All Things Fine Art

"Fall Harvest", 16x20" oil on linen, $875.

On Saturday, April 1, 2017 my annual Buffet Brunch and Demonstration was held in my home and working studio. My good friend and artist, Carmen Dykema, volunteered to be my hostess. Photo credits of the demonstration below also go to Carmen and fellow artist, Gail Bohner. Guests had a great time renewing friendships and meeting new artists from across mid-Michigan while enjoying a tasty meal.

MENU

Smoked Alaskan Sockeye Salmon

Four types of Quiche

Fruit plate

Bagels and Coffee Cake

Yogurt, capers, tart cherry preserves and cream cheese

Coffee, tea and bottled water

THE DEMONSTRATION

The theme for this year’s demonstration was Ma, the Japanese term for space as it refers to pauses or intervals between “things”. I emphasized this concept of irregular placed spaces between shapes from left to right, as well as, in creating the illusion of extensive depth on the land and in the sky from front to back. In another life-time, my training as a former ballet dancer taught me the significance of quiet pauses and transitions in creating the stage for the important passages. Without these quiet moments, a performance would appear choppy and exhausting in its extreme. This applies to painting, music and, in fact, all of the arts. Ever gone to an action movie that is almost all action and no quiet moments? If you have then you know exactly what I mean.

The following series of images will show you the step-by-step approach I took from laying in the large shapes (beginning with shadows) to refining. Unfortunately, time constraints did not allow me to complete the painting. By-in-large, most of the demonstration time was spent on the sky leaving the foreground land mass less finished. The final version of ­­“­­­­­­­­­­­­­Fall Harvest", completed later in the studio, is shown at the beginning of this post.

The references I worked from and the 16.20" Centurion XL linen support toned with Cobalt Violet. I chose this violet color

as it would visually vibrate with the blues and gold tones of the opaque light struck passages in the finished painting, helping to create color harmony.

My palette showing pre-mixed paint puddles for large shapes. These are modified as needed during the painting process.

The cloud and land block-in of cool neutral shadow and mid-tones with pigment thinned with Oil of Spike Lavender.

Stage two establishes the source of light, i.e.: the sky. By establishing it now, I am better able to judge the values of the light struck areas to be painted next.

This image shows the initial stages of blocking in the light struck areas with the darkest light on my palette. I will continue adding lighter versions as needed. I am careful not to paint the clouds to light or "white".

As I bring forward the lights in the clouds I also begin working the foreground landscape to make sure they are relating in value and with color harmony to each other. Throughout, in every stage of the painting process,  I focus on the spacing of negative and positive shapes both horizontally and vertically on the picture plane for pleasing visual pauses or transitions. Note that my brush work in both the sky and the land are still "rough". I will finesse the edges and do any necessary blending and detailing later as doing so at this stage would be detrimental to the overall success of the painting.

Once all the shapes and their relationships of value, color temperature and intensities, are broadly stated correctly, I select clean brushes and then and only then begin the process of more accurately defining each of the large shapes.  It is now, while the paint on the canvas is still wet that I begin to pay close attention to creating (or adjusting) appropriate edge treatments and blending only where needed. Normally, if my painting session is interrupted for any length of time, I scrape back all passages that still require further work leaving no ridges to contend with in the next painting session. They can easily be restated.

The demonstration comes to an end with a question and answer period. See below.

The final, finessed painting, is shown at the beginning of this blog post. Thank you for joining me. I hope this was of some help to you as you walk your creative path.

Students have a tendency to approach a subject by immediately shooting for the final effect and working with only one brush throughout the process instead of working from large simple shapes to small and with a variety of brushes.  In the images of "Roadside Garden" below, note the stages of the layering process from block-in to finessing definition at the end along with the brushes and mediums used to execute this painting.

THE BLOCK-IN 

For this small study, I used an 11x14" Centurien LX linen panel toned with Gamblin's Chromatic Black which, when wiped off, leaves a mauvy violet mid-tone.

In the image below, note the coolness of each hue and the very loose edges throughout the block-in during the first painting session. The entire purpose of this thin layering of paint is to establish the general relationship of shapes, sizes and proportions. Using a 1/2" craft brush, I blocked in the general value/color shapes of the subject. I do not think in terms of the "house", "flowers", "fence", etc....only their value, their shapes and establishing a pleasing proportion of each to the other. During the block-in, paint is thinned with Oil of Spike Lavender which has a low viscosity, much like mineral spirits but is not toxic.

The subject photograph and block-in on the 11x14" primed linen panel.

Craft brush from hardware store and Oil of Spike Lavender from Art Treehouse.

