Plein Air work for a large painting- the River

11x18 pastel

For me the process of starting a large work (64x48) takes a lot of think time. Even before touching the board I have to first develop a concept. That means painting numerous plein air pieces before something finally "calls me." The Potomac River is a frequent source of inspiration and I spend hours painting and walking in the early morning through dusk. After painting this particular view for a couple of weeks I finally had my idea.
How can something be so grand and imposing yet, soft, inviting and ethereal?

concept and the best tool

Recently I have received two emails asking me how my painting process works. (Thank you Cris and Randall) They have prompted me to write a brief explanation.

First for me, when creating a painting, it is rarely about a specific place. Instead it can be the idea, the emotional response to that place or simply an idea and then I allow the painting to direct me. There is a trust with the painting. It knows what I should do. I just need to slow down and listen...then respond (rather than think). I try not to direct, those are my less successful paintings.  For someone who is a little hyper this has been a serious learning curve in my life.

That's why I am not someone who leans on photographs to guide me. Yes, I take photographs.... but they are to remind me of the beauty I once saw. They spark an idea. I also do numerous plein air paintings and studies. The teach me about the possibilities of light.

The biggest tool in my toolbox is a walk. I paint then when I come to a stopping place I walk for a half hour.  (I take several walks a day.)The walk is a quiet processing time. I don't talk, listen to music or have any other input... just the landscape around me. It's amazing how it can all come together without even "thinking" about the painting.

This particular painting began last year. I was in Skagit County Washington, where the light at sunset can be like  a big cantaloupe filter. I returned home and did drawings that were inspired by my river, the Potomac and the Skagit. Now last week I was back in Skagit County and it was easy to feel what I was missing in the light.

the essentials

12x12 pastel on watercolor

A quick cat-sitting trip to my niece's home in West Virginia brought new inspiration.
On this particular evening I was back at the Potomac River, albeit farther north and west. Since I had to work fast I chose Pastel Mat. I was thinking I would only do the watercolor onsite but with help from my car's heater, it dried quickly and I was able to add pastel.
There is something good about being pressured for time. You know that you can only get the essentials, not time to be picky.

order from chaos

pastel with watercolor underpainting

Now that my show and residency are finished, my brain and time has been freed up considerably. This just in time for plein air painting's most gorgeous weather of the year. Yay!
Sometimes I think my better plein air pieces come when the subject is total chaos. That means I have to select and create a kind of order. With the thick woods, filled with underbrush and a flowered forest floor the opportunities are limitless. I simply paint color shapes.
PS Thank you everyone for making the show such a great success. To all the folks that put their names on a list for the next workshop- I will get back to you soon! In the meantime- keep painting!!!

taking a chance

pastel on gessoed marble dust/oil underneath 36x42

It's framing time. Normally I frame my small paintings, but anything large or unusual I have my wonderful framer Bosco do it. I decided long ago that I realize I could save money doing it all myself, but it's about time and quality. I don't have the time (since I teach part time) nor do I have the knowledge to do certain paintings justice. That's the long way of saying I am taking a chance framing this one. It seems to me that the drips and raw edges are part of the whole, part of the thinking. Therefore I am keeping them in. (ignore the black on the right side..warp of camera on this large piece.) I am having Bosco deep shadow box it leaving all the "unfinished" exposed.

Potomac Gorge and making use of old paintings

pastel over oil, 32"x37"

 A huge sheet of gatorboard (pure plastic, not like gatorfoam) was sitting in my studio. It had a base of marble dust with gesso and some pastel on it, but the pastel was not worth keeping. I rubbed it down, then used gamsol to reduce it. Now it had a resemblance to the Potomac gorge, Great Falls, MD. So I started with thinned oil paint and because of the rubbed pastel underneath, beautiful neutrals developed. Next, I layered those with fresh pastel. The Potomac Gorge is a place I visit often..a majestic place. I looked back in my files at paintings I had done of the gorge and other photos I had taken. I wanted to see the shape of the major land forms.
The most important thing was- I felt that nothing was precious. I was totally free. I have to remember that for next time.

river love continues

River love ... painted on different surfaces. The top one is Rives BFK and the bottom is Uart 400. Lots of exciting things happening in the studio as well. more about those later.

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?

thinking about sharp vs soft and my show

I apologize for my absence. I have been so busy getting ready for my upcoming show at the Waverly Street Gallery.  It gets installed tomorrow evening and opens to the public on Tuesday. The reception is Friday the 11th- 6-9PM. Please come if you can.
I thought I would  take this opportunity to post this painting- River Evening. It seems to be one of my favorites from this show. Why I wonder?
I think it is the use of a soft less focused space and the rawness of this pastel combines to create a deeper feeling. You see the drips, spills and smudges...in fact I think they make the painting stronger. More to the concept.
What do you think?

challenge in key

oil on wood 30x40

Someone made the comment that my work was all high key. I struggled with that comment for awhile and realized that while I use neutrals with more saturated colors they are close to the same key. That brought on a new challenge...could I paint a lower key piece?

feedburner collapse

18x36 oil

My feedburner collapsed and thanks to my good friend Domi we are back in business. You probably wondered why you hadn't received a post from me in over a month, right? I was still writing once or twice a week. Well after receiving an email from Pat H about my disappearance, I  was alerted about the problem. (Thanks PAT!) Solving it was another thing and that was Domi's department. Apparently my code, that works with my feedburner, had grown like a fertilized kudzu plant and was over 500 tags. (I may not be explaining this correctly.) Domi fixed that and hopefully all of my subscribers are receiving this email. (THANK YOU DOMI!)
Meanwhile I have been busy in the studio. I am finishing and framing.  I finally finished the painting in this post.
And last, here is  photo of some of the chaos in the studio. I can barely walk through due to all the paintings staring at me. All are crying out to be finished. Yipes. More about framing in another post. The show opens April 8, with the reception on April 11th.

