Peonies Session 4

Here is my painting after the fourth painting session. I really got focused this time and decided that I would overexpose my photographs to see what was going on in all those petals. The flowers sadly are long gone. The overexposure was very interesting because I got to see a lot more cools in the petals that I think make the whole flowers more vibrant. Anyway, I realize I have a lot more sessions to go. In fact when I first posted this I thought this was after my third session, but alas this is after my fourth session. Honestly it doesn't look that different from session 3. Depressing, but it is fun still!!!

I'm going to turn tonight to painting a photograph of my friend's children at the beach. Not a very unique subject, but I would like to have more paintings that represent summer. I love summer and the thought just makes me happy. After years of painting dark paintings and backgrounds I simply feel like painting happy subjects. So that is my new theme...happy.

Quick Study

I decided to do this quick study as I have reached my 9 hour plateau on the peonies painting. This always happens to me. I love the starts and hate the finishes.

I started painting a much larger bouquet but with only 3 hours to complete this venture on Wednesday, I became overwhelmed. In the last 45 minutes, I wiped out everything but the lily on the right and painted the rest. I much prefer the composition. Very simple. I will make some adjustments and may repaint most of it since I think the saturation of the paint was diminished by the fact that I was painting over a layer of mud colored paint from what I wiped out. The background should be a more intense cool purple too. If I complete this, I might decide to enter this into Something Hot show (cross your fingers). It's 12 x 12 and I can order a gorgeous premade frame from JFM Enterprises. On the other hand the boat painting will require a custom frame that I might not get it in time.

PS: Now that I look at the photo, the paint seems pretty saturated, its the values that need some adjusting.

Peonies Session 3

There is as far as I got in my third session of painting. I worked on the main white flower, the box and background. I definitely liked the box better before, but at some point I have to bring it up to the same finished level as the flowers. The box has a bunch of filigred paper on it, which will be a challenge, so I might glaze down the box to a different value before I start to keep the box in a lower value. Overall it's going okay, but as expected, the painting is getting tight and I'm losing that painterly touch. I will be working on the shadows of the pedals of the white flower this coming week because they just don't look natural. I can't tell if the photo is distorted and crooked or the box is. I will definitely have to check out what is going on there. So much to do.

This is such a beautiful weekend, I think I'm going to go out side to paint a mini painting of a peach I bought at the farmers market with the leaves still on.

Plein Air Painting in Old Town

I went to Old Town this morning to paint with the newly formed Art League Plein Air painters. I arrived a few hours before our scheduled time because I can't stand to paint in the heat. I get agitated and cannot produce. When I arrived, the sun was directly in my eyes, that is, if I wanted to paint the marina. So, I had to find an alternative. I was very lucky to find a willow tree near the riverboat behind the Chart House Restaurant. Unfortunately, it was a bit off of the beaten track and far from the others. I had a great view of the boats, however. I started with a white canvas, as I was not prepared, but I think it worked well to create a summer feel.
It was really fun. I don't consider myself a plein air painter at all, so these last two days I anticipated would be disastrous and, like the other times, I would vow never to do that again. Instead it was fun. I was cool (just beautiful weekend). I enjoyed everyone stopping to look and ask questions. So many nice people.

The next plein air event with the Art League Plein Air painters will be August 7. The group is going to meet the first Sunday of every month. I believe we are going to be painting at the Waterfront again, right behind the Torpedo Factory. The group appears to be part of an effort to bring interest to the Waterfront and school. We had our picture taken as part of the "inaugural" event, so it might appear in the next Tidings Newsletter (on Art League Website). Yikes, I would have put some makeup on if I had known.

Plein Air Painting in Clifton

I got up early this morning to paint down in the town of Clifton. My 10-year old son got up and wanted to come too. I had recently bought him a nice sketch book and good charcoal pencils for acing his geography test. So we drove down to the town. I wanted to paint the creek, but David wanted to draw the railroad crossing (such a boy). I obliged, of course. What a good idea he had. I really enjoyed the subject much better than the creek. I'm going to have to get his advice more often. Here is my painting from today. It's not finished. I want to put in the words on the signs after the paint dries, along with the red stripes on the gates. I also want to have a few more hard edges and straighter lines (to be done inthe studio). I did pile on the paint today, which is not a comfortable place for me, but I love the look. You need to be able to draw some very straight lines, which I was having a serious problem with (as always). Perhaps starting with charcoal would work--at least to set the lines before painting. I did that on a painting of tomatoes on a box of prunes (see earlier post) because I could control the drawing much better and get precise lettering. The charcoal then bleed into paint so that I didn't have to take the brush to the edge of the line and risk crossing over or blurring the edge. It was an amazing experiment that completely worked.

Today was so fun and the weather was perfect. I was in the shade and the wind was blowing softly to create a cool breeze. I could not have asked for a better day. I plan to go tomorrow with the Art League Plein Air painters to paint at the Old Town waterfront. Unfortunately that is going to be in full sun.

Figs Accepted in July Art League Show

I got accepted into the July member show at the Art League Gallery in Old Town. If you are in Old Town swing by for a look at the painting at the Torpedo Factory. It's hanging over the desk area when you first walk into the gallery on the left. The show will be up the entire month of July.

I'm glad I decided to enter because July is the beginning of the new membership year. The significance of that is that it gives me 11 more opportunities to get juried in again. If I jury into three shows this membership year, I will have access to display my work in the bin section of the gallery in 2012. I can bring in as much work as I want (I think) that is matted and shrink wrapped and can display one small painting on the wall (no jurying to do this). Last time I got bin privileges, I didn't use them. This time will be different .... I hope. One down, two to go. Cross your fingers for me. Next month is the landscape show. I have to start painting a killer landscape!

