Friday, December 31, 2010

PACKING FOR AIR TRAVEL WITH OIL PAINTS, Part 3, Medium

It’s probably not a great idea to change oil painting medium for a trip. Having said that, some oil painting mediums just won’t fly. Here’s what I mean: Flammable liquids (defined for airline purposes as any liquid with a flash point below 141 degrees) are prohibited in your carry-on and checked luggage.

It’s perfectly possible to paint with just the oil paint and no medium at all. But if you’re accustomed to painting with medium, you might want to match, as closely as possible, the working properties of the medium you are accustomed to using. You might want to bring medium to alter working properties, speed or slow drying time, or affect the final look of the paint after it is dry. There are many mediums on the market, all with their special properties. Some of them will be possible to bring in your luggage on an airplane. Others you might be able to purchase at your destination.

Generally for air travel it is nice to have your paintings as dry as possible before you transport them home, so it’s best to choose a medium with as short a drying time as possible, but still slow enough for you to complete your work on location. If you’re travelling to a cool climate, the only mediums that might be too quick would be something like Galkyd, which gets tacky pretty soon after leaving the bottle. If you are travelling to a hot desert, your paintings will dry pretty quickly, and you may not need any medium at all to speed the drying. For those of you joining me in MAUI, unless you will be in a damp area or you will be unable to leave your paintings in your car for drying, a moderately speedy medium is plenty quick. Unfortunately, in general the faster drying a medium is, the lower the flash point. That means that you cannot transport them on a plane. If you wish to work with a really fast-drying medium, you will probably have to purchase it at your destination.

SOLVENTS. If you are accustomed to starting your painting with paint thinned with solvent, you will need to either paint differently when you travel by air, or buy solvent when you reach your location, as nearly all solvents are not allowed in your luggage.

ALKYDS AND GELS. Alkyd Gels impart a particular working property to your paint that is very pleasant to work with outdoors. Most gels shorten drying time considerably. Liquin, with a flash point of 70 degrees is not flyable. Gamblin’s Neo Megilp, at 137 degrees, is barely not flyable. Seems like they should oughta fix that. Galkyd Gel (147 degrees) can fly. Liquid alkyds shorten drying time, increase the fluidity of your paint, and shorten drying time. Those with the shortest drying times are not flyable. Galkyd Slow Dry (147 degrees) is flyable, as is M. Graham’s Walnut/alkyd medium (215 degrees.)

DAMAR. Damar, and other varnish-type mediums are made with solvent, and are generally not flyable. You might be able to bring some of the components and purchase the solvent at your destination.

DRYING OILS. It is also possible to thin your paints with a drying oil (an oil that will oxidize into an oil paint film). This generally adds fluidity to your paint, and gloss to the final paint film. Generally, drying oils are flyable. For tropical locations, such as MAUI, the oil in your paint will be very fluid in the heat, and unless you are using the drier end of a tube of cadmium, for example, you probably don’t need to add oil to your paint to make it more fluid.

PACKING YOUR MEDIUM. Medium should travel in your checked luggage. It’s best to pack it in the manufacturer’s packaging. Whenever possible I pack unopened bottles, to prevent odors from escaping into the luggage. As with all liquids, surround it with tissue and pack in a ziplock bag in case pressure changes affect the package. Around this, I wrap the printed MSDS with the flash point highlighted.


TO FIND OUT IF YOUR MEDIUM IS FLYABLE:
Go to the manufacture’s web page.
Look for the Materials Safety Data Sheet. (And print it out for packing.)
Look on the sheet for the FLASH POINT.
If it is above 141 degrees, the medium is flyable.

SOME FLYABLE MEDIUMS AND OILS, from fastest drying to slowest drying:
Gamblin Galkyd Gel (147 degrees) (This medium becomes tacky pretty quickly in hot weather.)
Gamblin Galkyd Slow Dry (142 degrees)
M. Graham’s Walnut/Alkyd Medium (215 degrees)
Linseed oil
Safflower oil
Poppyseed oil
Walnut Oil

For those traveling with me to MAUI, the nearest art supply store to our workshop locations is inside the Ace Hardware Store in Lahaina.  If you want to check whether they carry your favorite medium or other supplies, their phone number is:  (808) 662-7051

Bon Voyage!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

PACKING FOR AIR TRAVEL WITH WATERCOLORS, part 1, PAINT

Choosing a travel kit that gets BRILLIANT COLORS.
  There are a hundred little watercolor kits on the market that are easy to pack, convenient, and simple to use for painting small paintings. Some include virtually everything you need except the papers. At first glance, perfect for air travel.

These kits have a few problems, though, the biggest being the difficulty of getting rich color from the paints provided in the pans. You’ve probably experienced this: scrubbing your paintbrush over a dry cake, trying to get the color on your brush, only to produce a thin, anemic wash. Higher quality pan paints are better, but still not as rich as the tubes. Here are some things you can do to get richer color.


PACK YOUR OWN KIT, WITH PAINT TUBES. You can build your own kit with a few tubes of paint that will give you a versatile range of color. The above is a minimal kit, with paint tubes, a palette with a thumb hole, a water spritzer, and a paint brush.  There are several advantages to packing tubes. Even with small paint tubes, you will end up with a lot more paint, a definite plus if you paint a lot. The paint will be easier to manipulate, and more like the paint you use in your studio. The paint on your palette will always be fresh. And the color will be the richest possible, giving you the most control over your paint.

CREATE YOUR OWN PANS. In the above picture, you see blue and yellow commercial pans, and red and green hand-filled pans.  If you already have a kit with dry pans, take the dry caked paint out of some. You can remove some of the used-up colors, or remove colors that you don’t like to use. Fill each pan with a different color of tube paint. Let the paint dry for a few days, until it shrinks down into the pan. Add another layer of paint on top. Repeat, until the pan stays pretty full. You want to do this a week or two before your trip, but not months before, so that the paint doesn’t dry out completely, because tube paints are not make to rewet very easily. Even though this paint is dry-ish, you will still get richer color from these semi-dry pans than from the totally dry cakes.  The pans below are a little too dry.


PREWET YOUR PAINT ON LOCATION. Whatever type of pans you are using you can get more color from them if the paint is softened before you begin to paint from the dry cake. Before you begin painting, spritz your pans with some water, so that the paint can begin to absorb water. Keep spritzing periodically, as you use up the softened paint on the top of the pan.

USE A BIGGER BRUSH.  Most of these kits come with a brush about size one.  Pack a nice round, # 10 or so, with a nice point (like the brush in the top photo.)  This will enable you to transfer more water into your kit, pick up a good load of paint, and still allow you to paint delicate and precise marks.

ANOTHER NOTE ON COLOR:  Unless you purchase a high-quality kit, some of the pan colors may not be permanent.  If you're just painting postcards and sketches, that might not matter to you.  If you plan to create lasting paintings that won't fade, you'd best look carefully at the pigment list, or replace the colors with more permanent tube colors.

Now go forth, and have fun with COLOR!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

PACKING FOR AIR TRAVEL WITH OIL PAINTS, Part 2, Toning Canvas

Many plein air painters like to paint on toned canvas or panels. This has the effect of removing the glaring white from the canvas, and giving a light-valued ground against which all the painting’s values can be compared. Some toned grounds are allowed to show through in the final painting, giving it an overall unity of color.

