HCAA paintout

Noblesville



It has been close to a month since I've posted on here. It has been much longer since I have had a plan of what I'm doing with the blog. That is something I need to think about more and is better left to another post.
The painting above won 1st place today at the HCAA paint out in Noblesville. I painted with Jerry Smith and Mary Anne Davis in some nasty weather. The thing that I think a lot of people would benefit from by going to the plein air events is to find someone to paint with that you enjoy there work and listen and watch them. Plein air events are great because you are out there putting in the work and learning from your self as well. Basically question what and why you are doing things and give yourself something to think about while you are working. If you learn one thing while you are battling all the physicality of painting in an open environment you have done something useful with your brush time.
Some times I find myself painting out in the full sun, actually more than some times. When out in open I get to squinting a lot and it is really hard to see what you are doing with your edges, especially when the values start to get similar. Today I was thinking about how I get my camera to refocus when it is on auto setting. I aim it at something light in value, focus it and then take it back to whatever I'm wanting focused on and focus. Today after I had been squinting for a while I would look up at the clouds and look for colors other than white. Once I found them I would take a few steps back from the painting, look at the painting and the scene. Things would look a whole lot crisper. I'm not sure why it seemed to help but it is something for me to think about next time I go out. Anyway thanks you everyone who talked to me at the show. It's always good to know some body likes what I'm spending my time working on.

More under painting thoughts

More under painting thoughts

My last post was about painting outside Franklin. This past Wednesday I went back and got a lot of painting done. This painting was done in front of the farm house of the people that let me paint on their farm. I was looking past one of their fields at a farm on a parallel road. There was water standing in the closest field with mustard in the grass water sheds. With everything in the foreground along with the buildings beyond the fields, the scene is interesting to me.

One of the things I've been working on my pastels is the under painting. In this painting a lot of the under painting is showing through. What I'm trying to do with my plein air and field studies is use the minimum amount of pastel strokes to get the necessary information for the scene. In my studio paintings I'm doing my best to use the under painting as base to use intuition from. Since a lot of the decision making that is spontaneous is eliminated from working in a controlled environment, using the under painting in this manner is a welcome technique. I've also found that when laying down the darks in the under painting it is important to get the warm/cool shift in each shape as it comes forward/recedes. In the foreground of this painting, the field and water shed is warm red/green respectively and the red/green becomes more neutral and tapers off into a cooler version in each as it recedes to the next field. Keeping all this in line along with the higher values as things recede on that plane is a lot to think about. Throw in the fact it has to fit in with the next plane back and the next behind it, everything begins to become complicated quickly. Simplifying even more is the next big step. I think I do a decent job of it now but I still over think things and fudge decent ideas all the time. Perhaps next time that is what I will write about.

Out Driving

Out Driving

Today I had the best laid plans. I would drive to Franklin and paint down on the old square. After looking at the weather I started to have my doubts. It was supposed to start storming this afternoon and it was already an overcast day. When I arrived in Franklin there was a lot of people walking around down by the square which makes me not want to paint unless there are other people painting. It makes me feel like a spectacle when I'm the only painter. I just kept driving. I thought I would head down to Edinburg and paint with Rick Wilson but he was busy working so I headed home. On the way back I saw a side road that looked wide enough for me to pull off of so I took a left and went down it. About a mile off the main road I came across this scene. It was a trail back to a field that is probably going to be disked up within the week. While I was painting the owners of the land came up and thankfully didn't run me off. After finishing this painting I got another one in and talked to them before I left.  They were nice people and said I could come back and paint again so hopefully this is the start of a good little series of paintings from this farm. There is a nice stand of trees that acts as framing for a ton of paintings up on top of a hill to the left of this scene.

In the painting above I used a watercolor under painting on a handmade sanded paper panel. If the watercolor under painting has the values some what close the painting almost paints itself. Lately I've been working on letting as much of the under painting show through as possible and while the top half is almost covered, the bottom half of the painting has a lot showing through. I think getting better with value will allow me to stretch the under painting even further into the final work as time goes on.  Anyway its just a thought, tomorrow I will post the other painting.

First Brush of Spring

During this past week and weekend the First Brush of Spring happened in New Harmony Indiana. It was my first time at the event and I really enjoyed it. Artist were allowed to enter work that was done from Thursday morning up to Saturday morning into a contest Saturday afternoon. The winner of the show was an oil painting by Jeanne McLeish http://www.home.earthlink.net/~burkettmcleish/. The composition was killer and the color was amazing. I don't have a picture of it but hopefully she will have it up on her website soon. 

