using marks and smooth

This river series is my true love. Therefore at 5:30 in the morning I was walking down the path just to see her. A beaver greeted me, they were waiting.
My idea this time was to see the layers. Make it more about the surface. The watercolor below with thin layers of pastel is topped by marks of pastel.

tricky greens

Recently when my teenage class was outdoors painting the common cry was, "There are too many greens!" Or, "Greens are boring, what do I do?"  Greens are incredibly tricky. In order to make a painting full of warm and cool greens to work you have to search for the other secondary colors that will complement green. That brings us to violet and orange. The famous Richard McKinley says, "The secret to green is orange and violet is its friend." So when looking at those endless greens out there now, think...where can I  see violet? How can pieces of orange in my greens and around enhance the green?

at the river

I continue to adjust my new palette. Trips to the river help me look more closely. I take notes of missing sticks and return to the studio and find possible colors that suit. I do like the new arrangement. It helps me think better.

spring equals yummy neutrals

10x14 pastel on watercolor

The use of compliments is an important tool for making delicious neutrals.  For pastels that means graying down a color in thin layers. I like to use the watercolor underpainting the make it happen quickly on the spot. In the studio I find that glazing in oil can be very similar.

Springtime is full of these beautiful colors. Enjoy the bounty!

In the meantime, a quote from Hans Hofmann,
In nature, light creates the color. In the picture, color creates the light.

the canal, early morning and color temperature

There is nothing better than the canal on a warm May morning.
Today I decided to do a full color (somewhat tempered) underpainting and then let loose on the pastel.
As always I began with my focal point, which this time was the place where the sky, the tree branch and the canal meets. I liked the way the leaves of the tree appeared so  cool and the sky warm. Have you ever noticed that determining the temperature and the value, is more important than the color itself? It was hard (but necessary) to pull back color from other areas so that that portion could shine.
I know this one is not finished, even though I worked it to death. Maybe in a day or two I will vacuum off some pastel, fix other parts and begin again...Who knows what might happen?
Happy Mother's Day!

the joy of plein air

6x8 pastel on somerset

I couldn't sleep so my visit to the river was super early and I was delighted! Late April and early May are the times for the fog. The water is cold and the air is warm...beauty results when this happens. The allure of the Spring colors was strong. I had to make clear decisions and to what was the dominant hue and the supporting cast. Moving other colors towards those hues is important. The hardest thing about plein air is so much information.
On a separate note, I have  story that I just have to share with you. As you know I teach part time. Yesterday I was with a group of five year olds. I must admit I LOVE this age! We are studying landscape painting and went out to do some plein air sketching. The children know to find their focus, talk about it then begin their sketching. One little boy chose a place on the hill, far from the others. When I visited him he began sharing, "Oh , I love plein air! I can feel the air on my cheeks and hear the birds and then here I am drawing. I am so lucky!" Now think how wise that little boy is already. Embrace the moment..feel each morsel. He went on to create a very detailed drawing of the stream and bridge!   Two other 5 year old girls later went and sat next to the boy. They were giggling and talking. He turned around and let them know they could stay there if they could be quiet. He needed his concentration. 
WOW! Doesn't that have a familiar ring plein air painters? So now plein air painters, go out and celebrate. It's Spring!!!!

back to the river, yay!

10x10 pastel and watercolor on Uart

Finally, I am really out there, ready to paint outdoors! Still I can not use my easel so i have found a way to sit and work (for now.)
I, of course, returned to the river in the early morning, my forever muse. My husband came with me and lifted my stuff down there; but, now I have a plan for next time. Solo.  I must say it felt so good to be out there and be part of nature while I painted. The sounds, the light, the cold, it's all part of the feel. This is the best time of year. The neutrals are the most splendid of all. Violet grays, red grays, orange grays, golden grays, blue grays, all amazing. Today's grays were mostly violet and gold...beautiful complements.

back to reduction and essentials

5x8 pastel and watercolor on wallis
Back to the idea of what is essential?
I am so guilty of looking at a scene and being totally taken with its beauty that I paint with the abundance of colors I actually see. My goal is to reduce those colors down to the most important to allow the viewer to feel the sensation.

The canal had a light fog of a neutral violet and the light was golden. The color I chose had to stay in those two families. I made the sharpest contrast in the focal point. When you look at the photo you might not know it was the same place. hmmm.

