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11×14″

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I did a series of door paintings this past spring for some of my classes. It was such a big hit that I was asked to teach how to paint more doors. Yeah! I love doors.

But I must admit, the doors were not a hit with everyone. I entered two of my door paintings in the Federation of Canadian Artist’s Small, Smaller, and Smallest show. They were Locked In and Knock, Knock. Both of them were rejected. I’m a little sad. It has been a while since I have entered any FCA shows since I have been busy working on my thesis. I was hoping to get back into the swing of things. It also makes me a little hesitant about entering their big signature show which is due next week. Rejection is part of the game of being an artist but it is still scary and isn’t any fun at all.

I digress though. 

I told my students I would be posting this painting and talk about a couple of the steps. So here goes:

First I did a pale wash of winsor yellow and alizarin across the door. While wet, I added french ultramarine blue and burnt sienna to the walls. Then I tossed on some salt. Let it dry. Scrape off salt.

Next I used raw sienna, burnt sienna, and french ultra on the emblem and the lower walls, adding salt to create texture. 

Winsor yellow was done as an even wash panel by panel on the door. After the yellow dried, I glazed permanent rose panel by panel on top of the yellow.

I added detail to the emblem and the lower wall with ultramarine/burnt sienna mix. Then I started to glaze a mix of burnt sienna and perm. rose to the doors. This mix I used to build up dark in some areas and not so much with the panel on the left. Ultramarine was added to this mix to make it darker and then I did the shadows and the detail work with that. The sidewalk was done with a mix of ultramarine and burnt sienna.

The cat is raw sienna, then burnt sienna, and finally the dark mix of ultra/burnt sienna.

Whew! Think I got most of it.