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The 6th of my 6 Painting Outside class (in watercolor) was this past Friday.  As with the class last fall, I felt a definite pang when we parted and an eagerness to see the 2 ladies again,  some time in the future.  The energy of my 2 students was invigorating to me.  I enjoyed their company and their level of interest and expertise.  I also enjoyed that we got to paint outside 4 weeks in a row with the first 2 weeks characterized by rain and cold & spent inside.  My 2 studemts weren’t daunted by the murky, chilly, sometimes drizzly atmosphere and an unusual May chill in the air this past Friday morning.  We sat out a few sprinklings, unwilling to pack up and leave.  We painted until noon, when things were definitely looking up for the rest of the day.

Our painting spot du jour was West Cemetery, Litchfield.  We set-up in the 1800's section looking up the slope to the 1700's and earlier part.  Birdsong was the prevalent sound, but there were times of cars passing, wind gusts and the High School Marching Band practising for the Memorial Day Parade up the hill behind us, hidden by the trees and bushes.

The top painting is approx 5x7 and was done with water on medium grade, sketch quality paper in a bound notebook.   This is where I ‘take snapshots’, experiment with drawing, paint & technique, express myself as simply and directly as possible.  When painting outside, it’s best to keep things as simple as possible.  Less time fussing about things, more time to sit, think and work.  This sketch was drawn rapidly, then I applied a very wet, almost tone-less wash and worked out my value pattern by adding in more paint.  Since this is a sketch and not intended to be a finished painting and in order to keep things simple & experimental, I used 3 pigments (Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Red and Cadmium Yellow) to make as neutral and murky a gray as possible.  I left the sky area light and worked in increasingly heavier layers of the neutral gray I’d mixed into areas where the light was least.    The sky area was still damp when I’d worked as much gray/dark into the other areas (& therefore established a value pattern), so I mixed a little UB into a puddle of gray on my pallet and wetly filled in a bit of more colorful sky area, leaving the lighter part as the cloudy murk that hovered over everything.

The atmosphere on the scene wasn’t conducive to quick drying; my painting was still damp when we quit.  I hadn’t planned on doing any more work on the sketch but I left the notebook open on the coffee table and the more it caught my eye, the more I wanted to work on it some more.  This is a good time to make amends, corrections, satisfy the inner critic who’s thinking coulda, shoulda, woulda....

On the first sketch, the underlying base of tone was what I established first with the neutral gray I mixed with very little color/light added in.  The photo of the sketch after I finished that day, has 2 layers; the base using gray and establishing the pattern of where light and dark will be the most or the least.  The most dark gets the most gray.  Anything that’s closer to the light gets the most color.  That’s what makes this dark painting appear to have more light in the 2nd photo.  When I worked over this painting last night, I heightened the contrast between Light and Dark by using the most color and the most gray.  Much of the gray was mixed in with the color, on this layer, and the paint was applied most heavily, much thicker than the preceding layers which were more watery.

I’m happy with this sketch.  I think of it has having an Oscar Bluemner* mood and quality.

*Oscar Florianus Bluemner (June 21, 1867 – January 12, 1938) was a German-born American Modernist painter.

 

Culvert St -- Easter Morning

I went out to the porch this morning to sit in the sun and write in my journal.  As I sat there writing, I was more and more inspired to start another Culvert St painting.  Another one of the side of the hill and beyond in the back of the house where I live.  So I wrote for about 20 minutes and then went for paper and paint.  
 
I first did the drawing in pencil, trying to make marks that would later point to making sense with paint.  I can’t really see these buildings on the side of the hill with a great deal of clarity because of the fringe of trees surrounding both sides of the brook, unseen and deep in the culvert below.  The buildings are ‘fudged’ when I can’t understand what it is I’m seeing.  The trees have to be in the painting because they’re a huge component of the scene.

When I felt that I’d done enough drawing, I got out the paint and a #8 brush and drew in the trees.   The paint was very thin and a mix of what was already on the pallette.  The trees I selected to ‘copy’ bear no relationship to each other in reality.  I just put in whatever ‘treeness’ I need to make them work with the composition;  took what I liked, left the rest....  When I was done with drawing the trees in paint I went over them with frisket.  I’m still extolling the virtues (to me) of the wonderful Walnut drawing tool I’ve been learning how to use for this purpose.  

I’ve actually never used a $14 dollar bottle of frisket more than I’ve used this present bottle.  Usually, I use what I need for a particular painting I’m working on and then the rest dries up.  I don’t like using frisket because it’s a good way to wreck a brush, even an old worn out brush that still has a few miles left to it.  I’m liking the Walnut Drawing tool for spreading large amounts of frisket but within carefully drawn-out boundaries.  Sometimes I use a bamboo pen, sometimes I use a bamboo knitting needle.  I have yet to try toothpicks....  I like the wooden tools much better than a brush.  They are much easier to keep clean of gunked-up frisket as all I need to do is wait for it to dry and then rub it out.