Session 2 of Peonies

I had so much fun painting tonight. I didn't get much done, but I like what I did accomplish. Here is a photo at the end of today. I darkened the shadows, continued painting the pink peony and worked on some of the buds and some shadows in the other flowers. Lots of glare in this photo due to horrid florescent lights in the garage (my drying space). I will let this dry and do a bit of glazing over the pink flower to eliminate some of the chalkiness (even though that is how chalky it really was). Time for bed. Tough day tomorrow.

Is it finished?

I painted more background yesterday. I didn't want to completely get rid of the thin underpainting so I reserved the thicker paint for the center of the painting near the main subject. I also varied the color throughout to avoid the background being a void. I'm not sure I like it when it is photographed, but I do like it when it's in a frame. The light part on the upper left edge is a reflection, which is part of what I don't like in the photo. It doesn't show in the painting. Somehow a good frame makes any painting look better. So, the big question is: Is it finished?

Corn - Continued

I got a chance to paint for 2 hours today. I finished the background on my carnation painting (I think) and got to paint a bit more on the corn painting. This is a photo at the end of session 2. At this point, I'm working from photos, which is so much easier as nothing rots. I just can't find enough time to paint every day to set up a still life and make it useful.

I knew that things would have to get darker in this session as I need to lay the darkest layer down and then paint up in value from there. I spent a lot of time on refining the shape of the colander. I hope I got it right. Ovals, especially angled ovals, are very hard to master, plus I don't have a steady hand and the eye can fool you.

I also did some pretty dramatic underpaintings based on previous experience. For example, I know that I can get a good carmel colored wood if I underpaint it cadmium orange and then glaze it with purple. Painting it any other way just never looks rich enough. Granted this is very weathered wood so maybe it's not the same thing as a highly polished table. We'll see. I can certainly undo anything I don't like.

One problem is that you really have to paint the colander "wet on wet" in order to get the edges right. By the time I get back to this everything will be dry, so I will have to repaint alot. I complain, but the reality is, multiple painting layers make it so much richer. I don't know if there is a true rule on this, but I believe it takes 3 layers of paint (or sessions of wet on dry painting-that is-letting the paint dry between layers) to get something to look 3-D with depth. Try it, it's something I tell my students and it almost always works.

Queen of Starts - Corn

I thought I'd post another start of a painting because, well, I have no finishes...yet. I have to make finishing my main objective if I can get any free time this holiday weekend. There are a few competitions I want to enter including "Something Hot Exhibit" at Gallery 222 in Loudoun and Art at the Mill. Both have entry dates that are less than a month away and I really have very little that is available for sale, mostly because I have so little time to paint. I'm taking the summer off from teaching, however, which frees up at least one night a week.

This was a demo I started in my still life class this spring. I picked corn because I have to find fruit or vegetables that can last more than one week, so that the students have time to finish a painting. This set-up was perhaps too complicated with the corn, colander, lace drape and old biscuit box, but it was a very interesting set up--if I do say so myself. One again, I loved the energy. And, I can't resist a highly reflective surface.

I use a 200 watt clear incandescent bulb to light my subject which creates a "spot light" on the subject. I think that works well because it creates an extreme high value on the main subject, which in this case is the peeled corn (secondarily it is the colander). What are artists going to do when incandescent bulbs aren't produced anymore??

Art at the Mill

One of my favorite shows is coming up -- the Art at the Mill show --in Millwood VA. The due date for artwork submissions is July 29. The Show runs from October 1 to 16th. http://www.clarkehistory.org/. How can that be? The spring show was just over. I have to hustle, clearly if I'm going to make that date. I have to paint like mad as nothing is finished. I have lots of great demo starts that are calling my name--one in particular of tomatoes in a bowl. I also think I'm going to do a few really small paintings like before, they tend to sell. Well in fact any well executed painting sells well there. Artists should consider entering the show, its a great event.

Painting Started

Here is a new painting I started this week. I just love peonies and paint them whenever possible. I'm going to have to find a new subject at some point. Anyway, this is going to be my last "dark" painting. I've decided I want to painting lighter backgrounds for a change even though the dark backgrounds really make the subject vibrant. I bought these beautiful peonies off the side of the road outside of Salem New Jersey. There was a flower farmer who had buckets of these flowers on the side of the road-- 12 flowers for $3.50 -- what? They are normally $3-5 a stem around here. I bought 1 1/2 dozen, bought a bucket and a gallon of water from Walmart and they took the trek home with me to VA. I immediately set them up in different draping positions over this beautiful antique tea box. See photo.

I've decided to do an underpainting of very thin color before putting on the next layers. One of the key things I've figured out with painting flowers is that the centers must be really saturated and intense in color. You then put on the duller or lighter colors and that intense color bleeds through to make the flower more realistic and three-dimensional. Thecenter peonies, for example, are really white but they have an incredible yellow hue and orange center that I hope will come through in the finished painting. I love the energy in this painting...now watch me kill it :-( I'll post progression photos as I go along.

Liberace Painting on Copper

Above is a beautiful miniature painting by Robert Liberace. He painted John, a popular model at the Art League, during the "paint like Velasquez" workshop I took two weekends ago. He painted it on copper to show how to use metal surfaces. At the end of the class he sells his demos. Interested students put their names in a hat and he draws winners. I won the drawing to purchase this gorgeous painting...what luck. It is 5 x 7". One important thing about painting on copper, it oxidizes, which can change the entire painting since the copper is peaking through. Luckily he told me how to avoid that-- by putting retouch varnish on it (he said Kamar is fine) after the paint has dried. I have done that and now will be searching for the perfect frame.