Enjoy The Moment

Hey! Hey! Say The Geese

Indian Summer Rocks I  8x10

The last few weeks have been gorgeous, sunny blue skies with temps in the 70s. Ohh how wonderful! Each week I have been taking a morning and plein air painting. The beautiful weather has helped me attain a meditative and positive mindset. And piqued my curiosity about Landscape Painting.

When I plein air paint, I give myself permission to paint without a purpose. I enjoy the time outside and often have to pause and reflect on nature's beauty. I find that I do not need music as the breeze in the trees and the geese honking creates a soundtrack. Each time I go to the farm there is one goose who flies by, lands on the pond all the while honking out to his fellow geese "Hey Hey Follow Me!" Silly Goose!

Indian Summer Rocks II  8x10

Plein Air painting is freeing. I enjoy finding shapes and laying down expressive brushwork.

Only once home to I allow myself to deal with my questions about plein air painting. I note the questions and try to research them via Google. I also ask my experienced art friends my questions. Recently I have purchased my new favorite book - Oil Painting With Light & Color by Kevin Macpherson - a fantastic resource! I know in time I will develop and become better En Plein Air.

Some questions I have asked:

How do I paint the light?
What greens do I use for sunlight verses cloudy day?
What greens do I use?
How do I paint sunlight?
How should I start a painting?
Lay in shapes? Lay in darks then lights?

Hey! Hey!

Ode to Permanent Rose

A Much Needed Palette Color!

Blooming Rose
Permanent Rose used for hat, rose, cheeks & pillow

Every painter has a preferred color palette. There are simple palettes and there are complex palettes. Most artists will agree that you can mix many colors from the primary colors and white, you don't need tubes and tubes of colors. For example, many delicious greens can be mixed with blue, yellow and a touch of red. Additionally, yellow mixed with red makes gorgeous oranges. There are so many color possibilities that when painting I rarely use a tubes of green OR orange. 

However, getting a lovely pink hue is another story. Adding red to white paint does not result in a beautiful pink! Typically it results in a washed out red-ish (because most whites lean toward blue, the red color gets dulled down). So, I asked my artist friends what color they choose for luscious pinks! From oil painters I got two answers: Quincidrone Rose and Permanent Rose. Very specifically, Windsor & Newton Permanent Rose was strongly suggested. 

I do need to point out that Alizarin Crimson is part of my color palette. However, it also is does not mix with white for a perfect pink. Alizarin Crimson is a dark hue that some artists call "dirty". I love it and mix it often with my darks, but when you add white (which has a lot of blue) it remains dull, lacking vibrancy.

I went out and found the Windsor & Newton Permanent Rose (typically for me it is cheaper to buy paint online but if I need just one tube I take a coupon to Hobby Lobby or Michaels). Once I purchased the Permanent Rose I began to use it often! I hadn't realized how much I needed this color in my palette. In addition to using this color more, it has brought me luck as 2 recent paintings (in which I used Permanent Rose) were juried into art shows! 

The Dude  9x12

Tell Mama 12x16

Ahh Pink, a necessary color when painting portraits and my new color love! Permanent Rose background mouth and cheeks for The Dude painting. Permanent Rose for Tell Mama headband and shirt (a bit in the skin tone too)! 

And It Poured!

Welcome to En Plein Air!
#GOTCHA #RAINONU #NATURESURPRISE #RUNSARARUN #WEATHERTRIFECTA

4 Canoes On A Cloudy Day, 8x10

I check the weather religiously, and today the weather was sunny with cloud mix and afternoon storms. Looked like a good morning to paint so I checked the radar and I headed out.

Once I arrived the weather was grey and overcast, but not stormy, no rain. The heavy clouds made the trees and lake very dark in color (ohh I liked this, very different from last week's full sun). Thirty minutes later I was sweating and spraying on Sunscreen - the sun is so hot! The bright sun washed out the colors which was less exciting. Lastly, it got cloudy again (15 minutes before I was going to pack up) but it didn't look like rain. SPLAT! SPlat Kersplat! The downpour came fast and soaked me and my art! Surprise-ACk!

I am a prepared girl, but my garbage bag was under my backpack (to prevent dirt from getting into my things) instead of covering my backpack...My Camera bag was out, my paints (on paper palette) and brushes got soaked, my painting got wet, my easel filled with water. I had an umbrella in my bag,but by the time I got to it I was soaked and my stuff was soaked.

My clothes were soaked, my backpack was drenched. It took me wayyy to long to pack up - you cannot hold an umbrella and unscrew the legs of a french easel at the same time! The wet pack up was THE worst! Everything was soaked! Once home I had to toss my clothes in the laundry and then unpack and dry all my art stuff. I left my painting and paints palette on the counter to dry (both had beads of water on top). I emptied my wet backpack, hanging it to dry in laundry room. I wiped my wet sad easel down with paper towels. Oh wet mess!

This was only my third independent (on my own) plein air session. In the last few weeks I have come to better appreciate the plein air experience - for me it was about finding the right painting location. I have finally found a place that is full of paint inspiration.

Ultimately everything's fine, I just had to stop painting before I was ready. I'm now inducted into plein air painting!  

I bet every artist has a plein air story....

Back in the Groove

Gotta Gotta Get back in My Art Groove

Just a small part of my inspiration photo!