finishing

40x30 oil

It's that time. The time when I have to stop the excitement of starting new paintings and instead finish the many I have. With a solo show coming up in April, I need these finished.
The hardest part of painting is knowing how to finish. There are many, many stopping points, but when does it say what I want it to say?
This painting is inspired from my many studies of Lake Needwood and the river. The bottom third of the painting is the strongest. The struggle is getting the top to support it and not take over. More on this one later.
PS The show opens April 11 at the Waverly Street Gallery. 

marketing and the painter

small pastel 9x15, concept for next oil

This week I was fortunate to attend a marketing workshop by Ann Bevans. As a group I would say most painters dislike the idea of marketing. We just want to paint. Selling should just happen. (Right?)
I am not saying I will be changing my ways, but this workshop did pose excellent questions.
Here are a few of Ann's questions to the group.
Define your idea/ concept. What is it? 
Why are you passionate about it? 
What is the potential  and likely impact of your idea? 
What is the value of the impact?  
Next we had to define our audience. Who chooses your work? 
Good things to think about and I will leave you to think. Feel free to share your thoughts via comment. I will post more about this later in the week.

Wolf Kahn "aiming is wrong"

22x29 pastel
It has taken me awhile to wrap my mind around this thought from Wolf Kahn:
"Aiming is wrong. If you know ahead of time what you are doing it won't be good. You need to surprise yourself. "
He went on to share a story about a pitcher from the Astros baseball team who had bought a painting of his. "We got to talking and he had questions about my painting process. He said it was just like his process. He said that he trains, but can't plan his game ahead of time. He can't aim too much or the batter will know what he is going to do. He just has to have a general idea about where he wants the ball to go. Then he uses his full strength and lets go."


All the pitcher/artist's training and practice pays off, but he/she lets go. Trust.

This a retro fave post with a new painting. It is the Potomac river, early morning, overcast. it was done in the studio with this (below) painting for reference.

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.

plein air paint for yourself

I was looking through my sketchbooks and saw the reminder.
"Plein air-paint for yourself. Stop the agendas. It is all part of the journey."
The reason we go outside to paint is to be sensitive to real light falling on form. Enjoy the responding.

river and paper

10x10 pastel

About a year ago my friend Donna Timm gave me some of her homemade pastel paper. For years I have been using Uart exclusively. The other day when I went to my flat file there it was- Donna's paper. My August 2nd painting was made using it. I loved the white so much that immediately I returned to making my own surface. Why did I stop I wonder? I guess, I stopped out of laziness. I stopped and instead painted on Uart. But now, as I am in my self-created "slow down to sensitivity program" I am making a surface.
Donna used a heavy weight Fabiano 300 hot press watercolor paper, I used Rives100% rag watercolor paper and have ordered some Fabiano. It fascinating just how much the WHITE affects the luminosity.
I mounted my paper with linco adhesive (archival, reversible, acid free) and then mixed my surface.
Recipe: 1 cup gesso, 1/4 cup marble dust plus 1TB, 1/4 cup water
I guess i will roll with what happens.

seeing color, Matisse, and planning color in a painting

Color. Think of it like this: Everyone looks; painters see. When painters see it's not just about rods and cones. It's about the process of noticing values, temperatures, and shapes, all which influence how that color will be seen.
Gertrude Stein once asked Henri Matisse if he looked at the tomato he was eating in a special, artistic way. Replied Matisse, "No, when I eat a tomato I look at it the way anyone else would. But when I paint a tomato, then I see it differently."
So many factors determine the daily changes of color in the landscape. With so many variables, when planning a painting, there are important ideas to keep in mind.
1. Start with a plan. Do not go into your painting willy-nilly. When on location and before painting, talk to yourself. "I see......, the chroma is most intense here... the color of the light is...."
2.Once you know that -limit your palette. You can try a split- complementary or you can use other tried and true combinations: triad, complementary, analogous, analogous plus compliment....plus others. Once you choose it stick to it.
3. Use color to make space. Atmospheric perspective says the landscape gets cooler as it recedes, except for blue which gets warmer/greyer. To accentuate space you can also use warmer colors in front. These aren't rules and yes you can have a cool shadow in the front.
4.Remember the diva. The diva is the place you want everyone's eyes to go to. Use your colors contrasts, sharpest lines right where she sits. You can also use one special color in your diva, and then not repeat it anywhere else unless you grey or tint/shade it.
5. You can use broken color to add vibration...but only use it in limited places. In the top painting I used different colors of the same value, broken, in the sky. Similar colors were used in the water, but that was smoothed to say water.
6. Be brave, have fun and embrace mistakes...they could be your door to somewhere new.

river wonder

The river's beauty truly amazes me. The overcast sky made the water silvery, lighter, less orange and brown. I try to give just enough to hold onto, but the rest should allow the viewer's mind to swim in a dreamy space. This is the second river scene without sky.

It's funny, yesterday I was told I painted "abstract landscapes." I thought to myself......"abstract???" Really?
 I guess it's good..all the superfluous, I have tried to rid myself of, is going away.
PS I put a border around the painting to separate it from the grey background.