clouds and field

                                          cloud underpainting about 15x18
Clouds need movement and light. To provide a focus on movement I first created a watercolor grisaille which I sprayed with Spectra-fix. Next I added the yellow of the setting sun, being sure to soften the edges of the clouds. Since clouds are just vapor, edges are quiet with small value shifts. Color and temperature are very important.

Making the clouds to feel  like air is my struggle.

soft morning glaze

pastel and watercolorgrisaille/loose

watercolor underpainting

 Early morning on the field...seems like a cool green/pink light, so I used a warmer grisaille and warm gray purples and burnt siennas in the underpainting. It is always better to use warmer color than you think is necessary in the "skeleton". Actually that can go as a rule for the whole painting. I feel that we as people need to resonate to our land and warmth is appealing.  I tried to soften the edges of everything. I am still playing with that wonderful, new fixative. Della (the creator of the fixative) suggested I try smooshing it around with my watercolor. (Clean brushes well after). It has a different effect I can't quite describe yet....maybe "thicker, with substance."  Check out this fixative. Here -spectra fix.
This is a studio piece  and  I continue to search for luminousity and mystery. I hope I made it warm enough. For reference I have my memory and the paintings I have done at this field so far. 
Here is another quote from John Carlson:
"If you train yourself in memory work, you fearlessly attack and rearrange your material, for your can retain your original impression. Otherwise you have to return continually to your motif out-of -doors, with the result that successive and different impressions may engender ambiguous approximation in you picture."
That is food for thought.

reveal what is essential

6x6 pastel on watercolor underpainting
For a while now I have been desiring to move on to new territory. It's funny I could see it, but not clearly. Finally I think I understand.So here it is:
As you probably know, I feel compelled to paint a scene again and again, till I really know it, till it is part of me. The repetition helps me reveal what is essential. Discover why this small piece of nature is so beautiful.
Now I am going to also spend much more time in the studio with these more literal views and find the essence. Using my knowledge of color and observations of light I will create new works based on the literal but more emotional- pushing the limits of color. The hard part will be a little less time outside, on site. Gulp! Now that is hard. Let's see what happens. I guess I will just have to learn to enjoy the struggle.

continued work on large painting

After a week away from this painting I realized that while Sanford Gifford was able to paint in oil using values 5-10, it is more challenging in pastel. The reason for this is that as pastels become lighter they lose radiance. So I sprayed the whole painting with my new fixative, Spectra Fix (thank you Della for the sample.) I rarely use fixative and if I do it is only in the working stage, never upon completion. This seemed like a time to give the new fixative a try. Next I began adding darker portions, something you can not easily do on top of light pastel, unless you spray, of course.  The Spectra Fix worked well, had no odor, and dried with little if any color change. Yay! Not finished, but better. Click here to learn more about Spectra Fix.

Thistle field, in progress

10x24 pastel on lasgaux coated board
A studio piece, painted from all my thistle paintings (Whidbey Island). It too, is still unfinished. I will finish it when I return.

The beginning of pastel layers and denial

It's funny to me that the process of taking a photograph of an unfinished work makes it easier to see what is next. I guess it is the removal... or denial. It's as if inside my head it's saying, "That's not mine...oh look, if only that artist would..........." And then the answers are clear.

On another note, I was delighted to learn that my painting, Daybreak at Hawksbill Peak, is being used to promote the Shades of Pastel Biennial Exhibition. Check out the Wednesday August 12th, Pastel Journal Blog......click here- pastel journal blog. A big thank you to Pastel Journal for using it!

dusk slowly begins to pour the syrup of darkness

finished piece 18x18 pastel on Uart paper
after the first layers of pastel
7/31 watercolor underpainting 2nd layer
7/30 sketch
Using our small plein air paintings as fodder for creating bigger more conceptual works is a blessing and a challenge. While we artists know that photos lie and can not capture the same feeling that painting your own preparatory work can, using one's paintings still is no picnic. Most importantly, you have to develop a firm concept before attempting anything. (Am I sounding like a broken record?) I find that making written notes about the feeling and the place helps.
George Inness made his field sketches and then put them away for later reference separate. He wanted separation. I prefer to start from the plein air to the concept piece as soon as the idea is clear, preferring less space rather than more.

What do you prefer? And why?

Later there is a point in the process when the painting begins to speak. It's like the runner's high. It's that moment all artists love. All reference material can be put away...the trip has begun.

This painting was created from all my work at the slough this July.