SESSION TWO

Allowing the thinned paint, loosely applied during the block-in to set-up over night, the second session begins with roughly defining  the foliage, fence and house railings with a Robert Simmons Egbert brush.  This brush helps to keep things loose. As the paint layer needs to be a bit more thicker and opaque while remaining juicy, I switch to Safflower oil for my medium which has more viscosity than Oil of Spike Lavender. This combination allows my paints to be thinned but not appear watery in nature as compared to the quality of paint in the block-in.  Note the difference between the background foliage (block-in) behind the fence and the foreground fence, foliage and house railings painted in Session Two, shown in the photo below. I am careful to allow some of the "history" of brush work and thin paint from the block-in to show at this stage to contrast the more opaquely applied second session paint. This sustains visual interest.

Working in my plein air approach to painting.

Gamblin's Safflower Oil and bottom to top, Robert Simmons Egbert and flat brushes. Rosemary & Co.  badger hair for blending.

SESSION THREE and FINAL FINESSE

Developing the subject continues in session three with more color variety with a bias to the warm side. My brushes now include all three styles as shown in the photograph above. Dark emphasis is added by contrasting the cool block-in darks with carefully placed warm dark darks only where needed for "pop". A richness of warm color and more image "pop" is now evident in juxtaposition to the washy look of the cooler block-in history still evident, especially in the background. Again, the purpose of allowing color and brush work history to show creates visual excitement for the eye.

"Roadside Garden", 11x14" oil on linen panel. $550.

Once all my color/value shapes  have been established,  I am then free to begin the finishing of the painting. In this case, adding in flowers placed to help create visual movement, adjusting the fence for light and shadow effects, creating and/or adjusting existing edges where needed and adding variations to larger shapes for texture. It does not take much at this stage to finish the painting. The danger in this last stage is over doing by adding too much "stuff" thereby losing brush history and substructure strength in the misguided pursuit of "detail". Leaving some areas with an unfinished look actually adds visual enjoyment for the viewer and heightens the importance of areas that have been defined.

In closing, I want to say that the subject for "Roadside Garden", painted  in the studio from a photograph, is of a fence line on Bogan Lane on Mackinac Island, Michigan. I have painted this small street garden many times over the years, both en plein air and in the studio. This study was painted in the way that I would approach a plein air painting. My studio process does not vary  too much other than that I take more time in the studio to be creative with my subject. As a result studio paintings are a tad more formal in their look than plein air works.  See "Bogan Lane" below which is a studio painting.

I hope you have enjoyed this demonstration and have learned a bit from it. Painting regularly and keeping a clear and consistent process to your approach helps develop your own unique style. While we never stop learning, keeping our process simple guides us more quickly towards excellence. I wish you happy painting and much success on your creative path!

"Bogan Lane", oil on linen. Collection of the artist.

This painting was a workshop demo, from a photograph, created for the members of the Eastside Artists Guild in Harrisville, MI.  I've not been doing very many pastels recently and  therefore demonstrating was a bit scary.  However, I was pleased with the results and apparently so were the students. It sold while still on the easel. 

My plein air painting, "Time and the River Flowing" was a hit with the students participating in my Tuesday morning mentoring class. Because they had so many questions about my plein air approach to painting complex subjects quickly and simply, I recreated the painting in a 45 minute step-by-step demonstration for them. The following are photos taken by Gail Bohner on her cell phone during the demo.

I've always believed that a painting is made (or not) in its intial block-in.  If it doesn't work then it never will.  For this reason, I take extreme care (and as long as it takes) to get the large shapes well placed and in good size relationship one to another. I spend a great deal of energy weighing the readability of the negative/positive and light/dark shapes. In this photo it shows my Transparent Red Oxide block-in. This block-in of shapes is basically a notan which I feel is the best way to create compositional drama.

In stage two of my process, I begin establishing color by adding the darkest shapes, i.e. their variations of temperature and value, as required. I keep the shapes simple (no details). Consideration is given to atmospheric perspective between the distant trees, the large mass of tress in center and the mid-ground bush on the left to give the sense of depth to the painting. Since the day is overcast, the values are kept quite close and temperature contrasts are emphasized a bit more.

This photo shows how all of the major shapes of the painting have been simply stated. I am fully able, at this point in my process, to clearly see relationships. In addition, since there is little definition I am not committed and able to make changes, as may be required, quite easily. From this point on, I only need to begin addressing the smaller shapes of trees against the big mass, a few individual stalks of weeds/grasses against the mass of grass, etc.  Heightening the contrast in snow patches and defining the reflections in the water. These simple suggested deliniations (details) bring the painting to a complete statement of the site. I take much less time with these so called "details" then I did in establishing the big relationships. A painting's strength is always in its big shape structure not the amount of detail added.  Detail is good only for story telling, it should never be considered the painting.

This photo shows the nearly completed color sketch with the original painting sitting on the easel to the left.