The One That Got Away

When I was nearly finished painting the bandstand at the seaside park in Apalachicola today, a young college couple stopped by on their bikes to admire the painting--Chase and Shelby. Chase proudly but quietly told the story of how on Christmas Day he left a note for Shelby to go to the new fountain in Water Street Park at 1:00. When Shelby arrived, she found another note instructing her to go to another location where a third note awaited her. On to another location until finally she arrived at the bandstand.

The note there was accompanied by a blindfold and directed her to "Put on the blindfold to cover your eyes, and you will get a big surprise." Chase came up behind her, and told her to turn around and take off the blindfold. There was Chase, on one knee with a modest engagement ring for Shelby which she then showed me, beaming shyly.

We chatted a while, and they admired the painting several times. Then they pedalled off down the boardwalk to the Gulf. By the time they returned, I had made up my mind. I wanted to get them started on their art collection. I had only one request: that they frame it nicely. I suggested that someone could frame it for them as a wedding gift.

Call me sentimental, but they were such a sweet couple that I couldn't help myself. So good luck, Chase and Shelby (and yes, she got her name because her mom is a big fan of "Steel Magnolias."), and to all young lovers everywhere!

The Problem Is....

For the past several years, my goal has been to create paintings with a feeling of movement and energy. The problem to be solved is to infuse a static image with the illusion of movement, not an easy task.

I have gradually come to several conclusions:

1. Include many shapes of varying sizes.

2. Use oblique lines.

3. Vary hard and soft edges.

4. Interrupt lines.

5. Overlap shapes.

6. Invent textures.

7. Spice it up with figures (or animals) in motion.

This kind of painting is much harder than merely depicting a scene accurately, and I fail more often than I succeed. So why try it? "A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?"

Value Patterns

While I'm waiting for the temps to warm up here in Apalachicola, here's a little lesson I learned from Skip Lawrence's book. It's a variation on Ed Whitney's value patterns. Using the three values, Skip says, play 2 Against 1.

For example, a light and dark shape in the sky with a midtone in the middle and foreground will draw attention to the sky.

To highlight the middle ground, use a light and mid tone there with darks in the sky and foreground.

To emphasize the foreground beach, use two values there. The illustrations of Hendrick's Head Lighthouse are mine.

Merry Christmas!

Greetings! Some of you are closer to this scene than I am! Have some eggnog, light the Yule Log, and enjoy your friends and family. Merry Christmas!

Change is Good

Here I am in Apalachicola, Florida. Actually I'm in Eastpoint, four miles across the bay from Apalach. Eastpoint is an oystering community with wharves, docks, wholesale seafood stores, and oyster and shrimp boats. There's just something about working docks that have always fascinated me.

In this painting, I gave myself two assignments: Choose a color other than blue for the sky, and maximize the value contrasts near the focal point. I could actually see all sorts of things under the roof, but chose to simplify the shadow area into one shape. Then I concentrated on making the shape interesting at the edges. Rectangles are dreadfully boring shapes, so look for ways to pop out an edge or cut into it. And don't forget the obliques!

To Market, To Market

I'm on the road to Apalachicola, Florida, so I will resume commentary very shortly. Meanwhile, here is the last painting I did this summer of the Farmers Market in Boothbay, Maine. Happy Holidays, everyone!

Working the Wheel

Here's another painting in which I used the technique I described yesterday. I think you can see the gradation of color in the background that gradually goes around the color wheel.

I'm getting ready to hit the road for my annual painting trip to Florida. My sympathies to all who are dealing with the massive snowstorm on the eastern seaboard. It will be nice to be out of the path of snow and ice for a while!

'Round the Wheel

Once in while, when I'm thinking about backgrounds, I take a clue from the color wheel. I'll start in one corner with a cool red (alizarin crimson), then go around the color wheel: warm red to orange to yellow to yellow green to green to blue green to blue. Gradation of color.

When imposing colors for the subject I try to think of the complementary color in the second glaze. The result is a kind of rainbow effect of bright, cheery colors.

In this painting of the Farmers Market in Boothbay, I've shown the first wash and the final painting so you can see the process.

Again, thinking of design primciples like gradation rather than just subject matter will give some zip to your painting.

