Tag: painting

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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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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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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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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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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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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!

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Technique

One thing I don’t think I have ever talked much about is my technique.  So here are some thoughts of process…. Most of my paintings are on panel, though occasionally I use canvas.  Panel, with it’s rigidity, works a little better with the weight of the paint and pressure used while applying it.  I start with a panel primed with acrylic, usually I use a warm orange or red.  With a white pencil I gently sketch out the composition.  In my mind I map out the color relationships based on what I see.  Whether painting en plein air or in the studio, I look for interesting color patterns and plan if there are any I will exaggerate for dramatic effect.

To begin painting, I start with the sky.  I mix the color using a palette knife.  This color is most critical as it sets the tone of the rest of the painting.  I often spend a long time mixing this color until I am satisfied.  Because my work is small, I often pick it up off the easel.  I spread the paint on with a knife, using the knife’s edge to define the horizon.  It is like spreading peanut butter on bread.

I move on to middle ground and foreground, in that order, mixing each color as I go.  I save complicated shrubbery or trees for last.  All is done with a knife.  For detailed pattern I mix the paint directly on the panel.  The paint is often thick and applied with an impasto style.  While holding the painting in my hand I can rotate it freely to get different directions of stroke.  I have to accomplish most of the painting in one go, as it will start to dry within a day.  The textured surface makes it difficult to work on once the drying process starts.  It takes several weeks for the painting to be completely dry.

 

 

Image: Chromascape 67, detail