Friday, December 31, 2010

set me free!!!!!

24x36 oil on board- in progress, still
On Wednesday I interview Kay Hurley, an amazing painter in both oil and pastel. (interview forthcoming) At the end of the interview we were talking about painting BIG. Her advise to me, put it on the floor so that I can move 360 around it. That way I will no longer be working on only a landscape, but an abstraction. So that is what I am doing! Once I got over the initial..OMG what do I do with this it was quite freeing. So now it goes from floor to easel over and over. When I am on the floor I find I am only thinking about how one color relates to the next and whether it is a pleasing shape. When it is on the easel I am thinking about how the landscape reads. Painting this big is exciting and frustrating at the same time.
Now out to the river for some morning work.
have a great New Year's Eve! Remember tomorrow morning at 12:01 is the last time to post your entry for the Big Chew- painting give away..

Thursday, December 30, 2010

sunrise over sibley hospital


8x10 pastel and watercolor on wallis
I may work with this more. I really liked the contrast between the hard edge of the building, the softer diffuse edges of the buildings lost in the trees and the lacey trees.
canal sunrise
Chewse me was the next clever statement from the commenters for the "big chew." Register here.


Also my painting Canal Sunrise has been nominated for an award of best portrayal of a place on  Katherine's wonderful blog Making a Mark. Voting is closed... Let's see what happens!

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The big chew and more "glow versions"





Here are more tries  at "getting the glow" within these memory studies. A few things are sure: glow needs contrast, the trees need to be darker to make the sky glow and neutrals need to oppose pure color. I keep trying to see if it can be done differently. No luck yet.
On another note, Luchianna is gearing up her paper handling skills. Paper towels and my expensive Somerset paper have been her chewers of choice recently. She is preparing for the "Big Chew." (The photo is of Luch on my lap while I write this) If you don't know about the Big Chew please check out my December 26th post. There is still time to enter your name.
Now back to the studio... my warm-ups are making me hungry for a bigger painting.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

shape vs. detail

7x11 pastel on somerset

Doing quick paintings is a good way to practice strong shapes and eliminate superfluous detail. When you do small quickies you need to nail big value and the important design patterns. This was a perfect opportunity for me to practice just that. When I was in Chicago yesterday (delayed flight snafu) Linda took us on a walk at sunset. Now, I am really not a whimp, but it was COLD.  SO COLD. By the time we got back to the car it was 10 degrees. The walk was beautiful. I tried to memorize everything through my tearing eyes. This is the best I can do. I think I will do many of these studies to try color combinations to get the glow.
Now if you haven't done it yet, do it now. What do I mean?... Register your name for"the big chew" (as Terri eloquently named it.) My free painting give away.  You have till Saturday, January 1, 2011 at 12:01 AM Click on this link to go back to the post and put your name in the hat..
Bonus- You get an extra entry if you begin to subscribe or become a follower of     my blog. Yay!
7x11 pastel on somerset

PS It is sooooo good to be home with the kitties. Luchianna is ready for her big job on Saturday.

Monday, December 27, 2010

dreams and diversions and WOW!



WOW!!!!  It was wonderful to see all your comments when I finally opened my computer, here in Chicago. Keep them coming!!!!! (If you haven't seen it, check yesterday's post so you too may enter the drawing.) Thanks to all my friend bloggers and congrats to all the brave lurkers who made their first comments. Who knows, you may be the lucky winner!
Short story, all the flights were canceled. First flight Wednesday. So instead we took the flight to Chicago with hope of making it home by Tuesday! A big thank you to lovely Rhegina who has been living at our house caring for the kitties. You are so wonderful!
On another note, I just learned that my painting, Canal Sunrise has been nominated for Best Portrayal of a Place on Making a Mark blog! Yay! I am thrilled beyond compare! Please check out Katherine's blog. Here's the link to her blog.   Even if you don't want to vote for my painting you can check out all kind of beautiful artwork on your visit. (Thank you Katherine for noticing!!!)

