Category: Blog

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May En Plein Air

What a great week to be outside painting!  May now is feeling like summer and I cannot resist any opportunity to get fresh air.  Yesterday I went to Grant Park in South Milwaukee around 9am.  It seemed early but the sun was still hot.  I of course chose my painting spot in the middle of an open field with no tree cover so that I coud paint the tree line out in front of me.  I was also facing the sun.  Not ideal conditions… but I caked on the sun screen and made it work.  Three hours was about all that I could stand.  I had plenty of water and sunscreen but was still feeling drained by the sun exposure.

After packing up my easel I decided to cool off by dipping my feet in the lake.  It was one of those inspiring mornings that words cannot do justice to.  I walked the path through the park crossing wood bridges over shallow streams.  I didn’t know I was so close to the lake, but when I found it I saw it open up in fornt of me like it was waiting for me.  And best of all, there was no one else around!  I slipped my feet into the icy water and walked along the shore.  I enjoyed the sounds of birds and waves.  I found a few interesting rocks.  I thought about painting.  It was good.

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New Techniques

Over the past few months I have been refining my technique slightly.  I have continued to use a palette knife or painting knife as my primary tool.  However, I have begun to modify the painting with a brush once the paint is in place.  This allows my to create a larger diversity of mark making with finer details of the focal point or area of interest. The paintings, as a result, have become much more controlled.  This does not feel static or stale to me, but rather a more mature version of my earlier work.  I am also returning to color a as a primary subject matter (in some of my work I feel this intention had gone a bit off course).  With the festival season starting for me next week, I am excited by the prospect of clearing some space in my studio to make room for new development.  I have just finished gessoing a series of panels and canvases that I cannot wait to paint on!

 

Image: Approaching Storm (detail), oil on panel, 2012

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A Plein Air Morning

The weather has been phenomonal for March, so I could not resist getting out this morning for my first plein air session of the season.  I left my knives behind today and just did a good old fashioned brush painting.  It felt good.  I was right on a bluff overlooking the lake at Sheridan Park in Cudahy.  The sun was still low in the east, creating a dramatic light from the left.  I was inspired by the dark evergreens silouetted againts the bright eastern sky.  I enjoyed the fresh air and the freedom of capturing a passing momoent in time.  This is definately the best plein air session I have managed so far- can’t wait to do more.

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Head in the Clouds

Lately I have been painting and drawing clouds.  I thought it would offer a different perspective and fun change.  However, it has proven to be more challenging in oil paint using my knife.  The hard, rough, and aggressive surface created with the painting knife contrasts with the assumed feeling of soft fluffy clouds.  I am going to try to work with this conflict and see what I can make of it.  I also suspect I will be pulling out the brushes soon.  The pastels, on the other hand, are quite easy.  As seen in this recent pastel drawing, the pastels blend and soften easily into representational forms.  Is direct representation my intent?  I would still argue that it is not – though I enjoy making the more representational pastels before taking liberties in the oil painting.  This also give me a clearer sense of what I am doing when I manipulate, simplify, or translate in oil.

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Evolving

I have not abandoned the pond project yet- however boredom has motivated me to seek ways of keeping it interesting.  Yes, I have been using more brushwork.  I still begin with a knife for a loose beginning to each painting.  I block in areas of color quickly.  Then, with a small round brush I maneuver the paint on the surface.  The most important application for the brush is capturing the branches.  I am also able to create more detail and subtlety through this hybrid mark making system.  These two paintings were done using the same limited palette of cadmium orange, ultramarine blue, and titanium white.  These images are taken from photograph- two pictures shot just days apart.

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The Pond Study Continues

The season is certainly proving to be an interesting one for observing change.  The mild weather, with a few bouts of snow, has created a situation in which the view of the pond changes daily.  This painting is done from a photo taken January 17th.  Here is what I wrote about that day:

 

1-17-12

I took an extended walk today. We had a few more inches of snow this morning, putting a fresh blanket over the park. Despite the snow, the temperature was agreeable. Again I was memorized by the quiet, desolate feeling just after a snow storm. However, I was not completely alone. There was a set of recent tracks, one dog and one human (I am guessing female by the shoe size). I found myself following the tracks inadvertently for most of my walk. I studied the straight pacing of the human in contrast to the meandering path of a dog. Tracks became one of the themes of this walk. I also observed squirrel tracks darting from tree to tree. Finally, later in the walk, I came across a set of human tracks that were oddly positioned. It was as if the person were incredibly pigeon toed. The feet faced away from each other to a great degree and the spacing indicated large wide steps. I tried mimicking this pattern for a while in my own tracks. I could in fact imitate them but found it curious why they existed in the first place. It certainly was not a comfortable way to walk.

