"The Perfect Ride" 20" X 12"

The Perfect Ride by April M Rimpo

The Perfect Ride

Fluid Acrylic

20" X 12"

Selected for the Pike Peak International Watermedia Exhibition, April's painting, The Perfect Ride, will be on display from June 4 - July 30, 2019 in Colorado Springs. It is one of 100 paintings selected from a field of 360 entries. Many thanks to all who organize this exhibit and to the juror Martha Mans.

You may guess the narrow street made of cobblestones is not in the United States and you would be right. The Perfect Ride captures the textures of life in this small village and the necessity for small motorcycles for traversing the narrow roads. I don't recall seeing a single bicycle during our travels through this town, since I'm sure the ride would be far from smooth. Most people walk everywhere, as you can see by the amount of foot traffic, but the streamlined motorcycles were good for longer travels. If going between towns and you need to carry goods to market, you might find the Chicken Bus more useful.

I love painting motorcycles maybe more than bicycles, that may be hard to believe, but the equipment is more intricate and provides an additional challenge. Combine the motorcycles with cobblestone and the colors of the buildings and you know I had to paint this. Gaining the right skills to know how to accomplish this painting is why it took nearly 10 years from when I first was inspired until the painting was born.

Interested in April's artwork or taking her classes? Consider becoming a Studio Friend by signing up for her twice-monthly email. April segments her newsletter so you can select topics you'd like to hear about when you sign up. For those who include a selection of General Interest you will receive emails about twice-monthly. If you are only interested in classes, then the emails will be much less frequent discussing upcoming classes and how to register.  Thank you for your interest.

Contact April and see more of her art on her website

Copyright April M Rimpo All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.

"A Cheery Place" 10" X 8" Acrylic

A Cheery Place by April M Rimpo

A Cheery Place

10" X 8" painting

11" X 9" Silver Wood Frame

Available at HorseSpirit Arts Gallery
8600 Foundry Road, Savage, Maryland
in Historic Savage Mill 

Amsterdam is one of the few places outside the United States that my husband and I have traveled to more than once and would love to visit again. It is not just the city we love but The Netherlands in general. One of the places that really delighted me on our last trip was Volendam. This little town is traveled to by tourists mostly to visit the dock, to explore all the shops, and to try great food. We were lucky enough to wander through the town itself.  Among the wonderful sights was this little village.
Likely the first thing you noticed were the Minion trash cans outside these homes. You may have also noticed the bicycles lined up in the little alley behind the Minions. But one detail I didn't notice until I was painting this scene was that each home had a painting by the front door. I have never seen anything like this. How could you not fall in love with this village?

Click here to Contact April or visit her website to explore her paintings on the Art page.

Interested in learning more about April's art inspirations, tips about her painting process, or art business tidbits? Want to know when her art is in exhibits? Consider joining her friends and collectors by signing up for her twice-monthly email.

Copyright April M Rimpo All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.

Featured Art - Cycles

Cycles - 16" X 26" X 1.5" Original Fluid Acrylic Painting
Gallery Wrapped - SOLD

Cycles on Display at RE/MAX
20" X 32" Giclee on Canvas

This is the first in a series of posts on the art I have featured at Re/Max Advantage Realty in downtown Baltimore. I have a mixture of original paintings and prints on display. Cycles is one of the large canvas prints of my original fluid acrylic painting, shown above. 

The colors in the print and original match perfectly. Because of the quality of the scanned image of my painting, the print is actually larger than the original painting. The painting is 16" X 26" while the print is 20" X 32".  The original was painted so the image wraps around the edge and the same is true of the print.

The art on display is for sale and purchases can be made through me. If you want to see the print you can visit RE/MAX Advantage on your own or I'd be happy to meet you there. Contact me through my website to arrange a time. 

Interested in a different size print, contact me to discuss sizes and to obtain a quote.

Options:

Canvas Print 20inx32in $420.00 USD

Interested in learning more about April's art inspirations, tips about her painting process, or art business tidbits? Want to know when her art is in exhibits? Consider joining her friends and collectors by signing up for her twice-monthly email.

Copyright April M Rimpo 2016 All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.

Cycles - A Work in Progress

The Spring paintings are just about out of my system now that the weather has improved. The threatened snow, predicted earlier this week, did not happen, so all is so much better in the world. 

Instead I started on a new painting that I plan to include in the "Modes of Transportation" solo exhibit I'll have later this year. So far the drawing for Cycles is done and the first two layers of poured paint have been completed. 

Cycles Step 1: Mask and First Poured Wash

I wanted to show you photos I took after the first two pours to show how much the personality of a painting can change with color. The first image is shown at left. I wanted soft grays in this first layer with just a little tinting of lavender and orange-tan. The lavender is a result of Cobalt Blue mixing on the paper with Quinacridone Coral. The next photograph shows a closeup of the center of the painting where you can see there is a fair amount of variation in this layer, but only noticeable in the closeup image.

I succeeded in achieving a fairly neutral gray underpainting, but was worried that the finished painting would be too muted if I didn't take a much bolder step with my next pour.

I mixed a tan, orange, and Cadmium Red Light together in a cup and produced an orange I liked. That color excited me enough that I took out a different sheet of paper, thickened the liquid mixture with acrylic medium and placed some randomly on the paper. Next I took some tube acrylic Cerulean Blue added that to the paper and sprayed it with water to loosen it up a bit and let it run around.  I ended up adding some white liquid acrylic in a few areas to create some lighter areas.  I don't know what I will be doing with that full sheet, but I liked the color combinations and decided to use a much more subtle version of that for my next pour on Cycles. 

I slept on it and must admit each time I awoke that night I realized I was thinking about the painting. By morning I had a plan how I would use the colors I had experimented with to brighten Cycles without drowning it in so much color that I lost the first layer.  I had applied more mask to the painting to preserve linear areas in the motorcycles that needed the first lighter grays, but that didn't mean I totally wanted to obfuscate what remained of the first pour in areas I had not preserved.  This is where transparency of the pigment is so important.

Cycles Second pour: Adding a bright middle value

So here is the result of the second pour. I started with an orange mixture similar to what I had created the day before and applied it selectively along with some Quinacridone Coral and a tiny amount of a yellow blend that was predominantly Quinacridone Gold. I wet these pours and tilted the support board to get the oranges to move about until I was happy with their placement.

Next I  added some Cerulean Blue in a rhythmic pattern between the orange areas and some French Ultra blue near the top, outer edges of the motorcycles, and a little in the shadow area below the bikes. I didn't want the foreground to get dark, so I tilted the board toward the top of the painting and let the color flow and intermix on the paper. I avoided using a brush as much as possible because using complementary colors at the same time does risk turning to brown. The light lavender blends you see between the blues and oranges are from the first pour. Since these complementary colors did not touch very much.

Here is another closeup from the center of the painting where you can see how the Cerulean Blue and Orange shades intermingled beautifully and the underpainting colors shine through. The Quinacridone Coral is visible in the tire toward the right from the first layer; Some green blends were created from the second pour where the Quinacridone Gold and the blues combined.  It is this wonderful intermingling of color that I love about watercolor and fluid acrylic.  This painting is entirely fluid acrylic but since I handle it like watercolor, watering down the paint so it flows on the paper, very similar results are achieved.

Now it's time for me to figure out the third, and likely last pour. I'll get to a medium dark value with the third pour and then I'll shift to my brushes to finish the darkest areas.