Day #13 :: THROUGH THE TREES :: January Daily Painting Challenge

THROUGH THE TREES
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

$125 + $8 shipping

Our neighborhood is an enchanted place. Being an artist, I spend my time looking at things around me seemingly with a viewfinder in my mind taking snippet notes of my surroundings and thinking "someday it would be nice to paint something or other...."

This daily painting challenge makes the 'someday' turn into TODAY! 

Tonight's painting is from the marshy area on the Charles and Mill rivers in our neighborhood. As you drive home at sunset/dusk/twilight, the light coming through the trees creates this magical twinkling of the spectrum. 

During winter this color show is vibrant with only silhouetted evergreens and the tree branches. I find the scene foreboding and yet also hopeful simultaneously, such a contrast of feeling, much like the painting construct is a contrast of dark and light and of warms and cools. 

I have SO MANY IDEAS swimming through my mind. Maybe tomorrow I'll have some time to fledge them out a little more fully. Bigger pieces are jonesing to be painted. I taught an oil painting class today and their buttery quality made me want to get smooshing around some oils. We shall see....

Thanks for reading! ~kmw

Day #6 :: PATH AT DUSK :: January Daily Painting Challenge

PATH AT DUSK
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6

$125 + $8 shipping

Today's painting was completed at dusk, which this time of year is like around 4pm -- too early! 

The girls were playing and I sneaked into my studio for some quiet time to think and paint and be on artistic auto-pilot.

My last two pieces, the Bright Bouquet and the Enamel Pitcher, were using a different brain for me. This painting today was back to my old painting brain but I was flexing my color muscle. I wanted to tweak the colors to read like that odd chilly light that is so very January. 

I think I communicated that light pretty well ;)

Thanks for reading!  ~kmw

Day 32 :: WIND SOCK :: original pastel, 6x6"

WIND SOCK
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

$125 + $8 shipping

The field in my neighborhood which I find so inspiring used to be an airport. Lucky for us, planes don't take off and land there any longer. We still see vestiges of the property's former use, like this pole for the wind sock, even though the fabric part has been long gone.

Again there is snow in this painting -- only a little, though. My previous post was at the start of a major named snowstorm. This one was a mere dusting early in the season. The time of day was dusk, which seems to be a favorite of mine lately. The light is blue. I think this piece holds a very specific light story.

I took liberties enhancing the colors in this piece. Blue is my favorite color, and it's pervasive here. The color relationships are the classic complementaries: blue and orange.

The sky is more dynamic in the original, with confident streaks coming down into the next subtle gradient. At the treeline is a subtle suggestion of a greeny-golden light. It really works with the turquoises in the piece.

The pile of references and notes and drawings in my sketchbook is massive, and I'm loving the discipline of daily painting. We'll see how long I can follow through. I'm bringing my pastels to visit my bestie in New Hampshire. I wonder that I'll take them out for tomorrow's painting....

Thanks for reading! -kmw

Day 26 :: DUSK :: #30in30 Painting a Day Challenge

DUSK
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

at The Drawing Room, Marion, MA 

When I ask what painting subjects people would like to see, the response is often twilight skies and night scenes, and that is a tall order. Painting night and unusual light may be the last subject painters can call their own. Before cameras, artists were the recorders of light and history. With no imperative to record what is seen in a time when we are overwhelmed with visual imagery, dusk, dawn, twilight, and night are still open to wide artistic interpretation. For me, the camera can't quite capture the essence of unusual light. 

In class I often mention that the best reference for me to work from is a terrible photo and my own sketches and notes. When the photo is a crisp and accurate representation of what I'd like to paint, I feel compelled to recreate exactly what I see and become a human photocopy machine. 

References at the times of day that light is tricky for a camera -- dusk, dawn, twilight, night, etc. -- are often the best of photos to work from to make good paintings. The photos are grainy and dark. The color is exaggerated or underwhelming. It's all about interpretation, and that is when artists get to show off their creativity. 

As I've mentioned before, our neighborhood includes a fantastic field which has been featured in six of my prior #30in30 paintings. As September comes to a close, the light continues to change and darkness comes earlier. Our late summer sunset walks are now at dusk and twilight, even when we start them earlier. The color has changed and the greens are browning. I was struck by the colors during a walk in the field. Purple seemed everywhere.

As homes in the neighborhood turn on their lights, there is a new flicker in the landscape. You'll see that first beacon in the distant tree line. When I saw it, I knew I had my next painting subject!

Thanks for reading!  -kmw