Friday, August 13, 2010

Another Vermont Painting

"Vermont Mud Season"
Watercolor
14" X 18"

In my home state of Vermont, a couple weeks in the spring are known as "mud season." The snow is dirty and beginning to melt. The hundreds of miles of dirt roads, the unpaved driveways, the farm roads, and anyplace lacking asphalt turns into a soupy mess. The neat thing about mud season is it signals that the long snowy winter is almost over. You can check out Vermont Mud Season on Google and find many stories and pictures. Here is a link to a fun picture and story that will give you a feel for what I painted.

My painting is an imaginary scene, from my recollections of mud seasons past, started as my very first painting in Tom Fong's class. Without drawing any lines on totally wet paper, he showed us how he created a simple piece with a tree, some mountains and a house. We were instructed to do something similar. So I conjured up mud season. The class was fast-moving and I was busy being assistant coordinator, so I didn't get to finish the painting in class. Last night our Thursday night South Side Art Club met at Penny's house and I put the finishing touches, to bring order from chaos, as Tom describes his preferred process.

To create his tree and house, Tom used a single-edge razor to squeegee the paint from the paper for the trunk and the buildings from the wet paper. That is why you see some green in the roofs of my buildings because I was totally inexperienced at this process. When the paper dried enough, I added color to the buildings. I had added some color to the trunk and painted in some of the branches. I had left some open edges, thinking about adding light to the tree. Last night I created more branches and used orange to suggest light on the tree. I added a dark treeline where the mountain meets the flatter land. Next I painted a few more strokes of color to create the muddy snow.




6 comments:

Autumn Leaves said...

I think this is just beautiful, Mary. The mountains in the distance look hazy, much as I would expect to see on a misty, muddy morning. The light on the tree itself is fabulous. I wouldn't have noticed the green in the roof, but I must say that roofs out here, once weathered, carry a myriad of colors, sometimes moss, sometimes rust, sometimes even plants growing in gutters (I admit that makes me laugh everytime I see it), and sometimes even seed pods, spores, and leaves. I love winter scenes, apparently even ones classified as "muddy"!

hw (hallie) farber said...

This is a beauty, Mary. It is how I imagine New England winters look.

Anonymous said...

Hi Mary, One thing I particularly like about this approach to painting is that the hand of the artist is visible. You can see your particular imprint. I like it! Green in the roof is OK/fine by me. Wonderful.

Mary Paquet said...

Sherri, your description of the roofs in your area is wonderful.

Hallie, thanks -- New England winters are forever imprinted in my brain.

Peggy, your comments validate Tom Fong's approach -- he wants to show the hand of the artist.

Anonymous said...

I love it Mary! The shadows from the tree are nicely captured. Sounds like you got a lot from Tom Fong's teaching. Wonderful!

Walter Jeffries said...

I like it. It makes me think of many a late winter morning. Interesting how you used the razor. The sharp lines work.