Some artists prefer to tone the canvas on location. A common method is to take a color or mixture of colors, often burnt sienna or some other warm semi-neutral, and thin it with solvent, then wipe the mixture over the canvas. The result is a thin wash-like layer of color that dries quickly in most outdoor conditions. It is even possible to rub out light areas of the painting, resulting in a toned value plan on which to build the painting. In order to use this method, it is necessary to either travel with solvent, or purchase solvent on location.

Aside from all other considerations about solvents, flying with solvent is problematic. Airline regulations prohibit flying with any flammable liquid, which is defined for airline purposes as anything with a flash point of 141 degrees or lower. Gamblin’s Gamsol, variously listed at 145 and 147 degrees, barely makes the grade as a flyable solvent. No other paint manufacturer’s product that I know of does.

Rumors abound about artists having their paints confiscated by the airline security. Maybe these artists didn’t pack their paints with the proper information. Whatever the reason, I know that most artist supply warehouses ship their Gamsol ground transport, and just avoid the issue, so I do too. I don’t pack solvent.

My preferred method is to prepare a gray-toned canvas ahead of time. This way, I can use the slower-drying oil painting ground, which according to some experts creates a stronger bond with the layers of paint above it, and which also keeps the oil from the paint from drying in, leaving the paint layer matte in texture and dulled in color.

To prepare your canvas or panel with oil painting ground, mount the canvas on boards or stretchers so that you have a stiff surface to work with. First seal the surface with a coat of PVA size. This is a thin glue-like substance that seals the canvas, keeping the oils of the ground or paint from reaching the fibers and causing their early demise from rotting. Let this dry overnight. Then, take your oil painting ground and mix in some gray or black oil paint to darken the ground to the exact value you want for your painting. Sometimes I use a black pigment, like ivory black. Sometimes I add a little quinacridone majenta to warm up the gray tone. Often I have a gray mixture of leftover paint from paintings that I can put into the mix. What you see is what you get, so balance the value carefully. Then scrape the oil painting ground over the canvas with a palette knife, and smooth the whole thing with a stiff brush, using random directions. If the canvas was previously sprayed commercially with gesso, usually one coat is enough. If it is raw canvas, two coats might be necessary. Depending on conditions, this might take up to a week to dry.  The illustration above is my canvas drying in 90 degree summer heat.  The canvas was dry the next day.



Video demonstration from Gamblin


You might prefer the simplicity and quickness of acrylic gesso. Skip the PVA step. Mix gray acrylic paint into the gesso, to reach a value at least one step lighter than the final value you would like. Acrylic paint mixed into gesso dries considerably darker than it appears when wet. Coat the canvas at least once if it is pre-primed, and at least three times if it is not. Some people recommend sanding between coats. For landscape painting, I don’t bother. Let the gesso dry overnight between coats.

If you’re joining me for the Maui Painting Retreat, pack about 4 practice pages or panels per day.  Practice panels can be prepared with the quicker acrylic gesson method.  For panels or canvas you might use for 

Now, your canvas is ready. Let’s pack and go!

PACKING FOR AIR TRAVEL WITH OIL PAINTS, Part 2, Toning Canvas

Many plein air painters like to paint on toned canvas or panels. This has the effect of removing the glaring white from the canvas, and giving a light-valued ground against which all the painting’s values can be compared. Some toned grounds are allowed to show through in the final painting, giving it an overall unity of color.

Some artists prefer to tone the canvas on location. A common method is to take a color or mixture of colors, often burnt sienna or some other warm semi-neutral, and thin it with solvent, then wipe the mixture over the canvas. The result is a thin wash-like layer of color that dries quickly in most outdoor conditions. It is even possible to rub out light areas of the painting, resulting in a toned value plan on which to build the painting. In order to use this method, it is necessary to either travel with solvent, or purchase solvent on location.

Aside from all other considerations about solvents, flying with solvent is problematic. Airline regulations prohibit flying with any flammable liquid, which is defined for airline purposes as anything with a flash point of 141 degrees or lower. Gamblin’s Gamsol, variously listed at 145 and 147 degrees, barely makes the grade as a flyable solvent. No other paint manufacturer’s product that I know of does.

Rumors abound about artists having their paints confiscated by the airline security. Maybe these artists didn’t pack their paints with the proper information. Whatever the reason, I know that most artist supply warehouses ship their Gamsol ground transport, and just avoid the issue, so I do too. I don’t pack solvent.

My preferred method is to prepare a gray-toned canvas ahead of time. This way, I can use the slower-drying oil painting ground, which according to some experts creates a stronger bond with the layers of paint above it, and which also keeps the oil from the paint from drying in, leaving the paint layer matte in texture and dulled in color.

To prepare your canvas or panel with oil painting ground, mount the canvas on boards or stretchers so that you have a stiff surface to work with. First seal the surface with a coat of PVA size. This is a thin glue-like substance that seals the canvas, keeping the oils of the ground or paint from reaching the fibers and causing their early demise from rotting. Let this dry overnight. Then, take your oil painting ground and mix in some gray or black oil paint to darken the ground to the exact value you want for your painting. Sometimes I use a black pigment, like ivory black. Sometimes I add a little quinacridone majenta to warm up the gray tone. Often I have a gray mixture of leftover paint from paintings that I can put into the mix. What you see is what you get, so balance the value carefully. Then scrape the oil painting ground over the canvas with a palette knife, and smooth the whole thing with a stiff brush, using random directions. If the canvas was previously sprayed commercially with gesso, usually one coat is enough. If it is raw canvas, two coats might be necessary. Depending on conditions, this might take up to a week to dry.  The illustration above is my canvas drying in 90 degree summer heat.  The canvas was dry the next day.


Video demonstration from Gamblin

You might prefer the simplicity and quickness of acrylic gesso. Skip the PVA step. Mix gray acrylic paint into the gesso, to reach a value at least one step lighter than the final value you would like. Acrylic paint mixed into gesso dries considerably darker than it appears when wet. Coat the canvas at least once if it is pre-primed, and at least three times if it is not. Some people recommend sanding between coats. For landscape painting, I don’t bother. Let the gesso dry overnight between coats.

If you’re joining me for the Maui Painting Retreat, pack about 4 practice pages or panels per day.  Practice panels can be prepared with the quicker acrylic gesson method.  For panels or canvas you might use for paintings, consider trying the oil painting ground.

Now, your canvas is ready. Let’s pack and go!

Friday, December 10, 2010

PACKING FOR AIR TRAVEL WITH OIL PAINTS, Part 1, Painting Supports

 Or: What should I paint on, and how on earth am I going to get it there?

After much experimentation, here’s the system I’ve settled on:







Illustration items, clockwise, starting with Canvas Carrier
Wet Panel Carrier by Raymar
Stack of prepared canvas clipped to cardboard with binder's clips
Set of 18 x 24 Stretchers
Canvas Tube
Thumb Tacks
Painter's tape for marking off panel
cardboard template for 6 x 8 size
Prepared canvas with 6 x 8 picture size taped

Frederix canvas pad... a quick way to get standard sized canvases for travel
And in the center, a canvas from a roll, prepared for 18 x 24 painting


I take stacks of canvas sheets in a variety of sizes. I prepare my canvas sheets ahead of time with a coating of Gamblin Oil Painting Ground, in a tone of medium-valued gray. (Complete directions for this in part 2.) Each piece of canvas is big enough for margins all around in case I like the painting enough to stretch it later. Occasionally, I will paint to the edges of the canvas, and later mount it on a panel.
Typically, I pack canvases in 9 x 12 (for 6 x 8 paintings) , 12 x 16 (for 9 x 12 paintings) 16 x 20 ( for 12 x 16 paintings), and 22 x 28 (for 18 x 24 paintings). I pack at least one 9 x 12 per day, and one per day of some other size.   If I'm going to be painting a lot, I pack more.