Now back to work......So here is a piece of the post I wanted to do earlier.

Four aspects I noticed that were present in both the Japanese woodcuts and the Toulouse Lautrec prints.
*use of strong diagonals
*large areas of flat color
*strength in calm/ negative space
*eye movement- look up look down
It's amazing to me how dynamic the works are; yet the Japanese woodcuts balance that with peacefulness.  I hope to figure that out in my work.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

win the new years painting give-away

goodbye Claifornia

Ok, here's the big moment.  I want to thank all my loyal visitors, collectors, and even the wonderful lurkers, for visiting my blog and especially for taking the time to comment. I do realize everyone has so many things to do each day and I love the fact that you use some precious moments visit.  What best way to thank everyone??????? Give a painting away, of course! My first painting give-away!
You probably wonder, "what do you have to do to qualify to receive this?" It's easy, just add a comment to this post and you will be entered. All new subscribers will get extra entry. (We love subscribers.) On New Years Day I will write everyone's name on a separate sheets of paper and place them in a "hat". I will present the "hat" to Luchianna, the famous paper chewing kitten. This will be her big chance to use that talent for fame. (So far she ate a check I was given -envelope and all.)  I will try to get photos of the big chomp as the Luch chooses our winner.
Anyone can enter. If the winner is not from the USA I will simply ask that the winner pay postage. Us residents will get a freebee. The winner will choose from my California collection of paintings. It will be shipped unframed.


Now I leave for the airport in hopes that my plane actually goes home. Looks like the pineapple express has turned to a big time snow event.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas-present

9x9 pastel and watercolor on Uart
The rains have stopped, the sun is shining, California is back to normal for Christmas. Have a wonderful, peaceful day and be sure to check back tomorrow when I announce my special Christmas present for you. To be sure, I am grateful every day for this opportunity to create each day and for all my supportive blogger friends and collectors. Toodles for now, be back tomorrow!

Friday, December 24, 2010

Torrey Pines Sunrise, blinding light

9x9 pastel and watercolor on UArt
Blinding light from the sunrise over the hillside made this painting particularly challenging... but its also what drew me to this scene. The contrast between the cooler forward land mass and the warm sun kissed distant land was gorgeous.
One thought that kept pecking inside my head was "the light is a lighter gold (not like sunset). The gold has touched everything." That means moving temperature, If something seemed blue it needed to go warmer-  to violet. If the forward rock is in shadow and the top has orange the shadow stays pink, neutralized of course. You have to place it though a filter of gold, even when the mind will tell you something else.

Merry Christmas friends!
May the warmth of the Christmas light bless you!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Torrey Pines: starring-grays the great harmonizers

9x9 pastel and watercolor on Uart
 The rain has finally ceased, well mostly. So at 5:30 AM  I headed straight for Torrey Pines, a beautiful California State Park full of hiking trails and amazing vistas. Because of the flooding, the park was technically closed, although they would allow visitors to walk the road through the park.
This view  was from the road that faced east. There was a curtain of heavy clouds and the foreground was a darker rose color. I chose not to use as much local color (greens) in order to keep a strong presence in the foreground shape. Harmony was strengthened with my choices of reddish grays in the clouds and red in the green and blue grays in the foreground.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

sunny california..heehee

9x11 pastel and watercolor on Uart
OK So the rain is coming down in buckets, the Amtrak is canceled, trees are down, we lost our power (it's back for now), but I am not ready to cry "uncle" yet. The landscape is awesome: wonderful shapes and colors with a built in harmony. Lucky me!
Yesterday Paul and I went to the San Diego Museum of Fine Art to see two shows: the Toulouse Lautrec  exhibitions and the exhibition of Japanese woodcuts. Awesome...both. The amazing thing was how interconnected they were! I will write more about the shows later.  Two ideas stand out: the use of diagonals to lead the viewer into the picture plane and the use of flat color to portray space. I thought about those two things when composing this painting.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

as California slowly weeps

9x9 pastel and watercolor on Uart
The rain continues to fall, hard. California is turning shades of green with the dusty rose underlayer. The drama of the hillsides contrasted with the soft rain/mist colors fascinate me. I try to make it abstract while still reading real...just enough but not too much.
Needless to say, I still need to paint from inside the car. It's really pretty cushy. A starbucks chai in the cup holder, Christmas tunes on the radio: as my late Uncle Bob used to say, "not too bad."

