Gretchen Lopez
January 12, 2012
“Outta Commission” Gretchen Lopez 5×7 oil
- I made a pact to myself to go down the road and do some Holiday painting, Plein Aire. So, on the Monday after Christmas, I headed down the trail. It was 10:30 a.m., and the light was wonderful, the snow drifts had melted, so I wasn’t knee deep. I started out painting the duck pond down on the Kachina wetlands, my painting complete, I proceeded to make my way back up the road, when I laid eyes on a John Deere stuck in a snow bank. I thought to myself, do I really want to paint this? Well, Tractors and bulldozers are fun to paint. I accepted the challenge, pulled out my 5×7 pocket box and painted! Using a tweeked version of Kevin MacPhereson’s limited palette, I had French Ultramarine, cadmium yellow medium, Alazarin Crimson and titanium white. I used a bit of burnt sienna for toning my 5×7 canvas and a wee bit of Indian Yellow to give me some nice dense greens for the background.
All in all it was such fun, really nifty, because I didn’t have to lug all those tubes of paint! Thank you Kevin!
Gretchen Lopez teaches painting on an ongoing basis, each Friday at the Sedona Arts Center. There is a class for Beginners and Going Further. She also offers a 4 day workshop in color mixing for the artist Understanding Color, April 19-22, 2012 and periodically there will be a Saturday one-day workshop for portrait and figure. See more of her work at her website www.gretchenlopezart.com
