Cottonwoods and High Desert paintings, painting workshops BECKY JOY

© 2013 Becky Joy         Day 47, Silver and Purple       oil      6 inches x 6 inches        $125.

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Janet Anderson and I went out close to home today to a small pond by her house. Of course, I went for the trees, not the water. This was the second painting today. I was attracted to the silvery sage color against the purples and rusts of the shack. I don't know what kind of tree or bush this is, but they are very typical of the high desert in the west. There were beautiful blues, violets and grays in the bush. I think the trick with this painting was to not have the contrast between the building and the sky on the right take over the composition. InB reality that was the greatest contrast, so I had to make some soft edges, play the contrast down and pump it up more between the bush and the darks of the shed. I painted another tree, a cottonwood, earlier. As I said yesterday, I love the cottonwoods. Below is the first painting.

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© 2013 Becky Joy     Cottonwood Tree    oil    10 inches x 8 inches  . There are still some openings in my Carmel, Indiana workshop if you are in that area. Sept 27-29

More workshops:

Phoenix, AZ  Oct  3-5

Fredericksburg, TX  Oct 24 - 26

Dahlonega, GA  Oct 31 - Nov 2

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talk to you all later, Becky Joy

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Day 44, Project 125 Ranch House, plein air paintings BECKY JOY

© 2013 Becky Joy      Day 44, Ranch House    oil    6 inches x 6 inches    $125.

This composition is reminiscent of yesterday's. I've been using the small paintings painted in the studio as a way to experiment, but also trying to find ones that I want to paint larger. What struck me about this scene was the grasses and the fence posts. I may do something similar to this painting, creating more foreground with the fence posts. I'll have to play with this one some more.

After painting this one, I worked on a couple of plein air paintings that have been hanging around the studio. The first one was painting in Zion last fall during the plein air festival. I liked the overall scene, but felt that it just didn't have the wow factor to it. I painted some shadow in the foreground which helped to bring out the background light. I also softened the mountains and clouds on the left side to help bring out the bright yellows on the right side. I think the painting is much more successful now.

© 2013 Becky Joy     High Desert Dance     oil   11 inches x 14 inches

Next up was a painting that had just literally five strokes on paint added to it. I painted this a couple of years ago in Escalante, Utah. I was attracted to the afternoon light and all the junk in and around this little shed. The pile of light colored "stuff" on the right is where I added a little more light. I wanted the attention there and it needed to be lighter to bring the viewer there.

© 2013 Becky Joy      Utah Storage    oil     8 inches x 10 inches

Tomorrow I need to get down to some serious painting. I spent too much time working on my facebook page this morning. Unfortunately, I find the computer and photoshop too much fun.

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Talk to you tomorrow,

Becky Joy

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