River Walk

Watercolor

Oh my God, he uses black!

Yes, yes I do, even in watercolor.  Works good.  It's a perfectly good color if you know how to use it.  I could get along without it, but it's so nice for lowering chroma, and for this black dress it's kind of a good place to start.  As far as I know, no black on the market is a complete neutral.  Ivory black tends to be a bit on the blue side, carbon black is a little on the warm side, but with either I find color shifts to be less of a problem than with using compliments to dull a color.  If you really don't like black and find Paynes's Gray to be much more useful, you might want to check what it made with.  Most manufacturers make it with ivory black.

Doesn't really matter.  Color is an interesting thing and a pretty personal choice.  You can usually get to a given HVC with a variety of different mixtures.  One mix isn't really any better than any other as long as you come up with the color your looking for.  So have a big palette or a limited palette.  As long as it works for you and you know how to get the most out of it, you're good to go.  Personally I've got a big drawer full of paint -- three drawers actually, one for yellows, one for reds and one for blues, greens and blacks.  Most of that paint stays right there in the drawer.  I find myself regularly using about a dozen go to pigments.  Gets me where I want to go usually.

I didn't put a size on this.  I don't have it handy to measure, but it's not very big, about 12 inches high if I remember right.  It was a piece of leftover not pressed paper.

A Little Drop of Rain

Watercolor on Hot Pressed Paper

22 x 30

They've changed a few things here on me.  I guess that's to be expected if you don't post in, what, two, three years?  Well, maybe that will change.

This seemed like a good image to start with considering all the rain we've had the past week or two.  Really squishy walking out there right now.

Normally you do the painting first then get it framed.  In this case I've had a frame for quite a while, and I've been looking for something that will look good in it.  This should do quite nicely due to the dress color.  Besides it kind of a nice image, at least I think so.  I think it's a nice blend of tight rendering on the figure along with a more splashy approach on the background foliage.  A lot of lifting off was done there.  That's one reason I chose to use a hot pressed paper.  That along with an addition of some extra gum arabic makes lifting out quite easy.  Much easier that painting around lighter areas.

One last unrelated thing for anyone that has commented lately.  Sorry I didn't get back to you, but I had to change me email and the link never got updated here.  So I didn't know there were any comment to get back to.  Hopefully that has been fixed.  All for now.

River Access

18 x 36

Oil on Canvas

I originally did this one quite a while ago, several years in fact.  I don't think I ever posted it simply because I could never get a good picture of it.  Just as well because I wasn't particularly happy with the first version.  So I started over from scratch, and within a couple days it's all done pretty much the way I'd envisioned it all along.  Still don't have a good picture though, please pardon the glare.  

There's a couple things I'd like to talk about in this picture.  First is the use of a limited palette.  In this particular case I used Prussian Blue (Milori Blue actually.  It's supposed to be a more stable version, but handles just about the same) Venetian Red and Yellow Ochre along with Ivory Black and Titanium White.  The blue and red make a really nice range of grays and they're dark enough together that the black was not all that necessary.  I'm not entirely sure I used it at all now that I think about it.  I do use black to gray colors as necessary so I'll include it here just because it's usually on my palette.   For this image those three pigments plus white is all that is needed and they worked perfectly.  There is nothing that says you can't add a higher chroma pigment if you need something to pop.  A limited palette is not magic.   It does have the advantage of making it easier to harmonize a painting's color.    There just aren't a whole lot of color combinations to deal with, but with these three colors you might be surprised at just how much color range you can get.  Again, if you want or need higher chroma passages use a higher chroma red or yellow.  The advantage of using an earthy red is that you can get a range of grays without adding the third color.  This isn't the only combination that will work of course.  Ultramarine and burnt sienna works nicely as does french ultramarine and raw sienna.  Both of those will give you a nice range to play with.  Another advantage of the limited palette is cost.  I know I have a lot of paint tubes that I haven't opened in quite a while.  Keeping it simple can keep the cost way down and in these times that can't be all that bad.

The other thing I wanted to mention about this painting is details.  This basically a simple image, just a  basic value arrangement.  As such, I think it works fairly well.  But in something like this I like to hide a few little nuggets for the viewer to find.  Take a look at this detail. 