New watercolor underpainting

27"x37.5"watercolor underpainting on Art Spectrum supertooth

Are you intimidated when beginning a new BIG painting?
I am. It's weird. Plein air work and small stuff (24"x 24"and smaller) are like water off a duck; comfortable and they just roll off. Yeah, not all are good, but intimidating, no. There's a threshold where it changes.
For weeks I have planned this painting in my head. Made a series of plein air works, visited the museum for inspiration and thought. Yesterday the notans and sketches were finally made. This morning I charged myself up to begin the challenge. With all art business finished yesterday, I had a good night's sleep (imperative), small walk, a soy chai and a clear head; now I was ready to begin at 7:30 am. It's like gearing up for an athletic event!!!!!
Freeze. Think. Freeze. Think. Finally the brush touched the paper and from there things flowed. The wall had been jumped. Now I will let it dry and re-flatten it. Tomorrow I will meet the next wall when pastel are applied. After the first stroke is down it is free sailing.

Why is it like this?
Does anyone else experience such intimidation?

extraordinary hour of calm

big, 36x36 pastel on marble dust board

I began this painting back on May 27th. I was inspired by a sunset walk through the fields I love. The deer were grazing without a care. The sketch and small painting were done for my experience. Since then the painting has been through many metamorphoses, some of which I have documented on this blog. I wanted it to feel tranquil mixed with awe. The longer you look, the more you see. Finally it might be done, hmmmmmmmm.

Love at First Sight

24x24 pastel on art spectrum
The slough is one of my new muses. I don't want a muse-ho...but this is so much like my river and reservoir that it was love at first sight.
The concept is the most important thing for a painting. You really have to be clear about why you are painting that particular scene. What drives you? Why are you emotional about it? If you are not clear the viewer will not be.

PS The notans posted yesterday were part of the planning for this larger piece.

Deer Grazing at Sunset/unfinished

"As painter....we must always remember that our precious poetic visions and spiritual insight will remain forever locked within us until we can boil them down to a complex arrangement of a few hundred strokes or possibly even thousands of brushstrokes." Richard Schmid

Inch by inch this one has been creeping out of the marble dust board. Plein air painting has the vision before you. From that image you make your own. In this painting I am working more like the way George Inness did. I saw the vision, but now it is just me and the board with nothing but the vision to guide me (unlike plein air). It's hard. Poetic visions,...hmmmmm, are supposed to appear easy, like they just slid off you like water on a duck's back ....... This one has been scrubbed, sprayed, scratched, painted, and hundreds of layers of pastel... It still has more to go. Let's see who wins.....or finds peace.
I swear it's the best job in the world.

Dawn's Light Ushers in a Brand New Day

17.5 x21 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper
The painting spoke to me and then I knew what to do. Funny how that works.

Formidable, Yet Silent

28x42 pastel on oil paint on Marble dust board

I finally finished it! Mountains changed, glow added and river strengthened. I thoroughly enjoyed the last few days painting this one. The time when it just flows through you because you know what to do.

small changes Shenandoah

Next...with small changes. I am thinking about removing the middle distant mountains to make way for the river. Hope it is dry tomorrow I am craving plein air painting...almost as much as chocolate.

Work in Progress:Oh Shenandoah

28x42 pastel and oil on marble dust board
This one has been in the works for more than a year. It has gone through a few metamorphoses and will probably go through more. I wonder if it is too still for a big piece...does it need some notation of life? Still working...
Now it has stopped raining so I am out to the field for some plein air.

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.

Olana Glow 4

8x21 pastel on watercolor/Uart paper

Here's to taking my own advice. The foreground needed to be darker...maybe even more, but I think I have run out of "tooth." It's better, but certainly not perfect. It does have distance, but not the beauty I saw in my mind's eye. Sometimes you just have to go on:-) On to my next lady-in-waiting.

Olana Glow

Here is the next step. I left it as a larger jpeg so that the grey/ golden steps could be seen. It's almost done. I think.

New Mexico Lives on in the Studio

Ah.... memories. I am back in the studio equipped with a plan. While my New Mexico visions are sharp I will work up a studio piece from the Rio Grande. So here is a picture of me, bundled up in layers and fingerless gloves painting the canyon.
My main question: when composing this "grand space" scene, how do I deepen the space? Many painters have placed land, trees, people, etc. in the very foreground or in the case of Thomas Moran or Albert Bierstadt creating (with color) distinct levels of space and atmosphere. Not only will my choice effect the creation of space but also the place where a viewer is involved.
Hmmmmmmmm.

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.