Why this?
Posted: January 18, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized 8 CommentsI am always on the lookout for scenes to paint, especially if they are close to home. The past few days, we’ve had some incredibly cold temperatures in Montreal, and it would have been hard to paint on location, even in my pre-heated car. So I looked for subjects on my walks with Alice, snapped some photos, and came home to paint them from my warm studio.
Through the fence in the park, I saw this woodpile in someone’s backyard. I first took a photo of it on an overcast day, but it was kind of flat and uninteresting. The next day, the sun was coming up and the subtle shadows on the snow gave it depth and interest. I loved the two areas of repetition in the composition — the verticals at the top and the repeating circles of the logs. The little bit of snow in the foreground was a chance for a quieter passage of paint. That is why I picked this.
Shari Blaukopf's Sketchbook 
Oh, such a great work! I really enjoy reading the texts you write commenting on your creative process, Shari. This search for the hidden beauty of simple things always reminds me of Rilke’s tips in his “Letters to a young poet”.
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I love your choice
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This is beautiful – I love the one red and blue log – very subtle, but a nice primary scheme with the soft yellow sky. Love looking at this!
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What a change from your sunny and warm paintings of Sanibel. The wood pile is beautiful, as usual!
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You find beauty in the things that go unnoticed by most of us. I find that after following your blog for some time now that I look at things differently and discover that a rooftop can be worthy of a drawing. It’s so good to notice the little things. You’re such an inspiration !
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Little spots like this have just as much interest as a broader landscape. I like the contrast of the vertical trees and the rounded logs…and always your lovely snow shadows.
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Great scene for utilizing repetition of shapes. Shari, what size this painting is? Is it in a sketchbook or on wc paper? Are the sketches/paintings you post here usually done in a sketchbook?
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Hi Rockie. This was done on a quarter sheet of watercolour paper, so approx. 15” x 11”. The sketches and paintings you see here are on both sketchbook paper and cut sheets of paper. Most everything is at least 8 x 11 size and likely no bigger than 15 x 11. I don’t really do small sketches any more. I especially like the new Etchr books that are A4 size which is a bit more narrow and a bit higher than letter size.
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