personality that reinvents

The field next to my house is my constant muse. It has so many facets to its personality and pushes me to invent and reinvent it. It feels similar to what I do when I "dress-up."

don't be fixated on making good paintings

I guess I can't really be accused of that. I find that I can't really ever feel comfortable entering competitions or applying for plein air events. I make myself apply for the plein airs, only because I really enjoy doing them and they push me in another way. But the competitions will have to wait till I know something again.
 Recently I read a quote written by Diana Horowitz. "Don't get fixated on making  a good painting. You can't be afraid of making bad paintings if you are going to learn."



This is the sunrise in the Safeway parking lot ... a few days ago. Shapes and color.

sunrise in the mall parking lot, again

5x7 pastel on twinrocker

In the mall parking lot I once again created a small plein air study of sunrise. Even though the colors include orange it is a more lemon orange countered to violet gray clouds.
Sunset is the opposite the colors are hotter.

sunrise

24x12 oil on board

This is the painting that I have lovingly labored over for the last 2 months. Finally it is in its resting stage. The grandeur of the sky, and the new beginnings the sunrise offers were my small (heh) goals.
I am learning to paint big on the floor.
More tomorrow from the list.

PS  If anyone knows how to fight barrel distortion in a long photo please let me know.

use of neutrals in sunrise

5x7 pastel and watercolor on wallis
This is a study of the colors of sunrise and the use of neutrals to make light glow. Neutrals are probably the most important colors..they make paintings harmonize.

I must admit, this year I have not missed one day of posting.(YAY!) I have mixed my posts: some days I post my daily plein air warm ups and other days a studio painting or progress on a studio painting. Also I have loved posting interviews and been fascinated doing them! Next year is a new year and the blog will grow in new ways..

more WK and the ditch

 8x8 pastel and watercolor on Uart


"Don't become ordinary. If you do what others want you to do you become a manufacturer, not an artist.
You can't worry about what others think of your work and don't paint more just because they sell."
Wolf Kahn-Friday, May 21 lecture


Self explanatory, right? I guess its the easiest way to kill your being. Yes, you might eat better for a while, but at what cost? Paint what drives you and in the way it tells you to go.

On that note, this is a runoff ditch down the street. I never really noticed it because you can't see it from the street. Today, I climbed the hill. This interests me. Water really floats my gondola.

painting under pressure at the cherry blossoms

6x8 pastel on twinrocker
I don't know if it was pure foolishness or bravery (they can be close cousins you know) which sent me to the cherry blossoms downtown at sunrise....ON A SATURDAY MORNING!!!!! I decided it was a good practice painting under pressure, like we do at plein air events.
It's funny I wasn't really interested in the blossoms, my usual muse (light on water) came forth and made me paint her. The sunrise was very diffuse and blinding. I started with this-

Next I took it to the studio to make a more cohesive feeling done just by my memory. Success? No. But it sure was practice painting under pressure! Paul was with me for a couple of minutes. He said in that time at least 100 tourists took my photo. Egad!
Here's a few of the photos he took.

the nature of organic form and sunrise in florida

6x6 pastel on BFK
This is the pastel I did yesterday morning. The light haze rising from the water was so compelling. I sit now in Starbucks waiting to see what this morning's light will reveal.

While I wait, here are more tidbits from Sadie's wonderful workshop... Enjoy!

Put aside your verbal knowledge of nature. Visualize and remember these most important notes from Sadie.

The nature of organic form, whether the human arm or a sycamore tree, follow these tenets:

*It is always tapered, never parallel.
*It is always convex or pushing out, never concave. Even when something looks concave it is really made up of a series of convexities.
*Everything spirals-trees and arms included. It spirals in both directions although one direction is more prominent.
*Everything is interlocking.

Oil underpainting/ spring sunrise

8x10 pastel on oil UArt
Painted a quickie sunrise. I used the oil underpainting I did a couple days ago as the base. My focus was on warm and cool. The whole thing was in my mind before I began since I have been watching this every day so it quickly painted itself.
I am at the airport, on my way to Florida... more about that tomorrow!
Spring is here and life is good!

snow field

 24x24 oil on linen
Began this painting on Sunday by toning my linen with washes of warm and cool yellows. It seemed the best way to create the light. I am working with the plein air study was done on the field at sunrise as my reference- see it here
Since Sunday I have worked a little each day. Today, I tortured myself and it for almost the whole day. Arggh.  I want it luminous, yet more towards abstract. I know I had abstract for awhile back there when Paul walked in and asked..."nice, what is it?" Maybe I went too much the other way. I was constantly thinking for the concept of refraction, much more deliberate.

Sorry for the bad photo... it's the best I can do indoors when the light is low.  I will work more and repost another time.