The smaller sizes, I pack in stacks clipped to cardboard. I will carry two cardboard pieces for each size. The larger canvases I roll up and pack in a tube. I carry one set of stretcher bars for each size of these, plus thumbtacks for temporary stretching. This setup allows me a variety of sizes of paintings, with minimum packing space and weight. I will bring along a small wet panel carrier for my last two days’ paintings (generally small paintings) , which may not be dry when I pack them to come home.

Many painters prefer to travel with prepared panels. These may be wood panels, or canvas glued to a wood panel. Another option is to carry stretched canvas. Another option is to buy painting surfaces at your destination.

If you’re joining me for the Maui Painting Retreat, pack about 4 practice pages or panels per day.

Summary of support considerations:
Expense: The least expensive are canvas sheets, then stretched canvas, then panels. If you prepare your own panels, you can cut the expense considerably.
Bulk: The least bulky to pack are canvas sheets, then panels, then stretched canvas.
Weight: Lightest are canvas sheets. Panels and stretched canvas are about even.
Drying speed: Paintings on panels will dry slightly more slowly than canvas sheets or stretched canvas.
Convenience for hanging to dry: Canvas sheets can be easily hung in a hotel room from glass surfaces using Command Adhesive, particularly if you leave margins for later stretching. Panels can be hung this way, but with less confidence because the wet surface stretches all the way to the edge. Stretched canvases are best hung from a pin or nail, or from a hook placed on Command Adhesive.
Transporting home when dry: Paintings on canvas sheets can be packed flat, stacked with waxed paper between them, or rolled up. Larger size stretched canvases or panels would require an extra-large suitcase. Panels are easy to transport in a wet panel carrier, and canvas sheets attached to cardboard are equally convenient to transport this way.

MAUI PAINTING RETREAT 2011


Leave winter behind and paint the beautiful beaches of Maui!

This trip is designed to include painting instruction and some optional activities, allowing you to choose your own lodging and transportation at your preferred level of luxury.  Sign up early for some bonus options.
$375.00
Location: Maui (Wailea and Kaanapali areas)


See FLIER for more details

Friday, November 5, 2010

MAUI PAINTING RETREAT 2011


Leave winter behind and paint the beautiful beaches of Maui!

This trip is designed to include painting instruction and some optional activities, allowing you to choose your own lodging and transportation at your preferred level of luxury.  Sign up early for some bonus options.
$375.00
Location: Maui (Wailea and Kaanapali areas)


See FLIER for more details

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

OPEN STUDIO INVITATION

Karen E. Lewis
invites you to tour her studio dduring
PORTLAND OPEN STUDIOS
October 9, 10, 10-5
October 16,17, 10-5
4155 Calaroga Dr.
West Linn, OR 97068
503-699-0817
including
10 MAUI SUNRISES
(with 60 + plein-air paintings from Fall 09 to Fall 10)

Brand new works in oil on canvas, plus many other paintings, cards, prints and demos throughout the day.  
www.karenlewisstudiio.com

Saturday, April 3, 2010

A CASCADE OF CLEARING

I want a space in which to place paintings in frames and evaluate them for gallery placement.  A nice-sized wall.  All the walls in the studio get full with paintings that are drying.  All the walls in the house have paintings that live on them (an ever-changing array.)  And the hall by the studio is full of newly finished work.  Where can I possibly do this?
In my office there is a bulletin board covered in thank you letters, postcards, and award ribbons.  It is surrounded by paintings made by my kids when they were small.  Do I need all this stuff?  No.  I put the postcards from friends into a box.  Put the best of the kids' goodies on a small wall by my door where I'll see them when I walk in.  Take a photo of the ribbons and throw them away.  Then pull the bulletin board off the wall.
So now I have my wall.  But the credenza is covered with project boxes and the file cabinet is piled to the ceiling.  Need to find a place to put this stuff away.  I dig into the closet.  This releases piles of stuff for goodwill.  Piles of unorganized office supplies. Stuff I couldn't use because I couldn't find it.  I put things in boxes and label it all.  It turns out to be a full day of sorting.
The next day is staging day.  I reward myself by setting up lots of paintings in my newly cleared space.


Wednesday, March 31, 2010

CREATIVE ENERGY

Thought shared by a friend:

When you don't have energy to do something creative in the studio, do something routine.  Cut mats, prepare canvas, and such.  Move forward.

Today I prepared canvas.  Thought about clearing a wall for pre-gallery selection and staging of paintings.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

THE LIVING RIVER

This month,  I'll have a painting featured in THE LIVING RIVER juried art exhibit.

This is a benefit for the Mckenzie River Trust.
Jacobs Gallery
110 West Broadway
Eugene, OR  97401

For more information:
http://mckenzieriver.org/the-living-river-art-exhibit

SPRING TREES, FALL GROUND

 

Trees are budding out, but the ground is still full of dried grasses, bushes full of seeds saved over from last fall for the birds.  Spring is just a hint of green, more red than green.  And yet, the sun-warmed pond is alive with ducks, geese, (snakes), and tadpoles.

Monday, March 29, 2010

BOOK REVIEW: GEORGE BELLOWS by Mary Sayre Haverstock

Book Review: GEORGE BELLOWS by Mary Sayre Haverstock.

(Merrell, 2007)
This artist’s biography is the most beautifully illustrated and presented book I’ve seen in years. The color images are rich with color and look as if they represent the artist’s paintings superbly. The story of Bellows’ life is engaging. Even more interesting are the shockingly honest portraits dotted throughout the book. There are also some elegant portraits, and I kept speculating that those in particular must have been commissions, in which the sitter had to be pleased with the results.

Probably the most characteristic of Bellows’ paintings are the boxing ring paintings, straining muscles recorded in paint. It’s hard to imagine how all that action could be captured with a painter’s painstaking brushwork.

A beautiful book, with pleasurable reading and thought-provoking paintings.

GREENWAY PARK WETLANDS

March 27, 2010
Greenway Park Wetlands

I join the paint-out group (had to wrestle car from husband to get there) at the wetland area parking lot. There we all find spots to paint the budding trees across the pond. It is a beautiful day with sunshine and colorful atmosphere, and a welcome break from spring rains. This is my first outing of the year en plein air (as opposed to en plein car and en plein window.) Lots of people show up, including a bunch of pastel artists I haven’t seen in a while. I spend about two hours painting and four hours visiting. We talk equipment (obligatory), painting grounds, drying aids, and travel tips.

