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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.

 

 

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Reflections on Landscape

Driving down the road today on my way to work I was struck by the subtle color changes that have occurred in the Wisconsin landscape over the last month.  Summer now in full swing, the landscape has filled in with vibrant greens.  However, a rather dry few weeks is making many of the grassy areas in Mitchell Park turn yellow.  The color relationships fascinate me.  When I observe a panorama I am quickly struck by the horizontal color bands of earth and sky.  Tree lines are often a dramatic transition on the horizon.  These relationships are really what drive my work.  I often paint the same scene more than once- manipulating, enhancing, and tweaking the colors each time.  I have taken hundred of pictures, often from my car.  These pictures inform most of my paintings.

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Reception at Woodwalk

I was at the Woodwalk Gallery, in Egg Harbor Memorial Day weekend for the opening reception of the season.  This is my first time being represented by this gallery.   After teaching several classes at the Peninsula School of Art, I realized that Door County has a remarkable arts culture.  So, in my search for galleries I came across the Woodwalk website.  It was the other artists I saw represented that really made me choose to apply.  It is important for any artist preparing to approach a gallery to know what they already show.   There is usually a “feel” you get for the kind of work a gallery prefers by browsing the other artists they represent.  You also want to make sure they don’t already represent someone too much like you.

I met with Margaret Lockwood at her gallery and was excited to be invited to show at the gallery.  The reception was packed and I got to see a lot of wonderful people.  The space is unique in that it is essentially a barn that has been converted in to a gallery.  The gallery itself is very professional and the space lends itself well to the beautiful setting it is in.

Woodwalk Gallery and Events Center
is located at:
6746 County Road G, Egg Harbor 54209.
This is 7 miles north of Sturgeon Bay and
5 miles south of Egg Harbor ½ mile off Highway 42 on
County Road G (turn toward the Bay at Shartner’s Market).
Open daily 10-5 from May 1 through October.

Call: 920-868-2912

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Frames

This is what the frame on most of my pieces looks like.  In some cases I stain it, but many are left raw.  There is a slight space around the image, which helps the viewer see the edge of the painting where the ground color is visible.  These frames are made using basic miters.  The wood is pine.

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Another Plein Air Day

I am trying to get some plein air practice in before taking on the Cedarburg Plein Air Event and the Domes Plein Air Competition this summer.  I am very aware of how differently I paint when painting plein air.  Photographs conveniently help me to filter information and focus on color and composition in a way that realty does not.  The overwhelming information I receive on-sight changes my focus and intention.  I enjoy the stories created while doing it, and the challenges it presents.  I also enjoy an excuse to be outside on a beautiful day to experience the environment and not see it as just a collection of shapes, colors, and lines.  I didn’t get rained on today- so that was good, and I feel good about the painting.

 

This was at Greenfield Park.

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Plein Air Painting

So, truth be told- I haven’t done a lot of plein air painting.  This summer it is my goal to do much more of it.  I have found that painting outside from life is challenging for me because there is too much information.  In an attempt to include everything I see the paintings often become sloppy and confused.  A photograph filters out some of the noise.  A photograph allows me to step away from reality a bit and focus on image, rather than life.  However, I see this as an opportunity to grow.  A few days ago I took my new portable easel out to the lagoon at Sheridan Park.  The sun was shining, it was like 65 degrees.  It was also my birthday so I needed a little adventure.

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Cézanne’s Subjectivity

I am currently reading the book Proust was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer.  The book is about great artists of all forms and how their art was ahead of our understanding neuroscience.  For example, Lehrer describes how Walt Whitman’s writing connects “soul” to the physical body.  Lehrer describes the culinary art of Auguste Escoffier and the discovery of umami (the 5th taste after bitter, salty, sweet, and sour).   Also covered in this book is Paul Cézanne.  I just had to write about this chapter.  As Lehrer writes, “Cézanne’s art exposes the process of seeing”  (98).  Cézanne, as a post impressionist, took us away from the idea that seeing was all about light.  Rather, Cézanne showed us that seeing was about imagination,  Everything we see with our eyes is processed by our brains.  As our brains are skilled at drawing connections and making inferences, this process greatly affects what we think we see.  Seeing is creating.  Cézanne’s paintings attempted to expose this higher reality.  “Cézanne abstracted on nature because he realized that everything we see is an abstraction” (109).

Lehrers’ book is an interesting read and I recommend it for those interested in how art and science work together in understanding the world.

 

Image: Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1882-1885

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My Studio

Here is an inside shot of my studio, cleaned up for last Friday’s Gallery Night.  A lot of recent work is on the wall, half of which is going up to Woodwalk in Door County this weekend.  That will leave me some room to make more paintings!