Recent thoughts

 The past couple of days during my free time I've had my thoughts drifting in the same direction so I focused my attention on them. Typically if I can't stop thinking about something it makes me curious as to why I'm thinking about it in the first place. The first thing that has been on my mind is still lifes. With fall here and winter steadily approaching the days of going out into the field and painting in plein air will be falling in number before to long. When I think about why painting in plein air is so attractive to me it made me realize that painting still life is much closer to plein air painting that I previously had thought. When you're painting in plein air you are reacting to real objects and getting a first hand look at natural nuances that easily go unnoticed unless you immerse yourself in the experience.With still life you are not feeling some of the more direct natural elements like weather and sunlight but you are seeing and reacting to a real object and the colors and form. Compared to working from photos or field studies you are truly reacting from the subject and not the illusion from a flat object portraying it. That doesn't mean that working from those references is wrong or bad in any way, in fact if you are trying to get photo-realistic results it is the way to go. However, that's not the results I'm looking for. I personally think working from life compared to flat references has helped me learn at a quicker pace and its more enjoyable. Unless the conditions are absolutely miserable there are few places I would rather be. So that's why I've been thinking about still lifes. The other subject that has taken my thoughts hostage is color studies and for good reason.

The other day when I went and painted in plein air, I did a few color studies for one of the paintings and none for another. The painting that had color studies turned out much better than the one without. This may not always be the case but I've decided to see for myself. I began to look at my painting process and realized that this would add another step. While I'm not against adding steps to a process but if you do it better take time off of the total endeavour or make the finished product better. Painting is fun, but when constantly doing it be practical and look at it like any other work. I constantly look for ways to streamline my process and get better results (it would be a lot harder to do this if your work is at a high level already, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try). Today while working on some still lifes I initially planned out some contour and value studies of the subject and then put it on the paper and did an under painting. While I was waiting for the two under paintings to dry, I began to realize that I had a few minutes of down time and typically it is filled with watching paint dry. While watching paint dry isn't always entertaining you can learn a few lessons about your paints and mediums. Those lessons do tend to get old after you see them enough times. So today, like this past plein air excursion, I did a few contour thumbnails and then took hard pastels and filled in the shapes. I did the typical local color study and then another with slightly different colors. I only did two today but your imagination is the limit on color combinations. These little studies only took me a few minutes like the studies from the other day. If all goes well this will cut down on the time needed to process concepts like color theory and refraction and reflection of light.(no refraction here but in landscapes with water that you can see through to the bottom and also see the reflection on top of it can get complicated and difficult to communicate if not planned out) Anyway I will probably be talking more about these subjects until I've had my fill and my brain stops bringing them up.