Wednesday, June 30, 2010

abstract bands of color making distance and marble dust recipe

 about 9x9 pastel and watercolor on marble dust board.
Simplify the composition and just tune in to the beauty of the bands of color.
Intentionally I chose 3 bands (with a gradation on the bottom one) of value without much to signify distance. The only tools were value and color. Warm choices in the trees closest and cooler farther away...it's as simple as that. Of course since the water was still so the muddy bottom affected all the colors.
A few people have asked for a basic marble dust ground recipe. I usually do it like a cook...no measuring. But this time I took out those underused measuring cups to give you a recipe.

1 cup gesso
1/4 or so marble dust or fine pumice
and then add water till it reaches the consistency of house paint.
 I would say in the vicinity of 1/8 cup or less..it really depends on your gesso

support- gatorboard (no need to coat other side, masonite, or thick rag paper

I like to spread it with a foam painting brush 1 /12 inch. Sometime I add some more defined brush strokes with a real brush. I really try to keep the stroking haphazard. Make a thin layer, two thins are far better than one thick. I really don't know why that is, it just is.

You can also use acrylic gel medium. I like this as well, but I think the watercolor goes better (read more intense)on the gesso.
When painting I carry my sander so that I can manipulate the surface to to smoother if necessary. I sanded the entire surface for this painting.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

chincoteague and reading

10x10 pastel and watercolor on Uart

I slipped away last weekend to the beach, Chincoteague. Chincoteague, a native american word for the "beautiful place across the water" is a wonderful place filled with wild ponies and absolutely no development. The beach has nothing just 18 or so miles of endless sand. It is called Assateague (native american for the marshy place across. )

I confess I laid on the beach and reread my copy of Like Breath on Glass,Whistler and Inness and the art of painting softly. I painted a little (this is one), memorized a lot, but basically it was two solid days, enjoying my husband's company (without my computer!)

Back to the painting part. On Sunday, when I painted this I was thinking about all the words in the book. Here is a quote from the book," Inness and Twachtman insisted that the beginning artist fully understand the underlying structures and systems of nature, the insisted "strict and sober facts."Having achieved this mechanical skill, the artist was ostensibly ready to edit and interpret what he saw and experienced. His skill of rendering the facts of nature had to be subjected to his own particular temperament or creative talents, to what one artist described as his power "of selection, of arrangement of taste." Artists called this marriage of realism and individual interpretation  a synthetic style as compared to the analytical style of the HRS or any other school of realism. As Inness put it, a painting must possess "both the subjective sentiment-the poetry of nature- and the objective fact."

Possess both, sentiment and fact. That is the goal. Balance.

Monday, June 28, 2010

chagall and expression of love


8x10 oil on board

art must be an expression of love or it is nothing.- marc chagall

After months of work on this small 8x10, it's done. Quiet love. The sky was the real fun. Layers and layers or stimpling and warm and cool glazes. The challenge was the row of trees. I was determined to keep them on the same plane. Therefore I had to use the other tools I had at my fingertips- color, temperature, size, shape and chroma.
This is the field that will leave for development- the sacrificial lamb for progress. I love this field and will be so sad when it leaves.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

back to cooking- similarities and one BIG difference

 
8x8 pastel on twinrocker
Back to cooking. 
I keep thinking about its comparisons to painting. As I see it:
1. You need a plan
2. you can't let the plan ruin you.
3. so much of it is about improvisation and feeling
4. You have to know the basics before really cooking. So first you learn to cook, you can be school taught or self taught. You follow "recipes" so you know what works and what doesn't. Then, armed with the information you take off and create your own with vision. Some are good, some are bad, on occasion you hit a great one.

I would say that the biggest difference is that when you cook, you really cook for others (at least I do.) When you paint you really aren't painting for others you are painting because you have to and all the oooooohs and ahhhhhs don't mean a thing if you know that painting is not what you wanted and the painting ran amuck.

This one I like. The feel is right. The surface is appealing. 
Some times you feel like a nut sometimes you don't.

Have a moment of extra time? Check out my sale. Click here.
Maybe you will find something you want to own.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

working subtractively

8x12 pastel on Twinrocker
As I work to create new field scenes  I made a small jump to Uncle Harold's farm. Making compositional adjustments I took out the mountains and added a lake or field in the distance. I know that I want something to gather distant light.
To create these studies I prefer to work subtractively. That means creating large shapes and erasing, sculpting my way through the pastel to create form. It allows me to make soft sections and lines in a way that is delicate. I used just one sepia colored pastel, rubbed it and erased. To erase so much you really need a tough paper. This is Twinrocker, hot press. The black was created by my erasing, not another pastel. This method is wonderful for just allowing the values to sing.

