a painting has a secret

A little while ago I was looking through my old sketchbooks. There I found an interesting note, "A great painting has a secret. A secret the viewer wants to know." That one line struck me as the most important thing.  Just painting what you see is boring (to me). Find what drives you to paint and paint that concept. Leave space in that painting for the viewer to exist in his/her imagaination.

Here is the scene as I saw it up on top of the airport mesa in Sedona. I painted it each sunrise when I was there. The coyotes would howl and the rabbits would zig zag through the grasses. It was moister than usual in the desert since we had rain that week.The stillness was sweet.

A question to ask yourself each and every time you paint....why do I need to paint this? What is it saying to me?

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.

color relationships, distilled

 Two quickies from the same field. They are about the color relationships, distilled. That's all.

rhythm in the grasses

This new field is driving me crazy. I am transfixed. All these new works are uart paper, some with watercolor underpainting some with rubbing alcohol hard pastel underpainting. The rhythm in the Queen Anne's Lace and the Chicory is intriguing.

field love

Field love continues. Just sticking to one theme, one field allows me to change the rest of the variables. Simple changes such as tilting the horizon line or the intensity of the underpainting make big differences.

Fingers, pastels and bridging

Fingers and pastel 
I am asked many times about how often my fingers are in the pastel. This is a tricky subject for pastelist. Many abhor all finger use. Some use fingers and tools to smooth the pastel. No absolutes for me, I simply do whatever works.
Smooshing the pastel around with your fingers can create beauty. Or sometimes you can unintentionally make dead passages- places that have lost the crystalline vibrancy of pastel. I use my fingers mostly in the bottom layers of my paintings. It is how I will move the pastel. And sometimes I "bridge."
What is bridging? When a large change in color temperature is needed your paintings can benefit from a more gradual transition. To do so you need to select colors that move the eye along the color wheel to the desired next stop. It makes a more appealing transition. For example, in this field painting, the bridge from the warmer grasses to the cool tree shadows travel from a melon color, to more pink and purple then going over to blue and green. Some colors are in the layers and some are more present.

Try it some time and see how it feels.

when lost things can't be found

In the last two months as my world has changed I have become more courageous. When lost things can't be found and letting go becomes the norm, I have started to take bigger risks in painting. I paint landscapes completely from my head. I attack older work and make it new. I throw away work that serves no purpose.

Thank you to all my blogger friends for all your support and love during this time.

Painting and underpainting: towards the light

I've been visiting Daddio in California over the holidays. He has been struggling with his health. The tiger that built my studio years ago is undertaking his biggest battle.
This small field I passed each day as I traveled back and forth from the hospital. The morning light was magical. When I was there I only had time to do a watercolor underpainting. With the memory of the field in my mind I finished with pastels in the studio. I posted both, since I have had numerous requests to do so. :-)
Please send some warmth and prayers to Daddio.

underpainting

Hope and Happy Christmas

"Hope" is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—

And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—
And sore must be the storm—
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm—

I've heard it in the chillest land—
And on the strangest Sea—
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb—of Me. 

Emily Dickinson

Happy Christmas friends!

Wolf Kahn, grays / bright colors and field, early morning

10x11 pastel

This week I was asked why do I put so many bright colors in my paintings? You don't really see those do you? My only answer was that "my painting was a response to the scene rather than a depiction." I hear in my head, "Loriann you need to balance all that bright color with grays." That's what we have been taught, right?  I think balance is true, but does it have to be just neutrals? Can't the weight of volume and density of color answer the call as well?
So I turned to reading about Wolf Kahn, a master of color and balance. He too was asked how does he make all these brilliant colors work in a painting. (great company to have) WK answered, “The only time I feel comfortable is when I don’t know why the colors work,” he says. For him the act of painting is a conversation. You don’t control it; you respond to it. “It’s useful to think of a painting as a pet. If you have a pet, you give it food and it doesn’t overeat. Yet somehow if you haven’t given it enough, the pet will let you know it and you give it more so the pet is satisfied,” he says. “Painting isn’t really all that mysterious. You just give it enough till it’s satisfied.” Sounds easy, eh?
Letting go of control seems to be the answer of the month.

Hans Hoffman, Color and the field

10x11 pastel

When you read about Hans Hoffman's teaching, color was not used to copy nature literally, but to make relationships, mass and luminosity.   Nature inspires but does not control. We, instead are in charge. Our choice of color is intuitive and expresses feeling.
You must consider that colors have look different depending on whether their edges are hard or soft. Whether the change in value at these edges is smooth or abrupt (as I experimented with above). The appearance of color is affected by the color adjacent.  Simultaneous contrast is really what the relationships are all about.
Since I have returned home I am haunting my fields. As a compositional challenge I also purposely put that tree right in the middle. Heh.

Painting Air

8x8 pastel

This small gem is one of my favorites. I feel like I finally painted the feel of air.

Once more thing I learned at Sedona is about sleep. When I am at a competition like this, I can not sleep. My mind is constantly thinking and solving painting problems.  I averaged 2 hours of sleep a night. I spoke with a few other artists and they said the same thing. One told me that she simply takes sleeping pills with her for these events so that here brain can get a rest. I lived off of emergent C and soy chais. For the first time in my life a sleeping pill doesn't sound bad. Anyone else have this kind of experience?

Sedona Plein Air Festival recap

12 x12 pastel

The past week at Sedona was absolutely amazing! I was on a roll with fields and trees. Rather than move around to different places in the Sedona area I find that I do better when I nest. I need to form a relationship with the area I paint. That is why I travel to the same areas (the exact same fields)  to paint each year. I don't try to paint the place, rather the poetry of the place. I never get bored of my locations, I simply know it better, like a lover or a best friend. In Sedona I found my place out by Cottonwood. For three years, I have traveled to these fields. Yes, the red rocks are gorgeous, but they are not me.
At the Sedona Plein Air Festival there were many events and receptions. On Thursday night, at the Alcantara Vinyards, I was shocked and honored to learn, that this painting (titled "Out Standing in my Field") won the Guerrilla Paint Out Prize. Yay! Thank you Carl Judson for noticing my work!
One of the treasures of being part of on of these festival/competitions is the people.
First, I had an amazing host- Dana. Each night, when I returned from painting, we would drink tea and chat. Nice. I have many new artist friends as well. Often we painters work in isolation (I always do), so these times are precious. Thank you to all my new friends!
Next post I will tell you some of the new things I learned.
Toodles for now!

more yummy multi-media board

tip on how to do a watercolor underpainting

I continue to show fields from Washington. Both of these were done on location. The larger of the two has a watercolor underpainting.
The most important thing to remember when doing an underpainting is that value matters. That way you are not just covering up the beauty of the watercolor. You can experiment with colors but always make the values in you underpainting correct.

new view, old field

8x24 pastel

I am going to only my 3 regular places, same views....every day. My question is what can I do today with the same view? How can I treat it differently?

Queen Anne's Lace

My favorite, Queen Anne's Lace was situated in a tiny grassy area next to Wheaton Mall.

Back to Queen Anne's Lace

Back to the Queen Anne's Lace. This time I not only played with the lace work of the horizon where the  flowers meet the sky, but I also used flowers to lead you through the field. My question  ..how little do I need to paint and still read field?

more Maine fields

More fields...this one has a vibration. yay!

Maine Fields

I disappeared for a wee bit. I met my bestfriend in the world, Leah, in Maine. We stayed in a cottage that we picked because of the wonderful field across from it.  There was a path through the field that led to a small beach. Sweet. This is one of my pastel studies done one sunny afternoon. I will post more this week, including a super moon study.