 

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I’ve worked another hour plus on the background of this painting.  For tone, I used UB and BS – a tried and true old standby for me.  I started out with very light, pale,  washes over each area of interest and reinforced those areas with more tone, more color until it all felt ‘right’ and until I was somewhat tired and losing interest.  

I’ve discovered throughout the years that 45 minutes to an hour is enough of a session for me.  At the end of the session I’m starting to think less about Art and more about Hunger, needing the jon, wanting to make a phone call, needing to feed the cat, realizing my arms are starting to feel the sun in a painful way....  That’s a good time to quit, take a photograph, attend to things of the ‘real’ world and leave the painting around to look at as I attend to those other things.

What I’m going to decide as I do those other things is whether or not I’m going to continue working up the background some more or maybe it’s time to rub out the masking, erase the graphite and then plan how I’m going to work on the trees.

For now, it’s lunch-time and I’m hungry.  

(To be continued....)

Later:
I worked on this painting off and on all afternoon & finally finished it an hour ago.  I'm pleased with it.

Here it is with the frisket removed and a after lot of erasure.

And here it is in as finished a state as it will ever be.

Culvert St., Easter Morning '10

Culvert St. March 27, 2010

Another Culvert St painting.  Number 14.  Six to go.

I decided to do this window scene after the 2 I did earlier in the series, when it was Winter.  I’ve often seen this sight full of gray sky and snow; a few days ago, with a beautiful spring day as inspiration, I saw the snow and gray replaced with bright blue, ‘snowing’ red buds.

I’m also calling it an exercise in masking-out.  I used liquid frisket for the tree and buds, masking tape for the window edges.

I'm considering the background done, for the most part.

Here it is, in color & Black and White,  with the frisket removed.  The next part of the painting will be to do the limbs and buds.  To be continued....

And here it is later, with some of the buds.

March 21- March 22, ‘10

Happy Spring!  Unbelievable.... yesterday was my first day of Painting Outside!  I didn’t see it coming.   I feel that I’ve been blessedly blindsided by the wonderful spring weather of the past few days.  I thought to gather up my things and go Somewhere but because I felt so grateful to feel secure in my Home, decided to stay home and celebrate the outside from the comfort of the porch.  Besides, B was coming to fix the bathroom ceiling and I wanted to talk to him and make sure to remember to tell him how grateful I am for his help in getting the people upstairs to lower their noise volume.

I worked out on the porch and talked to him on intervals when he wasn’t working on the ceiling.  I was happy to report to him that this week with the noise was the best in the 5 weeks since the people moved in, that they’d lowered the volume a great deal and I was again getting a good night’s sleep.

I’ve decided on this landscape scene from my porch; to do a painting of it while it’s still visible.  The trees in the foreground need to be there for the composition to make any sense to me.  I decided that I’d continue experimenting with the walnut drawing tool and frisket so drew in the background scene, then the trees, then covered the trees with frisket.  This part of the painting is very interesting & exciting for me in considering all the possibilities that arise from the act of separating the foreground from the background.  I also love making the meaningful strokes with the pen and frisket.  It’s a sense of something in me being momentarily freed. 

When the frisket was dry, I began to paint in the value pattern.  I decided on my favorite gray for tone, UB and BS.  I tried to keep everything soft for the initial development of the painting.  The actual sky was a light, somewhat grayed Blue, as if there was much haze in the atmosphere.  It seemed soft to me and so did the air.  It was warm, smelled sweet.  A fresh spring breeze has an undescribably sweet scent in it that defies words.

I worked on the painting for another hour or so last night and I worked on it for a few hours this morning.  The weather is still great today.  Not as warm as yesterday, but I’m not complaining.  I worked out on the porch this morning from 9 - 12:30.  I had my breakfast out there and quite a few phone chats as I worked.  I feel totally blessed to be here to so enjoy this beautiful spring day.


Here it is with the frisket removed.  The frisket turns a kind of greenish yellow on the paper.  The painting takes on a different light without the frisket.



March 22, 2010

I worked on this painting for awhile this morning, mostly on the trees.  I’m using a variety of gray made from UB and BS.  For more variety, I’m adding in red and yellow to the gray.  The darker gray for the unlit side of the trees and the yellow to lighten the gray for areas where there’s more light.  I also cooled the grays occasionally by adding in Pthalo Blue, which to me, is ice cold.

At one point I placed the painting on the floor and momentarily left the room.  When I came back, I viewed the painting from upside down.  The thought that came to me was “I like this....”  That’s when I decided to stop working on this painting.  



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This morning I read an article on the Internet about the importance of Technology to the Artist.  My thoughts about how I use recent Technology in my painting have to do with the computer, digital camera and a computer program to use to enhance a photo that I’ve uploaded from my camera.

