Friday, June 28, 2013

value and Birge Harrison

Working in only value and making a mood with just a black pastel and an eraser helps me narrow down my intention. Translating it to color has freedom when the preliminary work is in a series of grays.


Recently I have been looking at Birge Harrison's paintings. Birge was first and foremost and amazing colorist. Just look at the beauty of this New York City painting.

Now that color depends on his strong skeleton of value. See what happens when you change the mode to black and white. Mood.

Birge Harrison was a Tonalist. He didn't try to describe a story. Instead he arranged each sensitively chosen color, line and the whole composition to create in intriguing poem. Each painting is built on a solid structure of value.
Here is a quote from his book titled Landscape Painting:
"Personally I am inclined to hold values to be the most important quality in a picture.- and this in spite of the fact that the work must depend for its charm upon the other qualities of color, design and refraction. But a picture that is good in all these respects, being weak and unsound in values, will nevertheless be a poor picture."


Wednesday, June 26, 2013

supermoon

This weekend I was at the beach in Chincoteague. It was the weekend of the supermoon. On Saturday night we watched the moon rise over the Atlantic Ocean and I memorized. Values were very close and the moon was the very brightest thing. How bright can you make it and still keep it grounded in the image?


Monday, June 24, 2013

cheap


OK, call me cheap.
 I like to use all the bits of pastel that fall off or break. I also collect the dust that falls off by placing a little trough of tin-foil underneath my painting when it’s on the easel.  I keep all the little bits in spice jars (according to color family, temperature and value.) With these I do the ultimate recycle- I make new pastels or use the dust to create a toned paper.

Want to make your own?
Here are the step by step directions.
To begin the making process place a paper towel on a sheet of wax paper.  Pour some distilled water onto the paper towel.
Next, place the pastel bits on the paper towel. Leave them there for 5 minutes or so, while they absorb the distilled water.
Once the water’s been soaked up, use a palette knife, paint scraper or even an old kitchen spatula to break up any lumps of dry pastel and make sure the consistency is smooth.
Now take a dry paper towel, place it over the paste, and press, twist, and squeeze the paste between the two paper towels to remove excess dampness, eliminate bubbles, and form the stick. You can also use a palette knife with a little water on it for lubrication to press down on the paste to get the bubbles out and to cut the damp stick into sections.
Once that’s done, roll the sticks onto a plastic surface – leave them overnight to dry. A cool stick is a wet stick-let it dry more.
I enjoy making surprise sticks...mixed with different colors.

Friday, June 21, 2013

turn off the lights



A gallery owner once said to me that so many paintings are hard to light because the painter works under too much artificial light.That lack of inner light makes them hard to be in a collector's home without special lighting.
Think about it. When we use more light "to see" (we can all be guilty) then the colors need all that light to "be seen." I am fortunate to work in north, natural light...but there are times when it is dark or rainy that I turn on my lights and know what he means. Therefore, when a painting is coming to completion I always finish it in dimmer light.
This is one that celebrates the wonderful color - gray.

P.S. Yesterday I was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was delighted by a Civil War exhibit. All previous unseen Sanford Gifford, Frederic Church, Eastman
Johnson and Winslow Homer. These paintings normally reside in either private collections or museums I have not visited (ie the Military Museum)  Here is a link to the exhibit.
Eastman Johnson

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

view of skelton island

I took a commission over a year ago. A treasured view from a riverside property. It has been on my mind all year. How to do justice to such a clearly beautiful (especially at sunset), nostalgic view? I did numerous plein air paintings, many visits and lots of thinking. 14 months later, I am finally coming up with ideas. No one will ask me to do a commission when they see how glacially slow I am. And I haven't even begun to paint!!!!! Egad.