That egret just one example of what's hidden here.  It might not be big enough to see here, but there is a great blue heron and a handful of ducks to be seen if you care to look.  So the thing is give the viewer something to look at.  There's nothing wrong with a simple image, but that doesn't mean you can't make it rewarding too.

One last thing, there are a few things for sale over at the Drying Rack.  There's a link over on the side here.  If you'd like one get it now.  Prices will be going up the first of the year. 

Silverpoint Landscape

I did this one back in the summer when it was about 1000 degrees outside.  I thought maybe drawing a nice wintery landscape would cool me off some.  Didn't work, but it kept me occupied for a while.

Silverpoint on light gray ground

8 x 6.5

I've never really done a landscape in silverpoint before other than something seen in the distance through a window.  There's a reason for that.  Silverpoint just doesn't have the range of values to quite do the job. Now, this image isn't horrible, but if those closer trees were darker the whole scene would have so much more power.  This image really needs to have a more graphic quality.  I had wanted to do a version of this in ink just to illustrate the difference, but I just can't seem to find the time.  You'll just have to use your imagination.  If you're going for a more etherial look, silverpoint might be just the thing so maybe this is just a case of the wrong medium for the wrong image.  

I've seen a handful of silverpoint landscapes.  Most left me feeling like this one, not bad, but it would be better if there were darker darks to give some more depth.  I've also seen a few that fit the medium nicely.  They were all more dreamy, fog shrouded images.  But they were all mostly gray of virtually the same value.  So if you like mid-tone gray images there you go.

The thing I'm finding with silverpoint is that if you have one or two they can be really nice if they're not competing with something with more range of value or color.  If you get too many together at one time they start to take on an overall grayness and they start to blend into the wall.  That's a problem with drawing in general.  It just seems to be particularly problematic with silverpoint.  And that's why you don't see many shows featuring just drawings I think.  Remember this is coming from someone that likes drawings.  

Well, I'm rambling today.  Not quite sure where that came from.  Any of your thought are welcome.  Thanks for looking.

Blessings

Once again it's been a while since my last post.  It seems that I get just about as many views as when I don't post as when I do, so efficiency would seem to indicate that I'd be better off using my time on something else.  But that wouldn't really move things along much.  At any rate here's something new.

Oil on Canvas

30 x 20

Since it's been so long since you've heard from me you would think I would have a lot to say.  It certainly seems like I should, but I got nothing.  Tell me what you think, and I'll be back soon I hope.


I forgot that I had some preliminary studies for this.  Maybe they'll be of interest.

Now where was I?

It seems I've been missing in action for a while. Couldn't be helped. Thanks to all the people that keep dropping by. Now, where was I before all this. Oh yeah, I was going over what the stats say everyone likes. First was charcoal drawings, next is the Lady in the Lake theme, silverpoint is coming.

For some reason people seem to really like the Lady in the Lake. It is a nice story, but why the preoccupation? Not that important really. I haven't actually gotten back to the story, but I do have something similar that just might make do in a pinch. It's Greek mythology rather than Arthurian and it is a lady in a lake (technically a river) maybe that's close enough. So here it is The Song of the Potameides.

Oil om Canvas
25 x 36

I can here it now. Song of the what?

Potameides are one of the five types of Naiades, the nymphs of the freshwater. Potameides are the nymphs of the steams and rivers specifically. The other types are Pegaiai, the nymphs of the springs, Krinaia, the nymphs of the fountains, Linmades of Limnatides, the nymphs of the lakes, and the Eleionomai, the nymphs of the marshes. While their essence is directly tied to their specific body of water they are not confined to it. The Naiades are not immortal, but they do have extremely long life spans. However being linked to the water their fate could also be tied to it. If their lake, spring, river, fountain or marsh dries up, bad news for the naiade. Well somebody here seems to be overeducated.

I think this is the first painting I have ever done based entirely on an underlying grid. Somewhere around here I have that preliminary grid with the drawing on it, but I have no idea where it is. I think it wound up on the back of something else that has since found it's way to the trash. But I think it really helped to bring everything together. Placement of objects was pretty easy. Follow the grid structure and put it there. One thing I have wondered about is does it need more? I tend to follow the idea of if it doesn't add to the overall image, it detracts. As a result I don't do a lot of really busy pieces. Personally I like the simplicity and lack of clutter. Of course that can be overdone.

