Liquid Sun Splash

Liquid Sun Splash Sketch Katherine Kean
graphite 8 x 10 inches

“If you don't like the weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes.” - Mark Twain

The weather in Hawaii provides a similar effect, or rather than waiting as it changes, a person can experience radiant sunshine and pouring rain simultaneously.

Liquid Sun Splash wip Katherine Kean
oil on linen 12 x 16 inches

This provides a new challenge for me when it comes to windshield weather paintings. Instead of a soft, misty background as a backdrop for well defined rain drops, the background is bright in places, and parts of the road are sharp along with some of the water edges. 

Connect the Drops Katherine Kean
oil on linen 12 x 16 inches

Between the Drops Katherine Kean
oil on linen 12 x 16 inches

Counting Raindrops Katherine Kean
oil on linen 12 x 16 inches

It's less about a foreground veil for gazing out from a separate interior world and more about the sudden encounter and the dynamic patterns made.

Liquid Sun Splash wip ©2016 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 12 x 16 inches

I've let the brushstrokes remain painterly, brushy, a little bit textured and slightly raised, particularly for the drops. It's almost there, I think, just a few more touches.

Did you hear that?

It’s not very loud. Just a faint scratch on paper, or a soft blerp or splat or splosh or slosh of paint, and perhaps an occasional sigh. The sounds of the art studio and work being made with pencil and paint.*

First the thumbnail sketches...

 Then the studies.

Eventually underpainting begins.

And at last the first color layer.

That's not the end of it. There is more to come, so stay tuned.

"Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks". Plutarch

*onomatopeia - a word, which imitates the natural sounds of a thing.