Windjammer Day

The annual Windjammer Days festival is held here in Boothbay Harbor at the end of every June.  This year the weather was rather threatening, but it remained dry all day.  I spent the day restaurant hopping so as to have the best view of the ships entering the harbor. Sketching and photographing was the best way to go due to large crowds. 

Keep that sketchbook handy!

Unity

One of the major problems with painting plein air is deciding on color schemes. How many colors will you use and to what purpose?  If there are green leaves in the upper corner but green does not repeat anywhere else, you are creating a spot of disunity.  Taking the liberty to use color as a unifying factor requires deliberation and decision making to limit the number of colors to achieve a satisfying result. 

In this painting of Little River Beach near my cottage, I chose to push the color temperature to the warm side, using yellow ochre, raw sienna and burnt sienna.  To contrast that, smaller areas of blue were included in the first wash to provide relief and heighten the purity of the warm colors.  To create the dead fallen tree, I painted the negative space around it.  But because the first wash went over both the tree and the background, they had a commonality that created unity.

Select colors that unify rather than for their local color accuracy.

Wednesday Group

Here in Maine, we're expecting three straight days of 90 degree heat.  So the Wednesday Plein Air group painted at Grimes Cove at Ocean Point today.  I found a shady spot where I could catch a little breeze. 

Rocks are hard to paint.  Folks who haven't really looked at Maine rocks sometimes paint them round and soft looking.  I always look for the angular structure and hard edges to define their hardness.  Also, I also look for ways to link the shadows.  Colors go from warm to cool, so finding ways to place blues next to burnt siennna heightens the color quality.

Now I'm going to retreat to my dock with a cold drink to await the sea breeze that comes with the change of tide.

Arbitrary Color

"Well, Carol, That's the way it was."  In my workshops, this statement may be the most used explanation of color choices in paintings.  Trees are green, skies are blue and rocks are gray or brown.  If your goal is literalism or illustration, that's fine, but it sure doesn't say much about the color preferences of the artist and the feelings they produce.

Arbitrary..definition:    Depending on individual discretion and not fixed by law.  Determined by individual preferences rather than the instrinsic nature of things.

Choosing colors that please and that glow and that create unity should override any obedience to local color.  So trees can be red or purple, skies can be orange or violet, and rocks can be yellow.  You are the artist, and you get to decide! 

Interlocking Shapes

Interlocking shapes are like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle: one positive shape fits into a negative shape.  In this case, the two pieces are the background shape (negative) and the pier and boat shape (positive).  If you trace your finger around the pier, the shack and the boat, you'll see that the shape interlocks with the rest of the painting by poking into that space.  In addition, the positive shape is an oblique which contrasts with the horizontals in the background and the foreground water.

The best shapes, Edgar Whitney maintained, are longer in one direction,interlocking and oblique.  Design deliberately, with this in mind.

Boothbay Harbor

This sketch of Boothbay Harbor nearly cost me dearly.  I had just had lunch at a dockside restaurant and was working on the sketch when a gust of wind lifted the top half of the umbrella with its heavy wooden pole and metal attachment which then crashed down on my head!  Luckily, a doctor and her husband were having lunch at the table next to me and came to my aid.  She pronounced me okay but predicted a knot on my head which has now appeared.  The price we pay for our art!

First of the Season

On Wednesdays here in Boothbay Harbor, the Plein Air Painters of Maine meet at various locations around the peninsula.  This was my first Wednesday since I've returned.  It was good to be painting again with close friends whom I've known for years.  I chose to paint this woodshed.  I was reminded of my lessons before I left St. Louis, and decided to use the complementary color scheme, an easy choice since the pine trees were green and the fallen needles were red!

It's good to have the first one out of the way.

Pure Colors vs. Neutral Colors

Now that the trip is over, I'm back to watercolor.  This one exemplifies what I was saying about complementary colors before the trip.  It also illustrates the fact that, in a mostly neutral color scheme, the pure color accents attract the viewer's eye.

Let me remind you, too, that my Maine workshop is scheduled for September 10-14.  Enrollment is limited to 16, so sign up soon!  For more information, you can request an online brochure by emailing me at  

                                                           caroljessen@yahoo.com

After 1,500 miles, I'm finally back in my beloved Maine.  And if ever there is an iconic landmark of this state, it's Nubble Lighthouse in York, Maine. 

