Two Versions

"Downstream Autumn"

watercolor, 15 x 22 inches

"Bottom of the Dome"
watercolor 15 x 22 inches

There is a park in California called Yosemite National Park. If you have been there, you KNOW that it touches the soul. If you have never been, it must be put on your 'bucket list' to go before the end of your life. If you go, you will, no doubt return. One cannot help but be struck with awe by witnessing the immensity of the granite walls.

I just finished spending a week there . . . .painting. The images I have posted during October were of that place. My heart and mind were already making paintings long before I went there. As a result, I had ideas for experiments and trials of different painting approaches when I arrived.

One was to use bright red orange line through a painting to define flat shapes. Another, of course, was to paint en plein air the beautiful Autumn foliage.

At the river bottom, under the shadow of the massive half dome, I painted some reality on my first day . . .and dreamt of the orange line idea for a few nights before springing from bed early one morning to dash out the idea. I rather like the imapact of the pure hues and tints against the near black ridge in the abstracted version. Impactful. But the other version offers a significantly different mood. . . . . A restfulness, I suppose.

It matters not. What matters is the idea was carried out. In later posts I will show similar ideas tried . . . .which offerred interesting discoveries.

It was a wonderful, magical trip with lots of revelations to ponder and try.

Overcoming Big Design Errors

"Blowhard II"

watercolor, 22 x 30 inches

It never fails . . .or, so it seems. When I think I know what I am going to do . . .and begin without a substantial plan . . . . .I end up digging myself out of substantial design problems.

D’ya suppose there is a relationship there?

Okay, okay! The tree part is where I put all the plan time, but the rest of it got the best of me for a good while. First off, after the painting was blocked in and I had established the darks of the tree mass, it occurred to me I would be making two, not one, but two different paintings on the same piece of paper. I had divided the paper right across the midline of the page. Ouch!! As well, I had put a number of small shapes together slightly left of center, which crossed over the dividing line.

Oh NO!!! oh yes! Not only did I need to find a way out of the space division, but also I had created a large to small contrast well away from the center of interest (upper right) and set up a competition for attention. Gads!!

That entire ‘shelf’ on which the trees stood had to be broken in some way and I had to figure a way to have that big dark value bleed down well beyond the ‘shelf’ line so I would have a large, prominent dark holding a large chunk (more than half) of the paper real estate. I had to sponge off a bunch of pigment to obliterate the small shapes then use that space to create an addition to the large dark (the trees). So I did.

All of that has taken almost five days to bring to conclusion. There is a lesson here: Plan First. And not just in the mind. Make drawings and studies first. It seems like the long way, but it really is the shorter way.

Experimenting with the Elements

Line Experiment

watercolor 14 x 21 inches

It has been a while since posting last. To get back into the painting mode I will sometimes take on a familiar subject and ‘let her rip’ by applying the paint in ways that are completely different than my normal painting ‘style.’ In this painting I used wet paper and an oil painting filbert brush to scrub in the paint. This yields wild and brilliant colors but also opened the door to using line in an otherwise different way. In the end, all of the elements (7 of them) are present, but some are emphasized in such a way as to attract attention.

This painting of half dome in Yosemite was more of an experiment than a painting. It may never see a frame or a mat, but it certainly allowed me to ‘get off the leash to run’ and get the crazy urges out of my system. It served another purpose: discovery. While fooling around in a free fashion, I found a few little ideas (like red shadows) and using dense, opaque colored line (integrating gouache into the watercolor pigment) atop the trees. This shifted the focus from the dome to the trees and the white shape behind them. These discoveries of how to exploit the different elements of design can often lead to new approaches in more serious paintings.

Open Studio is finished for 2009. Now I am putting everything away for next year and attempting to get back to living a normal life. Thanks to all who came and a special thanks to all my enthusiastic patrons.

More Self Promotion

"Yosemite Awaiting Winter"

watercolor, 21 x 29 inches

There are just weeks where everything seems to work right . . . .that is to say work properly. And these last few weeks, have been very very exciting and rewarding . . .all the efforts are bringing wonderful rewards.

Over the last several weeks, I have been planning a trip to Yosemite while preparing for open studio. To say the least, I haven’t been able to get Yosemite out of my thoughts. A special about our National Parks on TV hasn’t helped, either. It served to hammer me into a mental place of craving to paint. So, this is another of the Yosemite pieces done while prepping for Open Studio.