Monday, December 20, 2010

soft California rains

9x11 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper
Rainy southern California makes for beautiful atmospheric vistas. Painted from inside my car, this painting is all about soft feeling that is rain and fog and the altering of value and chroma to make both the atmosphere and distance. Once again the actual scene was much closer in value and chroma. Carving exciting negatives spaces and varying the handling of those spaces (smudged, scratched and calligraphy) all help add space and interest. Here is the watercolor underpainting.
The set-up is always in the watercolor. It works like a grisaille for me as the value decisions are made.
Special note: tonight is the lunar eclipse, which coincides with the Winter Solstice. Read about it here.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

torrey pines

10x10 pastel and watercolor on Uart
One of my favorite places here in California is right here, Torrey Pines State Park.
In order to make distance every painter has to remember she/he orchestrates it....translated- alters the colors or values seen. Often times values appear much closer together. If you are to paint it that way you close the distance. So what is seen must be changed.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

progress:lights and darks

oil on board 24x36
I continue to work on this big painting. I keep remembering what Deborah Paris has told me, "the lights don't come on till the darks come out to play."
Tomorrow my whole family will convene in California for the annual visit to  Daddio  and Mae. It's a lot of fun, sight-seeings, wild card playing and eating. Of course my landscapes will change a little. We are very fortunate to have two friends in town house and kitten sitting for us! I will miss the kitties...seriously. I actually thought of taking them on the plane!

Friday, December 17, 2010

pink nocturne


9x9 pastel and watercolor on wallis
Lately I haven't been sleeping that well so I am out and about early. It's great for getting work done and exploring nocturnes. After yesterday's beautiful small snow the landscape has changed completely. City lights make the moist particles in the air glow with color..this morning it was dusty pink before sunrise. My chant was- close values, limited color.


If you haven't seen Sam's post yet you must. I laughed until I cried.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

let motion equal emotion

7:10 am

6:36am
I once read this quote by Elbert Hubbard on the Painter's Keys website. The other day I found the piece of paper on which it was written. Hmmmmmm, that is perfect; a new quote for the studio door.
Here are the two studies of this morning's pre-snow early morning.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

A History of American Tonalism and nocturnes

6:45am

6:00amStudies for the nocturne. It's funny the light is so cool I am going to stretch it to add the warmer burnt sienna.       

It's finally here! We have all been waiting for ages for it finally to be out...A History of American Tonalism, 609 pages of goodness, amazing paintings. Starting from the new ideas of William Morris Hunt and  John La Farge and continuing to the present day with such artists as Lisa Breslow and Wolf Kahn.  Each page is more tantalizing than the next. Another must buy!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

nocturnes

Nocturnes continue to fascinate me. When I was in NYC this weekend I sought out all the ones I could find.
 I noticed a couple of things they had in common.
*limited color, most artists chose burnt sienna in the land and blue in the sky- some were green blue. Lights were often done with yellow ochre/yellow .
*it's all about value and the values are often closer together
*my favorites tended to have blurred masses

whistler

Robert Henri

Rembrandt
Whistler
This is a long way of saying yesterday I began a nocturne, but by bedtime I had wiped the whole thing away. I decided that I needed a "removed grisaille" to figure out the masses of value and not get stuck in the details. I continue to experiment with making the grisaille off the painting. Yesterday's painting had the grisaille on the board. Simple shapes, close values. I don't know if you can tell in the drawing below: there is a house, a shed and trees. I will try to see how little information I need to give.
mine

