New techniques: Salt

I decided yesterday to try my hand at introducing salt to a picture, following Judy's instructions from my workshop (see previous post two down from this one). This is from a photo I took while in France last year, in some small village--don't remember which one, but I'll ask Bix. I am proud of myself that I didn't give in to the urge to put this on the light box and trace it--this is a freehand drawing, and done, moreover, while sitting in Judy's workshop, which amazes me due to the level of distraction present. There are a few non-true angles and wonky perspectives, but I can easily write that off to its being a funky little building, yes?

The thing I liked about this subject when I took the photo was the variety of textures and materials used in this cottage or outbuilding or whatever it is: rough stone, smooth stone, plaster, wood, some kind of blue aluminum siding, and of course the metal of the post box and the gate. There is also the brick and concrete of the walkways, the earth and scattered leaves surrounding the plants, and finally the gangly, unpruned climbing rose, which introduces the natural element into it all.

All of that also makes this a hugely challenging scene to paint, and I am happier with some parts than with others. First, though, the salt:

I used regular table salt throughout. I salted the plaster at the right; then I decided to salt the brick and sidewalk; and finally I went all out and also salted the stones on the left and the side wall area.

I really liked what the salt did for the plaster on the right, and I accentuated it afterwards by introducing some dabbed-on-and-blotted green to give it a moldy feel. I also like what it did for the wall behind the gate, and for the sidewalk emerging from that side. The problem with this photograph was that even when I took it into Photoshop and brightened the heck out of it, I still could see no detail on the receding left-hand side of the building behind the gate; but I think the salt, combined with mixing a variety of dark colors to give it presence without definition, made it work.

I was much less happy with its effect on the bricks, and in fact am displeased with the bricks, period--I think they are the one area in this painting that doesn't work. I expected the gate to be the biggest problem, but it came out pretty well, and I was pleased with the juxtaposition of the somewhat flat red with the textured wall behind it, and the echoed angles of the sidewalk and crossbars.

One is sometimes not sure a painting is finished, and with this one the foliage is what kept me futzing for a while. I'm still not happy with it--the foliage in the photo was much denser and more complex, and I just didn't have the will to continue, so I stopped. I'm not great with foliage in general, and I short-handed it, which is contrary to the style of the rest of the painting. But…to use a recently well-worn phrase that has absolutely no meaning, irritates me when I hear it from others, and yet seems to express one's emotion perfectly sometimes, "It is what it is." Done. I call it "Secret Garden" because despite all the detail, the thing I like most about the painting is the possibility inherent in opening that gate and finding out what's in the back yard!

Although I enjoyed working with the salt and feel it added a dimension to this particular subject, I'm not sure I will adopt it with the fervency with which Judy Morris uses it! Still, nice to know a tool is there when you need it, and I'm sure I'll try it again in some other context.

This is a larger painting (12x16), so I photographed it instead of scanning it, but I think the colors are pretty true.