The weather has been so beautiful, but now we're in for 3-6 inches of rain over the next few days, so I may not be able to paint for a while.  Thanks for your patience and your support!

Motif #1

You can't leave Rockport without sketching or painting Motif #1.

The Rest of the Cove

Here's the other side of the cove across from my inn here in Rockport. 

Tomorrow, Motif #1.

Rockport, Massachusetts

Here's the view from the big common balcony outside my room here in Rockport.  What a treasure trove of art is here!  My sketch book is filling up!

On The Road Sketch

Lenox, Massachusetts......

Split Complementary

A split complementary choice is a palette that is made up of 3 analogous colors (side by side on the color wheel) and one contrasting (complementary) color.  For example: yellow orange, orange, and red + blue. The contrasting color provides an emphasis in the focal area.  In this painting, the contrasting color is on the shadow side of the boat and repeated in a more neutral hue in the buildings. 

Split complementary color schemes provide a feeling of harmony and unity.  Choose your own combination and try it!

Blue Orange Complements

Here's one more version of the same Ocean point scene.  This time I used fewer neutralized colors, making the side-by-side complements even more vibrant.

More Complementary Colors

Here's another take on the subject, this time using red and green complements.  These are only studies, but they should remind you that placing complements side by side intensifies them, and that mixing them on the page by glazing or wet-in-wet provides a neutral relief.

Complementary Colors

I decided to try another painting using the complements of violet and yellow.  As you can see in the sky and the rocks, combining complementary colors wet-in-wet produces a beautiful neutral gray.  That leaves the lightest area around the focal point with the purest colors.  Contrast of complementary colors and neutrals and pure colors adds interest and punch to a landscape.

Complementary colors

Beginning with this post, I'm going to paint the same subject with different complementary colors.  This first painting uses yellow and violet.  On the island I used pure color while the sky and foreground were neutralized colors which leaned either to the warm or cool color.  Painting in a series with a particular focus, like experimenting with color theories, reminds us all of the important things about painting. 

The "L" Shape

Squint your eyes and you will see several "L" shapes in this painting of a feed store near Kimmswick, Missouri.  The light values of the buildings form an "L".  So do the background trees on the left.  And the sky that leaks into the feed store forms another "L". 

People wonder why Motif #1 in Rockport, Massachusetts is so named.  It's because the building is a natural "L" shape, making it an easy compositional choice.

Self Evaluation

Sorry for the interlude between my last post and this one.  Between severe storms and fighting an invasion of raccoons, I have been Sleepless in St. Louis.

After completing any painting, I go through a mental checklist of the elements and principles. 
In this painting I am satisfied with several things and disappointed with others.

Things I am satisfied with:   1. Contrast.  The darkest values are placed next to the lightest values in the focal area creating interest.   2.  Color:  Mostly neutrals, creating unity.  3.  Shapes.  The buildings interlock with the background trees.

Things that need improvement:  1.  Shapes  The sky shape, the beach shape, and the village are are all approximately the same size.  In the sketch I lessened the shape of the sky, so the buildings and the beach were more dominant.  2. Color. I would like more vivid colors to conform to the direction my work has been taking lately.  3.  Line/Direction :  Horizontals were a bit too dominant.  I need some vertical, perhaps overlapping to give relief to the horizontals.

Once you finish a painting, you need a way of evaluating it that isn't as vague as "I like it"  or "I'm not sure I like it."  The checklist of elements and principles will give you that evaluation tool.

Preliminaries

More and more, I've become convinced that a value sketch is an important preliminary to the painting of a successful watercolor.  Here's a sketch of Popham Beach, Maine, that I plan to paint tomorrow. 

If you want, paint your own version of this sketch.  I will try to post some of them as soon as I finish painting my own version!

Going Vertical

 I often forget to think like  a decorator.  And one format that painters tend to forget is the vertical.  Verticals emphasize the height of a room or fill a small wall space where a horizontal would be squeezed.

As a landscape painter, it is not always easy to design a vertical composition.  But if you look for tall subjects within a landscape, you can narrow the scope of your painting.  Case in point:  a waterfall!

Also notice the "S" curve formed by the light shapes.

Numbers

Here's one more sketch.  This scene has been painted so often by local painters in Boothbay that it's referred to as Motif #1.

An often touted rule in painting and drawing is to use an odd number of objects (3, 5, 7) rather than an even number.  This is probably because an even number might create a balance that is too symmetrical, i.e., two on one side and two on the other.  Just remember that one side or section of your composition has to "win".  If both sides are equal, there will be no clear focal point. 