By taking a longer walk today I had time to notice other minute details. For example, I was enchanted by the crackling music of ice and snow in the tree branches when a wind whipped through. The was almost a melody to it. Also, when the winds picked up I saw whirlwinds of snow lift of the ground and dance. There was a magical animation today, or maybe I am just in a fantastical mood. And yes, there was the pond, there as always. I feel like I am really just beginning to know it. The same is true for my paintings.

In regards to the pond paintings, I feel the past month is all that really counts. I imagine I will feel the same way two months from now about the paintings I am to make. In any case I feel like I have a long ways to go in achieving what I mean to achieve. I still sense that there is something I am not seeing or doing, a limitation I am placing on myself that is stifling this project. I can only hope that through repeatability and introspection I can resolve it.

 

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The Artist Life

I have not written anything recently, well nothing I have shared anyway.  It has been a busy couple of weeks.  I have some classes running, a new commission project, and two shows coming up.  Also, the Pond Project continues on, though I am a bit behind.  I have been self employed for 2.5 months and things are going more smoothly than I expected.  I enjoy the new challenges a full time artist life presents.

Last week was Milwaukee’s Gallery Night and Day. I held an Open Studio for Gallery night.  A snow storm is to blame for a slower evening, but still not too bad.  I appreciate those who made it out, and for those that could not I totally understand.  It was ugly out!  On Gallery Day I took some time to hop around downtown.  I was able to check out the Marshall Building, Tory Folliard Gallery, and the DeLind Gallery (I have two pieces on display at the DeLind Gallery right now for Winter, a group show).  During my gallery hopping I was really drawn to Jeff Darrow’s small oil paintings, on display at the Elaine Erickson Gallery.  There was lots of good stuff to see throughout the city.  I wish I could have made it to more shows.

 

Photo Credit: Anthony Sell

 

 

 

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The Pond at Night

Journal excerpt 12/26/11

Image: Pond Study 18, pastel on paper, 7″ x 11″


The holidays have come and gone, but yet we wait for a significant snowfall. What dusting was received last week is now long gone. The pond has become bare and boring. I find myself waiting for something to happen- anything. The browns, grays, and dirty blues of this quiet winter are now mundane to me. A brilliant white snowfall would surely make the scene come alive again. So I have resorted to seeking out new visions.

 

The most obvious solution was to paint the park at night. I will confess upfront that I used a bit of photo trickery for this one. I took a nighttime picture, which as you would expect was pretty colorless. I took this picture a few weeks ago, and have already written about the quiet cold and silence of the evening. Now I will reflect on the art making process I undertook. Using Photoshop, I exaggerated the saturation and contrast a bit until the underlying blues and yellows of darkness revealed themselves. The streetlights made the sky glow softly yellow, and the silhouettes of trees become deep pthalos of blue and green. Sticking with this somewhat limited palette, I rendered the image twice. First in pastel and then in oil. I allowed myself a bit more color diversity in the pastel, pulling purples and reds out of the blackness. With the oil painting, as with most of them, the colors simplify. This is in part due to the size of the mark (a large painting knife edge) and to the process of mixing. I am aware of the ways in which medium contribute to the result and I find it informative to use both mediums in approaching an image. I have been exercising this processes for most of my works lately. The pastel drawings become a preliminary color study, though stand alone as works themselves. I wonder what if anything would change if I did the oil painting first and the pastel second? In any case, as I wait for snow I think I will attempt to capture more of the dramatic moments. I feel a little dirty about using Photoshop, but do not think I am sacrificing the intention. I want to make interesting paintings, and sometimes the truth of an image is boring. The artist’s job is to walk the line between adding interest while maintaining a connection to actual experience that is real enough for people to still care. I suppose novelists walk this same line in many ways.

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Continuing the Pond Project

This most resent piece is based on a photo of the Humboldt Park lily pond taken about a month ago.  This was actually the second time I painted from this photo.  This piece began as a demonstration piece for my intro to oil painting class.  The painting is larger (11″ x 14″).  Also, you will notice that the technique is slightly different.  I used a brush!  I have been using only painting knives in my other pieces, but since this was a painting demonstration I incorporated brushwork,  Going forward I would like to incorporate brushwork a little more into my Chromascape pieces.  While I would like to remain primarily a knife painter, I see no reason not to use a brush for contrast of mark, detail, or finishing touches.  I had a lot of fun with this painting and am happy with the way it turned out!

