sanibel thoughts

 Maybe because it's summer and I am thinking of the beach.... that's why I have taken out my Sanibel smalls and sketches from my trip this spring. Normally I only work with the places I know inside out. I am going to make an exception since I see Sanibel in my head when I am here in my studio. I am fascinated by the way palm trees have a kind of lace work that my Mid Atlantic trees lack.
More sketches and studies will evolve and I will see where it takes me.

Advice to self:

Follow organic developments.
Veer away from the obvious.

Look to yourself.

Avoid falling into stylistic rote.
Hone your tendencies and allow your flare to show.
Don’t worry about finishing uninteresting things,
but bring promising stuff to completion.
Hang your best work in your studio for a second look.
Make the work you’ve always fantasized about.

Postpone extensive external feedback.

I read something like this once. I wrote it down and adapted in my words. i wish i could remember where I found it so I could give credit.

more from Sanibel

Since I am back from beautiful Sanibel I am now living in my memory. Ahhh.

My memory allows for total freedom. When I was there I recorded only the written information about the colors in my sketchbook. This series of paintings have no solid physical basis. I am only concerned with air. Sometimes land shapes come forward but I am not as interested in making them...simply trying to paint air.
As I work on these air studies I am finding that using texture is exciting. Since these are all pastel I started with texture. Not being satisfied I kept adding more as I  worked. 
Does anyone have a suggestions for a new place to go where the air is colored? I so far like Sanibel, Washington State, and Prince Edward Island. Any suggestions?

Sanibel Island and Blogger app

I have spent the last week on Sanibel Island. Love that place! Did many small paintings and now I am back in the studio working from them.
Apologies for my lack of posts. It seems that when I updated my iphone to ios 11 it no longer will work with my blogger app! Blogger has not, till this point, fixed this. For the past years I have been doing all of my posts on my phone, but now I am back to the computer and it is slowing me down.
I have many more ideas to share.... till later. Now back to the studio.

Whistler- and seduction by realism

study from Sanibel Island

Whistler talks about this in some letters. Here is one recipient's quote,"He complained that he was seduced by that damn realism and it was so easy to just paint what was out there. And I think maybe he worried that he wasn’t being original enough, that he was too closely associated with Courbet, that he hadn’t been well-trained. And that he had kind of gravitated to Courbet’s realism because of his lack of training.”

Ruskin was too ill to attend, but several artists, including Burne-Jones, took the stand to defend Ruskin’s position, though the defense of Ruskin was more of an attack on Whistler. Under questioning from Charles Synge Christopher Bowen, counsel for the defendant, Burne-Jones characterized Whistler’s work as “incomplete . . . an admirable beginning,” “deficient in form,” and without composition.
Oh, to be as deficient in form as Whistler!

Sanibel Mangroves at Dawn

5x7 oil on gesso board
First thank you to everyone for all your encouraging words, it helped to see all of them this morning. I have decided that I am not allowed to whine or complain. It is what it is, a learning curve.
These are the Sanibel Mangroves at dawn. (I love that place) I had painted many layers of glaze on it...mostly dark orangey ochres. Then last night I kept dreaming about the blues that sat up on top of the orange in the dawn's light. I must have had at least 3 dreams about it. I guess that's what happens when you keep painting till you can't keep your eyes open any longer.
This one taught me that it can be similar to pastel if I glaze underneath and use opaque on top, sort of like my skeleton theory.

Painting with 6 glaze layers...next please

I seriously struggled with not knowing what the heck I was doing. My analysis of this one:
1. too much white used
2.underpainting needs to be stronger (I am glad I started with my least favorite underpainting)
3. I deviated from my color scheme. Where did that blue come from??????

ARGGGGGGHHHHHH!

My husband, bless his soul, said (to make me feel better)..." Maybe it's not your style."
Maybe I won't be a tonalist, but darn it, I am going to learn everything I can about it!

Glazing; layer 3 Sanibel Sunset/ glazing discussion

unfinished glazing effort (see the first underpainting on March 15)

Glazing with an underpainting is a VERY different method.

What I have learned so far:
1. The underpainting really should look exactly as you want the painting to look but without the color. Changes are hard to make. Edges are hard to soften. Notice in the painting above the tracks of my underpainting strokes are strong. Tonalist underpaintings describe more rather than suggest more. I have always loved "track marks"..but I am not sure if this is desired.
2. Working with glazes quickly works up very dark.
3. Keep the lights very light till you want to glaze them.

What I knew, but has been reinforced to the max:
1. the plein air painting experience is a very emotional experience while the studio experience is an intellectual one.
2.Due to the nature of plein air painting it is much more an exploration to understand how color in space works.
3. Due to the nature of studio painting it is much more an exploration of creating an illusion

Please feel free to argue a point or agree, give suggestions.

