Fresh Paint, Clean Paint!

– Realization #2

It has been most of 4 weeks since my painting trip to Dutch Mountain. The afternoon and evening sun was just as dramatic.

These days I find myself pressed to paint. I want and need to paint! Keep in mind that, I have several circuses to manage here daily, so painting is not always the priority.   Yes, I could be pressed by a deadline, but i try not to dwell on that.  I am also a bit more selective on what is the exciting prompt for choosing my next subject.  (See Reflection #1)

The key here is Clean, Fresh paint.

I am also very keen on establishing a pigment wash to establish a feel for how the painting will fit on a panel.  I start by painting the shapes and wiping out my lights in undertones of cool or warm tone sequence mixed primarily from cadmium red light and quinacridone rose.  These are somewhat transparent and allow light to reflect as warm or cool.  The undertones set the pace for my painting.  Then I gradually build into the layers of colors and values.

The trick is to build up the colors without quickly making mud on a small 6×6 art panel.  I start by painting a thin color coat of the local colors.  For a landscape that means mixing and painting the sky first. Then I generally lay in my next layer of cooler shadows in values of blues and violet tones to establish depth and shadow forms.

Next, I check my progression and mix for the next layer of warmer lights. Color harmony is very important and adds a dynamic balance to most of my paintings.  For this painting I chose warm earth structures and cool ground shadows.  After establishing my shadow I added yellow tint to all the lights sparkling on the rocks and highlights.  I try to mix my paint values and check them as I go, before adding the next layer of light and forms.  If it doesn’t match or fit with the harmony I take off, remix and match new color.

Greens are much more challenging.  I generally try to establish greenery by simply scrubbing in loose greens and lemon yellows over the blue and violet patches.  Then check for balance in contrast to finalize the atmosphere, highlights, shadows and rugged surface.  Soon after, I begin adding the last few pieces, building up to the brights and final highlights.

Clean paint is integral to all good painting. Be sure to know your color ranges and mixtures.  Clean paint is important to establishing the mood of a painting.  It is critical to preserving reflected light within the painting. Fresh clean strokes quickly establish atmosphere, depth, and volume of a painting through a tight space.

The important thing to remember is start clean, work clean, paint clean before you know it you will have beautiful color harmonies.

Fresh Beets!

Fresh Beets!

Fresh Beets! 6×6 2014_01_06

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Best way to get your daily vegetables – paint them!
Today, I focused on simplifying my brush strokes to get more expressive paint movements.  I set up a cool shadow warm light sequence.  I pushed in loose lights with pure yellows to establish the brightness. Then loosely worked in my shape zones.

No I did not count every brush stroke.  I did focus on effective color harmonies and working with my larger 1/2 filbert brush.
I absolutely love this painting!   It feels so fresh and lush.

Spring Break Inspirations

Well it’s hump day of our spring break here.
Since my Easy-L tripod is in the shop for repairs I am limited to painting at home this week. So I started looking for fun painting inspiration here at home.   A good day for peanut butter sandwiches and painting!

Still life for lunch.

Course lunch time can not be missed, and must be served on the favorite blue plate with rectangle sandwiches. ~for fear of the tummy monster might unexpectedly visit.

Thus today, I found inspiration in my son’s lunch. 🙂
After scraping my palettes, I laid out fresh clean paint.  2 yellows, 2 blues, 2 reds. Specifically: cad red light and cad red medium and white.  I laid out my under painting with a wash mixture of cad red light and violet (alizarin & ultramarine).  Then borrowing a few notes from a recent workshop with Carol Marine I set to painting islands and oceans of clean grays.

Easy-L palette at work.

Turns out it made a great complimentary study.  Yes, Blue and Orange or opposites on the color wheel.

I think I had just as much fun painting the bread and crusts of the sandwich as I did defining the orange.   It was a good painting hump-day indeed.

 

 

This Little Piggy…

Drawing inspiration from the child hood rhymes:
and an adorable stuffed pig with personality we have the makings of a series of fun little paintings.
This Little Piggy… 

So much potential subject matter to yield lovely simple little paintings that lend to great paint passages and expressive compositions.

This little piggy just wants to stay home and hide her head under the blankets.

This Little Piggy Stayed Home. 5×7. #2012_07_12.

Early morning light and deep shadows really helps push the composition.  The light both softens and warms up the compositional balance of negative shapes. A few more layers of paint composing the rounded feet and curly tail add just a touch of whimsy and dimension.

This Little Piggy Snuggled. 5×7 #2012_07_13

This little piggy wants to snuggle in the morning light with her favorite monkey.  Again the lighting and shadows help define the composition while a similar palette of warmer pink and cooler blue values establish the rounded forms of the plush piggy.

Five more minutes… 5×7. 2011.

Five more minutes was the first of this series.  So it is understandably a bit more simplistic.  However by changing the lighting, I ended up with a darker mood and value study.

These paintings are more color, light and compositional studies while really working through a new medium and discovering its various characteristics.   So these are just a few of a growing series of studies to work out.
I wonder what This Little Piggy shall do next?

Cascarones for Annie! ~more Colorful Fun!

Today’s left overs – Cascarones!

Well what’s left from our weekend adventures.  My backyard is littered with a menagerie of colorful confetti.   At least I will have color back there when the sunflowers fade for the summer.

But it does make for fun painting.
So here is tonight’s play in paint and color.

Cascarones for Annie! 5x7 #2012.04.10

The confetti eggs are very vibrant but the challenge in painting them is figuring out a composition to feature the confetti inside.  I intentionally featured the traditional cardboard egg crate too.   Good thing I got pictures because I expect the last dozen will be cracked open tomorrow after school.

New Paint! New paintings…

New Paint!

New Paint has arrived!

A new year has started and is moving along.  It’s already into February of our New Year here with our colder winter spell too. I have been stealing time in my studio as weather temps permit, since my studio is in the garage. It’s currently nearly 50 degrees out there.  So it takes a bit of time to get it comfortable to work out there. Paint has a happy temp for optimum working conditions, and below 50 degrees is not it.

Between cold spells I plan the next stage of paintings and continue to push on new projects currently underway here in the studio. But that growth requires more supplies.  Thus More Paint!  I have officially moved onto ordering the super tubes in hopes of making it through the bigger projects.

Hamilton Pools *BIG Sky* stage 1

My BIG project for Hamilton Pools is well underway. Notice I have the smaller 18″x36″ painting study above the panels here for comparison.

It's going to be this BIG!

By BIG, sort of, I mean a 3foot by 6foot painting.  And yet, sometimes it’s not quite big enough to relate the magnitude and majesty of a Texas sized treasure. Yet with all large paintings larger quantities of paint are required.  Mixing the calculated colors and values are again a critical part of paint consistency.  Matching values changes ensures the ability to relate visual atmosphere and depth of such a large project.

Hamilton Pool *Big Rocks* stage 2

Stay tuned to watch the growth of this painting project.  Time to catch up, lots to do here. Will post more later.