New Work

Winter came back with a vengeance this week, giving us our first snowfall. My favorite haunts were covered in four inches of snow.  Here they are, back in November, shrouded in fog and rich with the color harmonies of late autumn.

 November Fog

20 x 20

 Foggy Morning

20 x 24

November Morning at the Pond

20 x 24

In a Fog

The last few weeks we have had some lovely foggy mornings which are very typical for this time of year here. The exquisite, delicate color harmonies mixed with the mystery of forms enveloped by mist always intrigues me. So, this year I resolved to do a few paintings of fog motifs. In pursuit of that I did these three color studies last week. All are vine charcoal and pastel on toned paper.

Autumn-Morning Mist

Autumn-Morning Mist
12 x 12

There was most definitely some wishful thinking going on in the studio when I painted this. Hard to imagine that fall will ever come, but I was able to conjure up this painting of those lovely autumn mists from memory.

Winter at the Pond

Winter at the Pond
oil 6 x 6
Sold

Earlier this week we had cold foggy weather. The vault of the sky was so leaden and heavy it seemed it might collapse in on itself and completely envelope the earth. I love the muffled quality of sounds and the gauzy look of the landscape on days like this. One of the challenges of painting these effects is understanding that the sky is actually lighter in value on foggy or overcast days than it is on a sunny days, so the entire painting must be keyed higher. And of course, the range of values is much more narrow. The sky is slightly darker closer to the horizon, and grades lighter as it goes up-again, exactly the opposite of what it does on bright sunny days. But, what I love most are the soft edges and the exquisite jewel like warm tones against the sea of fog and mist.


2009 Workshops

Gratification-Delayed

Winter Greys
6 x 6
Private Collection

Yesterday I took a drive of about 60 miles round trip over to the vet's to pick up medicine for Sophie (our oldest Corgi). Its a trip I take about once a month and I always look forward to it. Although the landscape along the way is very similar to where we live, it does have more of the tall pines this area of Texas is known for (more about that later). Yesterday,the fog was thick and I was fascinated by the variety of greys- from the violets and blues in the distance to almost maroon/wine colored greys in the near trees. By the time I got home, I had an entire painting composed and painted in my head.

I have never been a patient person. I tend to want what I want, when I want it. Instant gratification- a birthright. As my husband says of me in former days, before we came to the Bubble, "you were in a hurry". So it is probably a great cosmic gotcha that I have adopted a mode of painting that requires me to paint, wait, paint, wait, paint, and wait some more. Which is why I am posting a painting today done this time last year and not the one I started yesterday.



Deborah Paris Fine Art- Small Gems -Big Art in a small package

Morning Fog

Morning Fog at the Pond
11 x 14
Available at Deborah Paris Fine Art

When I did the under painting for this piece a couple of weeks ago, I had something else in mind entirely. But lately, we've had this lovely morning fog and it was all I could think about when I got back to it yesterday. Technically the challenge was to keep the values as close as possible yet high key while using shifts in color temperature rather than value to give the painting visual interest. I love the way fog softens, envelops, hides the forms in the landscape.

Winter Greys #3

Winter Greys #3 oil 6 x 6
$100 + $10 shipping

This week we had freezing rain followed by freezing fog. I have to admit, that's a new one to me! I do love the color harmonies it produces in the landscape - and the utter bareness of the trees and the muffled quality of both color and sound. Its such a lovely contrast to the sensual melancholy of fall and the lush exuberance of spring.

Winter Greys #2

Winter Greys #2 Oil 6 x 6
Sold
Morning fog again today.

Winter Greys

Winter Greys 6 x 6 oil
$100 +$10 shipping
Sold
We have had cold winter weather this week with morning fog and cloudy overcast days. The colors in the landscape are beautifully muted greys in tones of violet, ochre and rust. I spotted this scene on the way to the post office and came back to the warm studio to paint it later in the day.