There is a BUG Stuck in My Paint

I have been reading a book by Kevin Macpherson called "Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light and Color".  Mr. Macpherson is an accomplished En Plein Air painter.  (That is French for "In the Open Air")  This is an excellent book and I'm learning a lot about color, light and shadows from it's pages.

From someone who is a "Studio" artist, painting outside has a unique set of challenges as I experienced yesterday.  This style of painting is definitely something I want to learn and so I was very excited when my friend Lily asked me to accompany her along with few other artists with the Nevada Plein Air Group to Hemmenway Harbor at Lake Mead to spend a few hours painting in the fresh air.

I actually did learn a number of things and am anxious to improve my "En Plein Air" techniques.  The real truth is that yesterday I was basically pretending to paint and Lily is the real McCoy!  While she didn't finish her little 10 x 20 piece, she got a good portion of her painting completed and I was dually impressed. I spent a great deal of the time watching her ability to paint quickly so she could  catch the essence of the moment, not worrying about exact detail but rather reflection, light, color and shadows all come together so that she could catch the emotion rather than the exact image.

So different from painting on my beautiful new easel with all my supplies surrounding me and listening to either Willy Nelson or my new piano praise CD.  This will definitely take practice on my part but I'm anxious for the challenge of bugs stuck in wet paint, working in big floppy straw hats, dirt in my teeth and the sun in my eyes.

Inspiration All Around You

It was back in October that my husband and I had the joy of taking a small (not necessarily small for Brad and I) hike with our son, daughter-in-law and brand new baby granddaughter at Mt. Rose in the Reno area.  The trail is actually called Galena Creek Trail and it was an amazing mile or so up and back.  I understand the trail will actually take you all the way to Lake Tahoe but I didn't need to walk that far to be inspired.

This one little event has so far resulted in a number of paintings that have all be inspired by the photos we took of that area.  I found myself just snapping pictures of everything.  The fall colors were brilliant against the clear sky.  The sounds of wildlife and rushing water made the experience not only a visual masterpiece but also a treat to compare to any concert man could produce.  One thing I know is that there are more paintings coming in the future that can be traced back to that two hours one crisp October morning.  So take a little time this week and find something inspiring and don't forget your camera!

Let Gravity Be Your Painting Friend

Last week I went to my painting lesson as usual.  I'm currently working on a winter scene that contains a number of bare trees.  I am actually painting from a reference photograph that taken by a fellow artists and Facebook friend, Clive Hughes.  I fell in love with the reflection and the bright sun rays and graciously he granted me permission to use his photo.

Reference Photo taken by Irish artist, Clive Hughes

I am in the place in my painting where I need to add the small fine branches for the background, so I grabbed the small script brush and started to paint away.  I had only made a few lines when I heard my painting instructor, Lily Adamczyk give a loud statement about the way I was holding my brush the wrong way.  My painting lessons are often a humbling learning process because it seems almost every lesson brings to light something that I am not doing correctly.

I was holding my brush more as you would a pen.  Far down on the handle near the bristles.  According to Lily, I need to hold my brushes more to the end of the handle so that I can allow for a more freedom of movement, letting the paint actually do the work.  The result will be a more natural looking branch because small branch detail should not be rigid or uniform.  Another helpful technique is to actually paint the small branches with the canvas turned upside down.  This allows gravity to actually assist you with the loose, free movement that you need to make realistic branches.

Current state of my WIP painting that I am doing from the above reference photo at my painting lesson

To reinforce what I have learned I had the perfect picture to come home and work on because there was actually painting a woodland snow scene full of bare trees that is a WIP on my easel.

A portion of my WIP painting that shows the lack of fine branch detail

Holding my brush the WRONG way!

Example of the correct way to hold the brush to get the loose fluid movement needed for the fine branch detail.  The canvas flipped upside down can also be a helpful technique.  This allows gravity to help your brush movement.

