The Canal

about 9x13 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper
A light fog covered the canal this morning. Autumn and Spring are the fog times around here and I really look forward to these mornings. My goal was to capture the light and not go crazy with color. Fog helps with that; it's the great unifier. To me the most challenging part of plein air painting is creating color harmony. Granted nature has a exquisite color harmony on her own. Have you ever examined a single flower on its stem? Most are perfect complements. But when painting an entire landscape you need to choose.

Chincoteague- glazing still under construction

8 x10 oil, glazing layers 6+, unfinished

Glazing takes patience. I do own a blow drier, not for my hair, but to dry paintings faster. It got a workout today! Tomorrow I will put on another layer. If I don't wait it becomes muddy mush rather than enticing layers of color. Patience.
Sorry I couldn't get a decent picture. It is way TOO blue...it's actually much oranger, especially in the right top corner. I will try to replace the jpeg tomorrow tomorrow.(It's harder to get a good photo of a wet oil!)
On an interesting note, I have always loved Schmincke pastels so when I saw "test the best" schmincke mussini transparent oils on the Dick Blick website, I said, why not?. I love the colors I can make with these three little paints. Check them out.

The Color of White 2

about 7x 12 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper $100.

After I painted the trees(previous post), the sun began to break through the fog. It looked like the Monet painting Morning on the Seine near Giverny. I knew this moment would be brief so without any thumbnail sketches I went to work.

While I was painting a man stopped his car, got out, ran up to me and gave me a hug. He said, "you're a nut...I love it....what are you painting?"
Hmmmmm...I guess you never know!
Back to glazing.

Cherry Trees Waiting for Spring

about 6x8 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper $100.
Upon hearing predictions of dense fog for the morning I set my alarm to awaken at 5:30 so I could be there waiting at the reservoir. I was surprised to see that it was so dense I could not see the water. I walked; I waited. Then I turned my easel and painted the trees near the reservoir.

Sanibel Mangroves at Dawn

5x7 oil on gesso board
First thank you to everyone for all your encouraging words, it helped to see all of them this morning. I have decided that I am not allowed to whine or complain. It is what it is, a learning curve.
These are the Sanibel Mangroves at dawn. (I love that place) I had painted many layers of glaze on it...mostly dark orangey ochres. Then last night I kept dreaming about the blues that sat up on top of the orange in the dawn's light. I must have had at least 3 dreams about it. I guess that's what happens when you keep painting till you can't keep your eyes open any longer.
This one taught me that it can be similar to pastel if I glaze underneath and use opaque on top, sort of like my skeleton theory.

Painting with 6 glaze layers...next please

I seriously struggled with not knowing what the heck I was doing. My analysis of this one:
1. too much white used
2.underpainting needs to be stronger (I am glad I started with my least favorite underpainting)
3. I deviated from my color scheme. Where did that blue come from??????

ARGGGGGGHHHHHH!

My husband, bless his soul, said (to make me feel better)..." Maybe it's not your style."
Maybe I won't be a tonalist, but darn it, I am going to learn everything I can about it!

Glazing; layer 3 Sanibel Sunset/ glazing discussion

unfinished glazing effort (see the first underpainting on March 15)

Glazing with an underpainting is a VERY different method.

What I have learned so far:
1. The underpainting really should look exactly as you want the painting to look but without the color. Changes are hard to make. Edges are hard to soften. Notice in the painting above the tracks of my underpainting strokes are strong. Tonalist underpaintings describe more rather than suggest more. I have always loved "track marks"..but I am not sure if this is desired.
2. Working with glazes quickly works up very dark.
3. Keep the lights very light till you want to glaze them.

What I knew, but has been reinforced to the max:
1. the plein air painting experience is a very emotional experience while the studio experience is an intellectual one.
2.Due to the nature of plein air painting it is much more an exploration to understand how color in space works.
3. Due to the nature of studio painting it is much more an exploration of creating an illusion

Please feel free to argue a point or agree, give suggestions.

Now I am off to the dentist for my last segment of my dental surgery. Wish me luck!

Two Works: one oil (unfinished), one pastel (plein air)

unfinished, oil, underpainting with 3 layers of glaze
Here I am working WAY out of my comfort level. I am painting 5 of these glazed pieces at the same time. Glazing is slow painful work. Deborah quoted from Edgar Payne. "Mix brains with paint." Ah...so often they are forgotten and the painting is left to their friend, impulse.
I am holding my vision tight in my head. If it becomes unsure..time to stop and think.
6x6 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper $100.
Back to the reservoir on this very cold spring morning. It was good to be visiting my muse, the reservoir. I rarely take a plein air painting back to the studio to work. The color harmony in this piece was rather disjointed. So I tried to pull it together.

Silver and Gold

10 x10 pastel on Uart paper $100.
After I had finished work in the studio yesterday I drove down to the river for a sunset opportunity. The light was overcast with small peaks of sun which made a sort of silver light with cooler orange-gold (gold can be cool?) accents. I had a plan, but when I got down to my spot I realized I had left my watercolors behind (that will teach me for cleaning the palette!) So I rubbed in a pastel underpainting. I find my thinking changing. It is like learning a new language: only practice and new opportunities to speak will increase my vocabulary. I am now placing thin layers, rather than my usual more a la prima method.
Plein air painting is so much more complicated- so much stimuli and little time to synthesize.