Sometimes you just need someone to talk to about inspiration and motivation. Sometimes you just have to get out of the house!

I went to see a mentor friend and asked her about art motivation, I was in a slump! She was great and we sat down for ten minutes to just talk about it. It was so great to hear that I am not alone, lack of motivation happens to all of us!

Toward the end of my "Blah, not inspired", I found something that sparked my interest. At the studio one day I fell in love with a set up - a model with an old washing machine. My thoughts immediately went to - "Hmm I need a bigger canvas." I took photos from every angle because while I liked my angle I knew there could be other better or more interesting angles to paint later. Also, I wanted to see how the light hit.

I was able to talk to my mentor about my inspiration piece and showed her my photographs, and it really helped. I was able to get advice and formulate a plan, starting with ordering a larger canvas (I like 12x 16 and decided to move up to 16 x 20). My next steps include: thumbnail sketches, color studies, and even an underpainting (burnt sienna). Much to do! Additionally and very importantly, I took my top three photo selections and we reviewed them, selecting one and deciding on a vertical canvas. Now I am better equipped to get started on my inspiration piece!

Let's Hear it for the Boys

Painters love to paint and every week I am thrilled just to have a model to paint. Our models are all ages, shapes and sizes -which we love; however, most of our models are ladies. In the last few weeks we have had the luck of being able to paint young men, a change and challenge that we all enjoyed.

 One of our college-age female models brought her friend Colin to a studio session. Young and handsome, costumed in a renaissance shirt, he was straight out of an Austen novel, I loved it. We painted outside that day and I used a small canvas to capture his image (unfinished). I was happy with the results which I felt captured his features (I am really focusing on  feature likenesses lately). I hope that we book him for another session.

For Colin the sun was up and to the viewer's right. I need more contrast in the light and shadow, so will have to lighten the sunny side. Also Colin's eyes are narrowed because the sun was bright. I really just want to go back in and add more contrast, other than that the feature sizes and placements are fairly accurate.

Today our model did not show up (this happens sometimes). Luckily, a fellow artist had her grandson in town. At sixteen he still has a young sweet face with full cheeks (he would dislike that description but it's true). He was a great model, and again I thought I captured him. In real life he looked younger and somehow I made him a little more grown up, but even his Grandmother said that I got his likeness--Yes!

Look at all that hair, reminds me of a retro style --all long on top and shaggy on bottom. His eyes are light and bright and the light was hitting his face beautifully. I just want to say "Ahhh youth."

I've always worried about painting men and have thought about how to get their head proportions down correctly. I feel that my Figure Drawing classes and Portrait Workshops have really helped me to "See" so that I can get the correct widths and features down.

A Study of the Face

I See Tris in You

Only once the painting was complete did I see the resemblance to Tris of Insurgent. In reality our model is the same age and has similar coloring;however, I believe the bright light led to the parallels to Tris.

I am very happy with this painting as I have been studying portrait drawing and features. I do not want to create generic faces or features. An artist mentor recently said that eyebrows and asymmetry ("the little things") do make a difference. That thought was in my mind as I studied our model's eyebrows, curve of nose and corner of mouth.

Intentionally, I chose a smaller canvas (9x12) so that I would not be distracted by extraneous information. My model time is limited to a few hours and I really had to focus.

The model's hair is tied up and goes off the top of the canvas, the front pieces reflected the blue light brilliantly. Dark brown hair was being hit with direct light and it glowed almost white the way the light hit.

"What can I leave out?" I've learned is a question that is as important as "what do I put in?" Here I only imply the eyes as all I could see was the dark downcast lashes - no eyeball, no whites of eyes. Still, the viewer knows the eyes are downcast...

I have also been working on jawline. The darkness under the chin and the curve up toward the ear are important and width and curve matter. I feel that I captured the size and width accurately.

Note the light hitting the top of eyebrow, the eyelid, the nose, the lower lip and the chin. Such bright blueish light on the face meant that the shadow side was warm and deep. Much of her right cheek (facing her) is in shadow as is her top lip and part of chin.

I have captured something here and am pleased with the outcome of this face study.

Finding the GOOD in your ART

TODAY the Light

I dedicate 3 days a week to art. One day is a figure drawing class, two days are painting (models). All days are ARTporunities - art opportunities in which to learn and improve.

Sara with Summer Light Hair

I am happy with the way this portrait painting turned out. I really loved the light on the face and the way the light created a shadow on the right side of the face (facing model). And, I loved the light hitting the hair, turning it beyond blonde. The hair is a bit "whoa" but yes it is full and with the light hitting it, it was that blonde. The model usually has more caramel and red-ish hair on top (still darker on bottom), but due to summer, her hair has lightened.

The features aren't quite perfect but I like the light hitting the nose and the lower lip. Also I am pleased with the shadow on the neck as it reads shadow but it isn't too strong.

The eyes are imperfect as painted; in a future painting I would spend more time perfecting the right eye, maybe even making the shadows darker...

While I didn't start out saying "I am going to focus on this today," I do see that I was studying the light. The warm yellowish light was above left (facing the model).

In the future (and I do work with artists who do this) it would be a good idea to tell myself, "I will focus on "X" today." A very smart way to focus one's art.