Additional small branches add to fill in the tree using the technique that Lily taught me

Paint Better- TAKE OFF YOUR ROSE COLORED GLASSES

I've started reading a book called "Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light and Color" by Kevin Macpherson and so far it is an informative read. His book starts out with several pages about the equipment of a well prepared painter and even explains how to clean your brushes.  Very practical advice for any want to be en plein air painter.

 Mr. Macpherson refers to colors as "NOTES" which I found very interesting.  Chapter one is titled "Seeing Color Accurately"  He states that "You must train your eye to see and simplify."  A color note is the combination of the Hue (name of the color), + Value (degree of grayness) + Chroma (intensity or lack of) =COLOR NOTE.  On page 19, the author tells us that "Our preconceived thoughts limit our sensitivity to seeing."

I have often realized this with my own painting because preconceived mental images of simple things like rock, grass, trees and clouds all impact my paintings and cause struggles in my attempts to paint more convincing landscapes.  It is like I spent most of my life "not really seeing" the nature around me.  My natural tendency is to paint my landscapes too uniform and rigid.  I have often mentioned my struggle with painting something as simple as rocks looking like smooth river rocks and my bushes being soldiers at attention.

I was chatting about some of these points with my husband over our morning ritual of McDonald's coffee and he made the comment about looking at the colors out of focus.  I was pretty shocked at his intuition when I flipped the page to page 21 titled, "A Colorful World out of Focus".  Mr. Mcpaherson actually suggests taking off your glasses so that you are focused on the COLOR rather than the image.  He even talks about and gives examples of entire paintings he did without the aid of his glasses.  What a concept!

What in the World is a Pogonip?

Last week we had a real cold spell in Las Vegas and so I started several winter scenes in my little studio with space heater blasting. They actually called it a "Hard Freeze" because the temperature dropped into the 20's at night and several days the afternoon high didn't even reach the 40's.  The Mojave Desert does get below freezing during the winter but this cold snap was actually nothing compared to the week that our Northern Nevada neighbors experienced.  Shortly after this drop in temperatures, I started noticing beautiful photos of ice crystals taken in the Reno area being posted on Facebook.  The word "Pogonip" was popping up everywhere and so I had to do a little research on this word because I had never seen it before. 

Turns out the word pogonip originates from a Shoshone word and occurs only when the humidity in the air is nearly 100% and the temperature is below freezing.  This causes ice crystals to form in the air, creating an ice fog as it were.  The crystals then cling to everything creating a beautiful encasement around leaves, twigs, branches, grasses and anything else that happens to be around. The world just sparkles because it appears to be dusted in diamonds and crystals.   I was so impressed by the photo taken by Spring Creek, Nevada photographer, Dini Torrence Esplin that I had to get her permission to attempt a rendition in acrylic paint on a canvas and this is the results:

Amazing photograph taken by Dini Esplin

"Pogonip in the Pines"  11 x 14 Acrylic

The Greatest Masterpiece

This past few weeks I have given a great deal of consideration to the new pressure I'm now feeling to change my mindset from a life of running a business office that serviced 100+ employees, 700+ students and a congregation of 1200+ attendees to a retired person who wants to see their art appreciated by an ever increasing group of viewers.  The creative pressure to always stay inspired and excited is certainly different from the pressure I had on payroll days or at the end of the year tax document preparation.

For the past month, I have been on the hunt for things that inspire me and yesterday it was a song.  The lyrics from "Mighty to Save" sung by the the group Hillsong just struck a cord in my heart.  When the words of the song came to the phrase,"Author of Salvation"  I couldn't help but meditate all day on the meaning of those 3 words.  It was as if they just jumped out at me.   Jesus not only made the plan for my salvation, He authored it in His blood.  When it came time for me to open my sketchbook, I was moved to attempt to capture my feelings on paper.  Usually it's a landscape that will catch my eye, and while God created more beauty in this world than any of us can fathom, His greatest masterpiece was completed upon two ugly, rough and blood soaked timbers. 

Sketchbook entries for the week

In my effort to fill my sketchbook in 2013 I've started by looking towards my amazing grandchildren for sketching inspiration.