Tried again with Alizarin and once again it was challenging. I was also cranky and tired from a long walk in the sun, which resulted in the first attempt at this painting being wiped away. I went back at it after a little nap and felt much better about the painting.
I used natural light this time, which gives much softer shadows than the bright overheads.
This is something new. Partially inspired by the cans and candy paintings, but also more of an idea forming in the background. This particular study was extremely challenging, and is not exactly what I was going for, but is headed in the right direction. Perhaps there will be more.
untitled (plastic cup) : Oil on Board. 14″x18″ 2016
I’ve been interested in waves and the ocean as part of the larger landscape series. It feels like a good fit with some of the emotional content behind the work. A few weeks back I took a trip to the beach that was sunless and windy – but provided some great reference shots!
I’ve started working up some ideas for sketches – the first is below. Despite the day being cool and grey the painting still came out a little sunny… I’ll need to work on that in the future.
untitled (wave study) : Oil on linen. 18″ x 12″. 2015
Color mixing is, perhaps, one of the hardest elements of painting for me. I can see (most) color accurately and know exactly what color I need for the painting… but how to get that color? That’s a little trickier.
Many painters advocate using a limited palette. That is, giving yourself only a few colors and mixing all else from there. In the beginning of an experiment/practice program I started this week using only four colors: Cad Red Light, Cad Yellow Light, Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Umber (brown) and Titanium White.
It is at once liberating and maddening. As you can see in the paintings below I’m able to get reasonably close to certain colors. Some – the pink in the teddy bear – were virtually unmixable given the 4 colors were all fairly warm colors.
Next week I will add 3 more colors – giving myself a warm and cool version of each color. As the colors above are mostly warm I will add Alizarin Crimson (cool red), Hansa Yellow Light (cool yellow), and Cerulean (warmer blue).
As for the subject matter… I looked out the window and around the studio for random things to paint. I’m still working on a lighting solution for the new studio. The overhead lights are halogen and very yellow – making it virtually impossible to see what a color will look like when it goes from palette to canvas.
untitled sketch : Oil on canvasboard. 5″x7″ 2015
untitled sketch : Oil on canvasboard. 5″x7″ 2015
untitled sketch : Oil on canvasboard. 5″x7″ 2015
untitled sketch : Oil on canvasboard. 5″x7″ 2015
untitled sketch : Oil on canvasboard. 5″x7″ 2015
Adding in the telephone lines fills up the emptiness in the sky. And makes the shadows make sense.
I had done this horrid little sketch while up in Maine. While none of the paintings I did there were spectacularly successful this particular one stood out as particularly bad, for many many reasons.
Untitled : Oil on board. 9″x12″ 2014
After staring at it for a few days and making notes of all the disastrous errors I decided to try again; I would consciously and carefully rework the idea.
I photographed the process and the results are interesting (at least to me). Stepping back from the immediacy of the situation allowed me to understand what went wrong the first time, and to actively correct it (for the most part) this time.
First was the drawing. I had rushed the drawing on the sketch, and my brain pulled one of those classic tricks: it said “wow those hills are dramatic” and instructed my hand to make them very dramatic. The result is a cartoonish exaggeration of what my eyes actually saw. Yes, the hills had a sharp rise, but that was visually tempered by distance and atmospheric perspective.
Step One: Drawing and blocking in. I spent almost as much time on this step alone as I had on the entire sketch above. I focused on the subtleties of the shapes of the hills, noting that they weren’t just symmetrical bell curves rising from the rocks.
Step 2. I solidified the hills and pushed them backwards with cooler blues & greens. I also “fixed” the sky… which was my biggest regret.
Step 3. More work on the hills and a great amount of focus on solidifying the rocks in the foreground. I also continued to fuck up the sky…
Step 4. I reworked the water, which had been a little flat and a little too blue. I added some texture and depth to the shore as it receded.
Step 5. I finally got the sky somewhere manageable – although not nearly as beautiful and soft as the initial blocking…I also brought in the highlights on the rocks in the foreground.
Final. The last steps were to painting the greenery and trees. I’m about 85% happy with it. I still think the sky got mangled and some of the greenery is a bit amateurish. The photograph doesn’t capture the subtle blues in the foreground shadows.
In a very quick study on Sunday morning I tried doing some more cloud studies. Meh… they look okay, but I think I went a little heavy on the darker shadows in the clouds themselves. Also, the water is a little more green and not that steely Maine blue that I like.
Still – a decent end to an incredibly productive weekend!
Cloud Study #3 : Oil on board. 8″x10″ 2014
Last night I stepped into the studio for a quick landscape sketch. I’ve been thinking a lot about Andrew Wyeth (having just finished his biography) His father NC Wyeth used to tell him “paint the massive forms”. It seems odd, given Andrew Wyeth’s propensity for detail and texture, but it’s good advice nonetheless.
The sketch was done in an hour, from drawing to finish. It’s obviously rough around some edges, but I’m quite happy with the overall feel. Definitely more painterly than my usual work.
Also, in rearranging my space I stumbled across this painting from a last year. I’d posted a preview of it, but it never appeared in finished form. It’s a little heavy on the saturated greens, but I still think it’s a nice little painting.
Winter Field Sketch : Oil on board. 9″x12″ 2014
Access Road : Oil on board. 9″x12″ 2013
A quick oil sketch of a marsh near my dad’s farm. Im working on a larger piece that’s taking a bit more time to complete. This was done with some of the leftover paints on my palette to keep them from going to waste. I did it unless the hour and I’m quite pleased with the results.
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