My homage to O'Keeffe

My homage to 'Birch Trees at Dawn on Lake George' by Georgia O'Keeffe is a painting of aspen, my favorite tree.

I have painted aspen many many times. This painting shows aspen trees along a road on Ohio Pass in Colorado. I was driving through a dense forest of aspen, shaded and very quiet. Through these close up trunks you can see the sun shining on fall foliage. I painted the trunks as the focus, growing out of the composition.

My favorite tree; my homage to Georgia O'Keeffe.

Homage to the Masters

The Gateway Gallery partners are painting an homage to the old masters for our July 10 reception. One of the images we were given as inspiration is 'Birch Trees at Dawn on Lake George' 1926 by Georgia O'Keeffe. (All of our references are in the Saint Louis Art Museum collection.)

O'Keeffe painted the birch tree at Lake George many times. Ms. O'Keeffe lived in New York City and Lake George from 1918 - 1928. (She painted in Colorado in 1917 and first saw New Mexico that year.) The one in the SLAM collection is a summer image (shown here) and the other one I have seen reproduced is from autumn (White Birch, 1925). Her quote (my edit) about White Birch "A little way from the dock there was a big old birch tree with many trunks. I have painted its foliage green and have painted it yellow many times...The trunks were whitest in the early sunrise... The foliage a golden yellow with a few leaves standing out sharply here and there."

copyright 'Georgia O'Keeffe' 1976 the Viking Press

New Work in Progress

This is the first stage of a new painting I am doing for Ed K. It is the view from his home. He lives on a golf course and can watch all the golfers miss the green, miss their putts etc. Sometimes they hit his house.

This is the underpainting, which is very washy and loose. Its big too (36x48) and hard to shoot without glare. I will post my progress along the way.

More work on the boathouse

At this point, I'm adding more layers and definition to the trees on the right side, adding overall refinement to the reflections in the water and working on the trees where they meet the sky - adding more 'sky holes'. I also refined the shadows on the boathouse a bit. Did you notice the new item in the scene?

Boathouse Painting work in progress

At this point I'm working on refining the water reflections-the water has to look like its reflecting what is 'on shore'. This really takes me back to Washington Park. I think I walked my dog there hundreds of times. She would start whining with excitement as soon as we were in sight of the park.