31 March, 2007 I finally gathered my painting supplies together and went out to choose a cluster of Rhubarb shoots to paint. I decided to begin to record the progress of my paintings in digital video. Being alone without a tripod, it didn't show me painting, as I was alone, but I talked about what I had done at two different stages, and did a nice pan of the surroundings as well. The canvas is 14 x 18 inches, stretched, and I began with transparent colours of the shoots themselves, on the white canvas, took a photo, and then proceeded to cover the ground between them with dark rich browns, purples, etc. a little more variegated than my usual dark underpainting - trying to capture the motion of the earth. I am glad that I persevered to sit and paint, even if I only had an hour to do so before losing daylight. Tomorrow the shoots will have changed, as they spring up so quickly even overnight, so I will finish the painting from my reference photos in the studio.
7 April, 2007 I finished my painting before midnight, quite pleased with the off-centre compositon, the rhythmic, almost musical flow of the grasses, and the rich satiny surfaces of the shoots. Their fresh, burstiing vigour is emphasized by being enlarged about four times life size, and that gives me more canvas area over which to show it. They glowing from within – bursting with sweet energy that was stored all winter in the earth, the essence of all the sunshine gathered by broad dark green Rhubarb leaves last summer. I tried not to overwhelm my simple plein air beginning by overworking in the studio - using my flat brushes, brushes as large as possible, and keeping in mind economy of stroke. Some of my original underpainting of the soil still shows in the finished work. I realized how important it is to keep my stokes confident and directional, looking for shape and rhythm even in soil texture – no daubing or smudging!
The Art of
Aleta Karstad
Rhubarb 2007
Bishops Mills, Ontario, 31 March 2007
14 x 18, oil on canvas
Movie "Plein air start" 5.39 MB
Movie "Opaque vs transparent" 15.7 MB
Movie "Studio overview and finished painting" 12.4 MB
bckcdb@istar.ca