Monday, June 17, 2013

consider the paper


This week I am teaching a workshop with wonderful, eager teenagers. Teaching is a valuable and fulfilling activity in many ways. In addition, it makes us think and break down the action of painting, what we do intuitively, into small incremental steps.
First look at the paper color. There are endless possibilities. Rather than teach a more complicated underpainting technique we chose one paper color to direct the painting.Above (top) is the standard white (Rives BFK). Below is a black paper (Canson I think). Tomorrow we will use paper colors we make.
After doing a small (1"x2" sketch) and a notan the goal was to block out the landscape into 5 colors. First, choose the darkest dark mass and the lightest mass. The darkest mass was about a 3-4 on the scale and the lightest (sky) was 9-10. Choose the remaining 3 colors along the value scale and arrange according to light to dark. If this is done correctly there is a sense of distance, foreground and background - already.
After the masses are blocked in and rubbed down to the smallest amount of pastel possible on the paper and then sprayed, the students are ready to move forward. The next step is to use new colors(and some of the already selected 5) just to give an idea of volume. No detail.
After that is laid out the painting can already read well. Last step is when the artist really answers, "why am  painting this?"(concept)  and makes the diva (focal point.)
This is a basic outline made for the younger artist but applicable to any age beginner.
Have fun painting!

Friday, June 14, 2013

eastern shore distlled

Eastern shore, storm lifting. I distilled this plein air piece as much as I could. Being there mattered. It was magic as the clouds began to lift.
Painting with so little and trusting it to say more.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

define the search

If you want to grow you have to discard the urge to please.
If we, as artists, do not take chances nothing we do will ever be different or truly from the heart. We will continue to make pretty pictures. So one question is, why?

Experimentation has always been a big part of my work, but now as I sit back in my studio I see paintings that "try too hard." I, unknowingly have pushed myself into a corner of representation. Direction is foggy. So, as I crawl out I offer a thought.

Have you ever just sat down and looked at a big body of your work and wondered, "what am I doing?"   Define the search.

Monday, June 10, 2013

wolf kahn, gray, restraint and clouds




These three cloud studies began with layers of gray. I held back my color (sort of like holding my breath) till the end.  When I exhaled I just allowed a very small amount of saturated color. Temporary loss of freedom made me think differently. It was worth the  restraint.
Wolf Kahn once said that he would ask the participants in his workshops to make a bright painting that celebrates the color gray. He felt it made them think more deeply about the variety of ways gray can function in pictorial space. WK actually went through a period of time when he pretty much only painted in grays.
I don't know if I can go that far, but I can celebrate gray.

Friday, June 7, 2013

Wolf Kahn and anti-fussy

14 x14 pastel
Oftentimes I get so frustrated with myself when I start getting too fussy. Those are the times I find myself copying nature rather than interpreting it.This will happen in the heat of a plein air event.
For comfort and inspiration  I was reading more WK and was struck by his words.

"Quite often, after working on a pastel for a time, I see that it is becoming ordinary and conventional, because I have planned and intervened too much. At this point it is useful to go over the entire picture with the back of my hand (not a paper towel or rag, they take off too much) What is left on the paper is a somewhat undifferentiated shadow of my original image. My earlier strokes have merged into a general murkiness that allows me to start afresh on the basis of a more natural undercoat."

I often do this- when I have gone too far and fussy. This is a good example. The finished painting is on top and below is what it looked like after paintings outdoors last week. I feel that the top one feels like fog because I used my memory, color play and a wipe of my hand.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

cumberland 6, the field


This is another Cumberland painting. This time I was at one of my favorite fields. Kelly came by and took these photos of me and my kooky (tick protection) violet boots. heehee
I was asked by Ann to explain the boots. On the East coast our grasses are loaded with ticks that carry lyme disease. So far my boot approach has worked. When in grasses I wear the violet rubber boots covered with tick spray. When I was at the Mountain Maryland plein air event many artists were comparing the numbers of times they have been infected with lyme disease. (not a fun thing) I heard one person had it 5 times. Violet boots ride on!

cumberland 5

Same farm..same group of trees.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Cumberland 4

Two more farm paintings, later in the evening.(above) Early in the morning with rising fog. (below)
And a bit of good news! Last night was the awards ceremony. The show is amazing with a wonderful diversity of style. I am honored to be selected to be part of it. To my shock and absolute delight I won an honorable mention for the painting "View of Cumberland." Here is a link to post.
Al Gury was the judge of the show and he was happy to take the time to speak with all of us about our work. He is the chair of the painting department at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. You are fortunate if he is your teacher! Look to his many books, of which I own one "Alla Prima." Check out this link to see it.