Oh! Did I just say OPEN STUDIO again? I did. It is only half over. If you didn’t make it by my home and studio last weekend, there is still one more weekend . . . .October 17 and 18 from 11 AM to 6 PM.

The first weekend of OPEN STUDIO was exciting! We had approximately 500 people come to visit. Not all at once, but it was a steady flow of people for both days. With over 70 framed pieces up and my studio set up to accommodate lots of interesting art thoughts and demos, people were glad they came. Won’t you join us on the 17th and 18th?

Shameless Promotion . . .

"Low Water"

Watercolor, 22 x 30 inches

SOLD

That time has come again. OPEN STUDIO at my house and studio.

In the haste to prep for OPEN STUDIO over the last several weeks . . . . . . .(Oh, yes! There is a ton of work to be done; framing, cleaning, setting up, arranging everything, cleaning and tidying and . . . .gads! The work is overwhelming! ) (Yes, I mentioned cleaning more than once.) . . . . . . . . . . .but where was I? Oh yes, In the haste for prepping for OPEN STUDIO, I found myself terribly distracted; to hell with cleaning. I wanna PAINT !!! I couldn't resist. So, I managed to sandwhich it in while I was doing my diligence.

This painting came as a result of several small studies I did at the easel while I was procrastinating getting ready for OPEN STUDIO. My mind was on a few other things, like lessons in value organization and composition for my classes. Those studies revealed this composition which has some merit, I think, for value discussions. But that is another subject . . . . . . . .

OPEN STUDIO IS THIS WEEKEND (OCTOBER 3&4) FROM 11 TO 6 PM. If you are in Santa Cruz, go toward Felton on Graham Hill Road. Once past the horse grounds (2.5 miles) you will see the green signs, with "BAILEY" on them, directing you directly to the house. Coming from San Jose, take 17 over the mountain and get off on the Sims Road / Graham Hill Road Exit . . .turn left on the frontage road. Proceed to the stop sign at Sims and turn right. At the end of Sims at Graham Hill Road, you will see the green signs. Follow them.

Can't make it this weekend? We are also open October 17 & 18 11 to 6.

In addition to OPEN STUDIO, my work is on display at Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz and County Bank of Santa Cruz. There is a reception at the bank's main office the Friday evening.

Okay. I admit it. I am promoting myself and my art here sans shame. (Last nite I was a guest on a local radio program to promote it, also). Nope!! My modesty could be noted as a weakness, I suppose. But Hey! Let's forget all that and let's party at my Open Studio!! Be there or be square, as they say!!! :-))

Resurrection

"Edge of Summer"

watercolor, 22 x 30 inches

SOLD

At this time of year, I clean out my flat files to find what to exhibit at my annual Open Studio.

There are always a few unfinished paintings on which I became stuck, or unable to finish for one reason or another . . . . .usually it is some design indecision and huge doubt about continuing that causes me to stop and put the painting away. Often times, the painting will lean against my studio wall where I can see it. Eventually, the idea becomes stale and the painting ends up languishing in the flat file . . . .sometimes for 5 or more years!!

In the clean out process, I will invariably come across one or two that yell out to me to finish. And they do so with instant knowledge of what needs doing. You might even say that this is a resurrection from the boneyard because many simply wait to be destroyed and thrown out.

It is nice to be able to pull one out, now and then, which speaks to me so loudly. This one did . . . . . . .and I'm now happy that I saved it for the time to let my knowledge catch up to what was needed in the painting.

Elhorn Road Value Experiment

oil, 8 x 10 inches

I recently watched and listened to an artist do a demo (in oil) and sat bolt upright suddenly, as if I had been slapped, as he mumbled something about value relationships in landscape painting.

Huh? What did he mean by relationship? Oh, did he ever explain it and demonstrate it!

He made something become so very clear that I was absolutely struck by the revelation. Mind you, some of you out there will simply say, “Oh, thaaaat? Of course I knew thaaat,” and wonder why I have been so asleep for the last 20 years. I may have missed it more than once, but this time I really heard it.

The revelation was this: A painting has four kinds of ‘planes;’ the sky plane, the ground plane, upright planes and angled planes. Tall trees can be upright planes or a solid cliff. Just so it is vertical. The ground plane can be the top of a bush, too if it is near parallel with the ground. His mumbled wisdom was that the sky is the lightest valued plane in the painting. The ground plane the second lightest (that is slightly darker than the sky), while the vertical planes were the darkest.

He went on to say that there were accent darks and accent lights which were the darkest of the dark and lightest of the light . . . . .to be used most sparingly.

