Still Life with Pots

Started a new painting.

A still life based on a photograph posted at about.com/painting.

Here is the post with the possible still life photos we had to choose from

http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ab-painting&tid=18949

I choose F the one with all the pots

http://forums.about.com/n/docs/docDownload.ashx?webtag=ab-painting&guid=01fb6f6c-b3b8-489d-ac8f-75fd7c94701d

So started with that composition.

 

 

This quickly turned into a rather nice composition with bright blue pots.

I did use two new pigments, Indian Red and turquoise. Two I was not that familiar with.

I was given the Indian Red, and used it for the first time on my Holly Hock painting. I bought the turquoise a while back but never used it.This seems the ideal painting to try that one out

Roses, Roses and more Roses

Started some new paintings, of roses.



Bunch of Roses

I love white roses and have been using them to teach value in art classes, so I decided I would paint a few paintings of roses.


One is 11 x 14 gallery wrapped and the other is 16 x 20, wrapped canvas, but of standard depth.



The first I started by simply painting a streaked background, then when it was dry, just putting random roses in a sort of bunch.



I started to layout some stems with the thought of putting them in a clear vase, but I don't think I will. I will leave the stems vague, and little to no leaves, and I am not going to paint in a vase at all. The way they are bunched together, it implies a vase, but only by suggestion.





single White rose

The second, smaller canvas will be of one perfect open rose. The background will be mostly muddled greens and yellows, but with a couple of leaves and fallen petals, but lacking in detail, except for the central rose itself. That will be detailed. But nothing else. Right now there is a second rose in the background, but I think I will paint that out, it competes with the first rose and adds nothing to the composition.



Greenbottom and Lotus Painting as of March 3

  

Painting the misty colors and feel of Greenbottom in mid summer haze it a challenge. I don’t want it to look foggy. It was hazy but hot and wet. So humid just walking through the air left you wet.

I am finally beginning to get some of the color and feel I want. The background was still too vivid and bright. I did paint a thin glaze of red over the background hills, which is beginning to take them down a bit.

 

Most efforts to “gray” them out left them looking rather rainy and cold not at all what is needed here.

The smaller canvas of the lotus is beginning to look like the flower and leaf, with the leaf half under the water.

For such shallow water it was remarkably dark. Totally shaded by the immense field of lotus.

One More Night With Greenbottom

One more night painting on the large canvas of Greenbottom. While it is coming along very well, I think it is time to let it rest a while. It is getting to the point where further work will result in mud. So tomorrow I will not work on either canvas.

Greenbottom Painting at the beginning
of the painting session tonight

This is the painting as it was when I came down stairs to the dungeon tonight. I did not do a lot to it. While the small touches I was adding made sense, I kept working on it, but once I starting looking to things to do and add I knew it was time to let it rest a while.

Should I make it more detailed/realistic or leave it more of an impressionist painting?



Lotus, beginning tonight



Lotus, end of evening



And for the blooming lotus, that too I will let rest. The lotus does need to be brightened, but that can wait. The paint needs to set up a bit more before I can get that glow of the original flower.

The pen and ink drawing can use some more development. I am torn between leaving it simple outlines and working texture into the background. The idea of adding a bit of color ink is inviting too.



Greenbottom, as it stands now.



I want to do at least 2 more drawings and perhaps another painting. Maybe of a lotus that has bloomed and is pushing up the seed cone.

But whatever I decide to do with these paintings, they do need a bit of a rest right now. Tomorrow is class day. I will have classes late, so I will not have time to work on them anyways.

Maybe a few days rest will give my eyes a refresh look at these paintings.

Working on the Greenbottom Project

(Note: Sunday, February 26, 2012)

Watched the academy awards tonight. Did my exercises, all 30 minutes of them. Washed a load of towels and folded did not spindle or mutilate laundry.

Then got out the paint and brushes. Worked for 2 hours trying to get the shades and feelings right on both the detail painting of the water lotus and the larger overview of Greenbottom.

A bit frustrating, but over all, I think it is starting to straighten up.

Speaking of straightening up, I have to adjust my lines of lotus to straighten them up. Water is flat, and they float on the top, At least the bottom edges of each group needs to be fairly level.