The whole experience was memorable. I had the chance to stay and paint with Larry Rudolech http://www.rudolech.com/ and also paint with Wyatt LeGrand http://www.legrandartstudio.com/.  I got meet two artist from arkansas, Jason Sacran http://jasonsacran.com/, and John Lasater http://home.centurytel.net/Lasater/home.html that I'd never seen before. They had some awesome work that I really enjoyed looking at. Those are just a few of the amazing artist there. Check out Indiana plein air painters website http://www.inpainters.org/ for some of the other artist there and perhaps photos from the show soon.

Anyway the painting above was done from the Indiana shore looking across to Illinois. The sun was going down and the scene had to be painted. The composition and color were something I couldn't have thought up better myself with all the time in the world. I had this piece and a few others stamped for next years field to finish. This will most likely be the entry for that show.

Paint while you can

This is a little 4x6 painting I did off of my back porch. It was a little over a week ago. Now all the leaves are gone and it looks completely different. Painting whenever you have the chance is the only way to get something down unless you want to wait a full year for it again. Sure you have a month or so, but if you are doing your best to get out and paint all over the place its hard to get back to a certain spot at the right time of day to paint something you could have before. My new practice is to stop myself and do these little small paintings if nothing else just to capture what I'm seeing. This only took 20 minutes and every time I look at that tree I think I know it better than ever before. Paint often, paint quickly.

Crossing mediums

 A few weeks ago I had cut a piece of wallis paper into some standard dimensions. When I was done there was a strip 2"x12" left. I cut that piece into 6 small squares. At the time I was working in oils and was toning canvas panels. When I was done with the panels I laid the little squares out next to them. I've heard of people painting with oil paints on the paper, so I figured toning it wouldn't hurt it. Today I got these little squares out and did a bunch of little drawings and then did the value studies that I've mentioned before. It is hard to see here because I took the photos while the paint thinner was still wet, but there is a lot of color shining through the pastel value study laid down over it. While I haven't finished these little paintings yet I think it looks very neat so far and would keep me from having to cover almost every inch of the painting with soft pastel. I'm going to experiment with this further when I get my new wallis paper.

Next week hopeful

This is one of the four paintings from yesterday finished. This is my second favorite of the group of four but the most photogenic of them. This next weekend I hope that they are all in Richmond finding new homes. It is always hard to tell but I think they are of good enough quality to be in the sale. If you are in the Richmond area go check it out and hopefully my paintings will be there. This one was a lot of fun to paint because of all the highly saturated pigment. The blues, purples, greens and oranges all pop and it seems to work well together.

Today's exercise

These value scale under paintings are all 5"x7" and took about 5 minutes each to finish. I started by drawing quick thumbnails of all the photos in my current potential paintings folder. After 15 minutes and 30 drawings later I chose these 4 (because I only have 4 pieces of paper left) to paint. I circled my favorite four and then transfered them with slight adjustments to sanded paper. I then got a dark purple hard pastel and filled in the dark and mid values and used paint thinner to push around the pigment for a painterly effect. Im getting to the point where drawing these thumbnails is almost art in itself and it doesn't seem like work. It is easy to see now how some painters of old became so immersed in their art that it consumed them completely.

A windy day

Today was a plein air day that kept me on my toes the entire time. I painted with Pam Newell this morning and then tried to paint on my own this afternoon. It started out nice with some sun and a few clouds but then the wind came bringing the rain with it. This is the first painting from the morning. It's 10"x20" which is on the large side for my pastels. This painting took a little over an hour to complete once I had set up and gotten everything going. Working larger and quicker is loosening up my style and hopefully putting me in a place I'm comfortable with style-wise. This painting felt a lot like a painting I did in Brookville that I liked a lot. I'm going to let this one set for a bit to see how I like it later.

Tonight after everyone else had gone to bed I began framing. Now I'm the proud owner of 4 completely finished paintings. The two oils that I framed are two of my favorite paintings that I've done so far. I think it is a good thing that my newest paintings are typically my favorites. It keeps me from getting attached to them and makes it much easier to let them go after framing new ones. The next item on the list for tonight is to write up an autobiography and resume to send off to some people that just became owners of my work. That is the kind of leg work that I'm thrilled to have.

Tacit Knowledge

This past weekend I was at my first workshop and it was awesome. Wyatt Legrand was at Waycross and I was there. The workshop was in oil but the painting at top is a pastel. I think I learned a lot but it is hard to put in words hence the title. The workshop wasn't structured as a formal course normally is. It was at your own pace and was tailored towards the individuals. This fit me great and worked out very well. It is hard for me to put into words what I learned but if I was to try I would talk about colors, confidence and quickness. The confidence thing was mainly directed at painting larger and quicker. For anyone wanting to take an oil workshop in Indiana I would say jump at a Wyatt LeGrand workshop for all the reasons I stated above and watch him paint. It doesn't matter who the person is, if you watch them paint you are going to learn something. Hand movement is a big thing to watch when you are there at a demo. I'm not sure what other people are looking at or listening to but always watch the instructors hands. 

