The making of the Magnolia Tree

The painting of the Magnolia Tree is part of the Best Onondaga County Trees Photo Challenge, an interactive art project funded by the individual artist commission grant from CNY Arts where I ask Onondaga County residents to capture the best trees they can in our county find and send their photo suggestions to me at mariarizzoart@gmail.com. Starting in March 2014, every month I pick one winning photo that I use as an inspiration to create an acrylic painting. Throughout the year I will choose 8 photos and create 8 paintings. The submission deadline is October 31st. The 8 winning contestants will receive written credit and the 1st limited edition print of the painting based on their photos.

  

The photo of the Magnolia tree from Tully, NY was taken by writer, Deborah Goemans and it's the 3rd winning photo selected for this challenge. Below you will see the development of this painting,  step by step and how my social media followers played a big part on the final result of this acrylic painting.

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The steps in approaching this piece were as follow:

1) I drew and blocked in the shapes of the branches and flowers with Raw Umber;

2) I painted the background with a couple of coats of mid-dtone color. Instead of using the traditional  brown color (Burnt Umber) I decided to recycle a color I had left in my palette from a previous painting, a mixture of 25% Cadmium Red and 25% Raw Umber, 25% Gel matte medium, 25% water ;

3) After the surface was completely dried (circa 5 min.), I blocked in the top portion of the sky, which was made with 80% titanium white, 5% Windsor blue and 5% Ivory black, 5% Gel matte medium, 5% water.

4) I painted the biggest flowers and the top flowers with a light pink tone made with 40% Cadium Red,  30% Titanium White, 20% Raw Sienna, 5% Gel matte medium, 5% water;

5) I painted the branches with 70% Raw Sienna, 10% Winsor Blue and 10% Primary Magenta, 5% gel matte medium and 5% water, and I introduced some lighter values to build dimensionality;

6) I applied the darkest hue of the flowers and to achieve that color I used 40% Primary Magenta, 40% Windsor Blue and 10% Raw Umber, 5% gel matte medium and 5% water;

7) I applied a pink mid-tone color to the flowers and added lighter hues on the end of the petals by glazing transparent coats of 30% Veridian, 20% Raw Sienna, 5% Primary Magenta, and 15% Titanium White, 15% gel matte medium and 15% water;

8) I coated the branches with transparent brushstrokes of green (40% Veridian, 40% Raw Sienna, 10% gel matte medium and 10% water).

9) I continued painting the sky on the left lower side and I gradually increased the blue.

10) I highlighted all the branches on the background with 70% Raw Sienna, 10% Winsor Blue and 10% Primary Magenta, 5% gel matte medium and 5% water, and I defined the branches on the foreground.

At this point, I was stuck.

 I really liked the red on the background but it looked unfinished that way.

I thought about covering all the red and just create a copy of the photo (boring, right?) or about saving the red, somehow. Creating a more surrealist and dreamy piece.

So I asked my faithful friends and fans on facebook what they thought I should do.

I received many responses and they all had the same answer: KEEP THE RED.

So, I did.

I left my perfectionist, kind of tedious way of approaching a painting to embrace a looser, more enjoyable painting style. Instead of copying exactly the photo, I listen to my gut and this painting took a truly distinctive direction.

I created glazes of 15% Windsor Blue, 25% Titanium White, 10% Primary Magenta, 25% gel medium and 25% water to build a misty effect.

I will share a couple of comments I received on facebook:

"STUNNING Maria! Best ever......"                -Clare Willson

"Love the colors, wants you to walk beyond the flowers to see what's on the other side"   -
Patrice Soltau

Deborah Goemans will receive written credit and the 1st limited edition print of this painting on Thurday, December 11th at the opening reception for the exhibition "Symbolic Tree" at the Onondaga Free Library. This art show will display the 8 paintings inspired by the Best Onondaga County Trees Photo Challenge and the Community Symbolic Tree.

Creating something Meaningful and Beautiful Together

Saturday, June 14th I set the easel and the art supplies at the Baldwinsville Public Library's community room for the creation of the Community Symbolic Tree, a painting that has been capturing the creative vision of Onondaga county residents since April 2014. 

 My very first resident of the day was artist, Maryann Guinta who added blues and pink hues to the sky. Thanks to her beautiful color applications, now the tree stands in a beautiful and calming sunrise.

The next person in charge of the painting was my great artist friend, Steve Nyland. He is a great advocate for the local art scenes and an awesome blogger. Steve meticulously added fine details of tall grass in the foreground.

My last Onondaga county resident was Jeff Madison, an amazing photographer and graphic designer, who continued Steve Nyland's mission to apply green texture to the hill.

Overall it was an amazing experience to see the slow transition from a gray underpainting to a colorful and vibrant painting. A transition that has been made easy thanks to all the hard work of previous residents who put their time and energy in creating the foundations of this piece!  I am grateful to the continuous support I receive from family and friends, and from Cny Arts who believed in this project form the very beginning. Last, but not least, a big thank you goes to the Onondaga county community who is working together to create something meaningful and beautiful to be shared with many generations to come.

I'm always looking forward to more creativity and inspiration; the next event is tomorrow at the East Syracuse Library, join me there!

Best Onondaga County Trees Photo Challenge - June 2014

Clare Willson - Cemetery in Dewitt, NY

This year, I received the Individual Artist Commission Grant from the CNY Arts 2014 Decentralization Program to engage Onondaga County residents in an interactive art project that promotes nature appreciation and community involvement in artistic creation. 

