Stonehenge, England

Stonehenge at Dusk, original by Jennifer Richter (acrylic on board): On the 10th I went to Jennifer Benson's house to paint and took along a 5" X 7" canvas. I found a great photo of Stonehenge on the internet. I chose this image because we traveled to England this fall with my in-laws and had a great time.

Contact: jen.richter@gmail.com

I learned:

• That I REALLY like acrylic for a quick painting that can dry. BUT, I think oils would have blended sunset colors in a smoother, silkier way. Cherilyn encouraged me to do it again, but bigger, in oils. That many artists will do a small practice painting to work out the problems of a new piece. I just may do that!
• Cherilyn let me borrow some of her gold acrylic paint to sign my piece. I wrote it out in red first...didn't like how bold it looked. Painted gold on top of the red to mute it and loved the effect. I added a glaze of the sparkly gold in the skyline as well.
• This painting only took two 2-hour sessions. The lion share of the work got done in the first sitting. Fun and very fast! Loved it!

Christmas Ornaments, by Jennifer Richter (4"X4" acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas)
Contact: jen.richter@gmail.com

• I learned that even though this was a pre-gessoed canvas, I decided that I prefer the look of additional gesso which can leave thick brush strokes behind to create a nice texture to paint on. Will do that next painting.
• Liked painting small; a fun change. Took about 4, 2 hour sessions to complete this. I went slow to capture the look of the crystal ornament. Fun study. Also enjoyed the quick drying effect of acrylic for this piece that was due a few weeks after I got the invitation to submit a piece to the Repartee Gallery.

MARK ROTHCO STUDY: acrylic on Masonite by Jennifer Richter (August 2011)
Contact: jen.richter@gmail.com

• So, Rothco tried to paint emotions. I found this rather challenging. He worked in oils and this is acrylic so I found that aspect very difficult; the paint dried too fast so I could not mix colors on the board. But it was refreshing to do something simpler in design and still have the challenge of trying to layer colors and work out textures as he had in his painting. Fun study.

MINERVA TEICHERT STUDY: (August 2011), oil on Masonite (11"X14")
Contact: jen.richter@gmail.com

• I LOVE oils! Kurt bought me some Pre-tested Grumbacher paints. I like how the colors blend. I need to get a high res scan of this to show the layers. The blue was a different color than on the original.
• I learned that I need to have a better grasp of proportions of the figure. So I took a figure drawing class at the BDAC from Robert Barrett, BYU professor. It was so enlightening. He was constantly teaching us principles and sharing artist quotes throughout the class. Loved it. Bought his book and hope to do more drawings to improve.
• I love how this turned out. I can see how much I have to learn still. But the process is very fun.

Monarch Butterfly

CHRISTMAS CACTUS: original by Jennifer Richter (July 2011, acrylic on board, 8X8):
Contact: jen.richter@gmail.com

• My mother, Mary Adams and my sisters Emily Voisin and Becky Lewis were in town for our Grandpa Adams' 90th birthday celebration/reunion. My mother and I set up a time to paint as a group (you can see their Christmas Cactus paintings on their link). I printed off a color photo of the original Christmas Cactus owned by my Grandmother Odette Allen. It has become symbolic to our family of the idea of ETERNAL FAMILIES and LOVE.
• MONARCH BUTTERFLIES-As far as I can remember my mother has always and often sung the song of the "Golden Butterfly Tree" to us children. The lyrics say, "If you should ever catch a butterfly, with wings of gold, so I've been told, love and happiness will come your way, that very day, that's what they say. But if you find a tree full of butterflies, all golden butterflies, your love will multiply. And happiness will last an eternity. If you find that butterfly tree..." So, the golden butterfly symbolizes love, happiness, and eternity; all things we believe in, hope for, and work for with our families.
• THINGS I LEARNED DOING THIS PAINTING:

1. Use thick body white paint for the dots on the butterfly wings to be opaque and to be able to lay it down once, for fine detail control (thanks, Cherilyn!)
2. Composition-added a leaf in a different direction to lead the eye back into the painting (thanks again, Cherilyn!)
3. Add a hatching layer around the edges with complementary color (purple and burnt umber) with an acrylic glaze to add richness and texture (Cherilyn had me look at Rebecca Lee's paintings there at Lamplight Gallery and suggested that I could look at what other ideas artists are doing and learn from them).
4. My teacher, Cherilyn Fischer, at Lamplight Art Gallery also taught me the wonders of Acrylic Gloss medium, how I could add a little pigment and layer colors one on top of another to achieve a rich, delicate, transparent effect with the wings (Cherilyn, you are the bomb!).

WOLF KAHN STUDY: (July 2011), acrylic on Masonite (original on top, my study on bottom):
Contact: jen.richter@gmail.com

• I liked working on a bigger board this time.
• Found that acrylics dry so fast it was difficult to imitate the blend of colors on canvas as seen in the original...I determined to learn oil painting so as to have more ability to work wet on wet. I admit, the thought was scary to me. A bit intimidating. But a secret hope is to one day sell art in a gallery and to do that successfully, I need to learn oils. That's what sells.
• I chose not to spend too much time trying to accurately copy each detail on this painting as I felt I couldn't quite duplicate it in acrylic paints. I enjoyed playing with the ideas of the artist on color.
• I experienced my first real desire to begin looking for ideas for me to paint that might be my first original painting. Thought of looking at photos of trips I've been on for inspiration.

CLAUDE MONET STUDY: This is the first painting I did in Cherilyn Fisher's painting class in May this year at the Repartee Art Gallery in Bountiful, UT. It was SO much fun to create. I really enjoyed having the time to play and do art again. The feeling I had when I completed it was pure delight.

Contact: jen.richter@gmail.com 

Things I learned from Cherilyn and others while doing this painting:

• Can start with a color gesso layer (pink in this case)
• I used an acrylic glaze medium with a bit of orange pigment in it and then went over the flowers which seemed too bright. It toned it down nicely.
• Blocking in basic color of background first helps
• Alistasia (sp?), a fellow student, lent me her hand trimmed brush to get the unique strokes on the flower petals. Loved the effect!
• I learned from Nora Del Murdock that I could use Liquin as my final coat to give it an oil paint glossy look.