I sanded down a 60 x 60 painting that just wasn't talking to me. It was dark, without being sufficiently evocative. First I sanded it down, then put a sepia glaze over he work, so it wouldn't distract, and turned the painting upside down. I went the other way...with this one...light and airy. This is just the first undercoat...I've blocked in the land mass and started on a more finished rendering of the clouds. This is from a photo I took outside of Pueblo, Colorado last year. It was a horrible plein air day...nothing to show for it...but a good photo day. It simply was too hot, with no shade. The mountains in the distance were deceptively green for a day when it was over 90 degrees...and felt quite humid. Ugh. Much better to paint this in my studio on a day when it will top out at 50 degrees. Spring feels like it is coming, but the weather report says more cold to come next week! Well, that will give me lots of time to work on this..think it will take a lot of time, too.
I am always debating whether or not to enter shows...it is not just the potential rejection I ponder, but the darn $'s to enter. But biting the bullet this year, I have entered several. And wow...it has been great. First, the Yosemite Renaissance show. Just came back from that and my painting "Last Light" won Honorable Mention. (I was actually just pleased it got in!). Then My painting, Catching the Light, got into the Arts for the Parks show to be in Mendocino later this year. Finally today, I came down from the studio to find mail informing me that my painting of the Portland Rail Yards had been accepted into the Coos Museum Show. In my former life, as an organization development manager and executive coach, I always stressed that a lot of success was just showing up and working hard...well, I might have been on to something! So I am working very hard. My newest effort is finishing Easy Breasy....now I am toiling away on a 60 x 60!
I started this little piece about a month ago...it is really the way the light was in front of our place. However, it seemed a bit garish to me. When I went back to the photo, I realized that it was really quite brilliant/color infused, so I went ahead and finished it. My main goal was to use as few brush strokes as possible...the cliffs are just dabs...and have them read as shapes from a distance. This is only a 6x8 painting...the type I generally start in the field.
I submitted a painting to Art In The Parks Mendocino a few weeks ago. While I worked hard on the piece, I had not been to the site in months, so I had to work from a preliminary sketch and some photos. I am a desert painter, not an ocean painter, so I was expecting a rejection notice....and low and behold, the painting got in. I am delighted. I have set a goal to apply to many shows this year, as I think it helps me hone my skills. (And it helps me deal with rejection!) What a nice surprise this was.
(See two prior posts). This incomplete painting was painted while I was "gallery sitting" at our gallery, Tumalo in Bend. (if you are ever in Bend, do come by.)
Well, it is a very long day (10:00AM to 7:00 PM). Around one or two o'clock I pulled out my easel, paints, etc. I had decided to work on a larger piece (this is 16 x 20) from a sketch I did last summer and reference photos.
An hour or so later a couple came in. The woman seemed very interested in looking at art...the man a little bored. He approached me as I was painting and asked if I was going to put in any people. I said that I hadn't intended to as this was all about quiet, distant places where one can be alone. He continued that as an artist, I could take liberties, and that paintings with people in them were more interesting. I acknowledged that some landscapes are greatly improved by just the hint of a person (recalling some great beach scenes with dots that resolve themselves into distant people) and that many landscapes are really about people,just not this one. He was a persistent little bugger, and suggested that I should be more creative. I refrained from saying, "If you buy this work instead of kibitzing, I will put in a damn human."
His wife (or girlfriend, or hopefully person on first date who will never go out with him again) was rolling her eyes the whole time.
The painting is far from finished...it is really just the initial blocking in of shapes and values, but I don't foresee any folks in it!
This painting too had some areas needing resolution (see prior blog about our critique group)...again the painters nailed it...needed to break up some lines, tone down some blue in the sand in foreground, etc. Went home, and followed their advice,and another painting put to rest!
I do not know what I would do without my artist critique group. Even after studying a painting for several days, I am often left with a feeling that something is off, but I am not sure what. Bingo, the group nails it. I go back to the studio, make the corrections and finally feel the painting is complete. That happened to this painting of a thunderhead growing over the Diamond Valley in South East Oregon. I forgot to "mass and simplify." When Vicki, Tracy and the others recommended that the clouds be a bit less scattered it was an "ah ha" moment. Artist friends are the best!
Plein Air Painters of Oregon has a winter challenge contest. We were given 3 black and white photos and left to interpret them ourselves. Actually, as a past board member I was the one to submit the photos. But I dutifully did this painting from black and white (not even sure I could fine the color photo in my photo reference, had I wanted to cheat)...and it was a lot of fun. The problem with painting from a color photo is that the photo is often off, and the painter subconsciously tries to replicate the mistakes of the photo resulting in an off painting. I suspect the original had green grass, but I really wanted to capture a late autumn day (bare foliage, warm colors just before the winter cold).
This scene of Summer Lake (an hour or so east of Bend, Oregon) is from late summer. You can see the fog rising from the receding landlocked lake in the upper left corner. The land in the foreground was once under water. These lakes grow and diminish based solely on rainfall.
They are called "dead" lakes, but I find them alive with beauty.
OK, I am a photo ditz...my friend Katherine has helped me, but there is only so much she can do with the raw material (me). I finally got around to photographing some paintings I did last year. They were little plein air pieces..needed a little final studio works, (hilights) and then photographing. I suppose I would do better if I wasn't impatient with the set up, but I WANT TO PAINT, not photogrpah. This was painted adjacent to the John Day River, at a spot where I have painted before. I love the fact that I only have to schlep the pochade box aobut 50 feet to get to the river.