Wading

watercolor
22 x 15

Today's offering is a watercolor. Watercolors can be tricky little things. To be really good you need to do a lot of them. That's pretty much true of everything. Can't be good without putting in the time to get there. It seems to be particularly true of watercolors though. There's so many little things you need to keep in mind. For certain effects the paper has to be at a certain degree of wetness. A little too wet it won't work, a little too dry it won't work, and the only way to know when it's at that correct point is experience. Unfortunately you have to keep at it or you lose a lot of what you've gained. Lots of little tricks too. Again though if you take some time away from the medium you forget the little tricks.

That being said, I need to do more watercolors or forget about it completely. Can't see me giving it up completely though. I like watercolor too much. I think I actually prefer it to oil.

A Few Little Sketches

Looks like I wandered off for a while again. That's partly due to not doing much of anything, and I managed to screw up my shoulder playing lumberjack a few weeks ago. Well, at least I have plenty of firewood for the winter. I did get quite a bit of designing done. There's three good size paintings all designed and draw all ready to go with another two right behind. Nothing to it but to do it now. (Note to self, get those canvases stretched and grounded so they'll have some time to age.)

Since it's been so long I thought I should put something up even if they're not the greatest things I've ever done. So three little sketches today, not much more than background studies really.


Oil on Panel
6 x 12
Not much to say here. Moving on.


Oil on paper attached to panel
5 x 12

If you've never worked on paper it's a really nice surface for sketches. This is an old piece of Whatman's watercolor paper. As it turns out I absolutely hated the paper for watercolor, way too absorbent. But with a thin coat of acrylic matte medium it makes a nice surface for oils. Good for outside work too because as you may guess it weighs next to nothing. Just tack it to a thin board or even some foam core and off you go.

At one time I had considered using something like this as a background for a Lady in the Lake painting. I may have to come back to it. Still think it has some possibilities.


Oil on panel
6 x 12

I think this is easily the best of the three. There was a paint out up on one of the river towns a while back. Seemed like a good idea so off I went. The weather didn't cooperate at all so I turned around and came back home. I did take a few pictures along the way though. This is one of them so the day wasn't a complete wash out.

Sugar Creek

Oil on Canvas
24 x 18

Have you all been paying attention? If you have this may look familiar. Back in late February there was a study for this. It's finally done, I think, and I've gotten around to posting it. I'm pretty happy with this. It may not be the bright, sunny autumn day you usually get, but that wasn't what I was after besides those are way too common. I was after something more moody. The day was misty at best. It looked like it was about to pour actually so the day of painting outdoors was put on hold. Instead I took a little stroll in the mud up this little stream fully expecting to get really wet. I escaped merely damp and the camera showed no ill effects. Anyway that's the story of what I was trying to do. Hopefully I did more than just give a weather report. Funny thing is that by the time I got home it was bright and sunny, not a cloud in the sky.

Fog Shrouded

I had a little unintended break there. Time just gets away from me sometimes. During that break I realized that some of the things I thought were done -- well, not so much. So a little more work, some more photography and we'll get back to them. This one was and remains done.


Oil on Panel
12 x 9

Another trip to the wetlands on a foggy day, actually the same day as a couple earlier posts. That was a good day. I think I got some good spacial depth here, pretty happy with that. What I want to point out here are the grays though. I've been a proponent of the "grays make the picture' theory. The last two paintings really show that. They are both basically a collection of grays, but the addition of just a little bit of brighter color brings a great deal of interest. If you really look hard at those spots of color you'll see that they are also pretty low chroma too. So the moral is that you only have a limited variety of hue, value and chroma to work with so save your bullets for the places they are needed most. Don't overdo it or you'll have no room left for accents.

Wetlands in Fog

Oil on Panel
8 x 16

Another one of those moody, foggy wetlands paintings. Not much to say about this, hopefully it speaks for itself. I think there are a few more of these in me trying to get out. I'll try to mix in some other things so you won't get bored.

Late Snow

We had a bit of a surprise here last Monday. I woke up, opened up the blinds and there was almost six inches of snow, wet, heavy snow. Not a word about snow in the forecast. Caught 'em napping. Strangely enough some of the weather forecasters seemed almost proud of being totally clueless. So this one's for you.


