The Jefferson Memorial

This dark painting was done using the pouring method, too. I started it in the same workshop as the sunflower painting. I found that pouring was a good way to get the dark night sky in nice an smoothly. The dome of the Jefferson Memorial was masked with friskit after the first pour of light blue and red. I gradually kept masking off the areas until I got to the final dark. I had to paint in the tree shapes with almost straight paint right out of the tube. After taking this picture I noticed that my dome looked rather uneven from the friskit and I went in with a brush to even it out. That ruined the smooth dark sky and I think I would have to remask the dome and pour again to get is smooth again. I'm not sure I'm willing to go through that again, I'm not a big fan of friskit. I did this painting for the blog "Different Strokes From Different Folks" www.differentstrokesfromdifferentfolks.blogspot.com It's so interesting to see how this scene was painted by so many different artists in so many different ways.

I can't believe how quickly the days go by. I finally got my sunflower to the point where I'm sort of happy with it. It took a lot more pouring of pigment than I thought it would to get the dark backgorund that I wanted. Then, when I took the friskit off the petals of the flower, the bright yellow came off with it (just like the instructor said it would). I gave up with more pouring and rewet and painted the petals with a brush, put in some dark areas, touched up the leaves with some green and called it a day. I should have taken pictures of the in between stages but I'm always getting things done late, like right now.

What I do like about the pouring is the luminous quality of the background. The pigments underneath the last burnt umber pour still shine through. I don't think you could get that any other way, except maybe airbrush and I have never tried that.

So, thanks to Jean Grastorf for teaching me a new way to paint.