Day 22 at Peters Valley

Conte Drawing from my Studio Window

Black Pen Drawing from my Studio Window

Oil Pastel Drawing from my Studio Window

Oil Pastel Drawing from my Studio Window

Oil Painting from my Studio Window

Artists end up collecting and saving a lot of "stuff". Some which is worthwhile and others that are useless. I never throw out mat board pieces and I held onto a bunch for a few years that I hadn't used. Thinking I might do something with them during my residency, I brought them up to Peters Valley. The above studies are about one-hour drawings / paintings using different media to explore the landscape from my studio window. These may or may not end up in finished paintings in the future. Each one was completed at different times of day but all with mostly the same point of view.

Madonna and Child in Progress (temporary title), Oil on Stretched Linen, 18" x 24" © Jennie Traill Schaeffer

The painting above was started before I arrived at PV, and thought I would try to finish it. It has proven to be a challenging piece because I'm still pushing my technique and found the color combinations not working. Since this photo was taken earlier yesterday, I've almost completed it. I chose to remove what were initially halos for a more abstract way of utilizing the gold to emphasize the spiritual nature of the objects and also breakup the monotony of the negative space behind the percolators.

Can't wait for you to see it! I'll be starting my last big painting while at Peters Valley. I only have five more true working days.