Daily Painting Practice - turn overs another way to generate ideas

This a seascape at night. A painting by Frederick Waugh. I wonder where he  came up with his idea?

 

If you have been following my blog lately, you know that I am trying  to come up with many ideas for seascapes from thumbnail sketches. I was inspired to think about a moonlit seascape recently, not by Waugh, no my idea came from...

This.
No, it is not my color sketch for a foggy, moon lit, night time seascape. But it did give me an idea for a future painting. You will actually need to stand on your head to see the source.... go ahead ... I'll wait.
Never mind, I'll help you out....

 Remember this one?  (Yes I am still working on it.) The sea at night sketch is actually this painting turned over and cropped.  
 So, if you are runnning dry on ideas, (running dry is  very dangerous for seascape painters) you can turn over a new leaf,  or better yet turn over an old painting. You may be surprised at what you see.

Here are the latest progress shots of this painting. You have to go back quiet a few posts to see when and how I started.  

 I am working all over the place -   making the rocks rockier, making the background fall back, giving the trees some form and the water some foam.

 
  Too much splash in those waves on the left and not enough contrast between foreground and middle ground.

 It's coming along.  I added a leaf or two, detailed some of the rock, then worked... reworked ...and reworked the falls.

I still need to work on the foreground water and then ask for a critique from the fab 5.

Daily Painting Practice - Fall colors at a Northwoods Lake - part 1

What comes first Composition or Color?

Actually, I have read the concept or idea should come first.  Use composition to help you convey your idea. Use color to help sell the story to the viewer.
 So, if my idea is beautiful autumn trees in sunlight, I should use a composition to best convey that.

 I think this composition will do the job. The color choices  to sell my idea of beautiful autumn trees, means that the color will have to be strong not muted, and they should also be harmonious. I'll try to do this sticking with a limited palette of colors. Ultra Marine Blue, Cerulean Blue, Cad yellow light,  Aliz. Crimson, Cad Red light. and Titanium White.

 I am desperately trying to stay away from using white in the clouds. I hate pasty looking clouds. These are cad yellow and cad red light with white and some blue. I'm not pleased with the way the clouds  line up and I think they need to be warmer.

 So far the sunny part of my idea is working . The rest of the painting needs refining but I like the progress.

Daily Painting Practice - Tree study part 2

Enjoying your subject, I think, is half the battle to painting.

I really enjoyed  mapping out the color in this study. and also playing with the light.

 That light tree in the center was bugging me. It looked liked it couldn't make up its mind which side of the  path it should  be on.

 So I moved it to the background.

click on the image to enlarge the picture

Northwoods Tree Study

12"x16"

oil on canvas

Daily Painting Practice - Plein Air Painting for a good cause

My friend and fellow artist  (Deb Groesser)  invited me this past fall to paint a small plein air for her local  library fundraiser. The Ralston 100 Community Mosaic Art Project was Deb's idea and celebrated Ralston's centennial. The individual works of art were drawn,painted, or pasted onto 6x6 inch canvas.  They were displayed together as one mosaic and for a small donation you could win one. It was a great idea  and I was happy to participate.

I set up in front of Deb's Studio on a freezing cold morning. (Unfortunately Deb was away at some sunny California location painting one of her incredible plein air paintings.) I on the other hand was freezing my kaboodle off standing on the cold sidewalk  painting a local street scene.

 Once I got home and warmed up,  I worked on the final 6"x6" canvas. The plein air sketch on the left was my guide.

 Not too much changed in the second version . I mostly just needed to clean and sharpen lines.

Morning in Ralston 

6"x6" oil on canvas

Daily Painting Practice- Tree color study - walks in the North Woods

Every artist knows of places where they feel they could spend the rest of their life painting and never run out of interesting subjects. 

For me it would be Maine or the North Woods of  Wisconsin. All I need to do is take a walk in the woods and the ideas start flooding in. But how to decide what to paint? 

 When you literally can't see the forest through the trees (or maybe it would be better to say, can't see the painting through the details),  I find it easier to  eliminate details and look for abstract shapes of light and dark.

 For example, I started this color study looking for abstract blotches of color to lay on the toned canvas. I was thinking of  trees  but painting them as abstract color notes. It was a good way to stay loose in the beginning and not get sucked into  details too early.

