Painting Update #5

I know, I know, I've gotten a bit behind on my painting updates lately...but, sometimes it's hard for me to get the pictures up on the same day that I work on the paintings (Thursdays), and then the weekend rushes in and I never get them up...so, from now on my painting updates will come sporadically, whenever I get a chance to share :)

Going along with this, here's the painting update from my last session--last Thursday, April 21st. I've given a few of my recently-started yoga pose paintings a break to work on a few new pieces, but will probably get back to them this week...

Enjoy!

Paintings #1 & #2: Studio Tree Studies
I've been feeling like my paintings/brushstrokes have been getting very tight, so I wanted to loosen up a bit this past week. In order to do this, I decided to paint this tree inside the studio to work on creating more painterly, energetic strokes. I think that the exercise helped! Here are the two studies I worked on for a bit in order to relax my brushstroke...

So much fun to just paint loosely and without abandon! I think I'll continue with exercises like these to keep myself from becoming too detailed/regimented in my painting...

Painting #3: Pincha Mayurasana (learn about my own struggles with this pose here)

Start with this picture from my photoshoot with the lovely Laura...

Underpainting that I started on Thursday. This is the first layer of the painting. I will build up MANY layers on top of this one.

Painting #4: Urdhva Dhanurasana

Original picture from the shoot (look at that GORGEOUS pose!)

Again, the underpainting (kind of like a sketch or map of where I'm going) for this painting. This is the first layer of the painting...

Painting #5: Portrait of Ben (made of inanimate objects)

Where I left off last week...the painting had gotten a bit too bright in places...

Cooled it down a bit (background) and worked on the bandana. Next I'll tackle the details on the shoes and socks, and play a bit more with the background. Slow and steady wins the race on this one!

And there you have it! I'll get back to working on the paintings from my last update this Thursday. Until the next painting update...

Namaste!
Mary Catherine