What can you get away with?

Same field. I must have ten already. This time I added the telephone poles just to play with their placement. Intentionally I placed one almost in the center, making a divide. It can be thrilling to see what you can get away with. It was my M.O. as a child and I guess i continue it still.

retro fave- thinking about the art of making poetry

9x18 pastel and watercolor on Uart

 What is essential to making poetry in a painting? Does the description of the place really matter?  What is it that makes a painting draw you in and stay in?  To me, I may not know what it is but I know what it isn't... Details.  Details are my nemesis. Put it along side persnickity work habits. They carry me in unintended directions. Details are like the letters that make up the words.....but it is the words that make the poetry. 
-->You can arrange the words of a poem just like we arrange the shapes, color, edges and value. Arrange and orchestrate, but details just seem to derail.

Last Wednesday I woke up early knowing we would once again be blanketed with fog. On location the fog was thick. As I worked on the painting I realized it wasn't coming together. I was getting derailed. So I turned my back on the scene and only thought of the poetry of what I saw and the color harmony necessary to make the illusion. Another huge painting will grow from this.


I have been out of town for awhile now, painting in some of my favorite locations. My blog will resume with new posts sometime in September. Till then I will post more retro faves.

quandary over color

I realize (from all my plein air painting) that the landscape is made up of more neutrals than pure color. Beautiful grays. Still when let to my own devises I use more pure color than I must "see." Balance is the key, even in color, and I can't always seem to find it.
This one is done on a piece of 320 Uart- a bit too scratchy for my tastes. It holds lots of pastel, but will take off your skin after just a little finger rubbing. Yipes. I tried 600 and 800 and while they are smoother and easier to blend, they buckle with water media (problems for underpainting).  I know I can mount them...but since my small paintings are studies that seems like a lot of work. Back to 400, the magic number...for me.

On another note: Upcoming posts-
*new method for notans
*interview with Katherine Tyrrell ( of the wonderful blog Making a Mark)
*interview with Christie Scheele

In the meantime, if you have a moment, check out my new website. I am still working on it..... but it's up. There's a button for "sign up for my newsletter." My goal is to do a small newsletter- maybe 4 times a year. If you want to receive it sign up there.

fog on whidbey

When I arrived in Washington this year I went straight out to my favorite place to paint. It was raining too much to take my pastels outside so I sat in the rental car with the radio on and painted. (not bad) While I love living in  sunshine, the skies here are pure inspiration.  I spent the following days (Monday-Friday) working with Richard- my  yearly check-up with the doctor. I will blog all kinds of good stuff about that time later. Right now I only have 12 more painting hours so I must go. Toodles for now.

fog and use of underpainting

7x8 pastel and watercolor on wallis

When painting fog I can tend to use whimpy colors. I know the fog calms all the colors chroma, but white and colors that tend towards white tend to uninteresting and chalky.
That explains why I began this small roadside study like this.
Knowing also that the color of fog leans cool, I made a warm underpainting to contrast and add a little zing.

dense fog before daybreak

6x9 pastel on somerset or BFK (not sure)
Fog, especially dense fog is really about the abstraction of shapes and value control. Edges play a role as well. Note how my stronger edges are in the forward mass tree shapes and how little information is given in the next shape, very soft. I did this one at about 6:30 am, which would me that the sun was at the horizon, although there is no sign of it. It was funny one person stopped his car and asked, "what on earth was I painting?" He went on to say, "But you can't see anything!" Alas, how could I explain to this man that it was in the "unseeing" or the mystery of the scene that was so compelling. To each her/his own!

fog, focal point, and subordinate areas

 

Fog..oh fog is a wonderful thing to paint....why you ask? Fog makes you focus on one thing then it quickly dissolves all that is not important. You need to select an area that excites you then employ all your tricks. Possibilities include: your strongest change of value, the sharpest edges, most interesting color. In this painting I chose to use only neutralized color, but through use of complements, I hoped to create a vibration.

the tools of the painter

9x18 pastel and watercolor on Uart
When you think about it you really only have 3 tools at your disposal: color (chroma included), value and edge. Wait I am getting a little ahead of myself. Let me back up.
Your first decision is always, Why are you painting this painting? Then, what is the diva? (the focal point) When you know, then you have to make a design the places the diva in a sweet spot. I use the rule of thirds, an off shoot from the golden mean. Therefore when I make my notan I usually mark the paper in thirds. With my design decided, I am ready for the watercolor.
I try to set up the value structure in watercolor since it is imperative to have that rock solid. But not until I use pastel do I really start manipulating color and edge.  I have been concentrating on keeping my edges and color most strong in my focal point, losing attention and focus as the eye wanders out. Also I am trying hard to keep my lightest light value 9 and my darkest value at about 5. Remember Sanford Gifford. And also remember dark is absence of light...and I want light.
I do realize that this painting is not a true success. But it was my first attempt at painting a real Olympic Peninsula subject. This is the place you find the sea stacks, thick fog and tidal pools at low tide. Fog is thicker here. Most days it never really burns off completely at the beach. This fog has a special name even. It's  called "the marine."

Oh, by the way if anything I said doesn't make sense, feel free to ask me to explain more.

Here is just a little snippet  of the treasures in the tidal pools.

Thank you to everyone for all the lovely comments and emails I have been receiving while I have been on my trip.  I will try to get back to everyone as soon as possible....but since I do not always have internet access I may be slow...but I am not ignoring you;-)

we make beautiful lies

9x18 pastel and watercolor on Wallis
Yesterday I returned from my field to have a "check-up" from the "doctor." That means I visited Richard for a little mentoring. He looked at my numerous field paintings (I have many others I have not posted...yet) and gave me 3 pieces of advice. I thought about these all night and when I drove to the site I was ready. My field was bathed in fog...WOW!!!! I LOVE this field and I love fog!

