Left Hand Self-Portrait with Bandage

Left Hand Self-Portrait

Left Hand Self-Portrait. I've had surgery to release my carpal tunnel. For the last year it has become more and more compressed. Lately, I could only paint for about 10 minutes before numbness and cramping took over. So,I cannot use my right hand for 2 weeks.

After looking at this for a few days, I decided to increase some contrast in the sky below the large cloud. I also did the same in the ground; really pushing the light areas where the sun broke through. I think I would like to paint this again in a larger scale (approx. 30" x 40") to see how the drama of the cloud views.

I really stuck with the wash and continued to work fast and loose. I'm satisfied that I reached my goal of avoiding tight detailed elements.

Spent the week in Quebec City. On a drive out of the City and up the St. Lawrence, the clouds were magnificent. At one point a storm was brewing. I took dozens of photographs. I like the drama of this view with the huge storm cloud encroaching on the land. Today I blocked in the composition and cloud forms. Worked fast, wet and loose. This session took about 15 minutes. My goal is to develop the values without including a great deal of detail, hard contrast, etc. 11" x 14"

I went back to increase the contrast in the reds. At the end I was disappointed to see I had gotten too tight and illustrative. I loosened the background a lot. Need to do one more session to loosen the piece some more.

Worked in values and contrasts to create depth and form. Trying to see if pushing the dark values is preferrable to pushing for lighter reds which can result in loss of intensity.

Blocked in color and shapes. Some values added to distinguish shapes.

I saw some beautiful little paintings of flowers this week in The Provincetown Art Musuem. Each one was about the size of a tarot card. They were very painterly with an encaustic-like surface. So, it made me think I should do some quick studies of our flowers. I am starting with the zinnia, which I love. Today I drew in the shape and set the composition. This is larger than the PTown paintings, 5" x 7"