Market Series

Thursdays are set aside for the Farmers' Market on the common in Boothbay, Maine. Friends Judi Wagner and Tony van Hasselt and I can often be found there painting the vendors and their wares. One of my favorite stops is "The Mushroom Man's Stand". I love cooking with mushrooms!

Does your town have a farmers' market? It's great for watching people, and the colors are vivid. And the produce and flowers are fun to bring home to make a different kind of art!

Say It With Darks

Once in a while I can still have trouble with the colors in a painting. It could be indecisiveness and thus, overmixing or overglazing. In this demo I did yesterday, I reminded my student that, even if the colors get muddied, you can still rescue a painting with the values. Often I will just remind myself that by going darker, the contrast in values can reestablish the feeling of light.

Someone once said, "If you walked into any art classroom, a valid criticism would be, 'More darks.'" Use darks to say light.

Silhouette - Jackson Square

One last "St. Louis" subject. This is Jackson Square in New Orleans. Behind the statue of Jackson is the St. Louis Cathedral.

Once more, a silhouette saved the day. Overlapping creates a feeling of distance, and the silhouette was the easiest way to make the overlap. It simplifies the statue, and the strong value contrast draws the eye to the hero of the Battle of New Orleans.

Repeats of triangular shapes, puddle reflections, and balance---I've spoken of these before.

Much in this scene is invented for the purpose of composition and design elements. Take liberties if need be. People will still recognize the place.

Silhouette - St. Louis

While I'm on the subject of St. Louis, I thought I'd include this painting of the great man himself, the namesake of our fair city, that I did as a demo for one of my workshops. The statue is located in front of the St. Louis Art Museum in Forest Park.

The subject was silhouettes and negative spaces. My students were apprehensive about drawing the statue, so I pointed out that if they drew the negative spaces between the legs of the horse rather than thinking "legs" that the drawing would be easier. Then they could relate those lines to others. They surprised themselves with the accuracy of their efforts.

Not my finest composition, but another illustration of how the painter can say things simply with a silhouette.

Putting It Together

John Singer Sargent's paintings of fountains in Italy first inspired me to seek out fountains as subject matter. This one can be found in Tower Grove Park in South St. Louis, an old Victorian Park conceived by Henry Shaw. The faux ruins are salvage from a hotel that burned in the 1800's.
The ruins serve as a frame of the fountain. Many design elements I've talked about before are present in this painting.
Balance -- Look at the tree trunks in the background and the size of the ruins on both sides of the paper.

Line --- The calm, soothing, formal horizontals and verticals, balanced by the oblique lines in the foreground that subtly point to the fountain.

Edge control -- The soft edges within the ruins. Stones are only suggested, and then only some of them.

Contrast -- The darkest darks and lightest lights form around the focal point: the fountain.

Painting is a juggling act. Keeping all the design principles and elements in the air at once is no simple task, but in no other way will a well structured painting result. The key, as always, is in the planning. Value sketches and preliminary drawings make the painting act smoother and more predictable while also allowing for some impromptu changes. Plan like a turtle; paint like a hare.

Hometown Series-Gardens

St. Louis has many identities: Gateway to the West, southern town, midwestern city, river town, home to Cardinal nation. Many immigrants have called St. Louis home: , Germans, Irish and French settlers, and the Italians who settled on "The Hill".

The amalgam of cultures is also reflected in the various garden styles at Shaw's Garden in the Tower Grove section of St. Louis. The Japanese Garden enjoys status as one of the finest in the country. There is also a fine English Woodland Garden. Very formal layouts are reminiscent of French gardens.

One of the more recent additions is a small Chinese garden, complete with traditional wall, water feature, and pagoda, forming an intimate outdoor room. Peace, harmony, and contemplation of nature make it a destination that both soothes and inspires.

Monet had his Giverny, Childe Hassam had Appledore Island, Sargent had the formal gardens and fountains of Italy. Somewhere near you there is probably a public garden that could provide subject matter for paintings and a refuge from the hustle and bustle of the city. Seek them out and bring your paintbrush!

Painting In the 'Hood

Just south of the Arch and the St. Louis Riverfront is an old neighborhood called Soulard. Strolling its streets will transport you to back the 1800's. There's just something appealing about being surrounded by buildings that were around when St. Louis was the last outpost of civilization on the western frontier. Compared to the modern skyscrapers downtown, this street scene is on a human scale. Each structure has a distinct look, varying in height, size, and purpose. Many have been converted to restaurants with brick patios outback.

