First Paint Out - Welcome To Plein Air

Day One

Hello, it's me  8x10, first painting

The first day of the paint out we awoke to stormy weather. My paint out partner and I texted with each other deciding to meet post-rain shower! So we started a little later than usual and with overcast mostly cloudy skies we were in for light change challenges! We did get rained on a little bit, but you know what? I had packed a garbage bag and used that as a "tarp" over my equipment wagon, it worked!

The changing light was the greatest challenge for us as it was dark grey skies  & fully overcast when we started painting, then flitted into pure sunlight, then rain clouds, then on and off clouds the rest of the afternoon -- Welcome to Plein Air.

Landscape Layer Cake 5x7

That first morning, I felt confident getting my composition down on the canvas (I did do a preliminary thumbnail sketch first which helped). However my first painting took me much longer than I expected for an 8x10 sized painting. I struggled to get to a completion point even though I am typically a fast painter. There was an abundance of green and I struggled with the aforementioned light changes. After thinking about it, I suffered from TMI syndrome. Too Much Information (visually) and I did not keep it simple. In hindsight I feel that I should have narrowed in my focus to a smaller or less complex scene.

Since my AM painting took me well into the afternoon, I did a small second painting in the afternoon. And since I labored so hard in the morning, I wanted to keep this one simpler. A smaller canvas helped with that and my afternoon 5x7 painting was completed in a little over an hour. I was happy with it, this little gem would go in the Wet Paint Sale on Sunday.

Day 2

Ah! The light was better, it was mostly sunny and blue skies--yes! This day I had planned to paint in a house  & garden in downtown Milford. I was painting alone as my art companions did not want to paint a house or flowers.

Sunlit Sanctuary, 8x10 AM painting

I had wanted to paint the entire front of the house ---from across the street (in order to get the house onto the canvas I would have to stand that far back). However, I was not able to park across the street (no parking on that side). And, I would have had to stand practically in the front yard of the house across the street! I had made arrangements to paint the one house but did not have permission from house across street occupants to paint on their lawn. Bummer as my initial plan just went awry. So, into the garden I went in search of a subject.

Right away I was drawn to an elaborately decorated pergola structure, it was truly amazing. I loved the light bright sunlight and the dappled shadows falling on this white structure. I decided to setup there and get the light pattern down.  And once again I fell into TMI Syndrome--there was so much information. There were stain glass windows, lattices, topiaries, vines, flowers, flower baskets and statues. Once again, I think I should have tried to keep it simple. I got the initial layout in just fine, but struggled to get this 8x10 completed. I am happy with the results, but I did struggle to achieve them.

Summer's Gate 8x10, my favorite

Again, the afternoon painting session was better, despite me starting late again. I bravely pulled out another 8x10 canvas and decided to paint a simpler subject (note the lesson learned here). Personally, of the four paintings, this is my favorite. The strokes are laid in and left alone. I made decisions and stuck with them. And while the gate isn't perfect, I like that it has that painterly quality--which is what I wanted. Note that I did not even attempt to paint details in the greenery behind the gate--the gate is the focus! I have not painted many works like this--of gate and garden but I definitely want to do more. This painting being an 8x10 took me half the time of the morning painting.

In conclusion, I am happy that I participated in this paint out so close to home. The advantage of being able to go home at night was wonderful. My fellow artist painters were amazing. Go and see the show at the SHAC in Milford NOW through August 22. I personally believe that 35 of the over 100 works are gallery worthy paintings--and I am serious. There is some amazing local talent! Two of my works for sale in this show include Sunlit Sanctuary and Landscape Layer Cake--you MUST see them in person--photos just cannot tell you the whole story! My other 2 works will be for sale on my website later this week!

Constructing a Portrait

Start at Mouth

AKA  The Post Workshop Recovery

I am still recovering from my portrait and gesture workshop last week. I call it the "Ow! My brain" workshop. I  would go home after the workshop at night, walk the dogs and then settle in for an hour of HGTV, just to decompress!

For Artists the best workshops force you to concentrate & focus, learning new thoughts and ideas and starts. How many people start the portrait with the mouth (not eyes, not nose)? That was such a challenge to start the portrait with the mouth line, oh my! And yet, from mouth to nose to eye, I think I captured a likeness in my drawing--yes this drawing on the right was started at the mouth and then nose then left eye!

Here are some "warm up" drawings. We did eye, mouth and nose each from right side, front , and left side. I know it is hard to see the words written there, but one of my favorite exercises was to write the shape descriptions of the feature that you see. As a Visual artist, writing the words to describe the shape of the mouth instead of drawing is a tremendous brain challenge! I did the written descriptor challenge for each face section (mouth, eye, nose)--hence the "Ow My Brain." And here I challenge you to take a workshop that will challenge you!

Warrior Maiden, painted pre-workshop

As you know, lately I have been flirting with unfinished paintings. I go to live portrait sessions (uninstructed) each week and we always have such limited time, about 2.5 hours. I paint fairly quickly and I am learning when to stop so I do not overwork my subject.

Typically pre-workshop I started a portrait with a vertical-ish line for head tilt and then I add horizontal lines for eyes, bottom of nose, and mouth and top of head. Then I add vertical lines for long and short side of face. While I filled in most of my lines with paint, I did leave a few out in this unfinished work. I can and will overwork a painting.

In person the skin tone and mouth of this portrait have a bright luminosity which I love. This particular portrait does not accurately reflect the model, her eyes are slightly smaller, but I still like how this came out. Although I have to state that after my portrait workshop I will look more closely and concentrate more strongly on features. I named this Warrior Maiden as she has an Athena quality and look to her doesn't she?

The good things I see include the warm coral lip colors, the bright greens in the headpiece and the leaf shadows on her forehead. While she was in a white flowy top, I left the white canvas there to represent the top  strap and I feel that what I left out is really nice, this unfinished one is done!

Scouting Locations for Plein Air

My first Paint Out is just a few weeks away!

My Usual Spot--way across the lake!

"...In Summerrrr"--channeling Olaf of Frozen!  Summer is the busy season here in Michigan and I have a lot going on. I have an art workshop later this week and in a few weeks I have my first paint out! Ack! So much going on, so much to do! I have placed my art order, ensuring that I have enough paint, brushes and canvas for the paint out. My friend and I also decided to 'scout' our favorite park for new painting locations.

Like many, I have a default painting spot. I find that with the changing light or with hazy days or with seasons changing, my spot has endless painting possibilities. My friend wanted to scope out some new locations in our large park -which meant we had some ground to cover! Requirements only included being near a restroom and not having to walk too far (lugging all that painting equipment).

We met up at the usual place and with a park map. Then we proceeded to drive and walk the park from entrance to entrance, this took us a little over 2 hours. We drove from location to location and then walked the paths looking for vistas all around. The picture posted here was taken from a peninsula in the middle of the lake--I was shocked that there was a path that went the whole way out to the tip of the peninsula. While I probably wouldn't chose that spot to paint, it was interesting to see my "usual spot" from the middle lake view--so far away (my usual spot is where the red arrow is pointing).

Now, it is noted, that we went in the evening so painting in the morning these spots the light will be very different. We found about 6 new locations, two we thought would be really special for the plein air paint out. Our hope is that knowing the area in advance and having spots selected will be beneficial to us for the paint out.