Thursday, August 9, 2012

Storm Coming, Parksley

Storm Coming, Parksley
Oil on canvas, 24x24
sold

So an interesting - and scary - thing is happening. My big paintings are selling - and I need quality big paintings to replace them!

As challenges go, this one is grand and delicious. I love painting big, love it! And the challenge gives me an emotional carte blanche to USE the big canvases I have, to USE the paint I have, to USE the time I have to make big, juicy paintings.

My tendency, and you can hear my Scottish and German heritage in this, is to pinch those pennies till they bend. Save the big canvases. Don't use one drop more paint than necessary. Don't gamble.

But one of the many joys of big paintings - especially big plein-air pieces like this one (24x24 is medium big, but big for a plein-air piece) is the risk. Especially when I am painting in the face of a storm. Gotta do it quickly, gotta do it without fussing, gotta be bold!

The sky down here on the Eastern Shore is a huge, marvelous, inspiring thing. The clouds climb like mountains into the clear air, the sun reflects their size and beauty, and the flat open land gives me full access. I love painting here!


2 comments:

Art with Liz said...

Wow wow I love this! So painterly.

carrie jacobson said...

Thanks, Liz! I really like this painting - and it was great to paint it, too. Interestingly, a guy stopped and said he hadn't seen anyone painting on the eastern shore since he was a kid (he was my age). I said I thought there would be tons of painters out all the time there, and he said no. Amazing!