"glow" underpainting

I have never been able to create the glow I desire with  a traditional underpainting. So I continue to search for the way that will work for me. The underpainting on the left has been painted with an assortment of colors (cad yellow, alizarin, ultramarine blue, white and sap green)-leaning warm. On the right is the underpainting I posted yesterday with transparent earth yellow rubbed in.
These last three underpaintings were created  of places I know deep down inside of me, I can see them in my sleep. No handshakes this time.
One thing is constant, they are all on gator board, with gesso and sometimes marble dust. Uncertainty is something I relish. Sometimes I think I paint just to amaze me.

grackle morning

9x9 pastel and watercolor on wallis
Early morning on the canal, planted my feet in one of my favorite spots and painted. After finishing my painting and I started to pack up and the fiesta began. Oh, what an amazing sight! The skies above the canal were full of beautiful iridescent grackles. They were zig-zagging back and forth as a big group. I think they were migrating and feeding in mass. I stood mesmerized and watched. I will never forget that morning.
On another note, I just learned that yesterday's painting took first place in the Kensington Plein Air. I have never won a plein air contest...and I wasn't even at the reception...darn! I had planned to be there but I wasn't feeling well. I decided to take a nap...well the nap lasted about 15 hours. Now I feel much better, so back to business.

discord, tone, George Inness and a question

12x12 oil on panel

This is a painting that I have struggled with for months and continue to struggle. It is a studio painting.  I have painted in this particular location on the C and O canal, so many times, for so many years, that I decided to use it as my muse for this painting. I felt that it's was simply inside of me. No need to be there, no need for photos of plein air paintings as reference.  The painting has gone through many metamorphoses. I question...would the water look better if it were lighter in front? What do you think?

I keep thinking about George Inness.
I  read George Inness over and over again. This particular part is streaming through my head.

Once after asking his son (a painter himself), "How does it look?" George Inness Jr. (the son) says, "Fine Pop, all right beautiful. Fine tone." The senior and master George Inness answers, "Yes, it has things in it, but it's stupid. Confound it! it's too good: it's all tone. That's what's the matter with it.  I've got too much detail in the foreground. That's the thing we are all running up against  to tickle the buyer- to make a few dollars.  Those weeds don't mean a thing. Let's take them out; they are not the picture. The picture is very good but it is all tone."  
The son replies," Yes Pop, but that's what I like about it, it's beautiful in tone.." Senior George Inness replies, " Perhaps , but that is what makes it stupid. Why in thunder can't I put something in it that's out of tone? You see there's no interest in this picture.  It's well drawn, yes, well constructed , well painted, and perfectly tonal;  but there's no passion in it. A picture without passion has no meaning, and it would be far better it had never been painted.  Imitation is worthless.  Photography does it much better than you or I could. In a bar-room in New York is a painting of a barn door with hinges on it and a key-hole. It is painted so well that you would swear that the hinges were real and that you could put your finger in the key hole; but it is not real! It is not what it represents. It is a lie. Clever, yes, but it gives you no sensation of truth, before you look at it you are told that it is a lie. The only charm in this picture is deceiving you into the belief that it is a real barn door.  Now in  art, true art, we are not seeking to deceive. We do not pretend  that  this is a real tree, a real river; but we use the tree or river as a means to give you the feeling or impression that under a certain effect is being produced upon us."

His words sit firmly in the front of my mind. As I look at this one now, after writing that, I wonder..is it too "in tone" and is need a certain amount of discord? It needs changes... but what?

pieces making up a whole

Returning to the same spot, in the same place is one of my favorite working methods. It's one way of branching beyond what is there and more into how it feels. I haven't been to the canal in a very long time and for some reason it was calling me.  Love this place.

My niece, Agne (sweetheart that she is), once told me, after seeing my work for years, that the way she considers it "art" is if the painting doesn't make sense close up, but from a distance it all magically comes together. Funny, huh? .....but it is true, for me. That is the way I work. I have to be really careful with keeping masses of value, then I can get away with a lot of color. When the values are the same it works; if they divide it's a mess of broken up pieces. Tricky stuff.

what I learned

 8x8 pastel and watercolor on Uart
You can use a lot of color, but it needs to stay in the mass. To do that use the same value. This is another one from my Cumberland trip. The square format is always  favorite of mine. It's funny, after completing it, framing it and walking way I knew what I needed to change today...3 days later. (even though it is no longer in my possession.)

I think about what I learned from the pleir air event:
1. Planning is very important- you need to know where you are going and why.
2.You need to plan your composition and values to be free with your color. That way thinking is over and responding is king/queen.
3.You need to be flexible and not let your plan be the ruin of you.
4. Exhaling is good too.