I also visit the other side of the lake, via a swampy path, feeling thankful for my boots. I also feel thankful for my boots as I encounter several snakes. One, a nondescript black rope, hurdles fallen logs at a breakneck slither. Another, with beautiful orange diamonds on its side, heads straight for the water, hanging out there with its nose on the surface and tail submerged. I think it is probably California Redsided Garter snake, the first link, but it could be many of these:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.californiaherps.com/snakes/images/tsinfernalisma604.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.californiaherps.com/snakes/pages/t.s.infernalis.html&h=650&w=912&sz=295&tbnid=6b4zaF3UogkkCM:&tbnh=105&tbnw=147&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dthamnophis%2Bsirtalis%2Binfernalis&hl=en&usg=__qLJcoSCYoCJ4dv4w7EWs_WVUyvA=&ei=uaquS8r_JKW4tgOxw-Qw&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=3&ct=image&ved=0CA8Q9QEwAg

http://www.uoregon.edu/~titus/herp/sirtalis.html

http://www.wildherps.com/species/T.sirtalis.html

Sunday, March 28, 2010

SUNRISE SWIRLS

Daylight Savings Time! The time when naturally late risers get one more chance to fit in a few more sunrise paintings. The sky looks very clear as I approach the boat ramp where I like to paint. But the lighter the sky gets, the more I can see a delicate, curled cloud that seems to hang over the river. A golden glow rises over the trees.


The boat ramp is busy today. It must be the start of some Salmon run. Boat trailers fill half the parking lot, and it is only 6:30. The fishermen passing by probably wonder what I’m doing, with my van door open and my easel just outside. I wish the van had an awning. But then it would almost be a camper–yech.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

SUNRISE THROUGH TREES

I drag myself out of bed for a spring sunrise that keeps getting earlier. Soon it will be daylight savings time, but for now, I have to get up earlier than I would like. The sky is already getting light through the trees. Instead of driving to the river, I set up in my bedroom looking out through the trees in our back yard. Once the leaves are on the trees, I won’t be able to do this, so I might as well take advantage of the view today.


Paints and palette sit on the bookshelf. I am standing on bedroom carpet. This is just wrong. I am filled with worry that I’ll drop a paintbrush. Trees painted over the sky colors seem wobbly. I feel awkward and out of place. It really doesn’t take very long to get to the river. Might be worth it next time.

But after I finish the painting, I slip back into bed.

Friday, March 26, 2010

MAGNOLIA

A rare, warm day, over 60 degrees, surrounded by days of rain. And fortunately, it’s a day I set aside for painting.


The backyard is a busy, elaborate place, full of trees and flowers and changing shadows. It’s always a challenge to predict where the sun will swing and how it will affect the view. I choose the star magnolia as my focus, knowing that it will be in full sun within an hour.

The grass is a vivid spring green. Everything is intensely green. This is going to be a really green painting. Maybe that’s okay. It’s refreshing after the browns of winter.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

LAWNS

My childhood recollections of Pennsylvania winters are of perpetual gray skies and brown lawns. I have come to visit my mother in Pittsburgh. It is March, but still winter. Patches of gravel-dirty snow dot the ground and heap the parking lots. It’s above freezing, but after the late balmy weather in Portland I am COLD. After several days of gray, the sky finally clears. I find a window with a glimpse of greenery, and paint the hope of spring.

VALLEY SPRING

I am delivering a painting to Eugene for THE LIVING RIVER, a juried show to benefit the McKenzie River Trust. Different rivers down here, and I ought to be able to find a spot along the McKenzie River to paint. The threatened rain clouds are breaking up, presenting me with lovely, varied clouds to paint. I deliver my painting, then miss the riverside exit somehow. So I stop in the lower Willamette valley. The clouds are warm, billowy, ever-changing. I would be content painting just the clouds. Almost reluctantly, I balance the sky masses with a group of trees, and add some of the spring almost-greenery. A nice change of scene from my usual haunts, and a nice way to break up the drive.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

SUNRIVER MUSIC FESTIVAL

This year, I was invited to paint the poster for the Sunriver Music Festival.  You can check it out on their web site:

http://www.sunrivermusic.org/

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

GRUPPE ON COLOR, 11

Gruppe


“BASIC PRINCIPLES OF COLOR IN NATURE

“When you work outdoors, you only need to worry about a few basic concepts. 1. The nature of the eye, 2. The local color of the object 3. The color of outdoor light, 4. The color of the atmosphere itself, and 5. The effect of neighboring colors on one another.”

Wow! A lot packed into that. Probably, when he mentions the nature of the eye, he is talking about cones, creating colors with bias, and keeping the eye moving. 2-5 seem to speak about the influences that affect the appearance of color. Light, atmosphere, and reflected light all alter the appearance of local color to some degree. But why do we have to worry about all that? Isn’t observation our best guide to what colors are in our complex and changing environment? I’d be surprised if Gruppe meant artists to paint by rule rather than observation, and I saw no sign of the approach of rule in his book. Perhaps he just means us to be aware that all of these factors are present when we observe colors.

Monday, March 22, 2010

GRUPPE ON COLOR, 10

Gruppe


“A NATURAL WAY TO SEE

When I tell you to look all over a scene in order to see color, I’m not giving you a professional “trick”. Think for a minute: how do you normally look at the world? You see color because you move your eyes, constantly giving them new objects and colors to look at. The cones are always stimulated. Staring at a spot–something you habitually do when you draw or paint-is an unnatural way of looking. So when you stare and paint, you lose the sparkle that comes with a casual glance. Train yourself to keep your eyes moving, to compare area with area–and you’ll find that there are no nondescript colors in nature.”

This bit is confusing. While I agree that natural seeing involve movement of the eye, and I agree that it is easier to see color when moving the eye, I believe that there is a difference between natural seeing and the way that an artist looks for color. It has something to do with the way the brain shifts from seeing trees and grass to seeing color shapes. So, while the cones may be more stimulated by keeping the eye moving, the artist still needs to be seeing things flatly, in terms of color and shape, and not allowing the brain to interpret objects. You need to be in artist’s mind.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

GRUPPE ON COLOR, 9

EYE FATIGUE


You might think that the best way to analyze an area of color is to stare at it intently.. But that’s just the wrong way to do it. The longer you stare at an area, the grayer it gets. Your eye becomes used to the color. It fatigues; your sense of color dies. The only way to judge the color of an object is to compare it with the color of objects near it.

"Let’s say, for example, that you want to determine the color of the sky at the horizon. It can be anything from purple to green. But to see it, you should first look over your head for a few second s at the color of the zenith. Then quickly lower your eyes. For a few seconds, you’ll see vivid color near the horizon. Then the color will rapidly fade. If you want to get the character of that day, you should paint the horizon as you see it for those few seconds. That’s why I constantly move my eyes over a scene, comparing values and colors. If I’m stumped by an area, I work on another spot; then, when I turn back to the trouble-some place, I’m usually able to see the color."

What can I say about these words of wisdom?  Keep the eye moving.  It really works.  The more I practice this, the more it helps.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

GRUPPE ON COLOR, 8

Gruppe


“If I am stumped by an area, I work on another spot; then, when I turn back to the trouble-some place, I’m usually able to see color.”

This speaks to eye fatigue. That is, the tendency of the rods and cones to need some time to recover. Generally, the recovery time is seconds, but I suppose that if you are painting an area of gray sky and it starts to look grayer and grayer, moving to some other area would help refresh the eye. Even more, it would let you think about something different for a while, which is helpful in any context when you are stuck.