Egg Tempera on panel
7.25 x 13

It's not last week's snow. This is an older piece, haven't worked in tempera is quite a while now, but it seemed appropriate. Besides it's not a bad little painting. I just never got around to getting a good picture to post. I used to really like tempera. It allowed me to do things I couldn't do with oils. That's mostly because I didn't understand how to use oils, a problem i have since overcome. At least that what some people tell me. Personally I think the jury is still out on that one. Anyway, it's a nice draftsman's medium. It does have a really nice subtle quality that oils just don't have. Sometimes I miss it.

Reference Photo as a Point of Departure

So, today I thought I'd talk about using reference photos. Yes I often work from reference photos. I think most of us do, if not entirely at least from time to time. I look at photography as a mechanical sketchbook most of the time. I also work directly from nature quite a bit, more and more actually, but reference photos still are important to me. When using photos though you must be aware of certain limitations. The darks tend to be too dark or the lights are washed out or some combination of the two. Color is seldom if ever completely correct so don't follow it too closely. And then there is the problem of lens distortion. A lot of potential problems to keep in mind. That's why working directly from nature is a good thing and reference photos are really just a point of departure to augment what you already know.

Let's look at this fairly simple, nothing out of the ordinary, photo.



Not really a lot going on here other than that nice sweep of water. So let's focus on that.



That's better. But still it could be better with just the addition of a distant hill something like this.



A very minor addition, but it gives the picture a little more depth and it echoes the curve of the water. Repetition of form is always a good way to unify a composition. Here's a quick illustration of what I mean just in case my words aren't making much sense.



At this point I'm thinking this isn't too bad. The sky could use some more interest, but basically it's something I would like to paint. It should be pointed out that I really like the salt marsh paintings of Martin Johnson Heade and this is right down his alley. Back to the interest in the sky though, what could be more interesting than a sunset? A good storm, but I want to do a sunset today, and work with that glow that comes at the very end of the day. Besides a sunset is much more of a departure from the original photo and that is what I set out to talk about today. We'll save the storm for another day.



Light is usually the most important part of a landscape painting. That's why I start with the sky, that's where the light comes from. In this case the entire landscape should be infused with this golden sunset light. That's important to remember because all this color is made up. A lot of people these days don't particularly like the warm, cool designation, I don't either actually, but in this case it's kind of useful since everything should have a warm golden glow.

So, my intent in this painting was to capture that very end of the day glow when night is trying to take over from the day, but the daylight isn't quite ready to go yet. That plus can I do it without having the scene right before me either in the form of nature or a photo?

Study for Sugar Creek

oil on panel
12 x 9

I had originally planned to do this quite a bit bigger. However, after just a little bit of drawing I realized that there were some problems to be worked out first. Enter this little study. I think I've worked out most of the drawing and color problems. There are still a few little things that need some attention, but at least I know what they are and how to deal with them. So I think it's about time to start on the bigger, final version. I haven't done anything very big lately, could be interesting.

Millstream Gardens

Oil on Panel
12 x 9

Missouri isn't exactly known for it's whitewater, but if you know where to look there are a couple good places. This is one of them, Millstream Gardens or Tiemann Shut-Ins. I've never figured out why it needs two names or what, if any, the difference is. What I do know is that is a very cool spot. Every spring they have whitewater races that attract a pretty big crowd of paddlers and spectators. Just imagine a nice, warm spring day after being stuck inside for a long, cold and snowy (this year) winter, and you're out on the rocks watching the races. Or if you're more the adventurous type maybe racing yourself. I had thought about inserting a video here, but couldn't decide on just one, so feel free to google Millstream Gardens and see what you come up with. If it looks good and you're close the races should be coming up in a few weeks, usually early March. Of course the shut-ins are always there and maybe you'd prefer to do without the crowds. Nothing wrong with that either. So much for the travel log. If the Missouri Department of Conservation wants more they'll have to send a little something my way. I've got to give them their due though, for a government agency they do a pretty good job.

And now for the painting, nothing much to say about it. I think it came out rather well.

The Glades

Watercolor
22 x 30

This is an older piece that I never got around to putting up for some reason. I rather like it though. It's pretty much made up, no reference pictures, no actual place, but I think it is fairly representative of a glades landscape. That's glades in the sense of an open area in an otherwise wooded area. Around here glades have a quite thin layer of topsoil over rock. Usually not a real flashy landscape unless the wildflowers are in bloom. Hopefully that will be happening soon.

