Ellen Jean Diederich Studio

Landscape workshop in Fargo in February! (Watercolor)

givinitypress — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:32:47 +0000

Hello Friends and fellow painters,

I am teaching again and you are invited to attend my workshop Landscape in Watercolor!
This will be held at the Holiday Inn in Fargo ND, from February 20 – 24, 2012 The cost will be $215.00 per student. Bring your own art supplies.

This week long workshop, will focus on practical skills to create and build landscapes in watercolor. Set buildings, people, and trees, water, clouds, and figures into a setting using perspective. Create atmosphere with aerial perspective. Learn how to use light to effect sunsets, clouds, and water. Taught by me, Ellen Jean Diederich, RRWS, TWSA, WSA, and local Fargo Artist.

Take a break from winter and learn how to paint captivating landscapes! For more information call or e-mail ellen@givinity.com or call 701-235-4241.

Space is limited so please don’t wait to sign up.

I like rows and paths with shadows

givinitypress — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 17:33:23 +0000

Here is a little watercolor I love. It is so simple. I found this house in Richardton, ND. I actually started by painting the vegetable rows months prior to that. I forgot all about this star and found it later in a pile unfinished watercolors. I had just gotten back my photos from a watercolor workshop I taught at the Abbey and decided to paint this house into the background. So it was kind of like putting two unplanned paintings together.

The suggestion is paint what you love. Vegetables are so good for you, and here we have sunshine and shadows. I was limited to the most basic shapes and I didn’t have the photography to detail the foreground. But I don’t think it needs it.

USING #5 GREY

givinitypress — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 17:21:41 +0000

USING #5 GREYWOW, was this a fun painting to c

PAARDNERS – (that’s Flemish for Belgian horses)

Wow was this a fun painting to create! It use the power of harmonies (analogous colors) and complimentary colors. I really learned a lot about using #5 grey also. When you are tinting (lightening) darker colors such as the blue in the grain bins, #5 reduces the value without changing the color. For this painting, I put a really dark blue under-painting in a horizontal band at the fence height. I mixed in # 5 grey then to give simple shape and shading to the grain bins. The under-painting was so dark, I used a marker to draw the horses out so I could see it. That worked great except in the foreground of the front. Originally I sketched a fence coming forward, which I decided I didn’t need. It took 3 layers of color to cover it up. Twas a bummer as I liked the fence and shadow area better prior to that. The good thing is that did not take away from the Belgian horses. On the horses I went wild stretching the palette on their coloring. At one point their got to be an eery unnatural orange color on the far right horse. Yet when I painted the highlights over it it gave the piece a most amazing zing. Full of fun surprises, I also used the # 5 grey in the hoofs and grass and it seemed powerful.

Media Comparison

givinitypress — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 20:59:46 +0000

Hi Every one,

Here is an interesting comparison between watercolor and Acrylic. I used a grid in the watercolor and and watercolor pencils on “Dakota Pride” on the left. ON the acrylic I used light molding paste put on with a pallet knife and then painted on top of that with acrylic in the piece called Steadfast. In order to learn acrylic better,I have found it helpful to paint familiar subjects. This is a prime example of this. I did notice that I paint beads up on the ridges when you cross them when I texture the ground. Has anyone else dealt with this or have suggestions?

Healing Garden

givinitypress — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 20:46:22 +0000

Hi everyone,

I hope you can see this healing garden image I attached. I was wondering if you were to choose which four are your favorites?

Sincerely, Ellen

New works

givinitypress — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 15:02:14 +0000

I’ve been busy completing several works for shows.    I will be adding to the blog soon additional images that were photographed together.
In Pastoral, I had an immediate good start to the piece. My under-painting was heavily textured and very pastel in tone. It did not add much contrast to the painting but did give a healthy mood to the painting. I left some of it exposed.
I turned the piece upside down right away and painted the patches on the cow first.    This was a great way to get into my right brain and see shapes and my drawing was adjusted. Things looked so good at first I was afraid to tackle them. —so I left the painting for a while. After 2 weeks I was able to diagnose some key areas I wanted to work on and to go for the highlights.
Sitting this painting next to my other paintings, I realized they all had the same green tones. I was using permanent green light with my blues and yellows. Because of this I have decided to pick up some more variety of blues and a couple of different greens. I will experiment with them soon.   I do like the greens in this painting but look forward to getting a variety of green tones in future paintings.

givinitypress — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 18:07:16 +0000

HI there , I have had some excitement here. Three of my paintings this one “Dakota Pride” hare included in a new book BEST WATERMEDIA ARTISTS OF AMERICA. I also have two other paintings included. In this watercolor I used watercolor pencil tod raw out a grid as an irregular fence. I painted the buffalo into it and used the gird to scrub out shapes or change colors. I did some etching with the watercolor pencils and painted over it— a cool effect. I just received my book last week and it looks great!