I reposted it today....better light outside. Photographing whites is difficult.

Suggestions anyone?

field of snow, one of the lost fields

10x12 pastel on BFK
This is a plein air from yesterday's sunrise. It's another field that is leaving us, in fact I parked in the ICC construction parking lot.
The underlying tones were yellow. I picked my handful of pastels and stuck with them...the sirens couldn't tempt me;-)

sunrise before the next storm

8x12 pastel on BFK
Memory and essence go hand in hand. If it is in your head, not in the camera, you have it. This is the sunrise this morning. I went walking and memorized the way the light breaks as it separates land and sky. I waited till afternoon to paint it. Shoveled more while I created the image in my head. It takes discipline. I need to keep expanding this part of my brain. Beautiful neutrals are the key.

Lost field, number? at sunrise

Early morning at another one of the last fields. This is one that will soon become a development of new homes. Sad. The horses grazed nearby on this quiet early morning.
 It really is amazing how much reflected light plays in the whole drama. It was hard to get the land to be dark enough so that space and drama would be made.

almost breakfast time

10x10 pastel on BFK
The morning was very quiet, but not as cold as usual. As I waited for my favorite scone bakery to open I decided that I was up for the challenge of painting the sunrise through the trees. Warm and cool layers of marks was my method on this smooth paper. The leftover bits of snow on the ground added unusual lights in the grass. I love the glazey feel the sun makes over the distant trees and homes.
Now I will eat my scone and tea.

PS Thank you everyone for your input about my lighting issue. I will buy a book light today!

First Blush at Christmas Eve

 10 x10 pastel on BFK

Twilight, Sunrise, Dawn.

Twilight- The diffused light from the sky during the early evening or early morning when the sun is below the horizon and its light is refracted by the earth's atmosphere.
Dawn - the point where the sky begins to lighten, the time before the sun comes over the horizon which ends twilight
Sunrise- the instant the sun comes over the horizon in the east.

Sam and Doug raised this point in the comments section on another post. It made me curious enough to investigate. So there are the basic definitions. I  have always loved twilight: the light, the feel, and the fact that it comes twice. If you miss it you have a second chance.

Christmas Eve and its magic comes once...enjoy it.

sunrise/ plein air study

10x10 pastel on BFK
I knew I wanted to study the color more since I didn't seem to be getting it. So I returned to the field site at twilight (Thursday morning) and waited for the sun to rise just above the horizon. Then, early Friday  morning  I went back to the studio to do another painting but this time by memory...of course I always had the reference available this time. I will post that later.
I am writing this late Friday evening/early Saturday morning. We are in our first major snowstorm (in years) and I  am scheduled  to leave from the airport this morning. Keep in mind that in Washington DC 4 inches of snow closes down the city and we are expecting 1-2 feet!  Everyone will go insane!  I hope to be off to visit my Daddio and his wife Mae in California. My whole family goes. It's a fun time. I love spending time with everyone... but of course I will paint. It is beautiful out there. If the airport shuts down you will be seeing a snow painting.

sweet sunrise/october

about 5x8 pastel on watercolor

the field -photo
The sunrise light is cool and delicate. The green grasses appear blue/neutral and the sky is tinged with more green and yellow (after the pink fades.) This morning the grisaille was done on the spot and I tried to still keep free. Today I added the photo to my post. It shows my point(about cameras vs. the eye) made on Tuesday. What do you think?

September Sunrise in the Forgotten Lands

Sunrise has a cool light...but in order to create a good feeling it needs to be a warm- cool. And in turn the shadows are warm but they can't be completely warm they need to be a cooler warm.  (follow me?) It all meets in some beautiful glowing neutrals. I tried to capture that in this painting.

study of sunrise

I felt the need to go to the field and "observe" the sunrise. Well when I arrived I was delighted to see a light layer of fog veiling the distance. I couldn't just observe; I was driven to paint. I promised myself I would take the "study" to the studio and use it to create new work. I tried hard to keep the literal out...move trees change the distances. Light was my concern. I didn't even draw first, just jumped in with watercolor.

Sunrise by Stephen's House

about 8x 13 pastel on watercolor underpainting, uart paper
Tomorrow is the Kensington Plein Air Paint Out. so I went scoping out a new place to paint. I have been eying the light in this park each morning as the sun rises, so this was my choice (and maybe tomorrow's choice.) The only snafu is that it is a dog walker's paradise and as any painter knows dogs are wonderful, but unpredictable. Just one moment of excitement can knock over your easel and destroy hundreds of dollars of pastels. Yipes!!!!!
The roof of Stephen's house, a lovely, hundred plus year old house was catching the light of the rising sun beautifully. oooooooooooh!