This weekend i am working the night shift from 11:00 pm to 7:00 am. Last night was the first one and i work another one tonight. There was not that much to do last night so i could at least paint a little bit (although i did feel tired – but i had to stay awake somehow).
I did paint this old church in Oregon several times already, so i can bring it on the paper from memory. I am still not satisfied with the result but i think it is a little bit better than my last attempts. I think it is a good practice to choose some motifs and paint them again and again. I like the atmosphere of this place good enough to come back to it with painting from time to time.
The other pictures show some minimalistic attempts – painting with the biggest brush i got on a small format (postcard-size) with a time limit of 10 minutes each. This is a good practice to get rid of unnecessary details – and it is perfect to make it through the nightshift. 🙂
I decided to write in English and German from now on, because i realized that most of my followers speak English. I hope it makes reading my blog a little bit more convenient for you.
An diesem Wochenende arbeite ich in der Nachtschicht von 11:00 abends bis 7:00 am Morgen. Letzte Nacht war die erste Schicht, heute Nacht kommt die zweite. Es war nicht besonders viel zu tun in der letzten Nacht und so konnte ich zumindest etwas malen, obwohl ich bereits sehr müde war – aber irgendwie musste ich mich ja wachhalten.
Diese alte Kirche in Oregon habe ich mittlerweile so oft gemalt, dass ich sie aus dem Kopf aufs Papier bringen kann. Ich bin immer noch nicht zufrieden mit dem Ergebnis, aber es erscheint mir zumindest etwas besser zu sein als meine letzten Versuche. Ich glaube, es ist ist eine gute Übung, manche Motive immer wieder zu malen. Und ich mag die Atmosphäre dieses Platzes gut genug, um immer wieder mal für eine Mal-Übung dorthin zurückzukehren.
Die anderen Bilder zeigen einige minimalistischen Versuchen – gemalt mit dem größten Pinsel, den ich besitze auf kleinem Postkartenformat mit einem Zeitlimit von 10 Minuten für jedes. Eine gute Übung um sich von unnötigen Details zu befreien – und perfekt, um die Zeit der Nachtschicht mit Sinn zu füllen.
Ich habe mich entschlossen, ab sofort in Deutsch und Englisch zu schreiben, denn ich habe festgestellt, dass die meisten Follower Englisch sprechen. Ich hoffe, dass macht es etwas bequemer für Euch.
A church in Oregon! That explains a lot of things. I was marveling that many of your watercolors look like places in the US. I thought to myself (I’m not much of a traveler) that maybe these kinds of places, this architecture, is more diffuse than I had supposed. Maybe it’s in Europe, too. Ah, but now it makes sense!
It’s fascinating to compare the fast versions with your more elaborate pictures. And about redoing a motif — I couldn’t agree more — it’s a wonderful form of invention.
So glad you’re posting in both languages. I’m hoping I will learn a little bit of German now! To read, at least, if not to hear.
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Thank you Aletha. I have been travelling to the United States and my wife is American, too. I feel pretty impressed by the vintage American architecture and i have never seen so many beautiful abandoned places before. They even made me start to paint again after a break of 20 years. 🙂
I hope my English is good enough to give you the opportunity to draw some conclusion about the German writing. I am not sure. 🙂
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Your English, like your paintings, is fantastic.
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Oh I love these Carsten! You wanting to loosen up by doing short timed watercolors is doing just that. What I like is that they are full of feeling and a freshness that I find that I love in plein air. I appreciate them equally but I do seem to go more with the church as my favorite for many reasons, being a church, I love it and that large tree in the foreground gives it a dramatic affect. The looseness on all the others are so wonderful. I am thinking that I need to do more loose, fast and timed watercolors with my mop brush. 🙂
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Thanks for the English! The postcard sized painting are great – you manage to convey so much detail just watercolour, even that small…I have a tendency to just use watercolour for blocks of colour and not line and shadow. Good inspiration!
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