Then I will start on bringing on the background, the higher ground in this case. The small rise with the live trees on it, and then add a couple of drowned trees to the mid ground among the lotus plants. I have thought about adding a few birds in the sky, but all in all it sounds a bit hokey.

One of the tools I am loving is a scrapper I got at my fall workshop. Makes correcting mistakes so much easier. No more wiping with paper towels, now the paint lifts off pretty cleanly. It does help that in glazing the paint on the previous layer is fairly well set up. Still, it is nice to be able to correct so quickly and cleanly.

It is so exciting to be making progress on this. The first pen and ink drawing is coming along. Not anywhere finished, but I think shaping up into something that might work.

Updates On The Greenbottom Work

I know I promised you lots of updates on the Greenbottom/ West Virginia wetlands series I want to do, but the work has been going slowly. Yes, oils take a longer time to set up between sessions, but I have also been doing a lot of procrastinations.

Finding time has been a problem, or rather the energy when I have time. Finally, this week I broke down and saw the doctor (now I really am broke! Boy was it expensive!) She gave me some new meds to reduce the inflammation and reduce pain. Now, this is strong stuff, and she made it clear I am not staying on it.

But boy, what a difference a day makes! I had not realized how much strength was being sapped by pain until I realized last night, after 3 hours of catching up on laundry, sorting through and putting away bags of books and art supplies, etc that I still felt like painting a bit.

Although I only worked for a little over and hour, I worked. Progress on both paintings, laid out two more pieces I will be doing in pen and ink and sorted through references for a couple of pencil drawings. There is a lot of work to do, but it no longer seems impossible.

On my Easel February 20, 2012

Worked on the underpainting on the 36x48 inch canvas. I finally got some balance in the layers of color. Dark enough, but not too dark, light enough, but not too light and a wide range of values that will serve to strengthen the overall drama of the landscape.

It was hard to paint over my earlier sketches, completely abandoning the ideas there. It had been a lot of work, but I still think it is the right choice. The earlier sketches were simply more of the same, close-up details of the lotus “field” in various stages of bloom. Now the large canvas is going to be a larger scale landscape of the wetlands of Greenbottom Wildlife Management Area.

Greenbottom Wildlife Management Area

Meanwhile, I have continued on the square canvas, the close detail of a lotus about half way to bloom. I am a little happier with the composition now. Still not perfect. But the lotus is larger, and better shaped. The colors are better also. It is developing. It still leans a bit. But it will be balanced later in the painting.  

I do think I will do several smaller canvases, each of a different stage of bloom of these flowers. Make a series and support to the larger landscape.

When I do the larger painting, I will be putting in a lot of blooming lotus, of course, and I will choose some of the areas in the larger painting to bring out in the smaller canvases.

On My Easel February 18, 2012

I started a couple of paintings. This is normal for me; I seldom work on a single painting, but several. This makes sense, as I tend to work small. Up to now, the largest painting I have done is 16” x 20”. More often I work really small, like 2.5” x 3.5”. But I have this really large canvas. 16” x 48” and I have several 12” x 12” square canvases.

Over the summer Hubby and I went to Greenbottom, a nature preserve along the Ohio River. There the water lotuses were in bloom and I have wanted to do a painting or two of them. The 12 x 12 will be a close up of one of them almost open, with the light coming through.

Sketching it out, the underpainting seemed to go well. The lotus is slightly off center, etc. But the next morning, I was unhappy with it. The water lotus is leaning and I think much too small. Also, the purple/blue combinations I used did not really please me. The water is much deeper blue and the leaves more Thallo green than viridian. But that is what underpaintings are for, to see if you got it right.

I was going to do the larger canvas in an expanded vision of the square canvas. I had it underpainted. I did a detailed drawing, sketched in out on the large canvas but there it sat, I could not make myself start it.

Even after I started the square canvas the large one just sat on the easel. Finally, I decided deep down I did not want to do it. All that minute detail! What was the point, a larger version of what I usually do? What I had set up was in reality simply a very large still life. What’s the point? Deep down I did not want to do this painting, and it was stalling me from doing any painting.

This big canvas calls for large strokes, a bigger vision. So I painted over the first layout, with broad firm strokes of a hazy sky reflected in still waters. This went so quickly I new it was right!