You can either see this composition as five buildings or three.The three buildings in the center are grouped as two against one.  The hints of the other two buildings make it three on one side and two on the other.

Back to the Basics

Sometimes when I'm at a loss about what to paint next, I get out my sketchbook and do what I first did when I started my art journey so many years ago.  Drawing and sketching can reintroduce me to the joy of expressing myself with the strokes of a pencil.  Nothing fancy...a #2H and a #2B.  These days I'm more interested in finding values than I was when I was younger and concerned with outlines. Values rather than lines define the edges of things.  Keeping the strokes short and staccato also makes them more interesting.
Here's a scene I can draw in my sleep:  Ram Island Lighthouse off Ocean Point in Boothbay Harbor.

Critique

Here's a link to the St. Louis Watercolor Society's video of Stephen Quiller commenting on the winning paintings in their annual exhibition, including mine.  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY1r67SBUyg&feature=youtu.be

Last of a series

This is the last of the beach shack series for a while.  The search for a new subject is not easy. It feels like looking for visual candy when all I see are visual vegetables.  I'll keep you posted.

Recognition

Most of an artist's time is spent in the studio or plein air painting.  Ours is basically a solitary profession, so there must be pleasure in the doing, satisfaction in the process. 

But if we've worked hard, paid our dues, and learned our craft, for a brief, shining, hopeful moment,  we can celebrate our growth in the spotlight.  It's not "Look at me", or "Look what I've done";  it's "Let's share the enjoyment of the fruits of our labors."  The work is still the most important thing.

So I'm proud to announce that two of my paintings have been accepted for the 2012 St. Louis Watercolor Society's Annual Exhibit, and that one of them ----- "Eastpoint Shoreline"----won an Award of Achievement (3rd place).  The juror/judge was nationally known painter and author Stephen Quiller.  The exhibit will be on display at the Creative Art Gallery here in St. Louis for the month of April.  Friday night is the awards ceremony. 

The Power of the Silhouette

In this painting of Jackson Square in New Orleans, the silhouetted statue of Jackson has very little detail, but that does not lessen its impact.  The viewer doesn't need every detail of the saddle, the folds of the uniform, or the carved letters on the base.  The silhouetted shape of horse and rider is very clear without those details.

I've said it before:  Providing all the details in the interior of a shape will never save a bad shape.  Let the silhouette carry the day.

Diminishing Repeats

In the last entry, I talked about the power of the diminishing repeat.  When depicting similar objects in a group, if many details are included in the foreground object, fewer details are needed as the objects recede in space.  The eye will just fill in the missing textures or interior details.

Here's another illustration of the concept.

Looking Back

This week while going through some slides of my old work, I found this painting I did nearly twenty five years ago.  It's reproduced from a photo made from a slide, so the color is not at all accurate.  But it illustrates the idea of "the diminishing repeat." 

This concept is that if foreground details are explained thoroughly, then repeats of the same subject receding in space need fewer and fewer details.  The eye just fills in the missing elements.  By the time you get to the last Indian, there are just dots of color which you assume are horses and braves.
You can do this with boats or people or almost anything that comes in groups.

Variations On A Theme

Sometimes I like to play with a theme.  I'll change the colors, the temperature, add some elements, remove others.  There's a freedom in having the subject matter decided so that other concerns can be addressed.

By the way, feel free to become a Follower or leave a comment or reaction.  Sometimes I just need to know I'm reaching readers!

A Trail of White

Areas of white or light values are attractors.  So it only makes sense to plan them carefully.  Isolating light areas causes the viewer to jump around the surface, not knowing where to focus. 

Leaving escape routes of connected white allows the eye to travel in a logical sequence.  In this painting of shoreline shacks, the largest shape is the building on the left.  By letting the light connect to the laundry, the eye is led to the second shack.  Next, the white proceeds downward toward the beach and over to the boat.

Emphasizing the light shapes by placing darks near them further helps the eye by providing an obvious contrast.

Let the light leak!

Foreground Plane

As I wrote in the last post, here is another version of some shacks in Naples, Florida.  In this version, the foreground plane on the near bank is emphasized.  It not only frames the shacks, it also becomes a more important subject. 

More and more, though, I am favoring the single plane presentation.  Flattening the subject plane is one sure way to concentrate on design problems.