Friday, March 19, 2010

GRUPPE ON COLOR, 7

Gruppe:
“You might think that the best way to analyze an area of color is to stare at it intently. But that’s just the wrong way to do it. The longer you stare at an area, the grayer it gets. Your eye becomes used to the color; it fatigues, your sense of color dies. The only way to judge the color of an object is to compare it with the color of objects near it.”

This is one of those passages that continues to yield new meaning with every reading. Lately I’ve been looking closely at color fields, those large areas of color that at first appear the same, but reward further looking with variations. A large meadow, the sky, a road, a group of trees. The idea of not staring, but keeping the eye moving is very helpful. As you move your eye across the wall in a room, you begin to notice differences in the color as you move across the color field.

Another way to interpret this passage is to consider a color in comparison to things around it, rather than within itself. Thus, how light or dark something is depends on what’s around it. Colors can be compared to one another, giving more clarity to exactly what kind of blue is in the sky or what gray on the trunk of a tree. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we have to watch out or our paintings will be 80 percent green. Comparing greens, however, gives us a multiplicity of colors.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

GRUPPE ON COLOR, 6

Gruppe:
"One of the first things I discovered was that the amount of color you see is a result not so much of what you look at--but of how you look at it. To help you understandthe idea, we should first examin how the eye operates.
"The eye sees through color cones. It has three sets of cones: one for red, one for blue, and one for yellow. From these colors, it creates everything you see in the world. For the eye to be excited and stimulated--and for pictures to have snap, the viewer should see a bias toward the red, blue, or yellow in your color. The eye should be able to dissect the colors. That is one reason black and the earth colors have little effect on the eye. Black, for example, is opaque. It's just a black and the eye can't decipher it, can't break it into recognizeable color parts."

Gruppe here is probably projecting his own explanation for the observations he has made in his painting. M perspective, based on my research into how the eye works, is that the eye is indeed much more stimulated when there is a bias in a color toward red, yellow, or blue. But this has more to do with how the brain interprets stimuli from the cones. Cones are connected in groups to the nerve cells behind the retina in such a way that the eye/brain is always making comparisons rather than measuring absolute levels of color. The brain also is more interested in variations and change in the environment. so a flat field of color is less interesting than a varied one, and a color with no bias toward red, blue, or yellow is equally stimulating to all the cones, therefore less interesting to the eye/brain. Because research is continually turning up new information, even this perspective may be outdated. But the useful part is: stimulate the eye/brain. Creat variation. Create colors that have bias.

Black may still be useful for creating contrast with another color. Black is also useful when the entertainment of the design is not in color, but in shape. Earth colors can be useful as long as they are varied and not used straight out of the tube.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

GRUPPE ON COLOR, 5

Gruppe
"Often you must sacrifice one set of relationships in order to emphasize another more essential one."

This speaks to the limitations of paint when expressing the varied and wide-ranging world of light. If you have nine values in which to express the world, you will need to simplify the complexity of what you see. Otherwise, you will run out of values. If the lightest color you have to express a light source is light yellow, then all other yellows must be subordinated to that one, or the light source won't appear to be light.

There's another aspect to the expression of relationships. Our brains are attracted to variety and contrast. If all relationships are expressed with equal emphasis, the painting that results is one of scattered interest. If essential relationships are expressed clearly and others are subordinated, then the painting shines with expression of the artist's intention.

It is useful, in either case, to know what your painting is about.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

REVIEW: The Artist's Reality: Philosophies of Art, by Mark Rothko

REVIEW: The Artist’s Reality: Philosophies of Art, by Mark Rothko

This small, dense book is an interesting historical perspective, both in that Rothko views the artist’s place historically, and in the historic turning of art away from realism during Rothko’s lifetime. Rothko sees the artist as a sort of philosopher, an interpreter of the sensibilities of his time and life experience. He talks about the shifting attentions of artists throughout history, from the art of myth, to sensual art, to art of emotion expressed in light. We are left to speculate how he might have reflected on the abstracted forms of art prevalent in his later years, after the book was written.

Rothko’s prose is heavy, laden with undefined terms. Even when he does pause to define his language, his meaning is often unclear, as with his oft-used “plasticity.” A significant work of philosophy would require, I think, more exacting language.

An interesting glimpse into the mind of an artist at a crossroads.

Monday, March 15, 2010

GRUPPE ON COLOR, 4

Gruppe
"When painting light trees like birches, don't darken the sky too much to show them up."

It would be pretty easy to overemphasize these contrasts. Along the Boise River, I notice that, while the trunks of the birches in sunlight arewhite, in shade they are darker, and the branches against the sky are significantly dark. The key here seems to be to observe the relationships, and not to exaggerate them out of proportion.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

REVIEW: Edward Seago, by Ron Ranson

REVIEW: Edward Seago, by Ron Ranson
My favorite sort of artist biography: a bit on the artist’s life and perspective so I understand what I’m looking at, followed by lots and lots of high-quality color plates. Seago’s subtle paintings reward lengthy looking. His compositions are spare, neatly balanced, with exacting attention to values. He makes great use of balancing compositions, counterchange, and precise placement of a bit of more saturated color, leaving no question about what interests him in a scene.
These paintings are particularly interesting for me, because, while I enjoy and admire the subtle, grayed paintings, I find that I am emotionally drawn to those with more color in them. Value and composition make the paintings great. But color is what engages my heart.
Still, I am drawn to look at these paintings over and over. A lovely book to add to a collection.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

TURNING FORM WITH COLOR



In this exercise, we practice, in a very simplified form, turning the form with color. This enables you to conserve values, which can be very useful in creating a unified design. We talked about coming up the color wheel as the form turns into the light.

Friday, March 12, 2010

BOISE RIVER


A classroom demonstration. This scene is, believe it or not, in downtown Boise. The river is in incredibly natural condition, and a trail follows alongside, where you can walk, bicycle, and sometimes even ski. One of the prettiest downtown parks I've ever seen. This was a cold winter day, and I was on a search for some color.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

COLOR FIELDS


4 ways to view and paint color fields; portraits of a section of ceiling at LOAD:

Top left: Match the color mixing with a painting knife and lay it on the canvas in the general area it fills. You can keep it simple as in the example, or narrow the areas down to tiny spots.

Top Right: Fill the whole shape with a color to represent the general color of the field. Then look more closely at the field, and mix next to the original color so you can compare the color, mixing variations of the main color.

Bottom Right: Mix color to approximate the color of an area, and lay it on in dots, lots of dots where it is most prevalent, fewer dots where it is the least. Keep adding dots of color until the overall field approximates the color and variations that you see.

Bottom left: Scan the whole field. Note where a particular rainbow hue predominates and mix a fairly saturated mix of that hue. Grade it across the shape from most to least. Do this with other hues until the shape approaches the appearance and saturation of the observed color.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

GRUPPE ON COLOR, 3

“If the values are wrong, the best color work in the world could never make the picture look true.”

Can you alter a value pattern? Lots of artists talk about doing it. Or moving a light object in front of a dark object. There may be ways of playing around with values in a realistic landscape, adding shadows here, eliminating shapes there, rearranging things, creating counterchange. I think here, that Gruppe must be talking about the precise relationship of values between distant objects and near ones, and between values within an object, so that the value relationships express a consistent quality of light within a scene.

