Coastal Autumn

Original Oil Painting by Jeri McDonld. 16x12 oil primed panel. This painting is derived from 2-3 photos I took while living near the coast of northern California in Crescent City. The barn and fence was not in the main photo. I used my artistic license to make a more pleasing composition. The scene was originally a summer scene but wanted to challenge myself and try a whole different season!

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Comment by Pauline Le Merle on September 26, 2015 at 7:32: Superb, love your colour!

Comment by kevin miller on September 26, 2015 at 6:12: Nice piece Jeri. I do like that brushwork and use of grayed colors.

Comment by Michael J. Severin on September 25, 2015 at 9:53: Yes, I agree. :)

Comment by Jeri McDonald on September 24, 2015 at 5:47: Maybe on the top of the lower slanted roof some cool gray blues and on the front face right? Not the longer side. Thanks Michael. I was worried about it looking too warm as well trying to play out how daylight looks up north. It sometimes looks bright even with the cooler sky, even when it is somewhat overcast there. It was difficult figuring out where I wanted the light to fall so I opted for overhead, mid day in the fall. The grasses are generally less yellow there and more of a wheat color but I wanted to up the chroma and make it more vibrant against a somewhat dull sky so the trees would be fun to look at with that contrast. That barn was not there and had to somehow make it look like it was already there. It was red but much redder than that. I had to play it down a couple of times. It's so funny how the eye wants to copy everything you see in a photo. I had to make a black and white to stop myself as my reference! Thanks so much!

Comment by Michael J. Severin on September 24, 2015 at 4:58: Hi Jeri. I should have clarified that my comment was more of an aside then a critique ... but to answer your question ...the cool Indian Red was a good choice for your distant barn ...but you might have "messed" with the usefulness of that cool by adding too much of the warm reflected light from the ground ...I keep hounding about warm reflected light, but in this case, it kind of over powers the cool influence of the Indian Red and makes the barn seem a little too ...."hot". Having said that, how you have painted it does not "break" the painting ...on the contrary ..the barn looks good ....but ...MAYBE ..it could be better if it was not so warm looking. I think if you just added some atmosphere color to the Indian Red will do the trick? ....omit the warm reflected light.

Comment by Jeri McDonald on September 24, 2015 at 2:57: Hey guys and gals! Thanks so much for the compliments. Michael your critique is so important and I am not certain how I would make that barn more atmospheric. How would you go about it? Softer edges? Lighter colors? Not sure. I was using Indian Red on it and the sky colors reflected off the roof.

Comment by Michael J. Severin on September 17, 2015 at 17:23: Very good Jeri!! I like your bold use of color. Your overall warmth is nicely balanced by some cools ....excellent. Would like to see just a little more atmosphere in that distant barn. :)