Mozart Moment/Sanibel

10 x10 pastel on oil underpainting

underpainting
photo reference

A dramatic sunrise can easily cross over to tacky, right? With this in the back of my mind as a "NO, don't do that" I decided try. Still working from my Sanibel experience I began in my version of a tonalist-type method. I underpainted in one color. It seems work as a unifier for me. Next, I pre-selected my palette (and stuck to it!). The palette was similar to yesterday's but I decided to have a nuetral violet be dominant so that the orange would pop. (Sorry the photo is a little washed out)
Now, I need to glaze more of the oil studies, then out to the river for a sunset painting.

Swan Song

10 x10 pastel on oil underpainting, Uart paper .
10 x10 oil underpainting
What better way to learn..... than to transfer my new information to the brain I understand-pastel. So I did a second oil underpainting, but this time it is on Uart paper. Then, I pre-selected my pastels, all the time keeping in mind my color harmony (melon sky with violet/brown.) I tried to paint with my pastels in glazes. Sky first-opaque. Then a succession of glazes- avoiding white. I found out later that I really needed a discord color so I added the yellow/gold green.
At the beginning it was my intention to add the swan, but I wasn't sure I could pull it off. Can you see it? In Sanibel the refuge was filled with pelicans, rose spoonbills and egrets....so I made my own choice and decided I wanted a swan.

Sanibel Underpainting/shale

I read that George Inness first stained his canvas with a light brown tint and when it was dry he took it on location and then drew with charcoal or pencil. Next, with more raw umber he would go over all the outlines. Then he would paint the lights and opaque parts and later, the sky. That would be a days work. The painting would dry and he would go on the transparent shadow the next day.
With that in mind, first did my value sketches. I am still working from my reference material from Sanibel. My photos are great because they are too dark so they really work only as compositional starts. I am able to completely create the color from my color notes or made up. On this one I will use colors I never tend to chose. (neutral browns/violets and a melon colored sky) working in this method takes a great deal of forethought. I realize now that I often would begin with a clear thought in mind..but later meander and become off target. I think for now on I will use a post-it tacked to my easel reminding me.
When time to arrange the underpainting I took a canvas and painted it with my new "shale" from Vasari (a beautiful violet/brown- with both warm and cool tendencies-Deborah's fav color). Now I will let it dry more before going in with a dry brush.

Sanibel Dreams

6.5 x10 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper $100.
Prodded by my work with Deborah, I am trying to stretch the ideas into my pastel. Therefore I approached this one completely differently. Beginning with a Quinacridone magenta underpainting I tried to think of my pastels as glazes. Darks are thinner and more transparent and lights tend towards being opaque.
I began this one yesterday and it wouldn't let me sleep. Finally I got out of bed (Kins the muse cat did too) and surrendered to the painting.

Another Underpainting, Ding Darling Refuge

8x10 oil underpainting on canvas
I decided to try to simply on this underpainting. Use less color work in a subtractive method. This is mostly burnt sienna, Liquin and a tiny bit of indanthrone blue. I covered the canvas with burnt sienna and wiped, brushed and Q-tipped. As a pastel artist I am accustomed to working from dark to light, but with an opening to change my mind.. My understanding of this process is that if I have a dark down and later, when glazing I want it to be lighter, tough luck. I guess I will see soon enough. Value is what it is all about at this point.

Gorge at Sunset

6 x6 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper $100.
Trying to calm down my palette a little, but still create light. This is one stab at it. Next,....

Tonalist underpaintings

tonal underpainting, 5x7 oil on gesso board
tonal underpainting, 3.25x7 oil on gesso board
tonal underpainting, 6x8 oil on raymar canvas panel
I am taking Deborah Paris' online Painting the Luminous Landscape course. I have always admired her work and have wished to take a course with her. She is a tonalist and when she works she does an underpainting in transparent colors like shale and burnt sienna. My tendency is to do a watercolor underpainting in intense colors.. so I am researching and experimenting something new. Even my cat Kins (the studio muse) looked at me as if to say," What no magenta?"
The course itself is really cool. We post work on a site and Deborah or other classmates comment. Deborah is great. It was only been 3 days and she has posted demos, given reading lists, lots of comments and other goodies. You will see my struggle posted on here for the next month...here we go.

Feel free to comment and critique friends!

Woof

about 6 x12 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper
This one is a serious woofer, destined for the kennel. A day ago it was a very harmonious golden/green light painting, but I have been reading George Inness and he talks about adding a surprise of color. Which I did and should have stopped....but Noooooooooo. Instead I was compelled to change more and more till it was unrecognizable and then I wiped it, worked, wiped it again and finally this. Oh dear!
A quote from George's son (named George, of course)as he watched his father paint,"All the rest was dark and in perfect tone. With that supreme stroke he struck the accidental, and pushed the harmony almost to discord." Well this one was pushed...to the other side.
Strike it down for woofer and begin another.