In my personal experience, there are paintings that when I view them, the value/color relationships look spot-on. That isn’t to say that they are copied from nature (impossible, really, within the color space of paint), but that they are so internally consistent as to leave the impression of reality. Get even one of these relationships a little bit off, in comparison with the others, and the illusion falls apart. Gruppe here is saying that value is the most important relationship, color less important. It seems to me that color is an area where the artist can play a bit.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

REVIEW: A. T. Hibbard, N. A.: Artist in Two Worlds. By John L. Cooley.

A. T. Hibbard, N. A.: Artist in Two Worlds. By John L. Cooley.
Another art book recommended to me in an artist’s blog. This one is an entertaining biography. My favorite parts are the color plates (I do love color plates) of some Hibbard paintings, and a chapter near the end of some Hibbard wisdom about painting.
“Avoid using Nature photographically. Many adjustments are necessary. They should make the painting more successful as a work of art.”
“Associate with your material, aesthetically as well as physically. It is impossible to do that in a studio.”
“Beware of too much studio landscape painting. Direct contact gives you the rare elements, moods of short duration.”
“Be prepared to change quickly the scheme of the landscape; or if necessary try to remember it.”
“Follow the weather. Know how it affects your painting territory so you can know what will happen to your material at various times of day.”
“The foreground of your picture should be a lead-in to what is beyond.”
“Too much white weakens your sketch. Get color and vibrate it, without overmixing.”
“Focus on a dominant part of your subject, whether sky, distance, middle distance, or foreground.”
“Too high a key in a picture often sacrifices color and strength, and the painting becomes diluted. We must lower Nature’s key which many times is quite beyond the capacity of pigment.”

Monday, March 8, 2010

GRUPPE ON COLOR, 2

“Reserve the lightest lights and darkest darks and bring values together.”

This is one of those bits of advice that you hear now and again, and no one ever explains why. Here’s one explanation that I’ve heard, and even repeated in those moments when I believed it (paraphrased): White has no color information in it. If you want the eye to be stimulated by color, you must put color in your whites. But if that were the case, why would watercolorists be repeatedly advised to save lots of whites, even to the finish of the painting? ??

The trouble with taking advice at face value is that the reasons for the advice get lost. Why would watercolor artists be advised to save whites, while oil painters are advised to get rid of them? One possible reason is the chalky effect that white can have on an oil painting, another subject which deserves some discussion... another time. Also, the white of watercolor paper is seldom a strong white, usually having a little warm off-white color to it.

Darks could be similar: in lending a warm or cool cast to the dark colors, you allow the eye some color information. Watercolors simply aren’t capable of making the strong darks that oils are, although sometimes artists get close. Even so, watercolor darks with no color to them, no warm or cool tendency, have a muddy look to them, and become unappealing pretty quickly.

So maybe the real reason to keep the pure white out of the oil painting and the deepest dark out of the oil and watercolor is that they just don’t look all that good.

What do you think?

Sunday, March 7, 2010

REVIEW Twilight of Painting by R. H. Ives Gammel

I picked up this book (on inter-library loan, as it is out of print) on the recommendation of an artist whose blog I read regularly, hoping to learn more about the traditions of fine art.

Gammel's thesis appears to be that the academic painters of the 19th century (which term he goes to great length to define) and the impressionist painters of the 19th century (which includes anyone not painting in the fine tradition of painting handed down through the ages) had a falling out. The first impressionists, having been themselves trained in the academic tradition, had all of the fine art skills at their disposal and experimented in new techniques by choice. But when they went on to train their successors in (Gammel admits) the fine art of observing from nature and capturing the effects of light, they threw out the baby with the bath water and neglected to teach a full range of the painter's art, including drawing, so that the skills of the academic painter have been lost.

For me, a perplexing part of this book was Gammel's critique of the various art plates in the book, (which are, unfortunately, black and white.) Even allowing for difference in taste, I fail to see why this noodly lady:

http://art-quarter.com/beck/joe/aj/1/3/ingres-odalisque98.jpg

is a better painting than this:

http://artrenewal.org/pages/artwork.php?artworkid=4889


or even than this:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3213/2614520891_e557fc2c8d.jpg


It seems to me that most of the paintings he includes in his plates are examples of fine painting in their particular traditions, and only a few exhibit the flaws he claims they do. I would have liked better illustrations and better explanations so that I could have understood his point. If the tradition of fine painting has been lost, he failed to show me that it has.

The book is full of a great deal along this vein, which, now that I've told you, you don't have to read. Certainly, some lively debates could be made for and against many of his points. But ultimately, I think the embedded lesson is "don't neglect your scales," that is, don't neglect studying the basics of drawing and design and understanding value, and the technical manipulation of paint, all of which contribute to great painting in any style.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

PEAR IN SNOW

It is actually snowing as I photograph this. The challenge here, of course is to convey that sense of near-white all around. The pear is slightly shadowed from being beside the house, therefore there isn't as much scattered light on that side.

ART SHOWS IN MARCH

I am in the middle of hanging three shows for March.

LAKE OSWEGO ADULT COMMUNITY CENTER
This is a show of works by my students in community ed oil painting landscapes class. Contact the center for hours when the room is open for viewing.

EXPOSE YOURSELF: A project of artists helping artists
8 large landscapes in a downtown storefront at 5th and Alder. Walk by and enjoy some sunny afternoon.

US BANK LLOYD CENTER:
8 smaller paintings in the US bank building. Banking hours.

No receptions, just art to go and see.

Friday, February 26, 2010

HAYSTACK ROCK


Looking left up the beach, I see a series of shadowed capes, with mist rising between them, a value painting. Looking right, I see rock in full sun, a color painting. I opt for the color.


Wind is strong and gusty, too strong for an umbrella. I point my easel into the sun and hope for the best, taking great care to read my values on the palette. My canvas box blows away and I chase it down. Brush cleaning paper unrolls from its tube. But the sky is clear and intense, and I am in joy to be here.

SUNSET RHYTHMS


This is nearly the most difficult painting conditions I have ever tried. I am looking out of a hotel room at the sunset. The room is quite dark, and there are no lights I can bring to shine on my canvas. I am staring straight into the sun. So while I can see lots of color out in the landscape, My canvas is nearly black to me. I am painting almost by feel. That it looks anything like the sunset is some kind of miracle.

MARINE LAYER


Today I paint a gray morning sky. Values are close. Excitement in this painting depends on subtle variations of color. I decide to approach it with a different process than usual. Usually I choose the predominant color of a shape, lay that in, then make alterations according to variations that I see. This time I work backwards. The sky is predominantly blue-violet. Because it is very neutral, there is yellow in there. I find the most yellow part of it, identify it as an orange -yellow, mix it to the proper value, and grade that in from most to least. I continue in this manner with blue-violet, red-violet, and several other colors, grading each from its stronghold into the mix. I end up with a sky of proper value, with varied gradations of gray, ready to receive details.



The effect is almost magical, and much more vibrant than the effect I get by starting with gray and mixing color notes to reflect the variations.


What I think is going on here: This result is a recognition that the gray is never really gray at all. The reading of neutral colors is always problematic, particularly with very light and very dark neutrals. By starting with the less neutral qualities in the color, we invite the eye-brain to compare from the outset. Then the painting is variations that, when the eye-brain moves over the color field, allow it to form its own conclusions about the neutrality of the color.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

SUN CURTAIN


This painting is relatively high key, whether it looks like that on a monitor or not. I have the most difficulty with my photos when I look at them on my laptop. This is when they look least like themselves.

