Shooting paintings

untouched photos from Canon G7 on left and Canon EOS D60 on right

Yesterday entailed some experimentation with recording paintings. I am not a professional photographer, and my documentation has only slowly been getting more developed. I am getting together a portfolio to apply for a show for my Japanese paintings at the Providence Art Club, and it occurred to me that perhaps I had gotten better since last year when I first photographed these pieces. I always shoot my paintings with my G7, and lately I have been using GIMP to edit them. But I had access to the EOS, and I decided to use it as well when I was photographing.

The results surprised me. I had been expecting some differences, but not to the degree that I saw above. These are two details from the same painting with the cameras set up to the same pixels and exposures. The pciture on the right is more saturated, with less smoothing. The brush strokes appear more painterly. The tones set next to each other are much clearer. It is obvious to me that the EOS is going to give me a far superior result when I have finished editing them.

NowI will have to shoot as much as possible with the larger camera, because I use the detail in my reference photos a lot for painting as well. Even if that reference is only to finish something in the studio that I started in the field.

Ueno Park August

oil on linen panel 24" x 9.5"

This is the painting that I have been working on for the past few weeks, the blog silencing painting for the member show at the Providence Art Club. I wanted to capture the fabulous feeling of being in the cool shade on a very hot day in Tokyo. I have simplified the background buildings, and used the horizontal composition to emphasize the feeling of being under the canopy of beautiful trees. The people in the painting move back through the space.
I am also glad that it is done.
Right now, a little of that heat would be welcome in RI.

Vinyard Winter

oil on canvas panel 8" x 16"

I have been away over the weekend, and painting has taken the backseat to family. That is as it should be, and yet when I came back, I have been working all night on my Member Show entry at the Providence Art Club, and on finishing this painting so that I could put something up on this blog. This is from a photo that is a couple of years old, and the scene had caught my eye from the beginning. I have been working on it over time, looking at the best use values and color to enhance the scene. Right now this is as far as I have been able to take it.
I wanted to show how resolutely the house faces the weather from the open ocean. The low sunlight on the face of the house picks up the strength of the manmade structure. It is nestled in the hills, but clearly taller than the windswept horizontal landscape around it. We can all be brave this way, even as we are worn by time and other storms.
The entry is a longer painting for me, as I am used to smaller formats. This may be a bad week for posting, as deadlines loom...