The point was simply that the ground relates in value to the sky, as do many of the highlights. The angled planes are darker than the ground and, thus, relate. Inside all of these four sets are the values of shadow and light. In the verticals, the darkest shadows occur, while on the angled planes there is a subset of shadow values lighter than the dark vertical set of values, which are related between the ground and the verticals. Another way to say relatedness would be to use the word **compared.**

On he went. And it was amazing to me. I grabbed a painting that I had done en plein air a few weeks ago and put it up on the easel and saw immediately why I wasn’t happy with it. The value relationships were all wrong! In ten minutes I glazed over the painting following the above wisdom and VIOLA ! What an incredible difference! The painting not only worked, but it sang!! Today, into the studio I went to whip up a similar composition using a different color scheme, but promised to paint those relationships of value. Whooopeee!!

This is so worth practicing and making careful note of the values as I mix them on the palette. There is more to this, but for now, I am jazzed to be fiddling with the basic relationship proposition. I can already see that the foreground is much lighter than the sky. . . .and that bluish background shape needs to be a lighter value. What an incredible tool!

The Power of Line

"Sax and Line"

Watercolor, 11 x 15

"Still Doodle 100"

watercolor, 15 x 22

Line has been used for centuries to create various kinds of art. In drawing, of course, much of that discipline is controlled by line. In painting, also, line plays a vital part in causing the mind to ‘see’ the artist’s intention. And, line can be both expressed directly, or it is often implied by ‘points’ or objects, where the mind imagines the connections and, therefore, can ‘see’ the ‘lines.’

As an element of design, line is often the first element put into play by the artist as he or she sketches or outlines objects and placement thereof onto canvas or paper. It isn’t until later that shading (values), texture and color are added to express some visual feeling of form and space. Line itself can be the dominant element in a painting. If used in certain ways, it can suggest, without actually delineating, shape or form through simple gestural movement in the picture space.

It is often challenging, enlightening and entertaining to select a single element from the list of seven elements and bring it to prominence in a painting. What is more, such choices can often set up ideas for new paintings.

I have shown some line ideas here in these two doodles (that’s what I am coming to call experiments that have no purpose of ever becoming a finished or a “work of art.” Notice how shape is merely suggested with line. Also, you may find some of the lines worthy of noting simply for their own ‘beauty’ or character.

Line is used in the still life doodle to show contour, surface, texture, direction and even shadow. . . . . .all of those things without actually saying any those things expressly. The other piece, line is used as a gestural suggestion without defining shape. The mind has to fill in the blanks.
Enjoy thinking about it.

Playing "What If"

"Still Life-98"

watercolor, 15 x 22 inches

As you already know, I have been working on many different versions of this same still life.


Nothin' new, you say?

I would beg your indulgence for just a moment. Playing "What If" is no boring pastime. It is the sure path to discovering something new, something unusual . . . . .and certainly the path to finding one's personal voice in painting. Y'see, when the artist has nothing to lose and it doesn't matter what others think about a piece, that artist is much more willing to take chances and try things that may not make sense or to take risks when more 'serious' approaches would cause risk avoidance.

As this painting was finished today, there was a missing element in the lower right foreground. It was here that the risk was staring back at me and mocking me to go ahead. The pattern of "dotted i's" on the green vase needed another repetition and that lower corner needed some of that neutralized green to balance things. So, there it is. Could I have spoiled the painting? Yep. Was I taking a risk (can't erase here with all that surrounding texture)? Yep. Does it make sense or seem 'real?' Nope. Did it work? Yep.

I think, frankly, that little silly touch is actually funny. The entire tone of the painting (mood) is sort of tongue in cheek. The entire painting is constructed of "what if" shapes and colors and values. Reality is suggested when it couldn't possibly be that way. So, the doodling around with an old theme, just messin' with ideas to see what would happen exposed some new approaches having to do with repeating patterns, gradations, shapes and color intensities. I learned more today!

Isn't that what this painting business is all about? Growth and learning?

A Note To Followers and Visitors

Go visit http://www.chriswillwalk.com/

Chris, a young father of two and loving husband, sustained a severe spinal injury a few weeks ago through a freak accident. And, he had no health insurance.

Read the story for yourself. Visit the blog. And do him and his family a favor . . . .just a small one:

If you have a blog, put the web link on it. . . . .and call attention to it.

Through whatever means you have, spread the word to others to visit Chris's site and blog.

This action will help make contact around the world and will implore those who see his and his family's plight to contribute or help . . . .even a little bit.

