Yesterday at the studio, I worked on two different paintings. One I needed to begin, and the other needed progress towards finished.
Painting to Start
The first one I worked on is the one I needed to begin. It’s a gift for one of my grandsons’ birthday. They get to choose their own subjects for these paintings, and it’s sometimes a surprise – and a challenge. He wanted a painting of an antique motorcycle. In a barn.
Well, I am giving it a try, but a motorcycle isn’t my usual subject. And the barn is one I did from imagination, but as it turns out, more than a few people who saw my progress pics on Instagram thinks it looks more like a covered bridge. So I’m going to go with the ‘covered bridge‘ and hope he likes that, lol. I think the motorcycle part of the painting will be alright. It’s an 8 x 10″, so not a lot of room to add a lot of details to the bike.
Once that painting was on it’s way and needed to dry, I moved on to the other one waiting for more progress.
Here’s the finished painting. I decided to go with the covered bridge instead of a barn.
Painting in Progress
This is ‘Early Autumn Field, with Hay and Implements’. It’s also not very large, 10 x 10″. But it’s one I think I’d like to see done larger one day in the future.
There’s not much left on now, just some blades of grass and weeds in the foreground, some lichens on the post, and a rusty barbed wire fence stretching across.
More Updates Soon
If you want to see all of the progress on the pastoral scene, click here. I keep a page on most paintings to show progress from start to finish.
I’ll post again later when I’ve made significant progress on either of these from today’s post.
A Little About My Paint-making Process
Since my paints are handmade and (mostly) locally foraged, I have to make sure I have the colors I need before I begin a project. If it’s a plant pigment, then I’ll need to harvest the plant and process it to make the pigment. The only plant sources I use at this time are thyme, and the root bark of Osage trees. The rest comes from foraged rocks, soot, bone, or purchased lapis and titanium dioxide powder.
Here’s a blog post I made earlier about making oil paints:
So, if it’s a rock, then I’ll break it to smaller pieces, then crush it as finely as I can. The crushed rock is the raw pigment. After that I put the powder into a jar and fill the jar with water. Depending on the source rock, I’ll either pour off the colored water into another jar to let it settle, or pour the rinse water out and keep the sediment for the paint. After the water clarifies and the pigment has settled, then I pour off the clear water and let the sediment dry. That is what I’ll make the paint from.
When it comes to plants, there’s more chemistry involved. I’ll make what is called a ‘lake’ pigment. Here’s a post that gives more information on that process.
I hope you love this earthy palette of color as much as I do! Thanks for reading ~ Madison
ABOUT
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Madison Woods is the pen-name for my creative works. I’m a self-taught artist who moved to the Ozarks from south Louisiana in 2005. My paintings of Ozark-inspired scenes feature lightfast pigments from Madison county, Arkansas. My inspiration is nature – the beauty, and the inherent cycle of life and death, destruction, regeneration, and transformation.
Roxann Riedel is my real name. I’m also salesperson for Montgomery Whiteley Realty, artist, owner of the only ginseng nursery in Arkansas, and the author of books and this website.
Wild Ozark is also the only licensed ginseng nursery in Arkansas. Here’s the link for more information on the nursery
P.S.
There’s always a discount for paintings on the easel 😉
Here’s my Online Portfolio
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Contact Mad Rox: (479) 409-3429 or madison@madisonwoods and let me know which hat I need to put on 🙂 Madison for art, Roxann for real estate, lol. Or call me Mad Rox and have them both covered!
https://www.youtube.com/@wildozark