So after a morning of painting you can get a bite to eat in the shade of a brick and wrought iron space.

Try a street scene of a special place in your hometown.

Train Station Series

In the heart of my hometown of Kirkwood, Missouri is the historic train station. Evocative of another era, the station stands near the old city hall, and just up the street from the farmers market and the OK Hatchery. This is a landmark that just begs to be painted.

As in the painting of Jim Thorpe's train station, I took some liberties with the background. There is a feed store behind the station, but you can't see it from this viewpoint. Still I needed something in the composition to break up the space behind the station and to situate it in its surroundings.

Look around your hometown for its economic beginnings--a train station, loading docks, riverfronts, military defenses---and you're likely to find something interesting to paint.

Painting in a Series

Who doesn't love an old train station? This one is located in the town of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, which was originally named Mauk Chunk before the famous Olympian lent his name to the place. The architectural features of this wonderful old building made it attractive as a subject with its repeated triangular shapes. But it was the cast shadows that made it especially intriguing to me.

Cast shadows don't have to be blue. They can take on the rich tones of the local color of the object, in this case, red.

The photo you work from doesn't have to be an artistic masterpiece but only act as a reminder of the things you liked about the subject. As evidence, here is the photo of the train station I worked from. Jim Thorpe is in a very mountainous region and I wanted to indicate that, so I added mountains to both sides of the station as well as some suggestions of other building in the old town. It also keeps the perspective from leading you right out of the picture area and balances the shapes on both sides of the painting.

Remember, a photograph should not dictate the composition, the color or the content of your painting.

Dominance - Line

Here is a painting with a dominance of oblique lines. "Leland's Lobster Buoys" are a gradation of oblique lines that gradually approach horizontal at the top of the page.

As you have probably realized, several elements and principles are at work in a single painting. This painting also contains: 1.) diminshing repeats 2.) repetition of shape and color 3.) dominance of color. Knowledgeable painters hold several design concepts in their heads while planning and painting a picture.

Dominance - Line

The directions of lines in a painting can create a mood. Horizontal lines suggest rest, calm and peace. Vertical lines communicate formality and balance. Oblique lines are suggestive of movement, tension and energy.

It is desirable to establish a dominance of one line direction. Then you can use a subordinate line to provide some relief and set up a a touch of conflict.

In the painting of "Murray Hill Landing", the dominant lines are verticals. But see if if you can pick out the obliques that break up the verticality and suggest movement.

Balance

Formal balance is present when two shapes of equal size are found on both sides of the painted area. Asymetric balance is achieved when a large shape, probably in the foreground, is counter balanced by several smaller shapes on the other side of the paper or canvas. Asymetric balance is usually more desirable in landscape painting.

In "Fog at Ocean Point", the large tree on the right is balanced by the smaller trees on the left. The intervals and direction of the trees is important to clearly separate the two areas, making the balance noticeable.

When planning repeated shapes or objects, like trees, houses, groups of animals, remember to take balance into consideration for a satisfying result.

Sign Motif

I'm sure that when some tourists travelling Hwy. 98 on their way to Apalachicola, Florida pass through the oystering community of Eastpoint, they view the hodge podge of wharves, docks and seafood warehouses as an eyesore. But the first time I saw that stretch of run down old buildings, I thought, Here is enough subject matter for a lifetime! So when Hurricane Dennis roared ashore a few years ago, I was saddened that so many places I had painted for years were gone or severely damaged. But some persevering oysterman had replaced a banner as a sign that a way of life would survive. I felt obligated to paint it.

It's not always the pretty scene that grabs your emotions.

Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs

Where do ideas for paintings come from? I have a young friend who is in college now, but when I met him, he was four years old. For a number of summers, Chris was fascinated by the signs in Boothbay Harbor, which he carefully reproduced with crayons on drawing paper and then tacked up around his grandmother's farmhouse and barn. For the duration of his visit, every room in his grandmother's house sported signs that advertised all kinds of businesses. I would look forward to each visit to see what funny additions would appear and in what unexpected locations.