Just IMAGINE how many people COULD be helping if you put in a little bit . . .like a link.

The multiples that are possible really are mind blowing. Let's all pitch in with just a little help.

Link to http://www.chriswillwalk.com/. What have you got to lose?

Series Article

Still life 93

Watercolor 15 x 22 inches

You have, no doubt, heard about the idea of 'working in series.'

There are tons of reasons for it, one of which is to improve on a theme. The least obvious is that through the confinement of doing some single thing over and over again is that the artist's creative mind is awakened and begins to work overtime. I say that it is liberation through confinement.

In fact, if you'd like to know more about the process of series work and what it can do for you and your art . . . . .or if you are a lay person and want to truly understand what the mystery is inside of an artist's work process . . . . .pick up a copy of the October issue of "WATERCOLOR ARTIST" magazine.

In that magazine is an article entitled, "Play it Again" authored by yours truly. I hope you find it interesting.

Oh, the painting above is another in the long series of still life experiments. This one was done yesterday. I do these when I yearn to paint but have no specific idea of **what** to paint. This helps me loosen up for paintings to come, exercises my creative muscles, opens thinking channels, allows me to experiment without danger of failure and on and on and on. Thought you might like to see how I 'doodle' with my paints.

On Glazing and Mist

"Elkhorn Neighbors"

oil on stretched canvas, 16 x 20 inches

This painting is a breakthrough to new territory for me: the use of glazinng and also painting a convincing illusion of haze or atmospheric mist.

To date, most all the oils have been painted ala prima . . . .or directly. The great thing about painting watercolor effectively is that one must learn to mix value, as well as color. That skill has transferred nicely to the oil world and has helped in the setting up of atmospheric perspective. In this painting, however, so much was necessary to establish a sense of space and forms disappearing up the background hill that repeated adjustments of value and color (cooler tones) had to be progressively overlaid on dried coats of paint.

I am finding another world in oil painting . . . .one full of variables and methods, not to mention substances and mediums. It is a maze, indeed. And while I am foolin' round with this stuff, I am still plugging away at my watercolors . . . . . because . . . . .well, (ahem) it's "Home" to me.

Square Deal

"Elkkhorn Backwater"

oil on stretched canvas, 12 x 12 inches

Having never painted on a square format before now, I have always shied from it because there was no dominant direction in the format. That is, neither dominantly horizontal nor vertical. Considering the golden mean, there is no way to express it in the square, at least, as far as I am aware. So, it is very important, in my opinion, to place dynamic, unsymmetrical, 'moving' shapes inside the square to excite the viewer. Otherwise symmetry leads to boredom.

The long, leading linear light valued shape on the water's edge leads the eye deep into the square in an oblique direction, thus giving the internals of the square some tension and movement. The end of that shape, or line, the viewer is immediately attracted to the orange shapes lying out in the distance. Much is going on in this seemingly quiet, static square.

On the way to another painting site a few weeks ago, we stopped at this location to photograph the beutiful contrasts of the hills, the swarming green succulent, the orange fungus ( I think it is a fungus), and the water / reflections. Having just finished painting for the day, we only had time to photograph and go.

Working from my computer monitor in my studio, I was able to take a few days developing this painting . . . .glazing, reshaping, refining, recoloring . . .what ever was needed to refine this to the art piece that it is. I enjoyed it and like the result!

Meanwhile, I am painting the interior of our home and removing old "popcorn" ceilings. the labor is abusive, that is for sure. What's more, the abuse doubles because I am away from my beloved easel. Some deal!!

More Amazement

Click on this . .then compare

Okay. So you didn't believe that the color was the same in the last post? I understand. I didn't either, though I suspected it might be true. I teach color and judging color in the context of other colors is something which is taught and emphasized. I still wasn't sure.



So, Here is another shot for you to check out. Click the image. It will enlarge. Then, use your fingers or two pieces of paper to isolate the blue / blue green by forming a narrow slot through which you can only see the blue / blue green. You'll see.



I am still bowled over by this illusion !



I am painting. But this is really important to all painters to understand what happens to color on their canvas. I'll be posting some paintings to see in the next day or two. In the meantime, be well!

Much To YOUR AMAZEMENT

Color Illusion

Those of us who are painters know that color is judged in the context of the colors surrounding them. That is to say that the way we, as humans, process color every color looks different when surrounded with other colors.

This illustration above is from an article in a Discover magazine blog which is a MUST READ

While you look at the above color spirals, you might be interested in knowing that the greenish and the blue spirals are exactly the same color!!!!!!

