West Harwich Riverview

Artist Eli Cedrone at Herring River

If you aren't familiar with painter Eli Cedrone, you haven't seen the beautiful work of one of the most talented artists in our area.   Her work is in local galleries, and across the country.    I was fortunate to have attended a "pop-up" workshop on Cape Cod with her recently.

The weather cooperated and the location Eli had picked was a gorgeous spot along the Herring River in West Harwich, Massachusetts.

She began her demonstration with small thumbnails done in pencil.   She explained that this step helps to work out the design of the painting.  She emphasized the importance of first designing the scene in black and white to come up with a strong composition.  She encouraged us to use nature as the reference but liberally move elements as necessary to support a better painting.

For the second stage, she used the upper half of her canvas board to paint the scene in three values.   This value study and the thumbnails would serve as the blueprint for the actual color painting.  


My Value Study

Finally, she produced the color rendition of the same scene which was created on the lower half of the board.   I liked using this disciplined approach and I've used it in the past, so I soon got started on my own painting.

Two rustic red dinghies tempted me while scoping out my composition, but I would have been looking in a southerly direction  - and into the glare.   My eyes just can't take that much light.  I don't wear sunglasses while applying color as they change both the values and the colors.   I turned my back on the sun and looked downstream instead.  There was a steady stream of both moving water and colorfully clad kayakers.

Per our process, this poor photo (why is it checkered like that??) is the value study done in quick dry paint.   I toured all the other participants' easels while it dried.   It is always amazing to see the variation in the paintings when most were of the same scene.

The fun part was the color.   Using the now dry value study, I applied color right on top of it, expressly trying to stay true to the monochrome lights and darks.   While on site, I decided that I liked a pair of twin red umbrellas off to the left in the distance and as the most chromatic element, they called for attention. Back in the studio though, I decided to add the kayakers in the distance in the same general area as the umbrellas and I liked the misty look of cruising the river.

Herring Riverview - West Harwich