Carrie L. Lewis ~ Horse Painter
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ACEO Landscape Painting A Day
ACEO Landscape Paintings
by Carrie L. Lewis
One new painting almost every day
Week 3, 2007
January 21, 2007
Landscape Study #6 2007
On this fine Sunday, I thought I would share with you a oil painting from last year. It was painted in mid-September 2006 and was the direct result of train chasing during a night-time thunderstorm in central Kansas.
There was clear sky overhead, complete with a peppering of stars. But to the southeast, a thunderhead was building. It was full of lightning, most of which illuminated the cloud from the inside. It was a giant and very impressive light show.
As soon as I got home, I sat down with blues, purples, black and white and attempted to capture what I had seen. It was quite a lot of fun. It had been quite some time since my last experimentations with lightning in the night sky.
2-1/2" x 3-1/2"
Original oil on triple-gessoed, archival 4-ply mat board.
January 20, 2007
Landscape Study #22 2007
Kansas Sunset
Another painting of a sunset today. I have been pre-occupied with colorful skies the last few days and have worked on several ACEO landscapes featuring pinks, reds, oranges, yellows and purples. It is quite a bit of fun to play with these non-horsey colors and to explore the painted skies.
"Kansas Sunset" leans more toward the pinks and reds, with just a hint of Naples Yellow near the horizon. I also introduced a patch of water in this painting, though it is barely visible through the tallgrass on the foreground hill.
3-1/2" x 2-1/2"
Original oil on triple-gessoed, archival 4-ply mat board.
January 19, 2007
Landscape Study #20 2007
Star Light, Star Bright
Evenings and mornings are favorites times of day. Since I am becoming more and more of a night persons, I see more evenings than I do mornings. Tonight, for example, the western sky was absolutely gorgeous. Not as brilliant as I have seen it, perhaps, but still painted a splendid shade of red and purple.
When I sat down to do my daily ACEO landscape after completing all of our many errands, the thing I wanted to capture was that all-too-fleeting splendor. I had a painting already started from yesterday and it was showing signs of wanting to be an evening scene, so that's what I made it. After it was all painted, I used my color shaper to tap in a few stars.
3-1/2" x 2-1/2"
Original oil on triple-gessoed, archival 4-ply mat board.
January 18, 2007
Landscape Study #19 2007
The Gate
"The Gate" is one of two original oil ACEO landscape paintings from today's work. They both turned out exceptionally well and they both feature lots of snow. I chose "The Gate" to post because it photographed the best while still wet.
Both paintings were started at the same time and are based on the same photograph. It is an old winter photograph taken up in Michigan and while I know it has to show a location within walking distance of my house, I cannot remember exactly where it is.
Interestingly enough, it is the same photograph I used to paint "Fresh Snow - Afternoon" and "Fresh Snow - Evening", both 8x10 oil landscapes. The original pair was also painted simultaneously. No two of the resulting paintings look much alike and it is enough to make me start thinking about keeping one favorite photograph out and painting it regularly. But, that's another project....
"The Gate" was painted with a limited palette of Titanium White, Payne's Gray, Ivory Black and a little bit of Cobalt Blue. As with most of these little landscapes, paint is applied wet-into-wet.
I tried something new with this painting and attempted to smooth the paint surface with fine grit sand paper when I thought it was dry. Note the use of the word 'thought'. The surface was dry, but the paint underneath was not and I came close to ruining the painting. A few more days to let everything dry and I was able to repair the smeared paint and finish the painting in good order.
3-1/2" x 2-1/2"
Original oil on triple-gessoed, archival 4-ply mat board.
January 17, 2007
Landscape Study #17 2007
Phoenix
I call this painting Phoenix not because of the location. The location is somewhere in the Flint Hills of Kansas; nowhere near Phoenix.
Phoenix takes its title from the fact that it essentially rose from the ashes of yesterday's work to become a finished painting, with it's own identity.
