Autumn Marsh

Autumn Marsh by Linda Warner Constantino. copyrighted © 2009. Oil on gessoboard, 8 by 10 in.

I was able to run out and paint this painting as a demo lesson for my nephew who is an aspiring artist. It was 3 pm when we started painting and the sky and the light started to change every 5 minutes. Our total painting time was an hour and half. I painted this scene over the summer and it was a range of cool greens and now it was practically on fire. I think this is one of those scenes that I probably will continue to paint just for the practice of looking at it with a fresh eye.

Sawyer's Marsh by Sawyer Lash.

This is Sawyer my nephew's first plein air painting! I told him to focus on shapes and values and to mix his colors up first before painting to help him identify warm and cool changes and value variations. He put in the lightest light shape and then the darkest dark shape and worked from there. I love the shapes and colors. I may be biased by I think he did a great job!

Back to Tuscany June 2010

Road to Casole by Linda Warner Constantino © 2009 - 8 by 10 in.

I am thrilled to be going back to Tuscany in June of 2010 to teach two painting workshops! I will be teaching Watercolor Sketching and a Plein Air Painting Class in Oils. Both workshops will be based out ofSpannocchia a working organic farm and "green hotel". I will be posting more information in the coming weeks but I wanted to put the word out. If you are interested in taking one or both of the workshops, please contact me at linda@lwarnerconstantino.com.

I am attracted to painting in Italy for many reasons: I was an art history major in my undergraduate studies and Italy is so alive with a history richly steeped in the arts। The food is a cultural experience in itself. Dinner at Spannocchia is a wonderful way to relax and share the day's experience. Finally, there are so many views to paint. Great memories to take home.

Lovely Lemons

Copyrighted © 2009 by Linda Warner Constantino. Oil on linen 6 by 8 inches.

In the midst of working on some commissioned paintings from photos and small studies, it was fun to take a break and paint from life and paint this small study of lemons. Yellow is always a challenge for me to paint.

Two Tuscan Cedar Trees

Copyrighted © 2009 by Linda Warner Constantino. 8" by 10" oil on linen board.

I am busy painting scenes of Tuscany for a potential client and couple of shows coming up. I am working from photos as I am no longer in Italy but many of the places I have either sketched or painted or at least spent time in the location. In other words there is a real connection with the subject matter. I find this makes painting from photos so much more viable for me. Also, they are my images not someone else's. As an illustrator I have often worked from what I refer to as "alien" reference. While I learned to make it work for me I was never really comfortable unless I shot my own reference. I have been interspersing the work from photographs with still lifes done from life(which I will post eventually). I do this to keep the connection of working from life viable for me. I am not sure this makes sense to others but for me the direct experience of painting from life is the most fulfilling, and yet there was a time when working from life was utterly terrrifying.Hmm.

Copyrighted © 2009 Linda Warner Constantino. Oil on linen. 6 by 8 inches.

I do not know where my summer! I returned from Italy and just got busy. I taught an intensive 5 week schedule at SCAD and was doing some design work. I am back into my painting now and have had the time to photograph some of the paintings from my trip to Tuscany this past June where I taught a plein air painting workshop.

This is a quick little painting I created. The view looks at some farmhouses surrounded by vineyards. It was late afternoon and things were just starting to go golden. No matter what the day was like painting it was always nice to come back for the wonderful dinners at Spannocchia. Everyone chats about there day and casually enjoys dining. I loved it!

San Galgano

Copyrighted © 2009 by Linda Warner Constantino. 6" by 8"- oil on linen board.

This little building at San Galgano, Italy was irresistible. It had rained earlier in the day and in the early evening all the greens were so saturated. I find painting greens always a challenge.

plein air painting in Tuscany, small painting

Painting with Portland Grays

"Carmen's House"Copyrighted © 2009 by Linda Warner Constantino. Oil on linen board 8 by 10 in.

Here is a demo painting I did one day of the Plein Air Painting in Tuscany workshop using the Gamblin Portland grays. I think it was a good exercise to help students see value. I used portland gray light, medium, deep, chromatic black and titanium white.I layed in the grayscale painting first painting thinly and then added the local colors in afterward. The day was a bit hazy and lent itself to focusing on a range of values rather than strong plays of light and shade.

You can see the grayscale stage of the painting in this photo.

Sunny Doorway

Copyrighted ©2009 by Linda Warner Constantino. Oil on linen 6 by 8 in.

This is a doorway that I love at Spannocchia with the grapevine growing around it. I was struck with its casual kind of beauty.

At Spannocchia!

I am Italy preparing for my Plein Air Painting workshop this coming week. Please check out my Plein Air Painting in Tuscany blog where I will be posting photos and paintings.

Between the Showers

Copyrighted © 2009 by Linda Warner Constantino - 8" by 10"- oil on gessoboard.

When I woke up this morning it looked ominous. We have been having a lot of rain lately, but it cleared and got very hot around 8:30 am and out I went. This location is actually behind the local mall! I tried to work quickly but without reworking my strokes. I have found with gessoboard it helps to use a medium (classic - mineral spirits, stand oil, linseed oil) otherwise the porous nature of the board sucks the oil out of the paint and looks chalky the next day. I also like the consistency of the medium on this surface. When painting on oil primed linen I usually do not feel the need for a medium.