Pretty soon, I found myself seeing signs as an element not to be removed from a painting but to be included as a motif. Every once in a while I find myself returning to that subject matter, and I never fail to smile or remember the joy that Chris brought me during those summers.

Take a moment to listen to what children see or imagine as a possible inspiration for your own painting motifs.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! I don't have any paintings of turkeys, so these chickens will have to do!

May your turkey be moist, your gravy have no lumps, your favorite football team be winners, and your friendships warm and comforting.

Alternation

Alternation is an all-over pattern that resembles a checkerboard. The lights, midtones and darks are scattered throughout the painting. This results in a very high energy painting that usually has no one focal point due to the numerous areas of contrast.

Underpainting is a key unifying factor in such an approach. With so many value changes, it is essential to find colors, textures or directional aspects to unite the space. Underpaintings provide this unity.

Exercise In Gradation

After yesterday's entry on gradation, I felt compelled to go to the studio. The result was "Snow Cone Stand at Fell's Point", a scene I first painted while visiting my good friend and accomplished watercolorist Lois Wolford. I assigned myself the task of using gradation of color and value to simplify every shape that was not the focal point. Look for the gradation of both color and value in the sky, the buildings and the street. The "action" in the painting is concentrated around the snow cone stand and the figures on the street. The shapes get smaller, warmer, and more textured around the stand. Gradation is the element that leads the eye to that area.

As I said before, gradation is subtle, but not monotonous. A shape that is pure in color and of one value is less interesting than one that has gradation in it.

Having a specific word or two in mind as you begin to paint makes the process of applying paint more satisfying. The results are likely to be more interesting as well.

Gradation

Gradation is a series of gradual successive changes. In any shape you can gradually go from:

-warm to cool

-smooth to rough

-light to dark

In successive shapes, you can also go gradually from

-large to small.

The opposite of gradation is conflict. Juxtaposing a very dark and a very light or any color next to its complement will attract attention because of the extremes. Gradation deals with extremes but goes from one to the other gradually which is more subtle and less demanding.

The greatest conflicts usually occur near or at the focal point. Getting there gradually will lead the eye and provide relief from the conflict.

In "Port St. Joe Marina" for example, look at the value and temperature changes in the arches that lead to the center of the painting. Also look at the value changes in the negative shapes in the background. Most of the sudden changes or conflicts occur at or near the boat. Gradation is soothing but not monotonous, whereas conflict provides tension. You need a mix of both with one dominant.

Plein Air Challenges and Rewards

Rain is probably the most obvious enemy to the plein air painter. But a gentle mist can add texture and prolong the dampness needed for a wet-in-wet painting.

Wind is more sneaky. The supporting board that holds the paper acts just like a sail. Many's the time I've walked away from the easel to see if the pattern is working, only to hear the easel crash from a big gust of wind.

Bugs! Once while painting with my Wednesday painting group in Boothbay, I was in a field. Several of my painter friends were at the edge of the field. Suddenly a cloud of corn ants began swirling around my head and dropping into my hair and onto the wet palette. Corn ants only live for a day, but they found me! Later my buddies said I looked like Pig Pen in the Peanuts cartoon strip, with a moving black cloud above my head.

Sun. If you paint with the sun on the paper, the paint will dry too fast and the glare will make you snow blind. Find shade or position your paper so that it will make its own shade.

Tourists can be the worst hazard, especially if you're a beginner or self conscious, or trying to concentrate at a particularly crucial stage of the painting. Little kids are the worst. Often they will point to something in the painting and then walk up and touch it. And answering the same questions from curious bystanders can be a distraction.

So with all these challenges, why paint outdoors? Because..... the sounds, the smells, the breeze, the feel of sun on your skin, the funny stories all tend to make their way into the painting. Just looking at a painting years later, I can recall all the things that happened that day. And if you get an interesting tourist and have a great conversation, you might just make a sale!

Underpainting - Creating Pathways

When I paint an underpainting, I consciously try to leave a pathway of light through the abstract shapes. Later I can decide where to leave those paths and where to cut into them with the superimposed subjects. "Wharf Life I" illustrates the progress from underpainting to finished painting. I think the pathways of light that weave through the shapes of the buildings lead the eye through the painting. This way, the shapes within the wharf are not a jumble of unrelieved rectangles.

It was also a challenge to use a different format. Sometimes an unusal size of paper forces me to rethink compositional habits.