Anyway the painting above is what I did in 20 minutes tonight. This is the first time I have picked up pastel in two weeks. It felt good getting things going with the medium. After spending time away from pastel it makes me see it in a slightly different light.

To top of a good weekend

This weekend there was a family get together at my parents house. Also at this time they are harvesting corn so I wanted to get some paintings of that process. On Friday night we arrived around 8 so the sun had already gone down. That made getting a painting of combining or loading out of the question. Thankfully the grain bins that they unload at are lit up well. I started painting one of the trucks unloading but didn't get it finished before they took off. It was already late and that was the last load of the night. So I had to choose some other stuff in the barnyard to paint. After a couple of hours I had two really good paintings that I really enjoy. Those are my first night time oil paintings and it was a lot of fun. It did get down right cold that night. At 1:30 I decided to call it quits when my feet were numb. By that time a good layer of frost had accumulated on all my stuff which made it hard to get everything in the car. My hands were deep red and I thought it was because of the paint but it was the cold. Touching that metal tripod with that frost on it hurt. Surprisingly working in solitude when its dark and having loud ambient noise from the grain bin driers put me in a meditative trance. Hours flew by and it felt like minutes. There was hardly any thinking and all decisions seemed to be innate reactions. It was exciting as the first time I painted in plein air and easily as addictive if not more so. Night painting is a new muse and many more paintings will be up soon.

Today on the way home my family swung by brown county to take in the fall colors before they fully disappeared. Sadly the leafs have all but gone from all but the last trees that shed late. There is also a show running in the brown county art gallery that I had put two paintings in. Usually you receive an email letting you know some kind of information about the show but I am still yet to receive anything. So we swung by the gallery and had a look. I took home best of show and that is the photo at top. I'm very excited about getting that award. There are a lot of great paintings in that building and to win anything there is awesome. Weirdly enough the painting that won was not the one that I personally like the best of the two. Thank goodness I didn't just take the one I liked or I might not have won anything. After thinking about the couple of shows I have won in, the painting that won has never been my personal favorite. I'm beginning to think I have an odd taste in art. I'm not sure if that should be taken into consideration when entering shows or if I should continue to put in my own favorites. It is something to think about but staying true to what I see as the best is most likely the path I will take.

Busy Day

Today was a productive day for me. I got to paint in plein air today and then a figure session tonight. Got a total of 7 paintings between the two. Unfortunately I didn't have time to get any of them on here so I am posting a painting that was completed at the Brookville paint out. This was done at the white water canoe rental place as soon as you get into town. There was a large group painting that morning and it was a lot of fun. With a little planning tomorrow I should be back on track.

Finishing in studio

A while back I posted the top painting after a weekend in crawfordsville. I liked the painting a lot but it still had problems that were unresolved. It has been sitting in my studio for a while now and every day I look at it figuring out what it was that needed to be changed to make it better. The same thing happens to most of my plein air paintings. Rarely have I signed anything while out in the field. Today I didn't feel like taking on a new painting so I got a few down off the shelves and went to work on them. The lower left corner of the painting seemed weak and  not finished to me. A few marks were taken away and a few added. Nothing major was changed. The painting was however photographed outside in natural light and that made a huge difference in color. The dingy yellow light cast from the bulbs doesn't do the pastel pigment justice.

Anyway I have been down and out since Sunday so that's why I haven't been on here. I feel much better now and will resume posting

Quick Post

Tonight I'm busy getting ready for another show and an adventure tomorrow. The other paintings of the dunes haven't been photographed yet and this was one of the small studies that I have ready. This is a little 6x6 of the canal downtown. At the north end of the canal are two areas where the canal forms circle points. This is of the first one. Along the edge of the circle are neat water features that radiate out and pour water into the canal. Things like this always catch my eye because of my background in landscape architecture. Anyway I hope to be a little less busy tomorrow night but if not that will be a good thing.

Painting from sketches of the dunes

This is the first painting based on a group of sketches I did up at the dunes. This is a square 8"x8" painting from Mt. Baldy. The day I was there a heavy fog covered the entire lake front. In the distance was a factory that I'm not sure can be made out in this small thumbnail, but it I like how it reads in person. The values really matched up with my value studies and that is typically a good thing. This set the bar high for the rest in the set so hopefully these last couple keep up. This painting along with another will be in a show down in brown county coming up soon.

