×16 Watercolor Lanaquarelle paper

Here’s a different view of the sunflowers, from the underside. I thought this was a different angle with different color scheme. Not the typical full face of flowers. I like to shake things up with composition once in a while. Not really into the ordinary or the typical.

Whether this works or not doesn’t really matter. Remembering it’s the process that counts, I painted this with those words in mind.

Process, baby.

Yes, in between I had my distractions. Who doesn’t need a distraction now and then? I most certainly do. Otherwise I could head for the lounge chair in the garden and just gaze at the world. That would be nice, if I didn’t feel guilty to do that.

Painting is work. Lounging is not, unless I call that thinking. So I paint.

Back in the Saddle Again

Last week I mentioned that I missed the deadline for the Virtual pARTy painting entry. Not a problem, no biggie, no hassle, no judgement, no criticism. I was cool with that. I just decided to paint the photo that was offered anyway, remembering the process was important, not the deadline or the result. Cool as a cucumber. I went ahead except for a little thinking first.

I’m itching to try out the new watercolor paper I bought after you wonderful, helpful readers made suggestions, but I didn’t. Being a practical person, I bought a good size block of Arches paper rather than a tiny one to try. I’d rather spend money on a good sized 12×16 block rather than a smaller size paper and feel frustrated by the constraints of the size.

I tend to paint big no matter what size surface I’m using. I still have more of the other paper and it seems to me to be a waste if I start using the new paper, fall in love maybe, and then I’m stuck with paper I might not want to use again. The paper I have is a weird size too and didn’t pay attention to that until I wanted to matte a few things.

Before I sketched this horse photo onto the old paper I took some time to figure out what size I might want to end up with. When matting and framing it’s much easier to work with stock sizes. So when I decided to think about my frame edge and paint within that area, with the idea that a matte, or frame, could butt into my composition. Ahh! The brain is working!

With the frame edge penciled off, I went ahead to composition, eliminated too many subjects from the original photo. I like to leave some areas flat as a part of the composition. Then there are colors in this photo I wouldn’t normally use, so I enjoyed playing with them. Orange is not my favorite, but I think I was able to use it my way by mixing in other colors my brain tends to go for anyway. It’s good to distract that pesky brain because when it’s working it shuts up.

Am I finished? Not sure. I’ll look at it later and see if I want to play with it more or move on. So for now I’m back in the “saddle.” I crack myself up!