Monday, December 13, 2010

river glow

about 10x10 watercolor and pastel
I was away in NYC this weekend. We left immediately following Saturday's post and I had stored up an extra for Sunday. The weekend was spent visiting galleries and my favorite paintings at the Met.
 Mostly I visited paintings. I did sketch a little. Here is a small sketch of Central Park towards 5th and 59th.
On the bus ride home I realized how similar the Inness, Gifford and even the scrolls from the Khubilai Khan show were. The real peace and the way you travel through these gorgeous pieces is through the "negative" spaces. For example it was  the quiet white in the scroll, the big masses of violet shadow in the Gifford or the quiet, strokeless masses in the Inness where your eye moves and your heart thumps. Hmmmmmmm.
On a small side note..it was Santa Con. That means more than 2000 "Santas" traveling through NYC. We saw giant groups of them: men and women, traditional and very funky dress. Here are a couple photos.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

use of neutrals in sunrise

5x7 pastel and watercolor on wallis
This is a study of the colors of sunrise and the use of neutrals to make light glow. Neutrals are probably the most important colors..they make paintings harmonize.

I must admit, this year I have not missed one day of posting.(YAY!) I have mixed my posts: some days I post my daily plein air warm ups and other days a studio painting or progress on a studio painting. Also I have loved posting interviews and been fascinated doing them! Next year is a new year and the blog will grow in new ways..

Saturday, December 11, 2010

sparkle and simultaneous contrast

about 8x8 pastel and watercolor
Making sparkle in light and water is about simultaneous contrast...but then again isn't it all about simultaneous contrast??
Simultaneous contrast... put a neutralized color and then the one next to it appears more brilliant. I think it also makes the gray seem to own the complement, even if it really doesn't.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Excitement and Quietude

7x9 pastel and watercolor on Uart
Ice is getting thicker on the reservoir and with it the light gets a whole different feel. Once again, this is a limited palette: 4 tubes of watercolor and 5 pastels. It was so exciting to paint, yet the feel was silence. there were no birds, not even the usual geese. Silence.
If you are in the vicinity: Washington DC, Bethesda, please come to the opening of the Waverly Street Gallery's Holiday Show. I have 9 new paintings showing in this group show. Most are small oils, plus a couple of pastels.
Tonight, 6-9pm Waverly Street Gallery, 4600 East-West Highway, Bethesda MD
Hope to see you there!

Thursday, December 9, 2010

twilight, limited palette

7x9 watercolor and pastel on Uart
Mornings are freezing cold now, but still outside is the place to be. This painting was done with a very limited palette: 4 tubes of watercolor, 4 pastels. I am trying to friend more and more neutrals and "less"while still creating a quiet excitement. 
Back to the studio:-)

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

power of the limited palette: color and chocolate



We all know the power of the limited palette. But color is like chocolate, it's so good let's have more. So this is total restraint for me. Only 5 colors and white....just the beginning... the underpainting with one glaze.




Watch for this scam. It's everywhere. Icky


"My name is Robert Boyer, i will like to order for some piece of your work from your studio as gift for my parent are celebrating their wedding anniversary, so i will be glad to have your reply as soon as possible, i will be glad if you can send me your website address to choose or send me four of your artworks via email that is available for me to choose.
    
Waiting to read from you today.so that we can make some progress.
    
I will be waiting to read from you at you convinet time.
    
Thanks"

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

infatuation

oil on wood, 6.5 x 16.5
I am infatuated with this tree in the late Autumn light. In LOVE! This is a first in what I see to be a series of paintings demonstrating my love. The tree was on fire as the sun reached its last low lying fingers on top of the tree.  It think I got the glow.

Monday, December 6, 2010

bigger paintings

oil underpainting, 24x36 on wood
pastel on paper, study
I am beginning my quest. Go BIG. Using one of my small plein air paintings I made a underpainting in my glow colors. A few things I know about underpaintings- soft instead of hard, lighter value than the intended vision, and value relations matter. This is the glorious Potomac river in its November splendor.

Question for those living in or near NYC. Which gallery exhibits would you recommend right now? My wonderful husband is taking me next weekend for a gallery hop birthday celebration.