Workshop Day One

Monday Morning.

This morning the fog was gone, mostly, so bright and early I traveled down to Cheap Joe’s for the first day of my workshop. It was interesting to see who all came. There are 12 people in the workshop, all women! There was one man signed up, but never showed. Outnumbered?

Jane Jones is the woman who is leading it. She is a floral artist who specializes in realism and glazing techniques. I for one felt uncertain about this workshop. Even though this is something I have always wanted to learn more about, I am totally inexperienced with this, and unsure of myself.  Jane's Website

Jane runs a tight ship. She knows what she wants to teach, and have enough experience to know what to focus on and what shortcuts she needs to take to get things done in the short time we have.

The major problem we need to overcome is the slow drying time of oils. To deal with this we used a drying agent, and lamps to speed curing of the paint.

We did start by toning the work surface. Basically we took the white off (something I am used to) with a thin coating of burnt sienna on two small supports and payne’s gray. Then while those were drying up, we traced the basic layouts for 3 works.

One interesting thing, during the opening orientation, we had to read a copyright statement and sign an agreement not to use the images given out in this workshop to make money, or use the work for shows. It was simple, straightforward and she was right. Also, no photos, so no photos of the workshop itself.

There could be no misunderstanding; she explained it simply and completely.

There was minor confusion about the lamps we were to bring. They are to help cure the paintings, to speed things up, but most new lamps do not take the needed 100 watt bulbs. I ended up buying a trouble lamp at the hardware store. A few people have older lamps or did find some on the internet. So between us and the staff of Cheap Joe’s we came up with enough lamps to speed the setting up of all supports.

We actually started the underpainting of one of the works in the afternoon. We painted until 5:30. when we left, I think we all were tired!

Buying Produce

Went shopping today. Bought bread, cheese and produce.

Produce seduces me. I hear its siren call. The shapes and colors screams – ME - ME - ME, BUY ME!!!!!
I find peppers a joy. They entice me with their colors and shapes. Large, small round and crooked. Purples so dark as to be almost black, yellows to rival the sun add in tomatoes and you have the making sof a great salsa or a wicked still life.

You see—I am an artist. Everything I see suggests a painting or some other work of art.

This week I succumbed to squash. Heavy bodied winter squash. Butternut, acorn, spaghetti and turban. The hard shelled winter squash come in such a range of shapes. Have you really looked at a Hubbard? I just love the warts! And don’t get me started on gourds. I look for the perfect size for my small family, but also for its looks. Even though they lack the bright colors of summer fruit, their shapes do make up for it. Add a pumpkin and you have it made!

At home, they get stacked on the counter. I can’t simply let them be. Before they are eaten they must be painted.

Still LIfe with Bear

What about you? Every been reluctant to use something up before you could get it down on paper?

Workshop 2010 part 1

What I learned

Underpainting

While I have always underpainted I gained a better knowledge of some of the things you can do through the underpainting. It is here that you can establish tone, value and composition. So the Underpainting can be a very important part of the painting. Using it to serve your creative idea can make your painting. Rush through it, and the painting becomes much more difficult to execute.




Layers

First layers after support gesso (white). This is important. If you paint with oils directly on the fabric/surface, the oils will eventually damage the support.

The next layer of base color is applied simply to take the white off. There are a few options for this and they are mostly interchangeable. These options are:

· Colored gesso
· Mat acrylic
· Gouache

All of these are inert as far as oils are concerned, and you can use what suits you. I knew you could underpaint with acrylics, but did not realize there were differences between products. Many art acrylics are high gloss, and there can be some problem with adhesion with the really high gloss brands. This is especially true if you are using thin, medium rich glazing layers. Mat gloss acrylics work better for Underpainting, as they provide a better surface for future layers of oil paint. These can use used under both traditional oils and the newer water-sellable oils. New to me is the idea that you can use gouache successfully under oils. Gouache and watercolor has been used for centuries for underpainting it seems. It was at one time routine to sketch with watercolor as a preliminary step in painting. They may be why these mediums are still seen as lesser mediums to oils.

