Ashley's Farmshow

24"x20" Oil on canvas

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Comment by deb hill on November 16, 2011 at 5:33: Jane, whenever you get LOTS of attention from a painting, it could be Stu's fault. This could really be his second job. Richard may be giving him kickbacks on the sly. :) Just kidding. I find it mostly helpful to see what everyone else sees. I am looking forward to seeing you workshop piece.

Comment by Jane Albin on November 16, 2011 at 4:38: Wow, this painting has created quite a stir. I am going to have to work on it sooner than later. I thank you all for the great advice. Will start working on it as soon as possible. I am working on my oil painting for the workshop. I got that underpainted yesterday. Hop to have it up this week. And than back to Ashley (actually the cow's name is Ashley. I tried to track down the girl, at the next farm show, with my photo. But no one seemed to know who she was). Thanks again everyone.

Comment by Denise Maxwell on November 15, 2011 at 16:02: Hello Jane I really like this also and I agree it's like your under painting and it's mostly there though a very good base. I would like to see a stronger sense of the light source, where is it coming from and then consider your shadows. Remember the spot light effect from the Workshop2 also could be used to good affect here. If you darken down the background it would be a nice light spot to see the outside through the open barn door, if that is what I see in the upper right of the picture.

Your warmest colour spot is the rectangle at the center top of the picture and grabs my eye too much, maybe that is what the girls hair could be doing and it would make a lovely colour compliment to the blues in her clothing.

Denise

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on November 15, 2011 at 15:17: Jane, I think you may have a conscensus; I asked Deb to take a look, because she has given me some excellent advice. She gave a lot more specifics than I did. Since you have sat on this for awhile, these are some things to try. I would definitely not start over if it were me. Your paint is fairly thin, as is mine frequently; I just call something like this my underpainting. Stu

Comment by deb hill on November 15, 2011 at 14:58: Ok, another county heard from...Stu told me to check this out and see if I saw anything. Well, yes. darken the background to make it recede, the highlight on the girl's hair should continue to the edge of the top of her hair( the hair looks awesome!) and not have the darker line around the top(looks wonderful at her back), and finally, I would smooth out the bull's coat. There seems to be too much texture in it and I think it would look better if solidly darker and then the most important highlights dropped in. I am not sure what the grayed area is under the bull's neck. Maybe the neck underside area should melt into that brown/gray space. It's a very cool picture. I need to let the one I'm working on now sit awhile to see what I need to do for necessary improvements.

Comment by Sandra kelly on November 14, 2011 at 10:28: I really like this painting , I feel that there is too many hard edges in the background I would soften and loose some of these edges. Place photo into picas, photo shop ect. and have a look at your tones I feel there is not many dark tones in this painting try in photo shop or picas play with the tones. ( maybe darken behind cow to bring it forward)Nice painting and composition stick to it there is not much needed to make this painting sing.

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on November 14, 2011 at 5:28: Jane, I hope this works. By the way, I am very glad you are doing a work in oil for the competition. I like your watercolors, but I think your oils are stronger in many ways. I usually look at the chance to do something better by working on the painting rather than starting over as a learning experience that I can put to use on future paintings; the exception would be if the composition stinks--then I will usually start over. Looking forward to your Rees Valley oil. Stu

Comment by Jane Albin on November 14, 2011 at 3:38: Thanks Stu, I really like this and will try it out. It can't hurt and I can still start all over. I never varnished this painting because I wasn't satisfied with it. Will post the results, when I get to it. (First have to complete the Rees Valley oil).

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on November 13, 2011 at 15:57: Jane, Otto makes a good point, but if it were me, I would try and rescue it. Your composition is great. Some of your highlights are a little chalky; glazing would improve them (for instance, the highlights on the fence could be glazed with some warm yellow--Indian yellow). Darkening the background would help set it back as a separate layer (diazoxazine purple may work as a glaze). If you pop some color into the grass in front, that will also help. It is really a lovely work. I use Galkyd lite to glaze with--take off any varnish first and then coat the whole painting with either Galkyd lite or Liquin thinned with a little OMS (Gamsol or Turpenoid). Then apply your colors as a glaze. You can wipe them back with a paper towel. If you don't like it, just wash it off with OMS. Stu