Underpainting

Yesterday some of Carol Carter's students asked me about underpainting. Oil painters are accustomed to using the technique, for instance with a flat field of red. Watercolorists also use underpainting, which can be soft edged, wet-into-wet, or sharp edged shapes that form an abstract pattern. After the underpainting dries, the subject matter is super-imposed on the abstract pattern. Both the colors and the pattern influence the second layer, providing unity and harmony.

Notice also the curvilinears in the underpainting and the repeated circles in the subject. And as mentioned in yesterday's blog, watch for the softened edges near the edges of the paper.

Perhaps these photos will help to demonstrate the process.

"I Love a Parade" is the second in a series of 4th of July subjects.

Edge Control

This painting of Pemaquid Lighthouse in Maine is about the lighthouse and the keeper's house, not about the fence surrounding the buildings. Nothing was to be gained by painting each piece of the picket fence which would draw attention where I didn't want it to be. By losing the edges and only suggesting the fence, your eye stays out where I want it to be...on the lighthouse.

Today I will be a guest speaker at Carol Carter's watercolor class at Maryville College. A little biography, a little technique and a little travelogue. I'm really looking forward to it!

Edge Variety

One of the distinguishing marks of experienced painters is the quality of edges in their paintings. Hard edges abound in the works of fledgling artists. Knowing where to lose an edge is the hallmark of an advanced painter.

If you remember that the areas of most contrast attract the most attention, you'll begin to center those contrasts around the focal point. The greatest contrast in values, colors and edges will attract the eye. Using hard edges at the center of interest and softer edges at the periphery will help the viewer locate the subject that is of most interest to the artist.

This painting of "The Carthage Deli" is one of the few interiors I've done. It's good to reach beyond one's comfort zone. Notice the hard edges around the figures and some of the memorabilia, and contrast those with the softer edges at the peripheries. The old gas pump, for example, acts as a frame, but it's not the center of interest, so I softened most of its edge.

So tread softly!

Working in a Series

One more painting in the ongoing series of masts and rigging against the sky. This one was done from the Topside Inn at the top of McKown Hill in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. The Friendship of Salem was up on the ways at Sample's Shipyard being overhauled, and it was the perfect foil for looking out at the whole bay beyond.

When I get the itch to paint, and a new subject is not readily apparent, I have several themes that I can return to until a new subject presents itself. A wonderful bi-product of working in a series is that you begin to look and see more intensely at things that others may overlook. After all, painting is a special way of seeing.

Demo

For better or worse, here's how the demo turned out last night. I think I'll try this again sometime. Thanks to the members of Art World!

Following My Own Advice

A few days ago, I suggested that you go with your first impression in order to keep your enthusiasm fresh and charged. Now I'm faced with that choice.
Tonight I've been asked to give a demo at a local art group, so the last two days I've been considering various subjects and design approaches. I should probably play it conservatively and paint something I've done before, or a subject that I think the members of the art club would deem appropriate.
But I keep coming back to a subject I saw this past weekend on my trip to Carthage, Missouri. It's a funky little house, tall and Victorian. I tried some other sketches, but I kept thinking about that whimsical structure. So I've done the value sketch, and I'm going for it! Here it is, hillbilly, chickens,outhouse, laundry on the line and all.
If the painting turns out, I'll post it tomorrow. If it doesn't, they may just never invite me back. But I want to paint this! As I've said, Take a chance!

Painting in a Series

Yesterday I wrote about painting the shrimp boats in Apalachicola. The lacy rigging against the sky has a quality that appeals to me. Once you find a subject that intrigues you, it may be worth a second, third, and fourth look. Not only will it teach you how to approach painting the subject with more confidence, you will learn information about that subject. Inevitably, a shrimp boat captain will come over for a look, and I can ask him questions about how the boat operates, contact that an ordinary tourist may not get to experience.

Lots of people ask me how I get the rigging lines so straight. They assume I've used a ruler

The secret is in the speed of the stroke. The slower the stroke, the more hesitation is likely to show up. The nervousness will result in wavy lines. So being familiar with a subject because you're working in a series will let you just "hit" that line. So don't just paint a subject once!