The first layer, or overall tone simply tones or tints the support, “taking the white off”. This is a matter of personal choice, but most artists find that tinting does help to hold the composition together tonally. Many feel that if small areas of the canvas should “peek” through, the undercolor is a better choice than flecks of the white canvas. Several of the paintings this week really showed how using a strong color underneath can help to unify a painting. A few flecks of a similar color/shade throughout a painting goes a long way in making all the color choices unit. And you do not need to worry about coverage, simply establish your painting and go.

New to me was the use of India ink to sketch out the painting, drawing with ink onto the established ground. Following the simple line drawing was working in a tonal value of the painting with ink washes. Here again, you can choose to allow some of this to show through to the final painting. This leaves this choice viable throughout the painting. Even if you choose to cover this layer completely, it does help to establish the lights and darks. When the tonal washes are done, you can stand back and see just how well your painting hangs together, or if major or minor changes need to be made, before a lot of work and effort with layers of paint have gone into the work. I have found this to be a real help in the early stages of a painting.

After you do the value study of the painting there is more you can do for your painting. A complementary study in either mat acrylic or gouache can add more interest and depth of color. Any of this layer that shows through makes the oil paint more vivid. Where subtle shading is necessary for any part of a painting, establishing an underpainting in a solid mid-tone helps to hold the object together through all the lights and darks.
In summary, why underpaint? Underpainting helps you establish tone, light or dark, warm or cool and provide harmony over the entire canvas. Also if small areas of the canvas get a lighter coverage in paint and some of it shows through, it is generally more pleasing to have a neutral color or even a more exciting color that can hold the painting together rather than some random white dots.

Workshop - Day 3

Workshop Day 3

What a difference a day makes! After just 2 days, it seems as is I had known the artists around me for a month!

Today we had a demonstration of knife work, again by building fairly thin layers. You tend to think of paintings done with a knife as being rather heavy handed, but Sean demonstrated that while it is a very textural method, it is possible to control it. With the use of a drying medium, he will be ready for the second layer tomorrow, which is astonishing.

I started two new paintings, so I could keep working while the others are setting up. I had a small 4 x 12 inch canvas that I brought along on impulse. The other one is 16 x 20, and it will be my knife painting.

I am getting into using India ink to sketch out my paintings. The narrow canvas is now going to be an abstract waterfall. I had put modeling past on it with a painting knife, and let that dry, then used 3 different colors of acrylic to simply take the white off. I don’t know why I used all three, except that I had done the underpainting for the other 2 I laid out yesterday, and simply had it. With the texture and colors I decided to use not the usually colors, but the basic components of the colors. So that one will be abstract, and the last, large canvas is going to be water lotus. I think that will lend itself to the texture inherent in a knife painting.

I am using galkyd lite for a drying medium and to thin the paint along with gimsol as a thinner and solvent. These are two new products for me. I really like the galkyd lite. It does thin the paint, and makes it dry quickly with little dulling. So I really like that product. I can see the advantages of the gimsol as a solvent. It also helps the painting go on smoothly and dry quickly. Both products are by Gambling. The class this week also covers water-soluble paints, so the equivalent drying medium is Max Quickdry. While I have been introduced to some fantastic paintbrushes, they are simply out of my price range. I cannot at this time pay $22.95 for a single brush. I am sure they are worth it, but not on my budget.

Painting the Falls Green

Finding just the right reference photos is not always easy. Sometimes the perfect reference photo is a combination of many photos.

For the upcoming Spring Fine Arts Exhibition, I wanted to do one painting with a waterfall. Now, I have take more than one photo of a waterfall. Actually, I have boxes of photos, many of which contain waterfalls. But I wanted something with a little human interest. Something that would help put the viewer into the painting.

I printed out a selection of photos I took in Greenville, SC at Falls Park on a lovely late spring day in May.

I laid out the photos, but did not fine one that had it all. So taking a sheet of tracing paper, I selected elements from several photos to see how they would work together.

Combining what I liked from several photos gave me the composition I thought would work. So I sketched it out on a prepared canvas.

Those of you who have seen my works in progress before know that I am allergic to painting on white canvas! This canvas is toned with yellow ochre, which will give it the lighters, sunnier feeling this day deserves.

Standing back. I decided on a few adjustments in the banks and rocks, then with thinned paint blocked in the main shapes for this painting.