I have been working hard to create new watercolors and acrylics for the art crawl for the upcoming weekend October 2-3. Their iis more information under events on my website www.givinity.com

I have several pieces almost finished. Four acrylics on canvas and four watercolors. This is a very challenging phase of painting. I did however sit down with my journal and make decisions regarding the direction I would like these paintings to take. I feel good about my plans and hope to show you some new paintings soon.

Sincerely, Ellen

USING A GRID AS AN UNDER-PAINTING

givinitypress — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:42:18 +0000

The watercolor on the the left is titled “The Fargo Blues” the Acrylic on canvas on the right is titled “City Scape 2010″ I hope you enjoy these two paintings.

In the past I used a variety of under-paintings in my watercolors. I decided to experiment with them in Acrylic.

These two paintings both employed a grid as an under-painting. An under-painting is simply overall design plan balanced in the simplest way possible tying the finished painting together. In “The Fargo Blues”(left), a painting done using watercolor, the gridded under-painting is more obvious due to the transparency of the medium. In “Cityscape 2010”(right),a painting done with acrylic, the opaque paint can completely blocks out the grid. As you can see, the different mediums with the grid technique can form a completely different look and feel to each painting.

There was a little surprise with my “Cityscape” under-painting. To first step to starting this painting was to apply very thick gesso was applied with a piece of mat board in a grid like pattern. Since the acrylic under-painting would be covered up, I used intense color and smeared them on to the grid shapes. Soon I realized I couldn’t see my pencil drawing. So I redrew it using a sharpie marker instead. I painted around the windows first and suddenly had very dramatic reflections. My family was at the lake with me and they all started telling me not to cover “that” up. What do you think?

Getting Ready for Shows

givinitypress — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 01:03:34 +0000

Hi there,

I have been so busy painting ,ordering frames and matts for the upcoming exhibitions. I have the 8th Street Fine Art Show & Sale on 8th Street in Fargo, July 7- 8 “Wednesday- Thursday” 11:00 to 7:00. This isto followed by the Downtown Street Fair in Fargo the 15-17. Anyhow I have finished some beautiful watercolors and am working hard to pull together and reveal my first acrylics. I don’t know at this point if I will show any but I’m pretty sure I will. I’m a bit unsure of myself as I keep learning new things as I go and suddenly a small change can throw everything. It frankly surprises me as it is so much easier to cover up something with acrylic versus watercolor . However, in my acrylics the brushwork is really on display as I love the freshness of it.

I am working on the following paintings. White Daisies, Zinnias, Belgian Horses, and a vegetable garden. So far the mos likely to succeed are the Daisies and Belgians. I did finish today the most fabulous watercolor of Dinnerplate Dahlias. I recommend you stop by and see it while you can

What happened with the Zinnias?

givinitypress — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:51:35 +0000

Well I went wild with the Zinnia painting. I guess I needed an attitude adjustment about the gold gesso. It was so pretty and I kept trying to expose some of it, only to nearly destroy it with destructive attachment behavior. It seemed like a duh. Their are some basic of building up paintings that need to be thought of differently in a different media. Nor does acrylic paint blend itself easily like watercolor and their are different time expectations for specific areas. I will slow down as I got impatient. Currently, my background on my Zinnias is all wild and messy and way too loud but it is a new point to work from. I detached from and nearly covered all of the gold.

Acrylic and watercolors require entirely different timing in more ways than I ever knew. I now understand why I have been so busy discovering grounds to paint on. Large areas of paint see to require significant more attention despite needed simplicity. In response to this knowledge, I started another ground to work on. This time applying Utrect heavy gesso with a piece of mat board on top of a primed canvas. I moved it and scratched it with a stick for texture. When that was dry I rubbed my under-painting into all the crevices. I was especially excited to realize, as I looked through my sketch books, that my subconscious mind said “this would be good in acrylic”. It felt like a breakthrough as I haven’t been seeing my work in my mind with acrylic as of yet. So today I’m working on drawing this piece out and continuing on the wild and messy zinnias.

Good news! I did finish an acrylic of Belgians and really like it. Now I have to learn how to sign my name in this media. Also I’m working on a beautiful watercolor of pink Dahlias. So far it’s “scrumptious” plus it was relaxing to be more familiar with my painting techniques.