Here are the three pieces of advice:
*Remember the 3rd element
*When you examine your painting remember to think about how the movement flows..use your arms to feel it.
* a little more light in the sky at the end, just to add that punch.

I think I did it with this one.  This time I used mounted Wallis. It was an adjustment not to use Chinese White and instead let watercolor be watercolor...but I do like the transparency and the luminosity it provides.

dipped in fog

about 7x7.5 pastel and watercolor on marble dust board

My lake, one of my favorite muses, dipped in fog. The color was so white this morning that the small nuances were very important. I chose to underpaint (watercolor) in pink and overpaint(pastel) in greens.
When painting it's quiet but in another way its wonderfully raucous. The bird songs are very complex and loud. I guess there are many more types of birds out there now. The fragrance from the flowering trees blows my mind.
I feel soooooo carefree!

florida fog

6x6 pastel on BFK
Yesterday morning was thrilling...fog!!!!!  The air was so moist that my paper actually buckled.  I am waiting for the sun to rise so I can go back to the little pool of water!

waiting at the light

10x10 pastel on BFK
Not color shy, yet restricting some for full feeling and effect. The question is always..what do I need to include to make the right shapes and create the feeling I envision? Less is more and mystery is king...or queen.
Using a photo can make me a little crazy. So of course I did sketches and my value painting. Doing those showed me what was essential. The lines, polls and signs are gone, as is a house.

question for artists and Tiptoe

12x18 pastel on Uart
This is an illegal spare from my wonderful trip to Washington state. It's one of those rare paintings that it took 2 days on site to get this far. It is still unfinished.

Maybe you can help me answer a question...Does an artist need to have a value range and/or color style in which he/she works to signify a cohesive body of work? I look around and notice most do. Do you?
I look again to Sanford Gifford and George Inness...they did.

Howard Ave Gold

about 8.5 x11 pastel on Uart paper
sketch underneath painting
my chosen notan

I usually do not chose to paint structures... just that, too much structure! But for this particular local show you must have an entry painted from town scenes to jury in. It must emphasize life in Kensington. hmmmm... I have thought on this one for along time before arriving at a suitable concept. The fog helped...always does. This little street is down the hill from my house. It has a row of tiny antique stores...real low key, not the expensive antiques. Down the road a tiny bit is the old Kensington train station. Phew! Finished that...now back to water scenes!

Early Morning Whispers

9x12 pastel on Uart
Woohoo, fog this morning, albeit accompanied by rain; life is good.
The goal of this painting was a combination of subtlety and dominant color. It is always important to decide first, what is the color of your light? Then you know your dominant color. Since the concept was quiet I restrained my palette to a handful of pastels.

Subtle View of Happiness

9x9 pastel on uart

Don't you love fog? It's the veil of blending. The dominant color becomes soooo evident. I was delighted to see this at the corner where I like to paint. Don't you think fog has overwhelming poetry without even trying?

One of the wonderful things about this workshop with Richard is independence and processing time. Three days are spent absorbing Richard's wisdom; then 3 days are spent on your own processing and trying to own pieces of the wisdom. I am in those processing days now with a sigh of relief. After these three processing days there are two studio days. During this time you take your small pieces and built on a concept to make a new bigger studio piece. Richard is available for questions. There is a critique at the end. Food to live off of for the year.
Dakota Pastels in Mt. Vernon, Washington sponsors it. Dakota is nirvana for a pastel artist. Every pastel you could want, more pastels than anyone in the country. Check out their link. Robyn and Craig, co-owners are awesome.

Color of Stillness

9x9 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper
May into June is one of the most exciting times on the river. Little puffs of low fog-type moisture absorb light and make beautiful atmosphere. The color by some people might be described as white, but as all artists know, when one looks closely you can see the way the land, river bottom, and sky make their wishes known through that white. To make it appear lighter - place a dark near it.
The river is so high it is closed to boaters (above Great Falls), therefore the usual rocks are not present. And it is even quieter...sorry boaters.

Reveal (study)

about 8x10
What a glorious early summer day it is! The rain stopped, everything is green,wet and saturated with COLOR!!!!! I jumped out of bed when I looked outside...there was no fog at my house but the air felt ripe for the amazing stuff. I knew...the RIVER!
It seems that the color of the trees, which is a golder green than it will be in summer, makes for a beautiful gold light. Yum!
Certainly a hard day to go back to the studio...but I need to work on the biggie.

Iridescence Through the Rain

15x15 pastel and acrylic on marble dust board

On Saturday I went to my friend's memorial service. It was a rainy, quiet, very sad day. On the way home I stopped at a regional park I had never been to before. I walked through the woods and arrived at this beautiful space. For the last two days I have been trying to paint the emotions through that beautiful place. I have to stop now since I have filled the tooth on the board. I had topped the marble dust with iridescent gold and that filled the tooth a little too much.

Interlocking Points

9 x9 pastel on watercolor
This rainy morning I headed out to Brighton Dam when it was still dark. The dam has a small azalea park and beautiful water scenes. the weather was perfect: I love it best when the values are close (overcast skies and fog.) Of course it wasn't the azaleas that drew my attention, instead it was the water. After completing this one I pushed myself to turn down the path and try the flowers too. Of course I am not satisfied with that one. But this one, I like. There is something about water that I love and distance.