 Sorry about the  blurry photo. However, it is a good example of how you should  blur your eyes when painting as a way of eliminating detail and simplifying  values. 

click on the picture to enlarge the image

Walk in the Woods - Color Study

6"x6"

oil on canvas board

Daily Painting Practice- Going green - recycling old paintings.

 I was never really keen on this painting. It felt so blah, to me. So instead of letting it sit around the studio I decided to go green and  recycle it. There is a danger in this approach however ...  hint- always ask if your inventory manager/wife feels the same way before applying any paint. .

I wasn't  sure what I was going to do.And since I now spend  a lot of time in  cubicleville (see my last post), I  thought something that could transport me into the woods might be nice.  You win the prize if you can guess what I am trying topaint at this point.

Here are some thumbnails I did to try and get a feel for the composition.  You probably still can't tell what it is I'm going for can you?. ...That might not be a good sign....   but the truth is, these little sketches really help firm up ideas. I now have a picture in my head and a general feeling  for the  scene. That 's important. I have to want to spend time  in the painting. Would you paint someplace you didn't want to be?

Now I started drawing with charcoal directly on the canvas.

This is a very rough  beginning. I am just scrubbing a lot of paint around, mapping out lights and darks. I like the fact that I am spending more time imagining the place than I am worrying about  details.

It will be interesting to see if any of the original painting underneath remains when I am  finished. The plants in the foreground maybe?

Daily Painting Practice- take an old painting and improve it.... add a red canoe

I have question. What do you do with older paintings that for one reason or another have not sold?
I have a few paintings hanging around.  So, what do I do with them? I could paint over them( done that), give them away (done that but...not any more), donate them ( done this), store them and take up studio space ( doing that now).

Here's another idea. Rework them, change them, try to improve them... ( then maybe rename them and  try to sell them again.)

 This one came back from the gallery it was called "Along the Bank".
I always thought it was missing something. The painting didn't give me,as viewer, any reason to stay and look at it.

 click on the painting to enlarge the image

The Red Canoe

30"x24"

oil on canvas

Now with a few new touches:
I added the canoe, some birch tree trunks in the background and  highlighted  details of the grass in the back, also strengthened the fallen tree in the fore ground, and played a little with some stones and tree trunks.
Oh, and I gave it a new title...pending approval from you know who/wife.

Daily Painting Practice - Phillips Mill Inn Complete

click on the painting to enlarge the image

Phillips Mill Inn

24"x30"

oil on canvas

Completed one! yeah. Feels good. I had the hardest time with the foreground. I removed the road and used my artistic license to add grass and a few extra steps. I needed the foreground not to be too detailed or it would distract the viewer. But it needed to be detailed enough to look like grass.

Here's some details.

I really like how the windows turned out. It was important not to let the reflections and hints from the interior details take over but keep them muted. The flower box was fun. I went over it several times to sharpen some edges, especially the hanging leaves and the top.

I left one of the mailboxes. I painted it over about 4 or 5 times. The flowers and iris leaves were an important detail for the right side. They stop the viewer's eye from trailing off the painting.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with this one, even though I struggled. Thanks to my gang of 4 for all their help too. They kept me going when I was ready to throw in the towel..

Daily Painting Practice - painting the Phillips Mill Inn - work in progress

Last month I posted about our trip to New Jersey and New Hope, and how I was dripping with sweat while doing some plein air painting at the Phillips Mill Inn, pictured below.

Now, I am comfortably in my air conditioned basement studio back in Omaha, while it is in the upper 90's outside.

I am just starting on a painting of the inn. I transferred my drawing onto a pre-toned reddish brown canvas and began with lighter tones and a few darks.

I am trying to stay disciplined (for those that know me, please keep the laughter down) and build up the paint in a very controlled way. Keeping the layers very thin and the values muted and close.

I put the flag in early for the contrast, I keep talking to myself " stay focussed... keep the other colors muted."  Good thing nobody is here  listening. So far not bad.

Phillips Mill Inn - Work in progress

24"x30"

oil on canvas

Can't wait to get into those rocks on the wall.

Daily Painting Practice - Painting Sunsets aren't for the Timid

You shouldn't try to paint a sunset if you get weak in the knees at the thought of laying down an orange sky. Claude Monet certainly wasn't one to shy away from the sunset as a subject.

