In Broad Pass

After working for so long on my vegetable van painting, I read this blog post from Duane Keiser. He writes about a painting titled Mound of Butter by Antoine Vollon. I saw this painting recently, and I completely agree with his comments.

Duane wrote about the wonderful spontaneity of the piece, so I got inspired to do something quick and happy.

Maybe not as quick as it looks, though, because so much preparation went into this piece. Some time ago I went to Broad Pass with 2 other artist friends and made several oil sketches, and on later trips northward I always stopped to do pencil sketches. Then I tried a studio painting that failed terribly! Then I sketched the scene in ink on a canvas and left it on the wall for months. But then I went to work with as little forethought and perfectionism as possible, and here is the result. That was fun! I may do more of this!

16' x 14' Oil on linen

To purchase, contact me at info@carollambertarts.com
$540 plus shipping, unframed

Veg Van painting completed

Here is the final result of the painting for the vegetable van. I will do one more, I think. After all, the van has 2 sides! I thought about taking more pictures along the way but kept telling myself I was almost finished, so I might as well wait. Then, of course, it was another week before it was really finished. That's how it always is with me, I think I'm almost done, then I'm not. My apologies to those who wanted more "in progress" photos.

I hope if you see this painting driving around town this summer, you will let me know. And please visit the farmer's market too, the vegetables there are beautiful, fresh, and delicious!

Oil on linen, 12' x 24"

This one is not for sale yet. After we get the image onto the van, I will price it. If you are interested in a purchase, please contact me at info@carollambertarts.com

Veg Van painting in progress

I hope you are still interested in seeing "in progress" posts. Here is 1.5 day's worth of progress on what I have now dubbed "Veg Van painting #1". This is a project I am doing in collaboration with my friend Alison, for Glacier Valley Farm Community Supported Agriculture. The farm van will display a blow-up of this painting on the side. With luck, I will be able to do a #2 so there will be different paintings on each side of the van. This is all to support and promote consumption of our wonderful Alaska grown produce!

I started by making a charcoal sketch directly on the linen. I skipped the underpainting stage as I needed to work fast with the perishables. As you can see, I made some compositional changes as I worked. It is such a challenge to work with vegetable greens that wilt! They are now completely flat, so from here I will be using the reference photos I took when I initially arranged my models. As I work, I try to envision what this will look like at approximately 6 x 12 feet in size!

At some point this painting will be for sale, but there is quite a bit more work to do on it, so I will now get myself back into the studio for the rest of the day!