LIGHT EXERCISE, PEAR IN EARLY MORNING


Hard to see in this photo, easier to see in the painting, the light here was very violet, with cooler shadows. There are scattered clouds, and the early sun is pinking them up. Unfortunately, the pear again chooses to pose on its side, this time looking something like a lime. I'm going to have to hire a new pear.

LIGHT EXERCISE, PEAR IN WINTER SUNLIGHT


We had a lot of fun with these. A lot of the pears in class looked vaguely like avocados. I made sure to put the bud end on to avoid just this problem. But maybe, in reality, it is more a problem of inexact observation of shape, or the unfortunate pose that this particular pear insisted on--and it did insist!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

EMILE GRUPPE’ ON COLOR, 1


Notes and thoughts on a classic title.
Here’s what I’ve been working on in the studio. It has nothing to do with the topic; just thought I’d share.
I’ve been reading and studying this book written and illustrated by Emile Gruppe’, and have found much worthy of thought and discussion. This will probably take many posts, so here’s the first.
Gruppe’ grew up with an artist father, and he also studied under two well-known landscape painters: Charles Hawthorne, and John Carlson. This gave him lots of material to discuss, and he quotes both these teachers throughout the book. The nice thing about Gruppe’s book, though, is that he is a much more accessible writer than Carlson, and much more forthcoming than Hawthorne. And he appears to have compiled the best of the ideas from both teachers. So, here go some of his thoughts.


Gruppe’: “Paint the tree in front of you. Note how it relates to things around it, interacts with the forest, branches react to each other within the tree itself.”


This idea has to do with painting the particular rather than the general. Of course, the most particular would be to paint every leaf and branch of the tree that’s visible from your position. And the least particular would be the lollypop. So... somewhere in between the two is a happy place (different for every artist) where observed particularities can be recorded, creating almost a tree portrait.


This thought seems to leave out a sense of design. That is, the artist makes choices. Which leafy masses are particularly characteristic of the tree? Which shapes serve the design of the painting? Gruppe’ seems to be responding to nature primarily as observer and less as designer. Again, there is probably a wide-ranging scale among artists, with the copyist (flesh-and-bone camera) at one end, and the highly abstract painter at the other (in which the inspiration of the tree may be barely, if at all discernable), and each individual artist falling somewhere in between. Interesting choices to make consciously.


Another dimension of this element that interests me is the ways in which a particular tree is a better representative of universal “treeness” than a very generalized lollipop tree is. For sure a lollipop tree includes the idea of trunk and leaf mass. But it leaves out many other ideas that are part of being a tree. It leaves out branches. It leaves out the broadening of the trunk where roots go into the ground. It leaves out any hint of growth pattern. And of course, it shows nothing of the tree’s interaction with its environment, which shows it to be a living, responsive thing. By painting the patterns of a particular tree, the artist expresses more about all trees.

Friday, February 12, 2010

CRITIQUE REVISITED


More on that troublesome painting. After posting my first revision, I get another critique, one that addresses my feeling of the clouds being too solid. I feel that I should do something about it. I want to do something. I go to the studio to see if the paint is still wet. It is, just. I can still fix it. But something makes me delay, and I go downstairs and spend two hours studying Spanish. After which there is no more time....
Okay, clearly I am avoiding the issue. Is this fear of digging into the painting, or am I avoiding changing what is really fine? I send this question out, and put it from my mind. Within a half hour, thinking no more about the problem, it is clear that the image on the canvas is keeping me from seeing what might be.
I get up the next morning (it is still wet... whew!) and scrape the troublesome cloud down. The ghosted first version retains my base design, while giving me clear space to apply fresh color and paint with a fresh mind.
This constructive/destructive/reconstructive process is something I rarely do, but it is surprisingly freeing

LIGHT EXERCISE, Pear 1


These light studies are a series that I set up outdoors in various light conditions, then imitated in class using cellophane to filter light color. It's amazing how well we can duplicate the lighting conditions with one color on the lamp and another over the box top to indicate sky color.
This pear is painted in lighting two hours after sunrise, with broken clouds on a winter day. In the class, we used magenta sky filter and yellow light filter, with the light placed distant from the box.

The colors of the photo aren't particularly true to the painting, but give something of the feel of it.

TREE PATTERN


Coming back to old photos is fun, when you come on one that still inspires.

STILL LIFE

Painting still life with some friends. Can you say STRETCH?

It's good to get out of the comfort zone occasionally. My tip of the day, To get rid of a really loud area, take your brush and smush it together. I can't believe it but it works!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

RESPONDING TO CRITIQUE



Every once in a while, every artist runs across a painting with some element that’s just not quite right. This happens more often when you’re just beginning, and less and less over time. It still happens to me.

There tricks for getting a fresh look at your work– turn it upside down, let it sit for a week, and so on. When they all fail, sometimes an outside opinion helps. And sometimes it doesn’t.

I meet regularly with a group of professional artists for critique. These folks are really good at spotting composition problems. So when I was stumped over the painting currently on my easel (above), I took the problem to my meeting. I also got critiques from some other folks. Here is what people said about it (paraphrased, filtered and interpreted):
*The land and the lower clouds are really peaceful, but the swooping shapes in the upper sky are distracting. Take them out and the whole thing will be really peaceful.
*The sky is great. Leave it alone. On the land, the large dark shape is too busy and makes a big M. Maybe take it down a notch, or break it up some.

At first glance, these two comments look like they conflict. Someone must be wrong. Unless you put this in a greater context. The strong values and shapes in the lower land conflict with the strong shapes in the sky. One has to be the star. What should I do? I go back to my original intent: to express the movement of the large sky and relative insignificance of the land. The sky stays. I break up the dark shape and soften some of its edges. I lose a little of the depth in the landscape, but gain emphasis in the sky.

Then I punch some air into the middle bank of clouds and make them more irregular... the thing that was bothering me in the first place, which no one commented on.

So how do you respond to critique? Ask yourself how it fits with your original intent. Do you want to go in a new direction, suggested by the painting, or hold to your first idea? Knowing what your painting is about, that is key.

Monday, January 18, 2010

LIGHT BRACKETS


Photographing my art is always a chore. I have to drag out my lights on stands and clamps, lights that are stored in a precarious jumble behind a table. The cords are always tangled, and the light stands, being cheap ones, don't cooperate when I manipulate them. It takes probably an hour to set up all this stuff. So I only do it once every few months when I have enough paintings to make it worthwhile.

What if the key lights were set up all the time? My husband mounts two brackets on the walls at the far corners of the studio. I clamp two clamp lights to the brackets. The light clamps aren't strong enough, so I add a pinchy clamp from the hardware store that is so strong I can barely open it. Voila! Lights stored out of the way but also ready for use. All I need do is fasten the cords to the walls and it'll be perfect.

Friday, January 15, 2010

January Clearing: Reaping the Rewards


Now that the junk is cleared away in the studio, and road blocks are gone, the paint is flowing. Nothing like releasing pent-up energy. Even took my palette out of the garage freezer and moved it to the kitchen freezer. You wouldn’t think that would make much difference, but the process of putting on shoes to go out in the garage maze slows me down just that little bit. Even better would be a freezer in my studio. (Like that’s going to happen.)