Sunset on the Seine in Winter by Claude Monet

Monet is a great one to follow into the sunset.

click on the image to enlarge the painting

Loon's Lullaby 

Work in Progress

20"x24"

oil on canvas

I still have more to do with the foreground water but I'm enjoying the "Impressionistic" approach to the subject. I really don't like using that word but I can't think of another to replace it yet.

Daily Painting Practice - Beginning to Finish Something, I think

Hello, my name is Peter,  and I am a recovering beginner...
( to understand what that means, refer to last week's post). I have been on the wagon for one week in a row. Here is my  finished piece.

click on the image to enlarge the painting

Summer Light

(that's the working title I use until my official title giver/wife signs off on it)

24"x30"

oil on canvas

I made a first step, I signed it. (though I do see a few  places that bug me. I may sneak into the studio for a few quick  fix tonight.)

I enjoyed a lot of the  comments last week. Some  were closet beginners and some recovering beginners. Mostly I enjoyed the enablers all tempting encouraging me to go out and start something new, like the peonies.  I must admit to having thoughts of jumping into something new but  I held on and kept repeating to myself , " one day, one step, one painting at a time."

The road to recovery  is long.  I may need to supply the studio with donuts and coffee)... or tea.

Daily Painting Practice - How to Get in the Right Mood to Paint Maine

I often wonder how many other artists approach paintings in the same way I do. I think I spend more time thinking and trying to feel my way through painting then I do actually pushing paint.

As I begin to paint this scene of coastal Maine, I need to find a way to feel like I am there.... in Maine! ( Which isn't the easiest thing to do sitting in a basement in Nebraska).

So, I do a lot of sitting back and staring at the canvas using my imagination to make the scene real to me. But sometimes even more drastic measures are needed.

I had to put on my hat and boots and get a cup of blueberry tea. I also started listening to old sea shanties and snorting salt water.

You also can see my latest addition to the routine. I started wearing disposable gloves to keep the toxins out. I got a package of fifty fairly cheap at Home Depot. I use the Nitrile gloves not the latex or vinyl because they are not for use with turpentine.

Daily Painting Practice - graduating to new Plein Air gear

Like other businesses, all up and coming artists need to invest in new equipment every now and then. I was lucky enough to sell a painting recently and used the funds to buy a new plein air kit.  I researched a lot on the web and  decided on the EASy-L  Lite (by Art Essentials). I like the smaller size and the the fact that it comes with the Tripod. I also purchased the stainless steel brush wash cup  and a plein air umbrella.

Out with the old and in with the new. I can't say I will miss my old Duct Taped box. The new box does not come with a palette, so I am using a masonite panel that is toned and  coat with Liquin. I will store my paints in a bag and not in the box. Take a close look ... this is the last time it will look this clean.

Everything fits into this  back pack... Well almost everything. I still haven't unpacked the umbrella, but I am sure I can make it fit...maybe a little Duct Tape will help.

click on the image to enlarge the painting

Back to the North Woods - work still in progress

24"x30"

oil on canvas

I need to get some feedback from my art critics "The Group of Four" then I can call this finished. I already see some things to touch up.  Can't wait to try my new gear in the North Woods.

Daily Painting Practice - Painting Water

I  find painting water one of the most challenging  things about landscape painting.  It beats painting clouds, trees, grass and even rocks. All of those have a greater fudge factor, but water is like painting skin on a portrait. It needs to feel alive at the same time it has to have depth and movement ( maybe tension is a better word)  even when it is on a still surface.

Take a look at these three progress shots. You may have to look  to find the differences but after two weeks I had hope to make more progress.

I love this water. I should clarify, actually, I love the potential of this water. This water has me painting and repainting, tweaking and  standing back, squinting and squirming over  and over and over.  I am a little afraid of over painting  because I need to keep the water looking fresh and clean...( who likes to look at muddy water?)

click on the image to enlarge the painting

Back to the Northwoods

(painting in progress)

Here's the problem I am working on: The texture of the floating water lilies and algae is so very different from the surface texture of the water. It needs to look as if  it is floating. If that isn't hard enough to paint , I put the foreground in shadow  and the light  cutting across the background  with lots of color in the reflections. (Who thought of this painting?) This was supposed to be an easy  one.  What is the lesson we should all learn from this?

The next time you go to a gallery and look at a really beautifully  painted  landscape with a very soothing and tranquil body of water in it...

  say a prayer for the artist.