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

*

Take care everyone!

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

Adan

My Related Posts Here On My Blog

My Related Amazon Affiliate Search Products
https://www.amazon.com/shop/felipeadanlerma

My Amazon search for “painting figures in watercolor” –
https://amzn.to/3rxkORK

My Latest Posts On My Website!

• November 21, 2022 – My Most Viewed Image this Past Week @FineArtAmerica, “Dispatcher” : circa 2011November 21, 2022
  I thought Dispatcher had once already been one of my most viewed of my work on Fine Art America, but I guess not! 😊 It’s been a popular poem, and with the holidays upon us, a great choice as a print or coffee mug ☕️ 🇺🇸
• November 13, 2022 – My Most Viewed Image this Past Week @FineArtAmerica, “Cypress Creek Mid Afternoon Mid October” : Circa 2019November 13, 2022
  Very unusual to have so many photos from my collection of images at Fine Art America show up among my 12 most viewed images there at FAA, and for so many showing up for the 1st time….
• 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! 😊🇺🇸🙏
• November 06, 2022 – My Most Viewed Image this Past Week @FineArtAmerica, “Arc de ( d’Nuit ) Triomphe Poster ” : Image Circa 2012, Poster 2017November 6, 2022
  Once again one of my poster designs was my most viewed image from among my listings for prints and gifts on Fine Art America….
• October 30, 2022 – My Most Viewed Image this Past Week @FineArtAmerica, “Volleyball Kill Poster” : circa 1994 ( writing ) / 2021 ( poster design )October 30, 2022
  Another of my sayings / posters made it as my most viewed of my work on Fine Art America this past week, Volleyball Kill, which I wrote in the early 90s….
• October 24, 2022 – My Most Viewed Image this Past Week @FineArtAmerica, “Danseur en Bleu” : circa 2022October 24, 2022
  Quite an unexpected treat to see my newest painting, Danseur en Bleu, it’s 1st week on Fine Art America, be my most viewed of my images for the past week!
• October 23, 2022 – A Beginner’s View : Inflation, the Economy, Climate, Clean Energy, Health etc, How Are They Related in Our Current Everyday Lives? – An On-Going Inquiry, Part 9 – #Inflation and Our 2022 Mid-Term Election to Keep/Improve Our #DemocracyOctober 23, 2022
  …while true that any price guidelines / control can be a slippery slope, we also already know price gouging has easily done slipped-slid-and-sunk into its own quicksand of problems….

*
Thanks again, everyone! 😊

Adan

Twitter / Instagram / FB @FelipeAdanLerma
Amazon Author Page – https://amzn.to/2YpgyUf
Fine Art America (FAA, Pixels) – https://felipeadan-lerma.pixels.com/