Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Monhegan Light-24x36-in progress

 here is the 24x36 painting ive got on the easel for the next several days. this is the most fun you can have with your clothes on! the underpainting. spreading around wild pure colors on a huge canvas with crazy big brushes! no fear stage. I mean if you don't like it you wipe it off and put something else down. you  can do that at any stage in the painting but this early on there's such a freedom to the painting process.

this is the lighthouse keepers house on top of monhegan island, one of the most magical places to paint anywhere on the east coast. this is being done from an 8x12 study I did one morning when the sun was just gorgeous on the side of the building and you could see for miles across the water.
 here's how loose I keep it at this stage, really no hard edges anywhere to be found. that's fun too!

another shot of the blurry edged, thick paint going on
 
be really careful with your palette knives, they are just like razor blades after a few months of use. I cut the back of one of my fingers today on my blade, while I was painting. zip and its laid open. luckily its like a paper cut, very thin. note to self: be more careful with something called a painting "knife"

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Mike, I have been following your painting for a while, and use to be the sketch and underpainting was predominately magenta. I am trying to guess what the final colors will be based upon your underpainting color choices. I am eager to see the finished piece WS

mike rooney studios said...

wayne- it has evolved into an intuitive process from the early magenta days. but it never varies from the tenants of warm colors (reds,yellows,oranges) in sun shapes and blue violets greens (cool colors) in shadow shapes.

Unknown said...

Oh my gosh. I know! Love the process of getting the canvas ready. You are fantastic!