Friday, June 25, 2010

painting what you feel and YOUR voice:3 studies


 color study, done from memory, 6x6 pastel on BFK 6/20
 color study, done from memory overcast sunset, 6x6 pastel on BFK 6/23
8x8 pastel on twinrocker, hot press, buff

Every night I walk to the field and watch the sunset. I don't bring paints or pastels I just walk and watch...anyone who knows me knows I can't sit still. Now I am beginning to make value sketches and color studies, from memory. I am taking it to the studio in order to just record my inner voice, rather than what I see. It's hard to keep away from painting it when I am THERE. Since painting(to me) is more about what is felt rather than what is observed, I need to spend more and more time in the studio.

Think about your voice, what is it and how do you make it known? Long ago in art school you remember being told you had to create "something new." I'll tell you, you really can't create anything new unless you are true to that inner voice. It has to come from inside to be new and real. The solution- paint, paint and paint some more. And remember opinions are nice, but there is only ONE that matters and works like a divining rod.


Now, the studio calls.
PS No one would know that this is a baseball field, with a chain link fence...It is up to me to create the beauty.
PPS i will post more on this one as it develops in oil..... I am altering my working methods.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

color choices or are you painting the colors that you see?

8x10 pastel and watercolor on marble dust board
"Those aren't the real colors you are painting, are they?"These are words from a helpful passerby as I was industriously working on my painting. I thought and considered. "Yes, they are, but as I paint I make decisions in order to create better color harmony."  "Oh I thought they weren't ."
Isn't that what we do all the time..even if we paint what we see? I wanted a feeling of hot sun so I was constantly balancing how many cool choices I made and whether I could lean that cool color warmer. For instance many of the violets and purples in reality leaned more towards blue..but did I want that? I did leave warm and cool greens for color tension.
As Richard McKinley has always said...it's all a lie. You take a 2d surface with a handful of color and make the bounty before you. (paraphrased by me) Now consider the power in you.
You can choose how you want to make that vision, that beautiful lie.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

surface quality

about 7x13 pastel and watercolor on marble dust
Surface quality....... hmmmmmm. It matters, no matter what your choice medium. I guess that is why I am back to loving the marble dust boards I make. You can embed the color deep inside the ground, then the top level of texture  can dance with color that is totally separate, exciting in a new way.  It creates a tension- essential for a successful painting. You can also sand down areas to make a smooth, glassy area. (and not wait for it to dry!) Then as if that wasn't enough fun, you can also make marks like calligraphy on top!
Below is an oil that I am working on in the studio. The goal is the same, but this time the surface is a glassy smooth Art Board, onto which I am building surface.
6x6 oil on board, still unfinished
Here is another quote this time from the  Belgian master, Alfred Stevens,
"A picture in order to be truly great must excel from two different points of view. When seen from a distance it must be handsome in color, fine in composition and true to the scene depicted; and when examined at close range the pigment must reveal jewel-like surface which is described by the word "quality."
With part of this I agree and another part I disagree. For me surface quality does not mean enamel like beauty, although that can be splendid. Instead I think it is a mix between the bravado strokes of Sargent or Turner and the glassy, licked clean, jewels of Ingres or Whistler's saucy nocturnes. Show process, but be discriminating. Balance.
What do you think and why?

Oh, if you haven't checked out my online sale click here.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

working from memory

8x8 pastel and watercolor on Uart
Has anyone read Birge Harrison's Landscape Painting? Mr Harrison taught at the Art Student's League in the early 1900s. In the chapter- The importance of fearlessness in painting, he says,"The public loves to be dictated to in matters of art.- to feel that the painter is"onto his job." It will pass by the man who says I think and stand rapt every time before  the picture of the man who says"I know."Aim to tell the truth:but if you have to lie, lie courageously."
  Today I returned to some of my studies from Uncle Harold's farm in the Cumberland area.
To be removed from the scene opens up a whole new world. When you are no longer a slave to the view, you can feel and aim more easily for your concept.  In this scene I wrote (in my sketchbook) about how the sky was overcast thus creating an intensity to the color. Sun washes out color. The glow of the mountains was intense. Even the grass was greener.  Aim to tell the truth, but if.......
Now you can ask yourself what works?
 This is what it looked like from my plein air experience.,,,not enough feel...incomplete.

Monday, June 21, 2010

summer solstice, pablo picasso and finished field

12x24 pastel and watercolor on Uart
After 4 times in the field, I took this painting to the studio. It needed more feeling and less looking.
Pablo Picasso said it best,  "to draw you must close your eyes and sing"
The goal was to feel the amazement of the longest day of the year, that light, intense, warm and magical.  (big goal, eh?)
I think I will work on another version of this one.

