Football on the Beach

Jean Kelly · 03-07-2005, 04:36 PM

This turned out to be a quickie for me, and a lot of fun. This little boy's mother is a hairdresser and practices on her son. This time he had bright blond highlights in front. But he is all boy and has quite an arm.

I started using sun thickened linseed oil on this one, and discovered I needed some advice, thanks Michael! Palette is all earth tones and I still got vibrant color. Vermillion and Ruby lake mke up the shirt.

It's 16x20 on a cradled panel.

Jean

John Reidy · 03-07-2005, 06:19 PM

Jean,

Lovely boy. Lovely face. I like the simple composition, it works well with the subject. It is fun, isn't it!

Jean Kelly · 03-08-2005, 02:15 PM

Thank you John, this was a fun day on the beach, and brought up nice memories while I was painting it. This young man comes every weekend to stay so he got to watch it unfold. He modeled for his freckles last weekend and made sure I found every one.

I took better photos today. My camera intensifies the red tones, so I decreased the contrast and saturation to the minimum. My Photoshop program is still lost on the old computer so I can't do anymore adjusting yet. Computer crashes are a real pain! I hope these post more realistic.

Jean

Julie Boyles · 03-19-2005, 12:27 PM

Jean,

I've been meaning to tell you how much I love this piece! I love the skin tones you achieved and his expression is priceless. Like you said, "all boy". The atmosphere you created is so real in this painting! I can almost hear the waves coming in.

Congratulations,

Julie
________
Hashish

Jean Kelly · 03-19-2005, 02:14 PM

Thank you Julie, I'm glad you like it. It was a very cloudy, windy day, and we had two rough and tumble little boys with us. The beach was empty so we had the whole thing to ourselves. They played football and I took pictures.

Jean

Chris Saper · 03-19-2005, 08:40 PM

Jean,

This may be my favorite of yours as well... I love the texture in the hair and water.

This has such a sense of a cold day on the beach, of course that's kind of my view of Wisconsin. My dad used to say "July in Wisconsin is just three weeks of bad sledding.")

Jean Kelly · 03-20-2005, 12:28 AM

Hi Chris, thank you!

It's still a bad photo of the painting, but pretty close. I still don't have my photo program up and running yet. I really appreciate your praise, his hair and the water were fun to do. This wasn't in July, it was fall so all the tourists were gone. And no, we don't sled in July, we go to Devil's Lake and swim in the 55 degree water and we like it! This was at Devil's Lake where I practically grew up, my favorite place in the whole world. Did you ever go there?

Jean

Patricia Joyce · 03-22-2005, 11:51 AM

Jean,
Your depiction of a story is wonderful. Great energy in this painting, and he is full of sparkle and fun. I love it!

Jean Kelly · 03-22-2005, 05:44 PM

Thank you Patti! I'm glad that happy, playful, feeling comes across. He is a great kid.

I looked at this on my son's monitor and it's really washed out, I have a Mac and I'm wondering if people are seeing this as extremely "cold". In reality it's not that chilly looking, water is more grey with green, his face has all the warmth. And his shirt is calmer than how I see it on my monitor. I'll have to check the settings on mine, so I don't dull things down so far that it lacks life.

Jean