Thursday
Jul162009
Hudson Fellowship Day 10
Thursday, July 16, 2009 at 10:45PM 
"Hudson River from Olana"
Color Study Stage I
(work in progress)
9 x 12 inches
oil on panel
Today was rainy in the morning so we drove to Olana, which is the home Frederick Church built for himself on a 250 acre property. He bought the land for the views of the Hudson River and he designed the landscaping to create ideal compositions. Everywhere you look is an amazing scene for a painting. His house in incredible too, a Moorish-inspired castle, full of artifacts from Church's extensive world travels and lots of his paintings.
We did a tour of the house and after that the sun was shining again so we decided to stay there and work on the grounds. I had my supplies along so I set up my easel and worked for 4 hours on the above study. I'm hoping to go back to Olana and work on it more, the above is just a start.
Also, last night a few of us decided to try sunset studies, below is the result of my first attempt - one hour of ever-changing sunset glory that just about drove me mad. A ravenous swarm of mosquitoes sure appreciated us standing still with hands encumbered by painting tools, and right at dinnertime!
"Sunset Color Study I"
5 x 7 inches
oil on panel
Afterwards I learned from my instructor Edward Minoff that my values (light/dark) are way too extreme and I need to significantly lighten the clouds and everything in the distance. He showed me his study and I could see what he meant.
I can't wait to try both again, but I'll be away from the fellowship this weekend to go visit my husband. So I won't be posting for a few days, back on Monday.
Reader Comments (8)
Awesome! Glad you made it to Olana. I'm jealous.
your work is great , just be sisncere about what your eyes see . if it is too darked or too lighted , it is your feeling telling you to do this way .this is the way you see .
I hope you are having a great time! Can't wait to hear all about it when you get back!
gotta get yourself on of thos blue mosquito clipons!
thanks for sharing your fellowship so far, sadie - we're all getting to live vicariously.
would love to see minoff's study for comparison.
also - have read that jacob collins and graydon parrish sometime use munsell chips for color matching - maybe you can do a post but their use?
Wow awesome job with the website & blog Sadie! And the work looks great, too, I'm impressed!! Keep it up!
Matt I loved Olana, so glad you mentioned it to me!
Caio I agree, but sometimes the eyes get confused, too :)
Julie I'm having a great time! Have met a couple of people studying in Florence too - Anthony, Shane, Dorian...
sk3 I am definitely going to get the clipon, I need to set up a full defense! On Munsell: In American Artist mag. a couple months ago Minoff showed how he uses Munsell chips to match colors from the sketch to the full-sized painting. I know he and Jacob are enthusiastic about munsell since recently Graydon came to Grand Central and did a demo. But they have not done a Munsell demo for us yet. Wikipedia has a good overview if you are interested. Will post if I learn more.
Thanks Dorian!!
haha !! good answer !!!
Your artwork is very beautiful!