Happy Summer everyone!

paypal advice

As promised, here is the paypal advice merchant advice. This has nothing to do with painting unless you want to sell your paintings on line. Making the online show was quite a learning experience for me!
.
1. You can only receive actual tech help by sending a request online. There is NO tech support on their telephone number. Agents sometimes put you on hold for 30 plus minutes to find the tech support. Finally a helpful agent told me they do not have tech agents in the customer service building.
2.When you do create an "add to my cart" button make certain to do step 2  track inventory( it says optional..it's not really optional.) This is where you get to choose that there is really only one painting....not an endless supply.
3. After creating all the add to cart buttons be certain to make a cart!
As I write this I know it sounds like"boy she really is a dummy" live , learn, suffer a little frustration. By me sharing that maybe you won't have frustration:-)
That's it for now...I will post a painting in a little bit.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

the field, henry matisse

 12x24 watercolor only on Uart,
This is my goal, wrapped up in a quote by Matisse, "Good color sings. It is melodious, aroma-like, never over-baked."
My new challenge is going bigger en plein air.  This painting is the biggest one I have ever attempted on site- 12x24 !!!! Just the underpainting alone has taken 2 days (2 different early morning sittings). The light is warm and humid, yet it is morning light, which is cooler than evening light. The jpeg on the bottom was done the first day.  The second day I added a warmer feel so that I could place the cooler refractive qualities on top with pastel the next day..See the development here.

Happy Father's Day everyone, especially Daddio and Wes (my father -in-law)!

Click here to get to The BIG SALE.


Saturday, June 19, 2010

value and cooking

 5 x15 (i think) pastel and watercolor on Uart

Value..ah the value of value. When you are aware of value relationships the whole world of color is at your beckon call. If you are true to the value relationships you can choose the color you want for harmony and feeling. How does one make a hot, steamy morning? Color choice.
It's funny, yesterday I cleaned out a studio I had been renting. I had been there for years. Old paintings from 25 years ago were still stored there. Looking back I noticed some successes (rare) and many "dogs." You probably wonder what do these "dogs" have in common????? Easy. I did not realize the power I had as an artist. The values were correct but the color wasn't chosen. I struggled with  just seeing. Now I realize it it's like cooking:
2 cups seeing
stir in 1 1/2 cups feeling
when the bubbles rise, sprinkle liberally with harmony
Taste
And then drizzle with insight.
Some dishes work better than others. Some funky inspirations (like that wild pizza I made last night) can surprise you. Relish it all. Cooking and painting are inspiration.

Check out my big sale when you get a chance.

Friday, June 18, 2010

online sale... Yay!!! I think it's working, finally

10x10 pastel and watercolor on Uart    diva in time     200.      


6x6 pastel on BFK        homage to wolf kahn    100.              


5x12 pastel on BFK              sleepless 175.          


5.5 x5.5 pastel and watercolor on Uart         river lace   3           100.  


5x12 pastel on BFK                    hot love SOLD


6.5x5 pastel and watercolor on Uart      lavender waters    100.   


7x7.5 pastel and watercolor on Uart        don't become  ordinary           100.  


7.5 x10 pastel on BFK  hot tamale on cold snow                 $100  


7.5 x12.5 pastel and watercolor on Uart   thaw    SOLD


8,5x13.5 pastel and watercolor on UArt     wait   150  


9x12 pastel on BFK    hope  SOLD

9x15 pastel and watercolor on Uart  through the looking glass   200.  


10x10 pastel and watercolor on marble dust board       calling        200. 


10x10 pastel on BFK             whistler's sauce    150.   


 
12.5x9 pastel and watercolor on marble dust board   thistles   175.  


9x10 pastel on BFK   devotion      200.      


8x8 pastel and watercolor on UArt  barns, chaos and wolf kahn    200. 


10x10 pastel on BFK           skies of palm springs     175.   


9x9 pastel on BFK        hope and possibilities:christmas morning   200. 


9x12 pastel and watercolor on marble dust board   edge of the world  250.


9x12 pastel and watercolor on marble dust   summer view of frostburg  250.


8x9 pastel and watercolor on Uart say more with less  SOLD
7x7 pastel on BFK  tangerine love 100.  


7x8.5 pastel and watercolor on marble dust    wolves and peace 200. 


8x8 pastel and watercolor on Uart   peas and quiet      200.    


12x9 pastel and watercolor on marble dust  thistles and life's questions  200.


8x8 pastel and watercolor on Uart  sweet pea heaven 200. 


two panels 6x6 each= 6x12" pastel on BFK    adoration     300.      



10x10 pastel on BFK sky's the limit  150. SOLD






I have learned so much in the process of putting these paintings for sale online. What to do and what not to do. This is the 4th time I have had to upload and html code each one with paypal. Last time I posted you could have bought the same painting many times...but I couldn't supply it. Maybe I will write a to do and not to do list to help others... that will be later.

I hope you like them. Feel free to comment even if you are not buying. Once again, any problems please email me.

Cheers!! Loriann
PS All paintings will be shipped priority mail. They are unframed. When you take them to your framer, tell him/her not to spray them, simply mat and frame. Spraying deadens the color. Under glass, pastels will last forever. They remain vibrant with their little crystal sides in tact.