Eliminating Details

When you come across a scene that you think might make a good painting, it's a good idea to tell yourself what element attracted your eye in the first place. That way you can figure out how to emphasize it. The thing that I most liked about this view of shrimp boats tied up to a dilapidated dock was the lacy quality of the hauling gear against the sky. A good solid indication of the boat was enough to support the "star" of the painting which is the lace of beams, ropes, wires and gears. That texture is what caught my eye right away.

To keep the viewer from drifting to the foreground and all the details at the bottom of the painting, I elminated the "trash" by the shore so I could portray the water and reflections very simply. Eliminating unnecessary and distracting details helps the viewer focus on the details you want them to look at. Including texture in the foreground, middle ground and background will only confuse the viewer. Be selective!

A Painting Holiday

Two days ago, having heard that the forecast was for 70 degrees the entire weekend, I decided to hop in the car for a little drive. I ended up in Carthage, Missouri which is listed in my favorite guidebook America's Most Charming Towns and Villages. After a look around yesterday, I decided that I would paint today at a town of old buildings that has been assembled over the years by a man named Lowell Davis, a painter, sculptor and author, not to mention great conversationalist.

Today I went back to Red Oak II, and this time was greeted by Lowell himself who came out to watch me paint. I also got a tour of his house which he termed "Asian Log Cabin." It was filled with paintings, sculptures, and Chinese urns. I especially enjoyed his studio which he called his pennance space. One day in his old studio in a separate building, he had what he called a "bad hair day", and the whole place went up in flames. A lifetime of paintings and drawings. It was a painting holocaust.

But the work he had salvaged was glorious. He's a very good painter.

A great adventure of a day.

Here's Lowell and the painting I did of the town's Marshall's office.

Go With First Impressions

When arriving at a plein air site, whether or not you've been there before, try not to bring any pre-conceptions with you. For example, if you go to a familiar location and have always painted the same subject, but this time something else catches your eye, maybe that should be a clue to what your enthusiasm is for that day. Once I went to the Cozy Harbor Yacht Club with the intention of painting the youngsters who were out for their sailing lessons. The kids had parked their bicycles in back of the building. I kept trying to convince myself to paint the small sailboats, but the bikes kept calling me. Then I decided the bikes were too hard. But finally I gave in and painted the bikes using a diminishing repeat that carefully described the couple of bikes in front, and used diminishing repeats to suggest the rest of the bikes. Way out in the distance past the building and the bikes, I placed a couple of small sailboats. I still titled it "The Sailing Lesson". It sold the day after I put it in the gallery.

This painting was at Liberty Farm in Boothbay, Maine. My Wednesday Plein Air group friends were all painting the wonderful old barn and farmhouse. But for me the day was about all the chickens that were underfoot, scratching and clucking. And when I spotted the woodpile, I knew that I had to paint them near it.

Go with your first impression! You'll probably bring more conviction and excitement to the subject.

Using Your Sketchbook

Sketching is a pleasure all its own, but as an aid to planning values in a painting, it can be invaluable. Before you attempt painting on that expensive piece of paper, it is worth a few minutes to map out the placement of your darks, lights and midtones. In "Bayou Boatyard", the whites were particularly important in establishing a pathway through the painting. Then surrounding them with darks further highlighted the white shapes. With pre-planning, the lively washes are easier to execute. Grab your sketchbook and get going!

Portraits

Even though my preference is for landscape painting, I have occasionally dabbled in still life and portraiture. The skills needed for a good painting are applicable to these two subjects. It is really just a matter of good drawing skills.

Most portraits are done in oil or pastel because of their plastic natures. Very few watercolor painters feel confident enough to attempt a portrait, which demands more exactness in the matter of getting a likeness. Furthermore, the nature of watercolor lends itself to a looser, more spontaneous kind of brushwork.

When painting a portrait, I usually begin, not with an outline of the head, but with the dominant eye. Then I measure the distance to the nose or the eyebrow. Then from the nose to the mouth, etc.

In my profile, I mentioned that I used to teach high school literature. Ernest Hemingway is one of my favorite novelists. Every year when I began the unit on a Hemingway novel, I would bring in this portrait of "Papa". I also painted characters or scenes from the novels: bullfighting in Spain, trout fishing along the Irati River, or the young soldiers in several of his novels.

In this way I could combine my two great loves: painting and reading.