Yup! Blue green is the color . . .sort of a teal color, actually. Someone in that blog isolated the colors in photoshop and, sure enough, they are indeed precisely the same color. The color is influenced by the magenta and the orange stripes. Amazing, eh?

Disappearing Act

"Flat Foot"

Oil on stretched canvas, 16 x 20 inches

This scene is a familiar one to me. I used to park at the end of this long spit of rock, in my car, when I was an older teen, to neck with my girlfriend. The road went all the way out to the end. Since then, much has been lost. And even recently, the sea eats away at this spectacular chunk of rock and sandstone.

This subject has been attempted before, several times, but this time my senses were able to add some interest by allowing some colors to be present that most folks would never associate with this grayish rock. Instead, I figured, let’s entertain the viewer. That’s the really cool part of being a painter. I can make that rock look any way I want it to appear. Hope you like it.

Life Can Be Cruel

Please excuse my changing the subject here. This is very important to my family.

Years ago, my youngest daughter met an angel of a girlfriend. They went all thru college together and were each maids of honor at each other’s weddings . . . .and, of course, have been like sisters from the outset. I feel like Christy’s dad . . .she is a dear, dear friend. Her husband, Chris, met with a freak accident a week ago at a neighbor’s pool. The current prognosis is that Chris will not walk again. This is a strong young father who is devoted to his family and recently, because of employment changes, is uninsured and needs help. With surgeries, children to care for, and all the events that attend such a cruel change in life, medical and other costs are mounting beyond anyone’s ability to stay abreast.

I call your attention to this in hopes you may find it in your heart to assist in some way. See the new website www.chriswillwalk.com. This great family needs our help and our prayers!

Ginormous!

glacier 1

Glacier 2

Glacier 3

The “walkabout” is over. I am back. I am painting again.

Back from where, you ask? From the cold, cold north!

We went to Alaska and Canada. And it was phenomenal !!


Here are some pics to see what we saw. Maybe you can get a sense of the immensity of what lies in Alaska. Click on each pic to enlarge it and view what is to be seen there. All three of the photos are of the same glacier.

Glacier 1 is a photo of a glacier as our ship approached it from a few miles away. The white glacier is the obvious. Beyond that, what appears to be a large pile of dirt just to the right of the hill coming into the photo from the left is another glacier (much dirtier) which has pushed huge amounts of rock and dirt ahead of it as if it were a bulldozer. That glacier extends far to the right for over a mile on its face.

Glacier 2 is a photo of the glacier as we drew up to it in the ship. You can see the ‘texture’ of this giant. No place to step. It is far from being innocent snow! This is centuries old, compressed ice with crevasses that are hundreds of feet deep in some cases. One slip and fall on this surface would be certain death. And when it calved . . . .the roar was deafening! This is no playground, that is for sure!

The next photo, Glacier 3 is a photo of the face of the glacier. Look closer!! Midway from center toward the edge of the photo at the 8 o’clock position is a kayak with 2 people in it. They are ¼ to ½ mile from the face of the glacier! The size comparison gives an idea of the scale of that ice face . . .over 300 feet high from the surface of the water . . . .and the glacier extends 300 to 500 feet below the surface!! Big? Heck! This is Ginormous!!

See If You Can Explain This . . .

"Meadow Stripes"

oil on stretched canvas, 16 x 20 inches

Warms advance and cools recede, right?

I have been painting the wildflowers in this meadow over the last few weeks. In meddling with one of the last paintings to make repairs, I decided to take license with color. That is to change several things to see what would happen (the cool thing about oil painting is that you can cover up anything! So you can experiment till your heart’s content and not waste a single piece of canvas . . .you can always go back over it!)

In this painting, the dark tree line in the rear of the picture space is cool red. While the hills in the back are pale, warm blue. The sky is a warm, pale yellow. The big tree on the right is green and the foreground ranges from blue violet to yellow grays to dull greens. My color logic says “no, this won’t work” . . .but it does.

If I think in literal terms, red is warmer than blue. That part is okay. But why does the red recede like it does in the tree line? The two green trees in this piece scream with warm, intense greens in the light, but out of the light they are icy blue in places.

Maybe the key to this piece is the warm, orange underpainting, which leaks through the colors in the foreground giving it an overall warm, advancing presence. Do ya think?

Thinking about the color wheel, I suppose that the yellow greens live higher, more toward warm than does the alizarin crimson based tree line. Whadda mind trick this painting is. Maybe you can explain it to me. ( I am serious!)

