cloud study-

Tumultuous skies of late April make for exciting plein air studies.

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.

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.

plein air clouds, three different days

Fun with clouds. All three were done in the field and brought back to the studio. There I simplified each just a tiny bit while seeing each as an abstraction rather than clouds.
Here is a link to one of my past posts with tips on painting clouds.

sunrise from the parking garage

6x6 pastel study

Skies are fascinating, aren't they? I was parked on the top of a mall parking garage waiting for the sunrise. It came with these glorious little clouds. Within about ten minutes the sky was covered with the fast moving clouds. The weather man called it "a maritime cloud."  Another good reason for all my constant memory works..I was able to draw on the image saturating my brain..
I leave you now with a new quote. Just before the master painter Claude-Baptiste-Camille Corot died he said,  
"I go on hoping that there will be painting in heaven." 

Now there is a man I understand!

clouds and Albert Handell Interview.

New goodie to read- an interview with Albert Handell- Master landscape painter. Check it out. Link here.
And another large B&W cloud study. I am doing a lot of these.... if you can't make your clouds read in black and white, go no further.

pastel on BFK 14x22

passion for skies

oil, 12x12

Skies, hmmm. What are they, but layers of air that appears to have real heft.  But, it's just air with moisture. The clouds have personalities. Each one is different and full of surprises. They are 3 dimensional shapes.  It's important that there are no harsh lines or cut-outs in your clouds. Knowing where your light source originates is important to make the clouds/sky convincing. After that it's really warm next to cool, layered to make grays. Better still here is a great article about skies on Richard's Pastel Pointers Blog. He says it better than I can, so enjoy!

the underpainting

On another note, here is the underpainting for the painting above. I liked the beginning horizon line vibration, I unfortunately lost it in the painting....maybe next time.

cloud study

Here's one of my recent crazy cloud studies. It's 21 x21 black pastel on white BFK. When limited to black and white it's much easier to see the "bones" of an upcoming (possible)painting.
A quote from Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot-
“The first two things to study are first form and then values. Those two things are in my opinion the foundations of art. Color and execution add charm to the work. It seemed very serious to me to prepare a study or a painting by starting to indicate the most vigorous color values (assuming the canvas is white) and to continue by following in order until you reach the lightest value. I would give 20 gradual numbers to go from the lightest to the most vigorous color value. Then your painting or study would be established with order. This order must in no way bother the sketcher or the colorist. Always the mass, the whole, what struck us. Never lose the first impression that moved us. The sketch is then the first thing to look for. And then, color values - the relation between forms and values. Those are the foundations. After the color, finally, the execution. Do you want to do a study or a painting? First you must apply yourself to look for the form in conscience. After having made all the efforts of application, move on to values. Look for them with the mass. Conscience. A good way to achieve this: if your canvas is white, start with the most vigorous tone. Follow the order until you get to the lightest tone. "