Florida Shacks

This is the first of two paintings I did of some shacks lining a creek in Naples, Florida.  It's basically a one plane subject.  The shacks are on the third and so are the palm trees.  The background and foreground water are deliberately kept simple so as to emphasize the subject plane. 

Next I'll show you what else I decided to do to this subject to create two planes.   

Florida is in the rear view mirror.  I'll be home tomorrow around noon.  It's been a fun and productive winter, but I'm ready to be home.  Now the challenge of finding subject matter in the studio.
Stay tuned!

Small and Silhouetted

The continuing series of small assembly line paintings.  This one is my homage to Winslow Homer.  Silhouettes work well to describe an object.  Not much texture within each shape.  The object is described at the outside edges.

Another Small Painting

 I'm on the road, so not much time for blogging.  Just ditto the last report with this small painting.

Small Paintings

In order to loosen up, I sometimes set up an assembly line of small format pieces of paper.  I tape as many as five pieces of paper down on my masonite board.  Then I start painting the first wash on one and then the next, and then the next.  By the time I've painted several of these, I return to the first one which by then is dry, and proceed to the second wash on all the  paintings.  Finally, I place the darks strategically around the focal points. 

This production line procedure not only helps to speed up my painting, thereby keeping a looser result, but I tend to repeat the same color schemes as well as rearranging the same objects into  different compositions.  This creates a small series which helps solidify an idea, a technique or a compositional problem.

Here are two paintings done in this manner.  Hey!  If it was good enough for Henry Ford.....well, you see where I'm going!

Negative shapes

Here's a painting I did to illustrate the idea of painting what is behind an object in order to leave an object.  I painted through everything, and when all was dry, I picked out the area behind the tree branches on the right hand side of the painting.  This is a real adjustment in thinking and requires lots of practice before I started to be able to paint in negatives.  Give it a try!

Day 2 - Naples Workshop

What a nice group of students I have here in Naples!  We're painting inside for three days, and then will move outdoors to paint plein air on Thursday and Friday. 

Here's today's demo. Our focus was on painting negative space  in midtones, creating a trail of white shapes.  Then it's on to placing the darks and adding a little calligraphy, and BAM!  You're finished!
Tougher than it looks, however.

Still Life

I've commented on this  one before, but, since I'm travelling right now, I thought it might bear repeating.

Repetition, the S Curve, and size variation all play major roles in this composition. 

If your subject is all one color, you might want to be inventive to avoid boredom.  Add color where there isn't much.  With these tan mushrooms, it was pretty important to add some color to give life to the subject. 

It's a good idea to overlap at some point too in order to form clusters rather than individal object.

My Naples Workshop begins on Monday so I should have some new paintings very soon!

Pointers and Stoppers

A painting should make you feel as if there is nothing outside the edge of the paper or canvas.  I'm always aware of "pointers" that lead into the painting or to the focal point.  But "pointers can also lead the viewer out of the painting.  That's when you need a "stopper", something that will keep the eye from going off the page.

In this painting of Scipio Creek, pointers include the direction that the boats are facing, lines on the boats, the dock, ropes and rigging.  The lines on the far boats could point off the page without a couple of pilings to stop the eye.  On the left side of the painting, the nets and the dock are stoppers. 

Objects and elements that point or stop are consciously included.  Sometimes they have to be borrowed, invented or moved to come in aid of the composition.  Always think before including or omitting an object that could help or hurt the design of the composition.

Complementary Colors

The state park on St. George Island has some fairly high dunes with some very interesting scrub pines.
The sand is nearly white, but painting it that way would be monotonous.  I decided to use a pink tint as a base color.  Then it only made sense to use a cool green as the sky color, thus setting up the complementary colors.  The cool green in the sky would then recede when I put down the warmer greens of the tree canopy. 

What a nice way to spend a February day.....At the beach!

Inspiration

I still remember the first time I saw an exhibition of John Singer Sargent's paintings in London.  I had stopped painting for several years, but his work inspired me to pick up my brushes again, and I haven't put them down for 38 years.  I was especially drawn to the paintings he did of architectural features, statues and fountains.  Ever since, I, too, have been attracted to these subjects and love painting them.

Finding an artist whose work you admire can be inspirational.  Is there an artist that you admire?  Leave me a comment to show your appreciation.