P.S. I’ll be signing off for a few weeks. I am going on a ‘walkabout.’ That is to say I’ll be travelling for a few weeks. This time no paints will accompany me (ouch!) Painting has always been my mistress, but this time I am taking the real mistress with me. She gets all my attention on this junket. If you knew her, you’d wonder who’d be able to pay attention to anything else! I’ll prolly be chewing my nails and twitching from the absence of paint and making art when I get back, but we are going where it’s a bit cold. So, there’ll be some snuggling happening, I am sure of it! ;-) (Maybe that’ll help!)

Meanwhile, be sure to tell me what you think about this color curiosity in the comments section.

Oil Brushwork

"Henry's Purple Patch"

Oil on canvas panel, 8 x 10 inches

I am not sure this painting shows it off well . . .or that any of the others do either. The reason I am not sure, is that brushwork is actually ignored, infavor of no brushstrokes being evident, in watercolor. I am a watercolor painter learning painting. Yep~! Us artists are ALWAYS learning. Always on the lookout for another way to say what needs saying . . .(or to avoid it).

As an element of design, texture is right up there with Line, Shape, Value and Color. It is clearly visible and adds a sense of tactileness to a painting. In watercolor, one must work to obtain texture. It some cases, texture is almost an after thought. Not so with oil. No siree!! With oil, you get texture with every brush stroke! It is when texture is not wanted that a conscious effort must be made to eliminate it. Just the opposite from watercolor.

I have been scolded and complimented on "brushwork." And it is the least able to be articulated verbally or in print in order to teach how to do it 'well.' It is perceived as good, or it isn't. At least, that is my take on it. Swirls, swishes, schmushes, schlobs and plops all count in the brushwork world. Its when to and when not to that makes the difference (I think). Brushwork expresses texture and edges throughout the painting.

I suppose one must have a sense for aerial perspective to know when and when not to emphasize it . . . .is that correct? Anyone have any ideas about brushwork? Sometimes, I think I am coming to terms with it and it becomes automatic. Other times I catch myself wondering.

Painting these meadow paintings is giving me lots of practice and plenty of room to try stuff. I am learning that holding that long brush by the last end of the handle makes better brushwork. I am also beginning to consciously make an effort to make it all different . . .lots of variation. I know there are some who would argue that, but I sure am not informed about it.

So, here's your chance, oil painters. Tell me bout it, if you can. I can't say I am mystified, but I am not far from it.

Exploiting The Rare

"Violet and Mustard"

oil on canvas panel, 8 x 10 inches

It is a rare thing when nature gives up something so extraordinary that a painter feels he must return over and over and over. That is precisely what has happened over the last two weeks.
The blooming vetch full of violet flowers is under painted with yellow mustard flowers and bright yellow orange poppies. Yellow and Violet? How perfect is thaaaaat?!!

When nature hands us lemons, we make lemonade. When it hands us roses over and over again, we keep making bouquets . . . .and never for a moment taking it for granted.

So, it has been bouquet after bouquet as I trek to the meadow expecting to see the flowers burned out and gone and being surprised each time to find even more color! Normally, at this time of year, such a meadow has turned golden and dried out. I don't know why it isn't happening this year, but it is a rare occurrence. I may never get the chance to see it again. So, I MUST paint it!

I have done ten paintings of this site and may yet do more. Am hoping to produce one of large scale . . .30 x 40 . . . .to truly exploit this rare event.

Painting Wetlands

"Elkhorn Morn"

oil on canvas panel, 12 x 16 inches

Here is another of the painting binge I have been on. Elkhorn Slough . . . .wetlands on the Monterey Bay in California. Just pull the car over and start painting! So much goes on here . . .wildlife everywhere of all kinds . . .birds, seals, sea otters, deer, . . . .and a few people.

As you can see, there is much to paint! Shapes, reflections, textures, shadows, lines . . . more experience to rack up (brush mileage). This was a wonderful day!

Brush Mileage

"Reflected Umbers"
oil on linen panel 8 x 10 inches

A few years back I ran across a group of oil painters who were doing a painting daily. There were a few who were pretty good at it, but most were wrestling with the different painting skills. I have since looked up a few of those same painters and am astonished by their accomplished work. No one injected them with some masterpiece serum or told them “the secret.” (There isn’t a secret, save for one concept.) No one passed along some ancient potion to drink or introduced them to the teacher who could miraculously transform them into master painters. Nor did they arrive at mastery suddenly.