This painting is the acrylic painting I started after finishing yesterday's oil painting (See Landscape Study #16 2007 below). At the time, I had attempted to paint the same scene twice, once in oils and once in acrylics, just to see how close I could make the two paintings. Oils are like an old friend, the medium I started with. Acrylics are a new acquaintance and we are still getting to know each other.
I was not at all happy with the acrylic version of that scene. The colors were too bold. The atmosphere was not at all the same, there was very little that I liked about it. It was, in fact, only a hair's breadth from being sanded down and prepared for a fresh painting.
At the last minute, I relented. Later, I showed it to my husband and Neal made some suggestions. I decided to wait at least a day (maybe longer, depending on my mood!) and try his suggestions. I didn't think I could ruin the painting, after all. What did I have to lose?
A glaze of Burnt Sienna tonight toned down those brassy greens in the foregrounds. A mixture of Burnt Sienna and Phthalo Green (blue shade) livened up the trees and deeper shadows. A touch of Titanium White and Phthalo Blue (green shade) put some sky holes into the overcast and that was pretty much all the painting needed. Like the ancient bird of renowned, "Phoenix" rose up out of the ashes and became Landscape Study #17 2007 and today's ACEO Landscape painting.
3-1/2" x 2-1/2"
Original acrylic on triple-gessoed, archival 4-ply mat board.
January 16, 2007
Landscape Study #16 2007
Center Stage
Today's landscape painting is based on a region of the Flint Hills far to the north of where I usually go. The photographs were taken in May, 2003 on a trip from Newton, Kansas to Beatrice, Nebraska along Scenic Route 177. I don't know exactly where this scene is, but as soon as I saw the photograph this afternoon, I knew I would have to paint it.
From vague gray distance to the shadow shrouded foreground, the entire painting was put together in a single painting session this evening.
After putting aside the oil landscape, I decided to conduct a little bit of training in acrylics and paint the same scene, just to see how close I could get. I finished it, but it's not very close at all. In fact, I didn't have much love for at all. My first inclination was to blank it out and save the card for something else later.
Alas, I couldn't do that. So it sits on the shelf beside it's oil sister and will await attention on another day.
3-1/2" x 2-1/2"
Original oil on triple-gessoed, archival 4-ply mat board.
January 15, 2007
Landscape Study #15 2007
The Wind Always Blows
Neal and I spent a goodly part of today at the hospital, waiting through an ER admission, then regular hospital admission for Neal's mom. It was not a life threatening concern, but it was a serious concern.
When we finally got home for good this evening, I seriously thought about skipping my painting for the day. Surely, I had reason enough and to spare for not painting. But quite often, painting is a means of release, a way of getting out of the stresses and concerns of life to a place where I am alone with God. So it was this evening.
I had no grand and glorious plans for painting. Just two cards I had started with acrylics the day before. Why not tinker with them? I thought. I ended up with two new landscapes and though neither one is stunning or overly complex, I was extremely pleased with them.
Landscape Study #15 2007, The Wind Always Blows, is a companion piece to A Windy Day, which I painted a few days ago. The second one I painted tonight, When The Wind Doesn't Blow, rounds out the trio. I didn't realize it until I looked at the three of them together, but in each painting, the wind and the tallgrass is doing something different. In A Windy Day, the wind blows from right to left. The Wind Always Blows features an equally strong wind blowing from right to left. The only remaining option is When the Wind Doesn't Blow, in which the grass is standing at ease.
The long, gently curving brush strokes were relaxing after a stressful day. Whether I end up doing anything further with them or not, they have served their purpose for me.
3-1/2" x 2-1/2"
Original acrylic on triple-gessoed, archival 4-ply mat board.
Thank you for your interest in my ACEO landscapes. I hope you have enjoyed browsing them as much as I have enjoyed making them.
Email me for details and having your favorite scene or landscape painted as an ACEO original.