new grisaille for "living in harmony"

10x10 oil on board

I must admit I struggle with how much information to actually add to the underpainting. The purpose is to create a skeleton onto which I build glazes. The real fun begins now as I will see where the painting takes me...see how I grow into it.
This is just a skeleton. I am sure I will keep experimenting with how much is enough and too much.

grisaille, feeling and value

6x6 oil on board

I have been looking at paintings I admire and reducing them to black and white. Value. The beauty of these paintings, absent of colors is shocking. All the feeling and space carries without effort. 

Here is a grisaille done on a small board. Maybe a week of some small works is what the doctor ordered. (for now;-)

another removed grisaille

So many excellent reasons for making a grisaille.
Let me name a few:
1.I use it to figure out the shapes.
2.Since color is not a pieces of the puzzle it's easier to change things .
3. If you can't make the mood in value, you  have no chance in color.

Reasons to "remove it."
Keeping allows the dark to have more color and is somewhat easier to keep transparent.
The value are noted for reference, yet you aren't completely wedded to them.

more work with "removed grisailles"

about 11x11 pastel on somerset
I decided to continue the challenge. With value only I tried to create the feeling of the sun sinking below the horizon. To do this I focused on keeping the land masses dark, trying only to give light to the few places the sun's last light would touch. Making clouds with value only was the trickiest part! This will help me with the painting I began last week. My soccer field.

I wanted to share with you that my painting, Sunshine on my Shoulder, took 3rd place in the Maryland Pastel Society's show. I just found out about this happy moment!

moving the grisaille to a new place

11x14 pastel on somerset
Rather than paint a traditional grisaille on the canvas I am working the values on paper and then transferring the concept of the value to color on my painting. This idea comes from my plein air nocturne done last night.When I was working with Kay this weekend she was so helpful in reinforcing that I already knew. In the workshop she had us do value studies (something I LOVE to do)- This is mine.
Rather than paint a grisaille on my canvas I will use my grisaille  as my reference- A REMOVED GRISAILLE.  She talked to me about painting with my oils exactly as I paint so naturally with my pastels. I mix colors of pastels on the paper- why not mix my paints on the canvas?  She showed a really interesting video about Wolf Kahn that videoed him doing exactly that. It was like a huge "ah ha" moment. Why am I constantly fighting who I am????? Remember I talked about giving permission? Well this is about giving permission to be authentic. There is not a meticulous bone in my body..I am exhaustingly energetic (as my husband and friends will confirm) I prefer large movements to small motions...Why on earth have I been holding back? Kay suggested to go much bigger canvases and bigger 1 , 2 and 3 inch brushes so that I can move.
So that is where I am now.
Toodles for now:-)

beginnings of a painting

 grisaille

rubbed in color
6x6, oil on board

The  grisaille created by the subtractive method, I vigorously rubbed in paint and them removed with a rag and Q-tips. I do like working in this method as it focuses on big shapes and a more abstract nature.
The second photo is rubbed in color. If I do this step I find that it adds to transparency and overall color harmony. Tomorrow I will lay down a couch of linseed and OMS and paint the distant light and trees.

No I need to get ready for the reception. This afternoon my sister, my best friend and I dipped about 200 strawberries for the opening. It's a lucky thing I like to do.

grisaille for a new painting

12 x 12 oil on board- grisaille
After a number of small plein air pastel paintings of this scene I decided I was ready to begin a studio painting. On Saturday I made the detailed drawing for this, but after I transferred it to the board I decided to change it in order to create more distance.The board on which I paint has many thin layers of gesso, sanded between layers to make a super smooth surface. The paint was applied with brushes, a cloth, Q-tips and fingers, different tools for different effects.

 Yesterday was varnishing day. All the paintings now sit to dry in flat files. It helps to keep the cat hair off the paintings.

griailles and what I have learned

8x10 oil grisaille

Practice has taught me that a grisaille needs to have VERY soft edges. It is much better to make the decisions of sharpness as the painting evolves. When they are pre-decided it's almost impossible to change.
I have also learned that, for me, warm is better. I have experimented with mixtures of burnt sienna, transparent earth red, alizarin crimson permanent, and transparent brown oxide. Who knows what will be next? Each painting demands a slightly different mixture....it's like cooking. Do you ever put the same spices in each dish? Nope. 
Ideas come first, but yet the grisaille must be allowed to speak. Make a "mistake"...who knows that could be the most wonderful change. Follow your heart and your brain.  They lead differently and they will take turns if you value both;-D

river at big bend/ value painting and grisaille

9x12 value painting/pastel on BFK

One of my favorite sections of the river is at big bend.  It's a place where I have done  many plein air paintings right here. Using those ideas I created an value painting in preparation for another bigger oil. It's important to create the mood with value alone. "Value does the work, color gets the glory." (Richard McKinley)

 18x24 oil on linen

Then on to the grisaille.
Shapes are important when planning a painting.  Only a few large shapes make a stronger painting. After making your shapes you need to carefully think about shadows and edges. How many edges do you want? (another case for less is more) For a more interesting painting don't contain your shadows let them drift and float.
This is the grisaille for the larger painting. I have been working on just this for 2 days, wiping, scratching, putting on more paint, and rubbing.More about this painting and its genesis later.
I posted two today...this is tomorrow's post..... I have so many things due for my upcoming show in May that I figured since I was on a roll........