This memorial is in front of the Episcopal Church in Apalachicola.  It is dedicated to Dr. John Gorrie who invented an ice making machine with a fan to blow cool air over his patients with Yellow fever.  Thus, he created the forerunner of the air conditioner, thus making him the patron saint of Floridians!

Receding Space

There are several ways to make space appear to recede in a painting.

1.  Size  --  Larger sizes in front, middle sizes in the mid-ground, and smaller sizes in the far distance.

2.  Color  -- Brighter purer colors in the foreground, more neutral colors in the far ground.  Warm colors up front, color hues in the distance

3.  Textures  -- Textures in the foreground, few or no details in the background areas. 

4.  Edge Quality  -  Hard edges in front, softer edges in the distance.

5.  Perspective -- Lines that recede to the vanishing point.

6.  Values  --  Darker values in the foreground, midtone and lighter values reserved for the far distance.

A lot to think about, to be sure, but better to think about it and get the feeling of three dimentional space.

Stomp 'n' Holler

It doesn't happen as often these past few years, but every once in a while I'll have a Stomp 'n' Holler Day.  The painting not only goes badly, it goes so badly that I lose my temper, holler in frustration and stomp on the nasty thing I've just created.  (This technique is also helpful in chasing curious onlookers away!)

My birthday was Monday, it was a beautiful day, and I had hoped that I would paint a good painting to commemorate my special day.  It was not to be.  The first painting was tight and the color was lacking dominance.  In the afternoon I tried again, but the humidity didn't allow for any drying time and the paint just kept spreading.  Stomp #2!

We all have these days.  The desired result is firmly in our mind, but circumstances or lack of focus or some fool painting muse or other puts the hex on our efforts.  We're convinced we don't know anything about painting and that we'll never be able to paint anything good again.

But after a few days the itch comes back, and out I go again.  Yesterday things went better.  This is the memorial near the library in Apalachicola.  Sometimes simpler really is better!

Trees

I  love trees.  I love  to paint trees.  I once told my English Lit. class  (some of whom feared for my immortal soul!) that if there were no trees in heaven, I wasn't going!   

Many of my  watercolor students, some of whom are very accomplished, approach painting trees as if they were still in kindergarten.  In their prejudiced eyes, all trees are brown.  But when I ask them if they can see red, their eyes suddenly fly open!  If I ask them to see green on the bark, they suddenly notice moss.  If I ask them to see blue, it takes a little longer, but eventually they start coming around.  And even if they can't see those colors, I still ask them to paint them because unrelieved dark brown is so boring. 

Other students insist on trying to get the whole tree in their painting.  If this happens, I  tell them to look straight ahead and tell me if they can see the blackbird on the top branch.  If they move their head to look, then I point out that they are not painting a video! 

In this painting of a live oak in Apalachicola, the tree is not a frame for the main subject; it is the subject.  The figure and the dog against the light of the house act as secondary interest, but the tree is the main entertainment, which I emphasized by its bulk and texture.  I downplayed texture elsewhere in the painting so your eye would travel the surface of the tree and its color.

Study real trees instead of relying on your idea of a tree that you probably formed in elementary school.

Inventive Color

By the sea, by the sea, By the beautiful sea.....

I love to paint the water.  That's why my two homes away from home are Apalachicola, Florida and Boothbay Harbor, Maine.  And if you're near the water, what more natural subject than boats? 

But even a seasoned watercolorist can get a little tired of a favorite subject.  What to do to spice things up a little?

I like to play with color combos.  In this painting of a couple of shrimp boats at Scipio Creek, I began with cadmium yellow and cobalt violet, both in the sky and the water.  The really bold move came when I threw some cad yellow on the stern of the near boat.  Then I repeated it in the area that would become the nets.  Later, when these areas were dry, I added some cerulean blue.  Blue + Yellow = Green (and the nets were really green!).  I continued to add those four colors in ever darker values in the reflections.

I love painting docks, boats, and trees.  Next time.....trees!

Placing the Darks for Emphasis

In this painting of an unloading dock in Eastpoint, Florida,  I began with the light midtones and then began to place dark midtones and dark values around the right edge of the structure.  Working outward from there, I kept lessening the darks to keep the emphasis on the textures of the dock which was my main interest in the scene. 

The overall shape of the dock structure was also a consideration.  I wanted it interlock with the background to form an L shape.  That created a balance problem.  I didn't want all of the weight of the composition to be on the left, so I added the shrimp boat on the right.

So much to think about while designing a composition.