Now I am off to the dentist for my last segment of my dental surgery. Wish me luck!

Mozart Moment/Sanibel

10 x10 pastel on oil underpainting

underpainting
photo reference

A dramatic sunrise can easily cross over to tacky, right? With this in the back of my mind as a "NO, don't do that" I decided try. Still working from my Sanibel experience I began in my version of a tonalist-type method. I underpainted in one color. It seems work as a unifier for me. Next, I pre-selected my palette (and stuck to it!). The palette was similar to yesterday's but I decided to have a nuetral violet be dominant so that the orange would pop. (Sorry the photo is a little washed out)
Now, I need to glaze more of the oil studies, then out to the river for a sunset painting.

Swan Song

10 x10 pastel on oil underpainting, Uart paper .
10 x10 oil underpainting
What better way to learn..... than to transfer my new information to the brain I understand-pastel. So I did a second oil underpainting, but this time it is on Uart paper. Then, I pre-selected my pastels, all the time keeping in mind my color harmony (melon sky with violet/brown.) I tried to paint with my pastels in glazes. Sky first-opaque. Then a succession of glazes- avoiding white. I found out later that I really needed a discord color so I added the yellow/gold green.
At the beginning it was my intention to add the swan, but I wasn't sure I could pull it off. Can you see it? In Sanibel the refuge was filled with pelicans, rose spoonbills and egrets....so I made my own choice and decided I wanted a swan.

Sanibel Underpainting/shale

I read that George Inness first stained his canvas with a light brown tint and when it was dry he took it on location and then drew with charcoal or pencil. Next, with more raw umber he would go over all the outlines. Then he would paint the lights and opaque parts and later, the sky. That would be a days work. The painting would dry and he would go on the transparent shadow the next day.
With that in mind, first did my value sketches. I am still working from my reference material from Sanibel. My photos are great because they are too dark so they really work only as compositional starts. I am able to completely create the color from my color notes or made up. On this one I will use colors I never tend to chose. (neutral browns/violets and a melon colored sky) working in this method takes a great deal of forethought. I realize now that I often would begin with a clear thought in mind..but later meander and become off target. I think for now on I will use a post-it tacked to my easel reminding me.
When time to arrange the underpainting I took a canvas and painted it with my new "shale" from Vasari (a beautiful violet/brown- with both warm and cool tendencies-Deborah's fav color). Now I will let it dry more before going in with a dry brush.

Sanibel Dreams

6.5 x10 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper $100.
Prodded by my work with Deborah, I am trying to stretch the ideas into my pastel. Therefore I approached this one completely differently. Beginning with a Quinacridone magenta underpainting I tried to think of my pastels as glazes. Darks are thinner and more transparent and lights tend towards being opaque.
I began this one yesterday and it wouldn't let me sleep. Finally I got out of bed (Kins the muse cat did too) and surrendered to the painting.

Woof

about 6 x12 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper
This one is a serious woofer, destined for the kennel. A day ago it was a very harmonious golden/green light painting, but I have been reading George Inness and he talks about adding a surprise of color. Which I did and should have stopped....but Noooooooooo. Instead I was compelled to change more and more till it was unrecognizable and then I wiped it, worked, wiped it again and finally this. Oh dear!
A quote from George's son (named George, of course)as he watched his father paint,"All the rest was dark and in perfect tone. With that supreme stroke he struck the accidental, and pushed the harmony almost to discord." Well this one was pushed...to the other side.
Strike it down for woofer and begin another.

Darling Refuge

6 x10 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper, $100.
6x 10 watercolor underpainting
Artists paint in their heads all the time. It is a way of living...we see through our art. That's another way to explain how particularly freeing it has been to paint through remembered experience, relying little on my gathered reference materials. I feel that my color becomes freed. What do you think?
This is the Ding Darling Refuge on Sanibel, again. Love that place...can't wait to go back!

Tranquility at Sunrise/ Sanibel Island

6 x9 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper $100.
underneath, pencil sketch
Oh! It is so good to be back painting! We returned late last night after a glorious mini vacation in beautiful Sanibel Island. I fell in love with the Ding Darling Refuge: still water, reflections, birds and a feel of tranquility. I did sketches, kept color notes and took photos. It felt so weird not to paint! This is the refuge at early morning, just after sunrise.
My goal- dynamic composition with bold shapes, but within those shapes I wanted to play with the contrast of warm and cool, especially in the dark masses.
Thank you friends for all your comments and notes while I was gone. Thank you also to my new subscribers and followers, I appreciate all your support!