They already knew the secret to achieving mastery . . . .and they exploited it. For us painters, we call it brush mileage. That is to say that the more one paints, the better one becomes. Reaching mastery simply comes from a ton of practice. (Whadda concept !!!)

This painting looked like mush when I finally threw in the towel. Some careful thought, a wise crit from a friend and 15 minutes of patient rework brought what I wanted to say out of it. Those simple minutes seemed almost absurd. It came so easy. It sure wouldn’t have been easy 100 paintings ago! Something came about in the last 100 paintings.

It was the brush mileage that was adding up to bring a confidence with the brush that I didn’t have without all that practice. That’s what the daily painters knew. They knew when they started that a painting per day would deliver extraordinary skills. Amen !!!

More Meadow

"Early Shadow"

oil on linen panel, 6 x 8 inches

"Cowell's Vetch"

Oil on linen panel, 8 x 10 inches

I can’t stay away! I know that in a matter of days, all the purple flowers will be gone for the summer. A ranger, who has worked in this state park for 35 years has told me he has never seen such a crop as this year. The sheer size of the area covered with purple flowers is truly awesome.

Nature has a way of sprinkling lots of different yellow among the violet, too! What a place!

Standing in the same spot, there were paintings all around!

Painting Vetch

Vetch plant

"Near Roaring Camp"

oil on linen panel, 8 x 10 inches

"Cowell's Meadow"
oil on canvas panel, 12 x 16 inches

In the last ten days I have made four trips to a local meadow at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park in California. The meadows there are overrun with “Vetch,” which is a plant in the pea family with violet colored blossoms. Spectacular would be to understate the colors and beauty of this meadow with interesting red tones, yellows and yellow greens against the violet swaths of vetch.

Beginning early in the morning (7 AM) I scramble to capture the light and the shadows. On this day (and every other day, so far) I have made two paintings. These two were completely different. The first, “Near Roaring Camp,” was a speedy study looking directly into the sun as the dew was glistening and the sun was coming over the edge of the trees. The light was changing fast so it was a race to capture the feeling.

By the time the second painting (“Cowell’s Meadow) was ready to start, it had become overcast. The light went from yellow orange to a cool gray with no shadows. Colors intensified and I was in painting heaven. I had moved to another location where there were greens to off set the violets and the slightly orange red grasses (an almost perfect secondary triad of color!). I took my time in the overcast, standing up to my hips in violet flowers with little bright yellow poppies at my feet.
I couldn’t wait to come back to paint. Watch this blog for more paintings from that site.

No Sooner . . .

"Edge of Quail Hollow"

Oil on canvas panel, 8 x 10 inches

No sooner do I think of something, often, and someone else publishes a commentary about it.

As you know, I have been plein air painting like a crazy fool . . . .just racking up brush mileage. While I have been getting better by increments, I have also noticed that I haven’t been paying much attention to good value composition while in the field. Hmmm! That just isn’t like me! To not plan for that, is to plan for mundane, not so cool, unaccomplished paintings. Then, Robert Genn (http://painterskeys.com/) published this missive in his twice weekly letter about value patterns. ( I think this guys is psychic, sometimes! (or, I am)) ;-))

He made note that it is often after coming in from being sidetracked by trying to capture a scene that we realize, days later, that we didn’t give composition its due effort . . . .and then we set about repairing the image to come to life with a strong pattern of dark and light. Now, that does NOT mean contrasting tones. What he means is a strong proportion of massed dark shades as an organized shape (or grouping of shapes) next to a mass of lights. Mind you, this isn’t about objects or things. It is about groupings of assigned values in order to pull off a strong abstract design onto which the objects are superimposed.

Some painters refer to this as Notan, which is a Japanese word for the same idea . . .massing darks and lights in an organized pattern. This pattern is usually what makes a composition sing out . . . . is is NOT the things in the picture or the subject. We painters call this ‘design’ . . . .or, at least, value design.

So, I caught myself making some re-statements in my recent paintings. Those chunks of dark, or little select areas of clean light against a dark are what makes the viewer sit up and take notice. Thanks for reaffirming what matters, Mr. Genn!

P.S. Robert Genn has one of the finest, most informative art blogs on the internet. His biweekly letters are always welcome and get read, often with more investigation following. If you aren’t familiar or haven’t subscribed, you might want to give it a trial. It is very non commercial and worth your time. Here’s the link: http://painterskeys.com/

The Dance

"Red Rover"

Oil on canvas panel, 12 x 16 inches

As stated in a recent post, this month is about focusing on plein air painting.

