Monday, August 27, 2012

ode to warm and cool colors

10x10 pastel
sorry...I don't know what gets into me sometimes. Here it goes.

ode to warm and cool colors

Warm and cool colors, oh we love you so!
Let me describe the ways.
Ah! With simple shifts of warm and cool you can describe a shape while keeping the value the same.

You make vibration when we layer you delicately- especially in water or sky.

Oh my!

Little wonders, that you are, you can also define a shape, without needing to make a big value contrast.

So versatile are you...
we can't help but love you so!

Monday, August 20, 2012

memory and luminosity

This is a recent pastel memory painting.
Many people have asked me about painting from memory, feeling it is an impossibility for them. Let me tell you it's not. The most important thing is observe carefully and to record the memory with precise words. Words like orange water or light blue in the sky will not bring the memory back clearly. Instead descriptive passages like- dull orange glow with underlying green or dusty cerulean in a value 2 steps lighter than the water, those words will work. Those are the kind of words that can bring a memory back months later. Making a strong vision in your head, so strong you can see it when you turn your back on the inspiration.
Why go through all this when you can just paint plein air or with a  photograph? When you rely on memory you distill. From the distillation you receive clearly that which is  important.

For me it is the only way I paint the real it- luminosity.

Friday, August 17, 2012

George Bellows show at NGA


Most people know George Bellow for his fighter paintings, gritty and harsh, they have their own following. I have always known him for his Ash Can painter roots and one painting that hangs in the National Gallery-his Lone Tenement. It a beautiful painting light filled within a field of neutrals.
 For the past few months there has been an amazing exhibit at the National Gallery which will soon go to New York and London.130 paintings, drawing and lithographs... it is a George Bellows bonanza.  Here is a link for the press release from the show.



George Bellows was a student of Robert Henri and was associated with "the eight" and the Ashcan School. He painted scenes of NYC: the tenements and the fights. He was very political and publically supported the US intervention in World War. Included in the show are  paintings and lithographs that graphically depict the atrocities committed by Germany during its invasion of Belgium. The paintings are very disturbing.
In the later part of his life he focused on his family and his home. During that period he shared his time between Chicago and Woodstock NY (both places he also shared his knowledge teaching at the Institute of Chicago and Woodstock School of Art.). In the later years he painted large portraits of his wife and daughters and his home in Woodstock. To me these works seemed very different than the works of his earlier career.

As a personal comment, I was blown away by his landscapes, especially the large, urban landscapes. The compositions are compelling, made up of almost all neutrals with small pieces of pure color.



 If you get a chance be sure to catch this show. In DC it will be hanging till October 8th. Next the show will move to NYC and open at the Met on November 14th.

Monday, August 13, 2012

river and paper

10x10 pastel
About a year ago my friend Donna Timm gave me some of her homemade pastel paper. For years I have been using Uart exclusively. The other day when I went to my flat file there it was- Donna's paper. My August 2nd painting was made using it. I loved the white so much that immediately I returned to making my own surface. Why did I stop I wonder? I guess, I stopped out of laziness. I stopped and instead painted on Uart. But now, as I am in my self-created "slow down to sensitivity program" I am making a surface.
Donna used a heavy weight Fabiano 300 hot press watercolor paper, I used Rives100% rag watercolor paper and have ordered some Fabiano. It fascinating just how much the WHITE affects the luminosity.
I mounted my paper with linco adhesive (archival, reversible, acid free) and then mixed my surface.
Recipe: 1 cup gesso, 1/4 cup marble dust plus 1TB, 1/4 cup water
I guess i will roll with what happens.

Monday, August 6, 2012

seeing color, Matisse, and planning color in a painting

Color. Think of it like this: Everyone looks; painters see. When painters see it's not just about rods and cones. It's about the process of noticing values, temperatures, and shapes, all which influence how that color will be seen.
Gertrude Stein once asked Henri Matisse if he looked at the tomato he was eating in a special, artistic way. Replied Matisse, "No, when I eat a tomato I look at it the way anyone else would. But when I paint a tomato, then I see it differently."
So many factors determine the daily changes of color in the landscape. With so many variables, when planning a painting, there are important ideas to keep in mind.
1. Start with a plan. Do not go into your painting willy-nilly. When on location and before painting, talk to yourself. "I see......, the chroma is most intense here... the color of the light is...."
2.Once you know that -limit your palette. You can try a split- complementary or you can use other tried and true combinations: triad, complementary, analogous, analogous plus compliment....plus others. Once you choose it stick to it.
3. Use color to make space. Atmospheric perspective says the landscape gets cooler as it recedes, except for blue which gets warmer/greyer. To accentuate space you can also use warmer colors in front. These aren't rules and yes you can have a cool shadow in the front.
4.Remember the diva. The diva is the place you want everyone's eyes to go to. Use your colors contrasts, sharpest lines right where she sits. You can also use one special color in your diva, and then not repeat it anywhere else unless you grey or tint/shade it.
5. You can use broken color to add vibration...but only use it in limited places. In the top painting I used different colors of the same value, broken, in the sky. Similar colors were used in the water, but that was smoothed to say water.
6. Be brave, have fun and embrace mistakes...they could be your door to somewhere new.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

new pastels from Dakota

Can you believe it? These new pastels made by Blue Earth Pastels are perfect! Organized by hue, value and intensity....you can't ask for anything else. Right color, right value- immediately.
I bought a few boxes. Dakota shipped them to me and they arrived on Monday. I was so excited! Perfect little stick-it's not too hard, not too soft.
If you are starting out with pastels- buy this one set and you are set. For we who continue to "collect" pastel after pastel, like toys...it's a great new toy. I wish I bought them all!
Dakota Pastels are the exclusive distributers. So order yours now. There is a special sale 10% off any order over $100. Each box is $63. At the end of the summer they will also be sold separately as well.  Here is the link so you, too, can have them in your box.
Let me know if you try them, k?

Thursday, August 2, 2012

river wonder

The river's beauty truly amazes me. The overcast sky made the water silvery, lighter, less orange and brown. I try to give just enough to hold onto, but the rest should allow the viewer's mind to swim in a dreamy space. This is the second river scene without sky.

It's funny, yesterday I was told I painted "abstract landscapes." I thought to myself......"abstract???" Really?
 I guess it's good..all the superfluous, I have tried to rid myself of, is going away.
PS I put a border around the painting to separate it from the grey background.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

working in a series

finished pastel, potomac river
sketch /pastel,before the rain 6pm, magothy river

sketch/pastel, sun and clouds 3:45, magothy river
Working in a series is one of the most powerful things a painter can do. When you are infatuated with your subject you can not wait to see what you can do next.  Once you KNOW your subject you easily go beyond the representational and slip into the reason you chose that subject. I believe life and all its questions, answers and unknowns bleed into your psyche as you paint.
The river is and I think always will be a muse for me. It may be different rivers but it's always the same idea. The humidity of the East coast compliments the river water well.

finished pastel potomac river
 Each time I paint the river I easily get lost in the "What happens it I do.....?"To many people it may seem repetitious, but to me it is love of a place.

in progress, oil 12x24 skagit river