Early Autumn at the Wetlands

Oil on Panel
6 x 12

Here it is, a cold winter day with an ice storm just getting underway. i thought I'd get this out before the power lines go down and the electricity goes out. Maybe we'll get lucky and we'll just have snow, lots and lots of snow. This has turned out to be a rough winter. Never mind, I've got plenty of dry firewood.

As a contrast to what's going on outside here's beautiful, warm fall day. This may look familiar. If not, it soon will because there are quite a few pictures coming from this day at this place. I love the wetlands. No idea why, maybe it's because of all the little hidden things just waiting out there. There's also a quiet kind of beauty there that can change drastically with the time of year, time of day and lighting conditions. Or maybe it's just home. At any rate I think I could spend the next few years painting nothing but wetland scenes. There's plenty of other things I want to get done too though.

View from the Bluffs

OIl on Panel
9 1/4 x 16

This is one of my favorite places. It's out on the Lewis & Clark hiking trail, also one of my favorites. A couple hundred years ago Lewis & Clark were making their way up the Missouri River right past this spot. That's kind of a big deal if you're into American history. If not, well that's all I got so don't worry about an unwanted history lesson today.

A few years ago now I was out there on the bluffs just looking around and clearing my mind a bit. While I was there I noticed some clouds on the western horizon coming down the river. It was really pretty impressive. So I just sat there and watched it coming. After a while I realized it was coming right at me, but I realized that a little late. It was coming fast, and I was a good two miles away from the car. I got really wet that day.

One problem I have with painting favorite places is that since they are favorites I obviously like them. So the problem becomes, do I like the painting because it's a good piece of work or do I just like the subject matter? The two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, but personal feelings do tend to get in the way of critical thinking. So what do you think, is it a good painting or just a good place?

Green Cathedral

Watercolor
22 x 15

As a painter I often ask myself what exactly am I trying to do. I guess I could go into artspeak mode and talk about the need for intrinsic elements to come together in a chaotic society to form a whatever. Yada, yada, yada. I could play that game but honestly it bores me. My work has been called no nonsense and unpretentious. I suppose in some circles that could be taken as an insult. I'm not in those circles and actually consider it a compliment. At the very least I think it's the truth. What you see is what you get so I better give you something worth seeing.

At one time Camie Davis had a blog on narrative painting. She's since combined all her blogs into one. See the link if you're interested. One of her last posts on the narrative blog started with a quote from Anthony de Mello:

"You have to understand, my dears, that the shortest distance between truth and a human being is a story."

And that is basically what I'm trying to do with my art. I'm a story teller. I'm much better with images than with words so I paint and draw. Figurative painting lends itself best to story telling, but landscapes also can tell a story of a specific place at a specific time of year and a specific time of day under specific weather conditions. If a landscape is done correctly (by my standards) it will take you to that certain spot at that time.

So what's the story with this painting? Well, there is no literary text portrayed, but the story is still there. I'll leave you to come up with it this time. After all, what you take from a story often depends on what you bring to it.

One final word here. Do your preliminary drawings!!!!! I had a lot of trouble painting the bottom of the drapery. Strangely enough, when I did the study for the figure I didn't do the bottom of the robe, too anxious to get started with the painting.



Coincidence? I don't think so.

High Water

Sorry I left y'all hanging there. Small technical difficulty on this end. Well, I'm all upgraded and updated and ready to carry on. The really good news is I can now set up that online store I've been planning for a while. I hope somebody thinks that's a good idea. More on that later.

Now I've got to go back and see where I left off. I need to take some pictures too as soon as the sun comes out. I think this was the next one I was going to show.


Oil on panel
12 x 9

This started out as a plein aire piece. Unfortunately it wasn't particularly good. For an on site study I suppose it was alright, but still not really worth looking at twice. So like on an earlier post I thought it would just be used as a starting point for a bigger piece. Then it occurred to me that while it didn't work as a finished piece it was a pretty good full color block-in. So another layer of paint, and some further development of the forms and this is what resulted. Not too bad, captures the day fairly well I think.

Which reminds me about that day. I got out to the river petty early and was surprised at how high the water was. I'd planned on painting on a sandy shoreline looking the other direction, but considering that sandy shoreline was under a couple feet of water plan B seemed like a better option. You'll note that there is no shoreline in this painting. Just trees coming right down to the water line. While I was there three different guys came by to do some fishing. Each pronounced the water to be high and left. That's where the title comes from.