grisaille for larger oil

24x24 oil on linen
You probably have noticed that I paint this one view, from either side, over and over again.  I am fascinated with the reflections and the three bands of color. After studying of Whistler's paintings, especially his nocturnes, I have been noticing that one of his favorite design concepts is also the 3 parallel bands. He uses it many time and in all different ways. Sometimes he will even split the painting into even bands of sky and water/land. I wasn't quite so bold in this one.
You can already see in this grisaille where I will focus all my attention.

gauzy breath

8x10 oil on linen
This one started as a traditional grisaille. For reference I used only one small plein air painting that I did during the fall. After about 30 minutes I was already free of that and off creating the vision in my head. I am being very conscious of edges, so few are needed.
Recently Janelle posted one of my favorite Monet paintings, Branch on the Seine by Giverny. Just seeing that image again catapulted me into fog, glorious fog. Monet was the master of color and fog.

underpainting and grisailles

I am experimenting with two different ways of glazing. One begins with a grisaille (either tight or loose) and the other with simply color bands. Each method has it's strengths and weaknesses. For me, I think the bands of color method resonates much more closely with my pastel methods. Still I experiment with both simply to see what I can learn.
Two interesting notes:
I remember reading somewhere that Maxfield Parrish glazed each color separately and varnished it before placing another color on top. That's how he creating his luminosity.
Sanford Gifford stained his white canvas with burnt sienna, drew in white chalk and then glazed more rapidly. He would paint non-stop from sunrise to sunset when he began the color part of his painting. He had already worked out his color idea in his oil sketches. Gifford kept working and blending his glazed layers while they were wet. 
Don't you find it interesting to read about others methods? I sure do. Anyone want to share an interesting tidbit?

unseen possibility and wonder/ grisaille

20.5 x 21.5 pastel on BFK
When creating the grisaille for a bigger work I really notice how much one stroke can make all the difference. It really has to work for its own sake and while a traditional grisaille does not show strokes I need to in order to create the feeling I seek.

George Inness was quoted as saying, "A work of art does not appeal to the intellect--it does not appeal to the moral sense. Its aim is not to instruct, not to edify, but to awaken an emotion.... Its real greatness consists in the duality and force of this emotion." 

And now as I proceed to color, another quote form Mr. Inness, "The arrangement of colours must be kept in harmony because it must reproduce not merely the facts of the landscape, either separately or in mass, but, rather, the effect of the scene upon the painter's feelings, the emotion it evokes. Not alone the grass and the trees, with whatever delicate recognition of gradation of colour, but the mood, of which they are the embodiment and cause, it is to be transferred to the canvas."

Lone Tree/ experiments with value/color and mood

12 x12 pastel  on BFK

I am determined to explore mood through this field series. On the bottom is another value painting (similar to November 18th posting) and on top is the color I chose to paint over what now worked as a grisaille.  I lost my focus and expanded my value and color range. It was then that the mood of the grisaille was lost.   I guess that is why the Tonalist paintings have such mood. Limited change in value. Experience, make mistakes and explore that is the path to constant learning.

There is something about color I sometimes can't resist. I will do this composition again and limit my value more.
What is your experience with mood/value/color?

Less is More

9x12 sepia and black pastel on arches

Less is more is a saying that is true in many aspects of life. Painting is just another facet. Detail and complexity do not make better paintings...instead look for what is essential. Paint like the eye sees. Notice when you focus and look at one specific area, for instance the tree edge near the water, now the farther points in your vision blur  and become out of focus. Hmmmm. what does that mean for your paintings? I continually struggle to find that in my work.

almost evening

18x 27pastel on arches paper
I am using the same process, but this time I allowed myself two colors- deep sepia and black. I am breaking my own rules (one color only) because black seemed to harsh, sepia too whimpy, so a combo was necessary. I also am starting to feel my stroke, be less tentative. My goal is emotional content through value and it seems stroke becomes more important, probably because I can no longer rely on color as my most powerful  tool. What does Richard say?????.... value does the work and color gets the glory. hmmmmmmm.

twilight stillness

8x10 black pastel on arches
Here is a new idea.... playing with value to make mood. Matthew, the owner of the gallery where I have my work, saw my grisailles on line and loved them as finished works. (go figure;-) He wanted to have some before I put paint on them. To me they are unfinished so I am playing with a new idea- just black pastel on white paper. I also decide to work on arches instead of Uart because I am rubbing alot to make the values and I want to have some fingers left. (I am still missing part of my right, middle finger nail due to rubbing on uart sanded paper)
Using just value to express emotional content is a challenge. Here is my first try.

glazing and my struggles

6x6 oil on gessoed gator board

Here is the slow and unsteady progression I am making studying glazing and tonalist painting. I am working with Deborah Paris, the master of modern tonalist painting.  Use my pastel paintings as my inspiration I move forward to oil.
A tonalist usually first paints a grisaille (bottom)  which is something I often do with pastel pencil.The layering of transparent color is the tricky part because I don't really fully understand  the way the different  colors shime through and mix to make new ones. Any pieces of wisdom from a glazer out there?

The gessoed gator board on which I work produces a slick almost metal plate like effect. The brush strokes become very apparent . That is my favorite part.