Morning Layers

"Morning Layers"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard 
I looked out over the distant hills as the sun began to burn off a dense haze. The prismatic clouds dissipated as daylight claimed the sky.  

I love to paint skies as a warmup exercise when I come down to my studio after an absence. I make several using the same palette —whatever I squeezed out for the first one.

Carol

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Pine Morning

"Pine Morning"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard
I wakened and found what had been a sheath of black the night before, was now a multi-layered wonderland. Even the grasses varied in color and texture.  

 Here's a sky painting with a little more foreground than I normally provide.

I will be traveling for a few days. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. I'm thankful for your attention, your love and comments.

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
CarolKeene.com
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Then There Was … Sun

"Then There Was … Sun"
6" x 6"
Oil on Hardboard
That morning the sun, frizzed by clouds that would burn off within minutes, lifted her head off the pillow of the island and set out to brighten spirits wherever she shone. 

I enjoyed the effort of keeping the colors clean and pure as I placed complements next to one another.  Satisfying… yes.

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
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Dawn's Early Light

"Dawn's Early Light"
12" x 12"
Oil on canvas panel 
As a respite from the LaCrosse paintings… I offer a larger sky than I normally paint. I felt passionate about making this one and a six by six just wouldn't cut it. 

I had to handle the yellows and blues very carefully to not make green, and the purples and yellows so as to not make brown where I didn't want it. This one is quite nice in person.

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
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Out of the Fog

"Out of the Fog"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard 
Days went by without even thinking of smearing paint. I thought I was mending, but lingered in a hazy place that just didn't loosen its grip. That fog may have burned off now and I'll have clear sailing from this point on.

Here's a simple offering from an unsteady hand. I'm happy to be back to work.

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
Carolkeene.com
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High Flying Clouds

"High Flying Clouds"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard
It was morning, I checked. I was facing east and the ball was lifting off from its below-the-horizon launchpad. I had just wakened, a box of Fruit Loops was on the counter and my toothbrush was still wet. I'm positive it was sunrise.    

 I'll never be ambiguous about the time of day that my sky paintings are again. I got asked some pointed questions when I claimed I didn't know if it was sunrise or sunset.

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
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Waning Crescent

"Waning Crescent"
6" x 6"
Oil on canvas panel
The waning crescent, or old moon hangs in the sky when more than half the moon is in shadow.  
She's old because her lit part is decreasing and she will soon cease to be ... visible.  I love all things related to the moon. 

This fulfills the weekly challenge for DPW. The theme was to feature the moon, predominantly. You can imagine how much restraint I exercised in not submitting my own ... moon to this challenge.  I may be growing up, after all.  Perhaps I'm in my waning crescent phase.

Love,
Carol

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Too Early To Be Up

"Too Early To Be Up"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard
It's spring, and the time changed, but for heaven's sake, it's still too early for me to be up when the sun is doing her morning magic over the lake near my home. Lake Michigan, that is.  It comes up, in my mind, from a night of rest in Michigan. I know it's silly, but that's the image I live with.  

I painted This with three new colors and one of my favourite new yellows, Indian Yellow.  I got a new tube of Naples,  Indanthrene Blue and Quinacridone Scarlet. I love the sky they make.  And I love fresh tubes of paint.

Carol

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New Day

"New Day"
6" x 6"
Oil on Hardboard
It was shortly after sunrise, that time when the promise of daylight comes to pass. The clouds were still wearing festive raiment from the predawn party, but would soon don daytime togs to saunter across the sky.  

Here's a new sky painting for my ongoing collection that will culminate in one big piece for a gallery exhibit in July.

Carol

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Sun's Up

"Sun's Up"
10" x  20"
Oil on wrapped canvas
Once the sun poked her head above the horizon the colours began to dissipate. It was as if her presence chased the mauves and salmons from view and only the blue was tough enough to spend the day with the robust orb. 

Sky in the same palette as yesterday's, but I tried a different format.  I enjoyed painting on the larger piece.

Carol

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Badlands Sunrise

"Badlands Sunrise"
10" x 10"
Oil on wrapped canvas
Morning revealed that I had entered the eastern edge of the Badlands in South Dakota. Having driven through the night, it was a joy to see the hilly terrain and not so much green as we have on the prairie.  The trip wasn't a recent one, but the memory of the zig-zag sky is vivid.  

I'm testing two new paint colours, Cadmium Scarlet and Mineral Violet.  I like what each of them do with Indian Yellow.

Carol

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Daylight Come

"Daylight Come"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard
Yup, Harry Belafonte's Day-O, or the Banana Boat song.  It's a work song that the dock workers would sing while working the night shift loading bananas onto ships. Daylight has come, the shift is over and they want their work to be tallied so that they can go home.  

With so many skies under my, um, belt, titling them gets tricky.  Pardon my goofiness. 

Carol