I just took another look at my newly completed painting (above) to try for some settled sentiment I can include for my post, and I do have that – some settled sentiment.

I’m still digesting and assimilating what this new work means to me. Though I know it’s full meaning is still incomplete, because I also know this work is more a conscious marker of where I want to head, and feel compelled to head toward, I do have a grasp enough to point out some things that are making themselves more known to me.

I’ve included figures in my work since I began my painting in earnest, in the early 80s back in Galveston, shortly after my now wife Sheila and I had merged our two families and started a new on the island city ❤️

But my figure work was, like my work as a whole back, a massive thrust of intuition, grasping, and feeling I was touching something good within me with my work. A good example is Butterfly and Hand Surreal Abstract, where the figure in the acrylic painting wasn’t even in the title, lol!

The 2 figures, one reclining, one embryonic, both abstracted, are part and parcel, like my hand, fully integrated into the whole work. But without thought or consideration. Just exploring. Just having fun. Just seeing it all come together!

This new watercolor work, Barton Springs Greenbelt Indian Summer, is not that.

It’s a conscious movement back toward combining landscape (real or abstract or in-between) and human figure where both matter, much as I see with Renoir and Berthe Morisot, and more contemporaneously with our own time, folks like Steve Henderson on FAA.

I did do several full figure 30×40 paintings of Sheila herself, often placing items around her, like a lamppost or reflections on the glass inside a diner we liked, but these were of her, not what I’m aiming for now – to include figures in my landscapes of (for now) the greenbelt near us, esp, when/if possible, with dappled light.

This current work, comparing the before (right) and after (left) impact of inserting (vs including from the beginning) a figure, does offer I think some of what’ll happen more organically next time – syncing the figure and landscape in colors and tone.

As it is, disregarding the generally cooler cast of the finished work (due to lighting and the camera), you can kinda see I’ve added more areas of rose, warming the area around the girl/woman wading across Barton Creek. It actually does kinda look like this after a good rain, lol! 😊

But I had to add the rose tones throughout, in lesser and larger spots and intensities, to make the figure fit into the millieu of the scene.

This is much more apparent in a detail closeup crop like below —

It’s not perfect, or I should say, doesn’t perfectly match my intentions, since two distinct intentions decided they wanted to do a mashup, inside me 😊

I’m hoping next rendition, same basic image but in acrylic, will work out much better.

Definitely planning on starting with the size figure I want, lol!

We’ll see 🤞

Meanwhile, as I wrote for this newly finished piece on FAA —

Though I photo-captured the original image for this work this summer here in Austin, and it is summer, there is still a feeling of something lingering, ala the way Indian Summer days in fall might feel, including the spirit or presence of people who once also depended on the livability of this area. The woman wading through the water in the distance can feel that ancient presence watching over her from the surrounding rocks and woods.

https://felipeadan-lerma.pixels.com/featured/barton-springs-greenbelt-indian-summer-watercolor-felipe-adan-lerma.html

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Take care everyone!

Hopefully have my most viewed image from last week on Fine Art America up soon ♥️

Adan

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• January 01, 2023 – Happy New Year! : My Most Viewed Image the Last Week of 2022 @FineArtAmerica, Little Steps PosterJanuary 1, 2023
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• December 18, 2022 – 1st Return Appearance Since Spring : My Most Viewed Image this Past Week @FineArtAmerica, Blue with Gold Twilight – #PanoramaDecember 18, 2022
  Ocean waves of blue fill our skies and seas, cascading sighs and whispers of inspiration with each breath.
• December 11, 2022 – My Most Viewed Image this Past Week @FineArtAmerica, “Morning Light in Barton Springs Greenbelt, Austin Poster” ( circa 2021 ) #AustinTexas #AustinPhotographyDecember 11, 2022
  Morning Light Poster also recently sold at the Old Bakery and Emporium 🙏😌
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  I almost skipped even posting about it, but at 4x the views of the nearest most viewed of my images, I needed to drag myself out of my whatever-it-is recent posting stagnation, lol!
• November 21, 2022 – My Most Viewed Image this Past Week @FineArtAmerica, “Dispatcher” : circa 2011November 21, 2022
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• November 13, 2022 – My Most Viewed Image this Past Week @FineArtAmerica, “Cypress Creek Mid Afternoon Mid October” : Circa 2019November 13, 2022
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• November 08, 2022 – The Mid-Term Elections 2022 : This is It! If the Elections Are Important to You…VOTE!!!November 8, 2022
  If the elections are important to you – vote! 😊🇺🇸🙏

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Thanks again, everyone! 😊

Adan

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