The Battle between Spring and Winter

6x6 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper $100.
This morning I needed to visit my reservoir...simply stated, I missed it. This is a kooky time of year in DC when winter and spring battle for ownership. The daffodils are in bloom and the snow was falling lightly as I painted. By next week it will be 70 again.
My focus today was contrasting temperatures, side by side.
Now back to my Sanibel studies.

Darling Refuge

6 x10 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper, $100.
6x 10 watercolor underpainting
Artists paint in their heads all the time. It is a way of living...we see through our art. That's another way to explain how particularly freeing it has been to paint through remembered experience, relying little on my gathered reference materials. I feel that my color becomes freed. What do you think?
This is the Ding Darling Refuge on Sanibel, again. Love that place...can't wait to go back!

Tranquility at Sunrise/ Sanibel Island

6 x9 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper $100.
underneath, pencil sketch
Oh! It is so good to be back painting! We returned late last night after a glorious mini vacation in beautiful Sanibel Island. I fell in love with the Ding Darling Refuge: still water, reflections, birds and a feel of tranquility. I did sketches, kept color notes and took photos. It felt so weird not to paint! This is the refuge at early morning, just after sunrise.
My goal- dynamic composition with bold shapes, but within those shapes I wanted to play with the contrast of warm and cool, especially in the dark masses.
Thank you friends for all your comments and notes while I was gone. Thank you also to my new subscribers and followers, I appreciate all your support!

Early Morning Crystals

6x 12 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper, $100.
Sparkly water with hints of sky, that was the concept.
I did this one yesterday morning, since at this moment I am on the beach in Sanibel Island. We, my husband and I, are away celebrating his big accomplishment. He is now Dr. Paul. I promised I would not paint on this mini celebratory vacation. I think that will be hard. I am like an addict. But what better place to attempt a "dry period." I will return later next week.

Square Sparkle

6x6 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper $100.
The water had a silvery Winter glimmer, yet some signs of Spring are poking through. Green and pink hints play peek-a-boo with a predominately Winter landscape. Is that exciting or what? I even saw daffodils today!

Ephemeral Beauty

about 9x 11, pastel and watercolor on Uart paper $100.

Today I finally returned to the reservoir. Boy, had I missed it! I was amazed to see a large ice shape on the water reflecting the golden light of early morning. Here is the thought process for this plein air painting.
concept-golden light from space in trees making a golden glowing reflection on the ice. Try to capture the delicacy and ephemeral beauty of the ice's last moment of glory. It will probably be its final moment this year.
Lightest-sky to glassy reflection, darkest-shadow on reflective ice near large shape on left
Masses-almost a sideways dark hourglass-3 basic shapes
Colors- purple, blue- golden orange

I left this one bigger (and low dpi). so that if you click on it you will see the nuances.

Color Study for "Confluence"

about 5x7 pastel and oil on marble dust board
I tried hard to stick to my analogous color theme and to vary my color within a value. Unfortunately my photo does not show that well...sorry.
Today's questions and challenges:
1.What is the lightest light? That will help determine many other marks in the painting .
2.The sky sets the tone, but how does it tie in with the landscape?
3.Where are the highest contrasts? Sharpest edges? It should be the focal point.

When stuck I do another black and white sketch, this time it is of the painting....Are my values working? What do I need to accent? Bring back?
That is when I lightened the value on the mass (on the left) and made it more blue.

I think it's now time to go to this composition on a bigger scale. Everything is easier small. One tiny mark says a lot. Bigger is a whole new thing! More later.

Golden Rule: Suggest rather than command.

Studies for Confluence

pastel and watercolor on marble dust board and pencil sketch
When out in the field, whether plein air painting or walking with a camera, the main goal is to get ideas and experience. Later when removed from the source, one takes time to dwell upon the experience. Neither the painting nor photo is the key, the experience is.
When back in the studio, think...how can I create a bold design that stands out at a distance? What is my concept? With this in your mind proceed to your sketches and block out the masses. Remember the sky sets the tone and you need an anchor in the foreground.
This is my plein air painting. I have decided to work in a slightly different direction using analogous colors. Blue green, blue and blue purple will be complemented by the orange sky. The dominant hue will be the blue haze. The sketch has two shapes, unequal in proportion. Studio paintings involve more planning and choices.
We as artists are the creator of mystery...use your power.

Bridges at Harpers Ferry

12.5 x 16 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper


12.5 x 16 watercolor underpainting
I remember long ago when I loved doing color monoprints I used to move the oil paint around the plate with my fingers and a cloth. I am starting to do the same with my watercolors and oil paints, even without the slippery plate.
I am still working out the big painting. This one is closer to my idea, although it still leaves a lot to be desired. The photograph is poor as well, the color is more vibrant.

Preparatory Work/The River

watercolor on moleskin paper
These three small works are from my moleskin sketchbook. I have been trying to decide exactly how the composition and light will be for this large painting. It's always best for me to fiddle a lot like this before moving big. Due to Brian's influence I have been turned on to this new (to me) surface. It can take a lot of abuse.
I want to thank Katherine for noticing my blog and mentioning it on her site.
Back to work!