I can get very excited about this stuff, especially when the weather is offering sunshine and lots of subjects to paint. I must confess that I have taken on a near madness in this pursuit . . . .making two paintings a day! Yes. I am falling out of bed at sunrise, pulling on some clothes and leaving the house to paint. In five days, ten paintings have appeared. So far this month, 20 paintings have happened. And I have more waiting to be done. (Yes, there is other stuff getting accomplished, too, for those who are wondering about that. ;-) )

I am not sure of what to do with all this energy, except that I have an ethic about getting better and better at something. That ethic is to practice . . . .a lot !! If being taught by an expert, the expert will openly say something to the effect of “get the first 500 paintings out of the way, quickly,” . . . . . . which is really about producing quantity versus concern for quality. In that production of quantity, all sorts of things develop . . .not the least of which is to build a firm familiarity with how the medium responds. Moreover, a relaxation by the artist takes over at some point. That is an attitude of accepting what is happening on the canvas rather than trying to steer it. It is there, in that attitude that one’s style emerges. It is there, in that attitude that quality appears as a result of an internal knowing of what that medium will do when left undisturbed. (Am I saying this correctly?) . . . .and so leaving that brush stroke to say what it will.

In a fascinating book I am reading, “The Outliers,” by Malcom Gladwell, he speaks of mastery of anything coming as a result of being involved with it for ten thousand hours. Yes, it sounds like a lot of time. When I thought about it, and recounted what amount of time has passed while I had a watercolor brush in hand over the years (or was studying it) . . . .those hours long since passed. Who was counting?? Not me! I just wanted to paint!! Just like today. I just want to paint. I have to paint. That is to say, there is not a choice. I must!

Maybe mastery will come at some point. Maybe it won’t. I don’t care if it does or does not. In the chase, I get to paint !! And that, Dear Reader, is what makes this guy’s clock tick. It is the music to which I dance . . . . .and dance . . .and dance . . .and dance! What a joy!

And this painting above was simply the joy to undertake the challenge. Life is sooo good!

Walnut Tunnel

"Walnut Ave. Dappling"

oil on stretched canvas, 20 x 30 inches

SOLD

After three plein air sessions at Walnut Ave, it was time to do a large piece . . . .wellll . . . . . . . .let’s just say larger. By comparison, this piece is huge. But not as huge as a five footer.

This was another test for me . . . . A test to remain spontaneous and loose. My tendency is to get tight with my work, but I adore the looseness of both oil and watercolor as it enlists the viewer to employ the imagination.

The textures of the trees, the warm to cool transition, as the viewer goes down the ‘tunnel’ and all the color and edge variations in the shadows are the three things I had really concentrate on the entire time I was painting. It may seem silly, but I needed to take an athletic stance in front of the canvas and hold that long brush all the way at the end of the wooden handle. This painting was painted from my ankles up . . . .moving my entire body to lay in the strokes, sometimes. By the end of a six hour session, I was exhausted physically . . . . .but pleased with the outcome.

A few days later, what needed work was quite apparent. I attacked those areas with the same mental attitude of *suggesting* and *Implying* rather than explicit explanation.

After this painting was finished, I began to think I might be catching on to oil painting.

Crimson Ride

"Crimson Ride"

oil on canvas panel, 8 x 10 inches

While painting another scene adjacent to a local fisherman's harbor, I labored over getting that painting right. After throwing in the towel, I turned, went accross the street and slapped out this little painting in twenty minutes. I had become very tight and fussy with the last one and needed to cut loose. This painting will never see a frame, but there are parts of it that I find arresting. I will probably go back and make a larger, highly engaging piece from this subject.

Right now, this whole plein air thing is to practice practice practice. I can feel the skills sharpening with every painting. This one was just plain fun!

The Underside

"Quail Hollow Livery"

oil on linen panel, 8 x 10 inches

More plein air work . . .more room for improvement . . . .having a ball fighting through it.

Some say that to learn to paint, one must get the first 500 paintings out of the way first. Only then do we begin to understand what is happening . . . .and only then to we begin not to care much for the ‘details’.

This painting, though poorly photographed, really showed me the importance of the underside of a tree and how that underside and the cast shadow on the ground sets up a beautiful value pattern. You be the judge.
As for photographing a wet painting, I wonder what will happen if I use a polarizing filter to cut out the light reflected back from the wet paint surface.