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I went painting down in the Harbor today. I've always loved painting boats, but I try to be selective and resist including every boat in the Harbor. And this summer, I also try using color in an inventive way rather than an "accurate" colorful portrayal of the scene. I had so much fun mixing colors on the paper with new colors. And that is the new goal of my approach to painting!
This past weekend, my friend Jan Kilburn held an event called Artists on the Lawn. First, working from a sketch, I did a painting of a couple of boats in the moonlight. Then I painted some flowers in Jan's garden. But finally, I decided to improvise one of my dock scenes. I painted the underpainting first, and then proceeded to invent elements of a typical working dock. The only object that wasn't a normal part of the waterfront was a bell that accidentally developed during the underpainting. I attributed that to whimsy.
This painting became a statement about color more than subject matter. Mingling colors on a saturated sheet of paper is a fun, inventive way to paint and is the equivalent of musical improvisation, a jazzy, playful event.
Poppies in June, Day Lilies in July, Queen Anne's Lace in August, and now Shasta Daisies.
While composing this painting, I was aware of grouping and odd numbers as well as placing the daisies on the thirds. Three daisies against one. Also three muted Queen Anne's Lace to break up the background.
The darkest values were placed around the daisies and gradated as they recede to the edges of the page.
Also, study the colors. The painting is dominated by cool colors with touches of reds and violets. Again I mixed the greens on the paper.
And last: The title. "Hey, boys. Look at Her!"
Hendrick's Head Lighthouse has been a favorite subject for me over the years. After a while, though, any subject can become an exercise in repetitive and trite expression. But in this, my summer of color, I am expanding my choices of colors to include hues that are more inventive and less literal.
I used masking tape to protect the white areas of the lighthouse and the structures on the bell tower.
I chose to make the sky and the water areas warm in color, while contrasting them with the more neutral colors on the rocks.
Once again the wet-into-wet blending of colors was the fun part of the first wash, both in the sky, the water and then the rocks. In the past, I would have been timid about the values and the colors, but this summer, everything goes!
The background color of the actual scene was green. Instead I decided to enliven the background with other colors. First, I chose a turquoise green for the sky so that the blue of the trees wouldn't repeat the same color. Once I decided on the blue, I went to the orange as its complement. Then I transitioned to warm reds and then violets. It was all about gradation of colors while moving around the background. I stayed with the same four colors for most of the painting.
Once the blue was there, I put the complement of orange on the mailboxes and changed over to blue again.
I was then left with the white of the paper. I decided to put down some neutral grays in those areas.
My point is, have a rational idea about color choices.
Employ a lot of wet-in-wet soft backgrounds. It's rather like throwing your photo into depth of field and soft focus to keep your eye in the foreground. It also keeps your eye coming back to the areas of harder edges.
Driving to town today, I passed this little scene with a couple of mailboxes. I have been looking for a
way to incorporate some Queen Anne's Lace into a painting, and so I was focused on finding a setting for them.
Two subjects: Mailboxes and Queen Anne's lace. The supports and the background became a way to highlight the focal point and the subjects. I needed to use values to make the subjects to stand out.
Finally, I did the value/composition sketch. I can't say it often enough; do a preliminary sketch so that the hard work is done ahead of the painting process. You'll have enough to do while painting without having to decide on placement of shapes and values.
Once in a while I like to create my own scenes. This one consists of elements of a typical lobster shack: lobster trap, barrels, picnic area, sign, boat, and buoys.
To lead the eye around the painting, I concentrated on interesting shapes, light values, and broken lines.
Follow the light shape on the beach to the boat which points to the couple under the umbrella. It also connects to the light on the building.
Straight, unbroken lines become monotonous. Study the dark line along the bottom of the building, and you'll see that it is broken by the legs of the couple, the protrusion of the bow of the boat, the lobster trap, the barrel, and the crates. The umbrella breaks the line of the roof.
Most of the colors are neutrals, making the warm, pure red umbrella an immediate focal point, highlighting the figures as well. The red is repeated in more neutral hues on the sign and the high-flying lobster.
Consciously design the elements of your painting to circulate the eye. Keep most of the textures around the focal point, and relegate the softer textures to the edges and corners of the paper.
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