These hills posed on the fly as we drove from Boise to Portland. I’m working on a series, and playing around with the color and movement.

EDGES


Much studying of edges this year. I have been delighted with some of the discoveries. A carefully selected color on the tops of the hills helps them roll back under the sky. No need to blend; the color creates the proper edge.

An edge challenge here is in the water. Because of the way the hills slant, their reflections can't be painted in long vertical strokes, yet I still wanted the brush marks to be vertical. I started this reflection with the canvas on its side, painting the reflection like a butterfly wing. That took it out of the brain-interpreted image zone, reducing everything to colors and shapes. Then I turned the painting back upright, and went over all the brushwork with the same colors, using short bits of intermediate color to soften jumpy transitions. It worked pretty well, but I'll have to keep playing with the technique.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

SOFT SUNRISE


Winter is the perfect time for a slugabed to paint the sunrise. Here above the 45th parallel, December sunrise is after 7:30, and anyone can manage to get up by 7 to go paint on a midwinter day... even me. Which makes it truly pathetic that I haven’t managed to get up even once this winter until this morning. So it would have been nice to have a spectacular show to reward me for my superhuman efforts. But no.
Still, it was a pleasant morning, a paintbrush in my hand, gradually lightening sky, peaceful calm on the river. Exaggerating the color a little, I managed to put some expression into the sky.
Now if you want me to get up other mornings this winter, let’s have some dramatic skies!

Saturday, January 9, 2010

January Clearing 8

The studio is now organized, drawers have been cleaned, I have more floor space, and I'm beginning to feel like I can breathe in here. I have a pile on my workbench of little jobs that haven't gotten done. The procrastination pile. Mostly these things aren't very important, but when they pile up, they become more so.


The same thing happens in my office, where I waste a lot of time shuffling low-priority papers. The answer to this is simple: Take a half hour each day to

DO THE THING THAT IS IN FRONT OF ME!

January Clearing 7

I pull out the drawer of dropcloths and sheets. Nothing in this drawer is out of place. I fold everything and put it back. Suddenly there is more room in the drawer. Somehow, putting things in order makes less of things. Why can't they just stay that way? Hurry. Which creates a mess, which takes time to straighten out. Interesting loop.

Painter's tape has migrated to three different locations. I put it all in the same drawer and find that I have lots. Sometimes a perceived shortage is merely stuff in the wrong places. Food distribution, perhaps? Water? I know, painter's tape isn't going to save the world, but I'm beginning to see a lot of parallels between the mess in my studio and problems in the outside world.

Friday, January 8, 2010

REVIEW Watermedia Techniques: Watercolor and Gouache

WATER MEDIA TECHNIQUES: WATERCOLOR AND GOUACHE by Stephen Quiller. (Crystal Productions)
This video is full of basic techniques, which Quiller demonstrates in clear, simple demos. It’s a real treat to watch Quiller make shapes with quick confidence using a two-inch wash brush. Grasses, trees, and wood grain emerge magically from the various brush angles and negative and positive shape making.
He constructs a painting, using the transparent qualities of watercolor, then builds translucent and opaque passages with gouache. Because gouache is made of the same gum arabic binder and handles similarly on the brush to watercolor, it is fully compatible with watercolor. It’s great for fine detail, and for creating highlights on a painting, similar to the use of “body color” in 18th century traditional watercolor. The combination of watercolor and gouache also allows the artist to build a painting from dark to light, as in oil painting. Underpaintings, and scumbling techniques become possible.
One interesting demo is a plein-air sketch in watercolor, followed by a studio painting in watercolor and gouache. It’s interesting to see how Quiller takes elements from the sketch and creates a dramatically different studio work, informed by the information he collected in the field.
An excellent video for exploring the possibilities of the two media.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

January Clearing 5

Today I go through the photos. Not my digital photos, but the older ones, the film prints. There are a lot of them. I was as shutter-happy then as I am now, only now it costs a whole lot less.

The thing that strikes me about these old photos is that they aren't very good. I'm not inspired to paint from them. I am enjoying looking through them, but I can do that with the photo album, of which these are mostly duplicates. If I really need one of these pictures, the best of them are in the family albums.

I save the garden flower photos for a friend. I save the landscape photos for my oil classes, because you never know. For the time being, I save the wildflower photos for my watercolor paintings, though I may want to use my more recent photos. The rest go in the trash. My closet is pounds lighter.

I have just thrown away hours of (enjoyable) work. And feel good about it. Maybe the things we do in our lives are not as important as they seem at the time.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

January Clearing 6

Came across lots of stuff. A small desktop easel, hasn't been used in 3 years. Watercolor paper that runs through the printer. Scratch tools for clayboard. Some of these will be useful for some other artist.

Cardmaking papers can go downstairs with the cardmaking stuff in the storeroom, which I get out once a year... what were they doing in my studio? Stuff seems to migrate into drawers and shelves where it cannot be found. Boxes multiply, almost like coat hangers. I am starting to let some air into the closet. My eyes begin to find useful things among the noise.

January Clearing 4

Side one of my closet. Mostly this was pretty easy. A few things in the wrong drawers, but mostly watercolor supplies.

Ran into the Gouache. Uh-oh. This is a problem. Quite a few tubes of buttery, filmy, rich-colored paint. When did I last use it? More than ten years ago. Does it fit into my current work? Not at all. If I keep the paint, it will be for play.

This is a tough decision. When I look at the paint, I have a desire to play with it. I spent good money on it. But I also have an oil painting on my easel. And a studio full of stuff on the floor that needs closet space. I decide to give the gouache away and to give myself a gift of space.

Monday, January 4, 2010

January Clearing 3

How to clear the studio? Some thoughts:
Useful for oil painting in current style: keep
Possibly useful for oil painting: maybe keep
Useful for watercolor painting in current style: keep
Useful for teaching oils: keep
Useful for teaching watercolors: keep some
Useful for acrylic collage: keep
Useful for plein air: keep
Haven't used in 3 years: consider clearing
Haven't used in 5 years: strongly consider clearing.

So... looking at boxes in the top of the studio closet:
Handmade paper: keep
Collage: keep
Texture tools: keep
Watercolor techniques reference cards: keep
Powdered dye: keep
Projector: 3 yrs. Think about this.
Roll of book cover: keep
Photos: need to go through these. I can't keep every photo I ever took, can I?
Chinese brush supplies: 5 yrs: This I can give away.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

January Clearing 2

I have a bad habit of not being able to find a tool in a drawer, and buying a new one to replace the one I can't find. This fills the drawer with more stuff, and then I can't find a tool....
Remedy: take my brush drawer and remove all the brushes that I don't use any more. Perhaps my college student daughter would like these perfectly-good-used-but-not-my-favorite brushes.

Friday, January 1, 2010

January Clearing 1

It's pretty easy for paper to take over my office and studio, and even other rooms in the house. It comes in at the rate of about 15 pieces of snail mail per day, countless sales receipts, plus whatever e-mails or web pages I foolishly print. Resolved: if I can find the information easily on the internet, I do not need to store it in paper form in my house. If (as with magazine articles) I may want to refer to it later, it can be stored as a pdf on my computer. Resolved: Add as close as possible to zero paper files to my existing collection. Reduce the number of files in my house by one drawer each year, until I am down to... er... 4?

This will take some diligence. And some screening of existing files.