I use the viewfinder in the camera to compose my subject.  When looking through the view finder of the camera, I arrange my subject in the crosshairs of the view finder while mentally applying the Rule of Threes to my subject and how I’d like to arrange the drawing of the subject and all it’s supports on a piece of watercolor paper.  I take photos to remind me of what I may have been thinking/feeling when I took the photo.  When I’m painting I use the camera to record the various stages of the painting.  The viewfinder and then, the image reduced to a THUMBNAIL size gives me a new perspective on the painting and the progress.

Seeing the painting in a very small, thumbnail size gives me an idea of the balance and proportion of the composition.  I think that back in the times of the Renaissance, a series of lenses was used in a tool that was considered a technological advance called a Camera Obscura (?)  which in more modern times was refined into an item that was portable and used as a sketching aid for artists.  Seeing my image reproduced on the screen in a very small format allows me to critique my progress as to composition, value pattern, depth of tone or intensity of color, in a way that feels logical and understandable.

Another thing I like about the capacity of the photo enhancement program is that I can de-saturate a photo, which takes out all the color and leaves the image reproduced in a series of grays from dark to light.  To me, this is highly useful.

I like to imagine my paintings as an image that is carved into stone and then enhanced with color.  De-saturating a photo of a painting allows me to see whether or not I’m sticking with the value pattern I established after I’ve done the initial drawing.

This is a sketch I did today at a place where I work.  I really enjoyed working on this drawing because today was sunny and warm.  I couldn't find one of my favorite BIC mechanical pencils in my bag or anywhere in my car so I used a ball point pen with black ink that I found in my purse with my checkbook. 

I've always loved Vincent van Gogh's drawings and used to study them often.  I read his letters many years ago and one of the things that impressed me was one where he's telling his brother how he'd  pick reeds from a swamp and then with a pocket knife, shape a reed into a writing instrument and use it to create a drawing.  He may have been trying to save money on art supplies, trying to impress his brother with his frugality.  I think that Vincent would have liked this ball point pen because I never had to pause to dip it in ink or fill it with watercolor.  I just drew, non-stop.  It had a nice liquid 'expressive' feel to it, although I don't consider the marks nearly as beautiful as those Vincent van Gogh made with a reed pen.

Peach and Playing Card II

I forgot to take a photo of this painting before I started adding in tone.    I made the decision to work on a toned ground, then made the decision that I’d use a mix of complementary colors to make the grays to build up the tone.  I don’t know why I decided to use Alizarin Crimson and Veridian other than it’s a pleasing mix, to me and I haven’t used it for a long time.  Before I started the drawing, I washed a thin and even coating of Alizarin Crimson over the entire sheet of paper.  When it was dry, I worked the drawing over it.  The thin coating of Water and AC was barely visible to the naked eye but was enough to show up & contrast the mix of neutral AC & V when I began setting up the tone on the painting.  

One of the ‘rules’ of watercolor painting that works for me; Start with a big brush, work from Light to Dark, Wet to Dry.  Using a large sable round and a thin mix of the tone,  I started at the top, worked from the dark area and into the light.  Every  element has been touched with paint, by now.  If not in the 2nd round, at least from the first.   The overall surface is exuding a rosy glow; the contrast between the red and the green.  The way I’m thinking of this surface right now is that there is plenty of room for pushing back, bringing forward as I continue the process of work on this painting.
What I intend doing next is an all-over erasing the graphite with a Pink Pearl eraser.  The two washes already applied have brought up a lot of graphite dust and I’m now finding the construction lines as unsightly, unnecessary, not smooth . ..
I’ve also washed in very thin layers of Light in the form of color.  There’s UB mixed with the tone mix, applied in a thin wash in the blue areas of the checked towel as well as the blue napkin behind the Peach.  Eventually, as I work farther, this pale wash will be seen only in the white check in the  towel pattern.  The next time I work in this area, I’ll be adding more color mixed with tone in a higher value (thicker, but still watery paint) and will go around the white check.
 I also used YO in the places on the ivory-colored cloth where there is the most Light.  I mixed it with tone to do the area behind the peach and the cards.  The lightest area is where I used pure Indian Yellow; enough to create a glow between the blue surrounding it.  The layers of color and tone were quite watery, but thicker than the 1st 2 layers of paint.

Today is the most spring-like day we’ve had in all of 2010.  What a blessing.  Sun, blue sky and a temperature forecast to be in the 50’s.

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Here it is, an hour later.  

 

And here's an example of the Neutral mix made of Alizarin Crimson and Viridian;  I've tried to keep the mix more on the Viridian side than the Alizarin Crimson...

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I worked on the painting for a few hours this morning, adding more tone, more depth, smoothing things out...  I'm pleased with this painting for now and will probably be done with it soon -- later, tomorrow....  Using the AC + V was ok but not my favorite tone.  I'm thinking about what it is I want to try next painting....