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The Yellow Line

This is a drawing, a chalk pastel, and an oil painting done over the last two weeks.  All reference the same photo    The original photo was taken a few months ago, obviously before fall was in full swing.    The image is titled The Yellow Line after the thick band of sunlight that breaks free of the treeline and runs at an angle across the picture plane.  To me the sunlight is the focal point of this image.  I have drawn and painted this image several times, here are just three examples.  As with the pond series, there is a benefit to focusing on one image or scene for an extended period of time.  This allows the painting process to become more sophisticated and refined with each attempt.  This is also of course why artist do studies to be more familiar with the subject.  However, I have never been comfortable with the word study and consider each of these to be individual works of art.

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Pond Study Excerpt

Today I did number 14 in  my Pond Study Series.  You can see the dulling of colors, which is a departure from my usual palette.  The lone willow tree just right of the center is holding onto its foliage, as is the adjacent pine.  The other side of the pond grows more and more bare.  Strangely, the sky seems perpetually grayer than usual.  I purposefully limited my palette in composing this painting.  I used only ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow, burnt umber, and titanium white.  I think this limitation forced me to stay within a certain range of tone throughout the piece.  I want to continue with this practice in having painting related goals for future pond studies.  I continue to learn not only about observation of a subject matter but also about paint manipulation.  I am allowed risks and experiments through the repetition.  I would suggest this kind of project for any artist.  This should be done periodically through any artists career as an opportunity for growth and discovery.  For future pond study pieces I will limit palette, mark making, and time of execution.  It is a strange feeling, that I am somehow becoming connected to this scene.  I am seeing my own personal transformations through the land’s seasonal phases.

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On Teaching

I had a great time on Saturday teaching a couple of creative ladies about watercolor.  We covered materials, application, and other little tips and tricks that can be used along the way.  Teaching can be challenging and fun.  You never quite know the specific interests and expectations that the student will have when they walk in the door, so I always try to get to know my students a little bit before diving in.  Through the act of teaching I am able to refresh myself on technique.  The students always teach me something too, whether through a question I had not considered before or a suggestion.  Teaching is an important part to being an artist.   It is a necessary process to foster creativity.  It forces the artist out of the bubble of their own practice and into a dynamic setting where ideas are exchanged.  I have more classes coming up soon in my studio, looking forward to it!

 

 

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Full Time Artist

Today begins my first day as a full-time painter.  I know, I know, what am I thinking trying to build an art career in this economy?  The thing is- it could take decades for the world to sort out its financial problems and I am here now living my life now.  I don’t really see how I can wait.  I know that people still have money and many of them are still buying art.  So here I go.  I will be doing classes and workshops, participating in fairs and festivals, and attending as many events as I can.  I  have a few awesome gallery group shows coming up.   This includes a miniatures show at the Nina Bliese Gallery in Minneapolis.  I will also be a part of a contemporary landscape painting show at the Artisan Gallery this spring.  Lots going on and I am very excited to be doing what I love!

 

Special thanks to my sweet husband, Ben Lloyd, for all his support!

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Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

I am currently reading Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.  It is an interesting choice for me.  Dillard describes seasons and experiences visiting a local creek.  She eloquently writes about birds, insects, plants, and the endless drama of wildlife.  Through this lens she writes a beautiful account of existence.  The work is poetic and artful in and of itself.  Through this lens of experience she tackles science, philosophy, and theology.  I certainly find myself disagreeing with her often, especially in matters of theology.  However, her investigation is worth the journey.  The attempt to analyze and question the universe through everyday experience is a noble one, and perhaps I feel it parallels my own journey.

In a particular passage, Dillard is asking why it is beautiful.  She writes, “Beauty is something objectively performed.   Beauty itself is a language to which we have no key.  It is the mute cipher.”

I could argue quiet the opposite that beauty it completely internal, something that psychologists and behaviorist- even human evolutionists- have the charge to solve.  I would argue that if there is a key it is in our brains.  None the less, it is an interesting discussion and Dillard’s work gives me the opportunity to enter the dialogue.  She asks the questions.

