The Kayakers, 16x20 Original Oil Painting by Carmen Beecher

Just finished this commission. I made a little slideshow of my work in progress. In retrospect I wish I had cropped it, but I'm now too lazy (busy) to redo it. To view the slideshow, which is very short, click on our Pieces of 8 Facebook page at right.

Carmen

The Kayakers Making Progress by Carmen Beecher

Oil, 16x20

When I get a minute to myself, I will finish this painting and put the steps together as a slide show. This has been an impossibly busy time for me, what with appointmentsPenWomenLuncheonpaintingdemoPiecesof8meetingMothersDayhousechoresetc! It all runs together.

A perfect Mother's Day gift would be: drop me in a shady spot by the river with my painting equipment and come back in three hours. So, for our May 12 Pieces of 8 Challenge, that's what we are going to do. And with only four tubes of paint. This will be followed by lunch and a nap. Plein air painting is exhausting in a very good way.

Work in Progress by Carmen Beecher

I am working on a commission, doing a larger painting of my small work The Kayakers, and I thought I would post the beginning of the painting. When Grandma Moses was asked about her process and how she painted, she responded "I paint down. I start at the top and paint down." As for me, sometimes I sort of "paint down" if it's a landscape, but in this case I started with the principal subject and I'm painting out. 

Since I have painted this subject before, I know what I am aiming for and I know the colors, values and so on, so I concentrated my energy on the most important part of the painting first. Below is the 6x6-inch original small painting of the happy kayakers. It's a square format, but the large one will be a rectangular format and, of course, more detailed.

$99 Click to Purchase