Michael Pearce

Raw Umber dropped in beside  the leaves and flowers to create shadows, while pinks have filled out the buds and stems of the blue flowers, providing contrast and vibration. I’ve been enjoying the relationship of the pinks at the centre of the flowers to the stems, interrupted by the blues of the petals. I’ve yet to put down the Iron Oxide Red to warm the leaves.

I also enjoyed using a piece of  lace painted with white to create a stenciled pattern over the broad cloth belt that spans the yellow dress detailed in the second photo. Presently very bright, once this white layer is dry I’ll add some Yellow Ochre to glaze it back and make it feel like a brocade fabric, wiping the yellow away to reveal the bright whites, but allowing the glaze to fill the spaces between the raised surfaces, deepening the colour and popping against the highlights.

Also in the detail picture on the right you can see that I’ve used Raw Umber to deepen the shadows around the buckle and in the spaces between the strips of fabric, while a little Naples Yellow lightened the yellows of the dress.

A little Iron Oxide helped with defining the shapes of the toes on the upper foot, while white brought in highlights on the toes, although I wasn’t able to complete the work before I went to visit an opening in town. I’ll continue the pedicure tomorrow, perhaps.

The same Iron Oxide went to work on the pink dress on the left of the canvas, darkening shadows and altering the colour of the sash around the girls’ stomach to a warmer more orange range, distinguishing it from the dress. The shadows need further deepening to make the figure more substantial.

With the addition of a layer of green glaze over the greys of the leaves on the right hand side comes some clarity of the position of the flowers that will pop out of the foliage. I’m always surprised at the variety of colours when putting a glaze over en grisaille work – it looks as if there are several greens here; in fact this is all one pigment: Sap Green painted over the value work of the earlier layer. I’m really looking forward to getting the blues down onto the morning glory flowers once the greens are complete.

The dress on the left, now pink and settling into the painting as if it was always thus, works well, and I’ve added some detail to it with some subtle touches of Cadmium Red and a little Foundation White; the red to deepen shadows and define edges, and the white to bring bright lights to the tops of folds in the fabric and to distinguish the hems of the wrap. I held off from working on building shadows below the arm and on the right side of the body so that the reds and whites can dry thoroughly.

The Magician is ready to paint, with the sealing coat of Iron Oxide dry, fixing the drawing indelibly beneath its warm tones. It’s been nagging at me a bit today, almost like a persistent child wanting attention. Maybe I’ll start work on it before I complete the Empress.

I’ve painted a large number of morning glory flowers and leaves on the right side of the painting, and repainted the yellow dress, which concludes the base coat work for the painting. I like the foliage and flowers, having taken care to position the vines so that the Empress’ extended feet come forward over the leaves, resolving the compositional problem of the meeting of the corner of the wall with the heel. Now that the foot as over leaves, not a hard edged point the foot feels more clearly in front of the wall. Doing this reminds me of the many days of work I put into the landscape of The Traveler painting, which took a couple of weeks to complete.

I finally got to repainting the yellow dress, following a pleasant hour on Google images researching pictures of beautiful models wearing haute couture to see how layered fabrics fall. I’m going for a lacey layer over a simple base layer of yellow drapery, with a swath of fabric tied around her waist. The hemline is slightly altered to allow for deeper folds. I’ve also added the beginning of a lace trim to the Empress’ dress, which is working nicely and will benefit from a little more definition.

The first layer of another vine of morning glory has invaded the right hand side of the painting, creeping over the marble wall and wrapping the corner behind the Empress’ feet. The wormwood has been tucked in behind the leaves, and tomorrow these vines will extend further over to the edges of the canvas at the bottom and right. Here I plan to make quite a lot of foliage fill the corner of the painting to avoid excessive symmetry, and to add quite a lot of those lovely blue flowers and pink buds. I prefer to keep the work of painting the flowers separate to making the leaves, so I’ll add the blooms in later.

I may need to work on the Empress’ feet before I add colour to the leaves, so I’ll get more of the grey layers of vines cascading over the sill of the wall as it comes towards us, pop in a few more leaves above the wormwood, then move to working on painting toes, which have not had any attention for a long time. Time for a pedicure.

Now the cold and rain has eased up here in Ventura County I feel a lot lighter in spirits. I really don’t do well in the cold. Today, with bright sunshine and blue skies I felt really great walking to the studio with my kids and dog, ready to work.

My old friend, Ultramarine Blue has glazed the morning glories again, making the pinks vibrate against the blue and white. In adition, I’ve added a touch of Cadmium Red to the twisted buds, making them more substantial. I’m slightly concerned that the blue is so intense that it pulls focus, but I think that this will balance when I have plant life on the lower right of the canvas.

The new flowers on the bottom left corner of the painting got a treatment of a tiny bit of Cadmium Red mixed with Foundation white, with a dab of pure white in their centers in preparation for a glaze of blue tomorrow, while the creeper above the wormwood has a glaze of Sap Green and drop shadows added throughout in Raw Umber. Clearly this all needs more detail, because it’s so forward in the composition.

That yellow dress is going to have to change.

It’s been a weirdly slow day, with gradual progress detailing flowers, but no major changes. The ivy took a layer of Sap Green, then some striping work with Iron Oxide to tidy the edges up, making a good first layer for this new plant. The shrubs behind the wall got highlights in a pale grey-green, while shadows were deepened here and there with Olive Green. I experimented with getting very detailed leaves but didn’t like the result, because it draws focus from the figures too much, which just isn’t what I’m after.

The additional morning glorys on the left side of the painting got some detail added to them, including some pink into the existing blues. I noticed that certain cultivars are a nice mixture of pink and blue, perfect for my purpose, so I’ve used the pink for the unwrapped buds and in the centers of the blooms.

I’ve added branches to the cherry tree, and popped in some Iron Oxide to warm up the right side of some of the blossoms, making the tree more substantial. The branches tend toward the Empress, continuing the theme of plants focusing upon her.