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Landscapes Across the Country

I have just returned from a road trip to the southwest and back. The round trip 30 hour drive was done in a week, which means we spent a lot of time in the car. From the road I saw great landscapes across many states. I am truly inspired and in awe of the diversity that can be found in such a short trip. I observed the flat plains of Iowa, the deserts of New Mexico, the steep cliffs of Arizona, and the mountains of Colorado. The contrast seen in a single day’s drive is astounding. Of course I took many photos and cannot wait to make them all paintings. More importantly, I think I have a greater appreciation for the subtleties in landscape. For example, after half a days spent driving through the Rocky Mountains, I was struck by the quiet elegance found in the yellow plains of Nebraska and Iowa against a sharp blue sky. There is certainly an opportunity for perspective here.

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Colors

This is an excerpt from the notes I am keeping for the Color Project (working title).  I am trying to understand the colors I see through multiple mediums.  Painting is important, but describing the colors through writing helps me understand the perception on a different level.

“The air is invigorating. Energy from the day’s storms is charging everything around me. I walk quickly, as the sun is minutes from setting and I want to catch all the drama.  The colors are absolutely vibrant throughout the park. I take lots of pictures- everything I see amazes me.  Sharp bands of early evening light dance off of the tree trunks like fire. The greens of the trees are made razor sharp by the lingering moisture in the air.   A gentle purple has settled over everything and is complimented by a flickering yellow sunset.”

 

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The Pond

I have already taken several pictures of the nearby pond for reference in photos.  I have also been drawing the location regularly to become more intimately familiar with it.  By observing the same place day after day I take ownership of it.  It somehow becomes mine in a way and I feel responsible for it.  I notice details about it that I would otherwise overlook.  In a sense, it is much like getting to know a person.  I have seen oranges emerge subtly in the last few days.  I have seen the lily pads fade away.  I have seen the way that the sky and time of day shift the palette harmony of the entire scene.  There is much calm in watching.  There is a peace to just observing, painting, and observing again with no definitive end result.

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My New Project

I have started a new project, which will focus on a single landscape for series of paintings.  The intention is to study how the landscape changes from day to day, but also over the length of a season.  This seems like a perfect time considering the impending change of colors.  I really want to carefully observe lighting conditions and the affect on color.  I will be photographing the same place regularly, and painting from photograph so I will have a few forms of documentation.  I don’t know how long this will last, though my hope is that I will be able to do this for at least a few months.  Perhaps this will be a good break from my regular work.  Also, I expect this to be a great opportunity to focus on process.  I hope to learn a lot about color and light observation over the coming months!

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Sketchbooking

I have been focusing on my sketchbook these past weeks. I am taking a break from producing paintings (with the exception of the domes plein air event). My studio time has been spent drawing, writing, and idea building. Basically I have been taking a break from product and have been centering on process. This seems appropriate right now as I have a large body of work that is completed. I have been showing this work regularly and taking time to enjoy this aspect of creation. The attached images are of a few recent sketchbook drawings.

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Adventures at the Domes Art Festival

I spent this last weekend at the Mitchell Park Domes painting for the plein air competition held in conjunction with an art festival.  I hammered out 2 paintings, one of which was sold at their auction.  Friday was interesting.  I set  up near the lagoon- a little ways behind the festival grounds.  The sky was clear and the reflections of the water were intriguing.  There was a group of guys on the other side of the lagoon that were drinking, partying, and hitting golf balls.  A little obnoxious but I guess they had a right to be there.  They came over to retrieve some golf balls that had landed rather close to me.  The asked why they weren’t in the painting.

Saturday I stayed a little closer to the festival and found a quiet location among the trees.  The lagoon was in the far background, but I focused on a tree that was particularly interesting because of how the light was hitting it.  This painting went much quicker then the one the day before.  I got out there just after a line of thunderstorms has passed.  The sky cleared as I was painting.

 

Image: This is “Lagoon” done on the first day (Friday).  14″ x 11″

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Even Smaller Works

I have been focusing on these even smaller oil paintings  (compared to my already small average size of 7″ x 9″).  They are on paper, I quarter it off to about 4″ x 5″ sections.  The size and limitations of working with a knife force a necessary subtlety at this size that I find very refreshing.  The focus of palette becomes more clear.  Also, by working on paper, I am free from the hesitations of working with a refined, prepared panel.  If I fail it is easy to part with.    All these reasons, and I needed a mental break from the paintings I was doing.  I couldn’t be happier with the most recent few, but a forced break or period of reflection seems necessary.  It is easy for me to get absorbed in my work and forget to step away from it.    Changing the pace and method for a while reminds me to focus on process and know that product will come naturally.