Still Life Madness

This is the last still life I will show before moving on to some of the dunes paintings. I've been doing my best to paint the gesture of shapes instead of drawing the objects that I see. So far I think this is the best attempt. I like how the values turned out which almost always leads me to liking a painting. This one was also an experiment with using color reflection on everything and trying to get a good amount of bouncing of the light. This was a lot of fun to paint and with practice I think more still lifes will take on this quality.

And on a side note I just got back from the Richmond art exhibit open juried walkthrough. I am joyed to say that one of my paintings made it in. This was my first juried walkthrough and  my stomach was tied in knots through out the entire process. I had put an oil and pastel in. The oil sadly didn't make it but there were a ton of better paintings that didn't make it in. The biggest suprise though was the pastels. I couldn't come to grip with how many awesome pastels there were. My stomach filled with butterflies when I walked into the gallery. I wanted to turn around and go home but ended up staying and am happy that I did. It was wonderful seeing so much great work and while I didn't agree with all the judges choices he did get a good diverse field. He did throw out a lot of great landscapes because that field was dense in amazing work. He through out a piece that I thought was best of show but then again im not the judge. It was an oil and if it ever turns up I want it. The show opens Nov 3rd for anyone interested.

Color telling story

This piece is titled 'Regal Rooster and minion'. The lighting in my studio is far from great but occasionally when I see an item placed in here taken directly from good lighting, it looks alien. This little green clay pot looks absolutely beautiful when sitting alone in any other room. When it is under this light it looks so strange, and when placed around a large amount of purple it is a completely different pot. When the pot is set up next to the white porcelain rooster and cigar box on a purple cloth it stood out in the composition but my mind makes it play second fiddle to the rooster. The large complex shape of the rooster along with the perceived whiteness sitting next to the simple and deep colored shape of the pot told me a story. The rooster gets the attention but the pot is what holds everything together, its the anchor. One of the reasons I love these still lives is your mind can turn off and just stare for a bit or it can turn on your imagination and make up its own stories. There are also other stories for this painting that my mind sees when I look at it sitting in the corner. The rake and its jilted lover is one story I see with the wandering hero and his green sidekick as another. I think the cool colors along with the perceived warmness of the rooster keep bringing my mind back to the original title. The rooster is cool and dark where the light doesn't shine, and the pot shows even more of its dark side. Anyway I hope that next time you have a few minutes to stare at a still life you let it take you somewhere other than the obvious.

What I've been up to

For the past two weeks I have been painting a lot in my studio. During the summer most of my time painting was out in the field but with the changing of the weather and a new appreciation of still life that has changed. Since taking an oil class with Pam Newell (http://pnewellart.com/) I've been fascinated with setting up still lives and painting them in pastel and oil. Soon I should be motivated enough to pick back up watercolor as well. The painting above is called 'lean on me honey'. It's a lot of fun to set these still lives up and give them a story. I was struggling to get a configuration that I liked so I went into the kitchen and started making some tea so I could procrastinate longer. The idea hit me and I brought everything back into the studio with me. Its refreshing getting to see the actual object I'm painting in the same way you get to step into the landscape when painting in plein air. It is something that a photograph can't describe. Anyway I've been working on these and from little field sketches from the dunes.

Productive weekend

 At the end of last week and through the weekend I spent a lot of time painting. After saying I would post up further steps to my process I went absent for some time but it was well spent. This weekend I spent in crawfordsville and driving to and from there. I found amazing places to paint with wonderful lighting. I ran into Jeff Clinker my first morning there and got to see one of his paintings in an early stage. There were also other painters that I truly admire because of there work and work ethics that I got to meet.  Jerry Smith, Jeanne McLeish, and Mark Burkett let me tag along with them one morning and it was wonderful. I even got to watch over Jerry Smith's shoulder while he painted. It was better than a workshop. I got to watch as he painted on site, and Jeanne and Mark gave me some advice and material to look at and read.  It was a weekend that is at the top of my painting journey so far. Also if you ever get the chance to check out Jerry Smith's gallery and studio jump on the chance. I've never seen anything so industrious in the art world. It was productivity in its most beautiful form. That is what I want to imitate and with time it will be a reality. I hope these three paintings make up for my absence. More should be flowing daily after this barely slept weekend.

More examples of my process

 It has been a while since I last posted about my process. Today I decided to reiterate on the last step. This is a still life that I set up and had done some thumbnails for. I liked the square format for this painting. Like last time I sketched out shapes first and then laid down a dark purple hard pastel for the value under painting. The values ended up being close to where I would like them to be besides the old jar. The next step is doing a color study while waiting for the under painting to dry. If all goes well that will be up tomorrow.