Vineyard View - Fix It Friday #23

Vineyard View, 9 x 12, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2020

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Today's fix is from a Napa Valley trip I took a few years ago...

The day I chose this location to do some plein air painting, the sky was full of gorgeous clouds. When I came back the next morning, it was foggy but I blocked in my painting leaving LOTS of room for that glorious sky. I just knew it was coming. It never did. The fog never wore off. Best laid plans gone awry, and the painting stayed misty. Until now...

BEFORE

AFTER

CHANGES

Problem - Canvas looked "cut in half" at the horizontal center line.

Fix - Raised up the mountain tops slightly past center and added activity above the center line.

Problem - So much canvas devoted to the sky, but nothing going on.

Fix - Added a sky feature - clouds! 

Problem - Foreground field was disconnected from distant field layers. 

Fix - Darkened the foreground to a value more similar to the field beyond, and added "field markings" to make it feel like a continuation of tilled land.

Problem - Background mountain range was disconnected from previous field layers. 

Fix - Added just a "suggestion" of fields continuing into distant valleys, in order to make the valley feel expansive and cohesive.

OBSERVATIONS

Thank goodness I took some pictures of that first day with all the clouds! And thank goodness I still had them in my files! It took me awhile to revisit this one, but I'm so glad I did! It now looks like, feels like, smells like the lush valley vista that I was so compelled to paint on that California hillside!!

Fruited Valley - Haggin Museum Show with American Women Artists

Fruited Valley, 24 x 30, oil on canvas, L. Daniel © 2018

American Women Artists Museum Show

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I am so proud to be part of the American Women Artists exhibit at the Haggin Museum in Stockton, CA, which opens on tomorrow! Unfortunately, I am unable to attend the opening, but I'm thrilled that my piece sold in a pre-sale! It will be on display for the duration of the show. 

American Women Artists Illuminate the Haggin Museum

Haggin Museum, Stockton, CA

August 2 - September 16

Reception August 2, 6-8pm

A little bit of information about the show...

"For this exhibition, members of American Women Artists (AWA) were asked to create artwork that was inspired by a selection of 11 paintings from the Haggin Museum’s 19th – 20th-century art collection including works by William Merritt Chase, Albert Bierstadt, Rosa Bonheur, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and other notable artists. AWA artists have taken their inspiration from the work of art, the artist’s greater body of work, or the theme of the painting."

My own piece was inspired by the simple, but powerful composition of Jan Monchablon, a French painter from the late 1800's...

Early Afternoon by Jan Monchablon, 1886

See the entire AWA show HERE