The Best Onondaga Tree Photo Challenge is the first part of this art project. My goal is to emotionally engage the community by asking Onondaga County residents to go into nature, find the most beautiful trees in our county, and send their suggestions to me with a photo.

I select eight trees from those sent to me and I paint them in acrylic on canvas. 

This deadline is October 31, 2014.

Evey month, I pick one winning photo that I recreate on canvas. During the process, I visually document the different stages of my work in progress, and I post the development of my body of work through social media.

Below you will see the most recent photos of trees submitted to me, and tonight at 6 p.m. I will announce June's winning photo!

Below, Dan Elsbey captured many angles of a unique, old tree located in Camillus, NY.

Ross Getman found a lot of  tree texture and colors at the Beaver Lake park.

Thomas Howard is a member of the Native Tree Society, one of the world’s leading Internet tree study groups. In the body of the email he sent me for the photo challenge he wrote some interesting facts about some of the trees in Onondaga county:

"In the northern suburbs stand some of the county’s greatest trees and old growth forests. In North Syracuse where I live are 2 rare old growth oak groves, with oaks over 200 years old, and 110 feet tall. One of these groves is named the Wizard of Oz Memorial Oak Grove as it is a likely inspiration for L. Frank Baum’s Great Forest of Oz; Baum grew up nearby in what is now Mattydale, and he knew the owner of the grove. The other oak grove, the North Syracuse Cemetery Oak Grove, is an utterly primeval stand of ancient oaks east of North Syracuse Cemetery on South Bay Rd.

Another old growth site, the Liverpool School Maple Grove, is near Liverpool High School, and contains what are most likely the tallest (up to 127 feet) and oldest trees in northern Onondaga County. The largest tree in the grove is a Sugar Maple 54 in. dbh (diameter at breast height or 4.5 feet above the ground, a standard forestry measure) and nearly 120 feet tall. This tree could be close to 400 years old; it may be the only surviving Military Tract Survey Witness Tree in NY. Military Tract lots were surveyed for Revolutionary War veterans around 1790, in an effort to encourage settlement in this area. A Witness Tree was marked by a surveyor with an ax – the scarred tree would mark a lot line boundary. There was a Military Tract Witness Tree, a Sugar Maple, on this spot, and this great old tree still bears what appear to be the scars made long ago by the surveyor. It is a healthy tree and has leafed out this spring. It is also the largest Sugar Maple I know of in Onondaga County.

I am submitting 3 photos of this great old Sugar Maple for your consideration. Please find these photos as attachments.The first 3 photos are of the Sugar Maple.

I am also submitting 1 photo of the largest tree in the Wizard of Oz Memorial Oak Grove near North Syracuse Junior High School, the L. Frank Baum Northern Red Oak, 49 in. dbh, over 117 feet tall, and over 140 years old."

Pamula Picciano sent photos of this very old sugar maple tree located in Tully, NY, that still faithfully offers maple syrup every year. Did you know that the sugar maple (Acer saccharum) is  the official tree of New York State?

Photographer,  Heidi Vantassel took some breathtaking pictures of a Magnolia tree in Manlius, NY and created some visually interesting black and white photos of trees in Pompey, NY. Check out her website at http://heidivantasselphotography.com/

If you want to participate in this challenge, I am always looking forward to see more photo submissions of the very best trees of Onondaga County! Email your photos to me at mariarizzoart@gmail.com with your name and the location of your tree subject. Good Luck!

Painting the Community Symbolic Tree

This year, I received the Individual Artist Commission Grant from the CNY Arts 2014 Decentralization Program to engage Onondaga County residents in an interactive art project that promotes nature appreciation and community involvement in artistic creation. 

The CREATION OF THE COMMUNITY SYMBOLIC TREE is the second element of this art project and I serve as the artistic director and guide the residents of our community in depicting the creative vision of Onondaga County.

My goal for the second element is to promote harmony and a feeling of identity and purpose among the members of our community, as well as to share the right techniques on how to successfully execute a painting.

For the creation of the community Symbolic Tree, each Saturday morning for 5 months beginning in April, I set up the canvas in a participating library in Onondaga County and invite its residents to sign up to participate in the painting process (email me to sign up).

Saturday, May 31st and Saturday, June 7th I set up the Community Symbolic Tree respectively at the Fairmount Community Library and at the Maxwell Memorial Library. The following photo gallery will show you how these seven Onondaga county residents were all essential in positively shaping this painting.

At the Fairmount Community Library, Marylin L. Marcy wrote the word Pompey on the tree-map of Onondaga county, Dan Elsbey highlighted the upper left branches of the tree and Linda Helles finished the underpainting of the hills in the mid section.

At the Maxwell Memorial Library, in Camillus, NY I had two professional artists, Shailesh Joshi and Mick Mather (http://mickmathersartblog.tumblr.com/) add tremendously to this community painting. Shailesh painted the lushes grass and stones in the foreground and Mick sensibly created the underpainting of the far away mountains on the background. Then librarian, Rena Brower and Onondaga resident, Theresa Stachurski painted the words Spafford and Skaneateles on the tree-map. At the very end of this event abstract artist, Linda Bigness stopped by to give some constructive criticism to improve the overall harmony of this painting suggesting to have some residents add some branches on the right side of the tree.

If you want to help, join me this Saturday, June 14th at the Baldwinsville Public Library. To sign up  email me at mariarizzoart@gmail.com.