Yes I knew these things before...but it's seeing them in a new light ;-)

canal early morning

The canal offers so many possibilities, of which I will never tire. I hope everyone else doesn't tire of them. This is one of yesterday's, the first one of the morning-5:30 am.
Today is framing day. Everything needs to be in by noon. Only two paintings can be submitted. This painting and the house on the hill may be my entries. I have so many others I will blog later.

warmth and refraction

7x7 pastel and watercolor on marble dust board
My challenge today was to create both warmth and refraction. I had a lot of fun with the watercolor underpainting as a set-up. The pastel just painted itself.
Now I have to prepare all my things for the Mountain Maryland Plein Air. I am off tomorrow morning.
toodles for now....wish me luck!

chaos, the canal and more WK

about 6x16 pastel and watercolor on Uart

Chaos and peace. I returned to one of my favorite places and decided to paint only the tiniest slice of water. Take out all parts of the landscape that would indicate landscape. I also chose the most extreme format I have. Starting with a part that defied easy description- the areas at the edge of the water, behind the main tree. I am not sure if anyone but me will know what it is.....but is it peaceful?


More WK quotes:
"To see real color, make mistakes, avoid the green disease."


"Let go, the best control is no control." (I like this one, don't you?!)


No control can easily happen in plein air when the subject is complex and making marks of colors in space makes much more sense than seeing things. The goal is to make it always happen.



Now back to the studio with barns, chaos, looking and thinking.

stress free, my life is normal again

10x10 pastel and watercolor on Uart

Ah, I did it. The opening is over and I did the demo. I was shocked and delighted that many people came to the demo. I talked and talked. I hope it all made sense, since I was so nervous and exhausted... not a combo with which I am familiar. I talked so much I didn't finish the painting. I will try to post it tomorrow, a before and after.
A big thank you to all my supportive family and friends and to all the new friends I met at the opening. I was happy to see artists and non-artists alike at the demonstration. All kinds of interesting questions.  I was delighted to see that Jake, the young artist friend I met when I  painted daily at the reservoir, attended the demo with his parents and grandparents. I was amazed at the questions he asked. He's a little thinker.
The whole experience was fun, exciting...but I am glad to get back to normal.

PS This painting is same location.....different diva.
PPS A BIG thank you to Leah, who cam all the way from Nova Scotia, just to be the supportive bestest  friend in the world that she is! Sometimes I think I am the luckiest person in the world.

the diva and her role

about 7x7 pastel and watercolor on marble dust board
When I left the house this morning I was thinking about vibration and its connection to neutrals. An entire piece can't vibrate. You have to choose.  I know I have spoken before about the diva of the painting, that is where the action happens. The colors may create a vibration there. It can be tiring if it vibrates everywhere. The diva needs back up players- neutrals. There can be a couple other supporting roles but they only lead to the diva so that she can shine. Can you spot my diva and the two supporting actors?
On another note I have gone full circle. For the past two years I have explored surface.  I have returned to marble dust covered board and thick watercolor (almost handled like oil) with pastel on top. More about that another time.
PS This is one of my favorites ...in a long time.

vibrations with color

10x10 pastel/watercolor on Uart

I have been reading some Birge Harrison (teacher at the Art Students League in the early 1900s) recently. He talks about the prismatic theory in light  and how it is scientifically correct and sound artistic advice. He goes on to say that the French Impressionists made it work in a rather primitive way.

I offer you a quote  now.
 We must have "vibration" in a picture, because without vibration there can be no light, but may it not be possible to secure the necessary vibration without the loss of "quality," that charm of surface with which would not willingly part? Birge Harrison

The vibration in the colors has always been my attraction.  My family laughs when I talk about it. They don't see what I mean. More on this tomorrow.

absolute stillness, realization 2 and John Constable

12x12 oil on panel  "absolute stillness"
My work at big pool for the last three week has culminated in a finished studio painting (oil.) So on to my next realization: the studies are just that..studies. Just like I take notes to remember, even though I need never look at them again. I paint studies because, like most artists, I am a visual/ kinesthetic  learner. I learn by doing. I can't take a photo. This scene at big pool was so embedded in me I see and feel it. After doing it so many times I feel like I KNOW big pool and that light.

This calls for a quote by one of my heros, John Constable:
We see nothing until we understand it.

And one last Constable quote:
Painting is a science and should be pursued as an inquiry into the laws of nature. Why, then, may not a landscape be considered as a branch of natural philosophy, of which pictures are but experiments?