Painting While Travelling

                               Henry Homestead, Manassas Battlefield


I keep my easel on top of the suitcases when I travel, but rarely pull it out to paint.  But something is different this trip.  Actually, something has shifted in my painting discipline this summer and fall.  I am much more driven to paint as often as I can.  The goal seems less about producing a "winning" painting or a saleable painting.  I'm treating each painting session as practice, keeping my hand and eye active. 

As a painter, I guess it is easy to assume that once you've made progress in your technique, and learned something about the design and execution of paintings that you will continue at that level even if you don't paint for long periods.  I reject that notion.  If you are not attentive to the craft you are practicing, you may start sliding into predictable habits that work.  It's even possible that once you reach a plateau that brings "success" that you will stop experimenting and thinking about other approaches. 

I am now convinced that painting is about the process  not the product.  I am enjoying putting brush to paper.  Sales are nice, prizes are great, but the process is everything.

Here's a painting I did near the Manassas Battlefield  so that my friend Russell could watch me paint.

Painting Trees

                             

                              "Brandywine Battlefield"

Anyone aspiring to become a landscape painter should master the drawing and painting of trees.  So many beginning painters resort to their elementary school depictions of trees, relying on symbols rather than carefully observing the individual trees they are painting.

In this painting, you see background trees, foreground trees with foliage and a couple of leafless trees.  Special care was taken with the drawing of the trees on the left.  Notice that one branch in particular is very dark, as is the shadow it casts.  Important:  Painting  a tree the same color and the same value (usually very dark brown) signals an amateur approach which uses childhood symbols of trees.  Ask yourself:  Is the trunk lighter or darker in value than its background?  Does the trunk have moss on it to justify using green on it?  Are the cast shadows darker and harder-edged in some places, and softer and lighter in others?

And smaller branches against the sky are usually lighter and cooler as the color of the sky will influence the color you choose for those smaller limbs.

Still, there can be no formulas here either.  It really depends on your observation.  So look, look, look, sketch, sketch, sketch and then paint.  The time you spend preparing will be worth it!

On the Road Again...

                                     Catskills Autumn

After an overnight in Woodstock, NY, I drove over to Phoenicia where I discovered this delightful little scene.  But it called for a little editing.  The mountain was not as steep, and there was a gazebo to my right that I decided not to use as a frame.   The church was not white, but I thought it would read better as a simple shape if I didn't use a color that would closely resemble the background colors.  Values were crucial.  Colors helped identify the season. 

Being willing to take two hours out of a driving tour is not always easy for me, but once I did, I found it relaxing.  Constantly looking down the road for a better painting opportunity happens easily, but it is often the case that "way leads onto way", and it generally doesn't result in finding a better scene.

More from the road tomorrow.

Arbitrary Color Choices

                                     "Sample's Pier"

Many times when I'm painting on location, people will stop and comment, "Ooooo....I love your colors!"  Some people may think, "The sky doesn't look that color." or "That building is gray; why are you painting it blue?" but I don't hear those reactions. 

I identify with the folks who say they love the color because color is a reason I paint.  Yesterday, the sun was warm after a week of gray, cold weather, and so I responded with a warm orange sky.  Since blue is the complement of orange, I used it on the buildings and pilings.  So this painting is just as much about the vibrating complementary colors as it is about a dock shack.

Today is my last day in Maine for the 2013 season.  I shall miss my days painting beside the ocean.  I love this place and its people.  Maybe that's as much the cause for the bright, happy color choices I made yesterday. 

See you all on the road!

Leaving Maine

Sorry I haven't been heard from much these past few days, but I have had router problems and haven't been able to post anything.  And it's a beautiful day here, but I must spend it packing the car to avoid packing in the rain on Monday.  But I'd rather be painting!

So this looks like the last painting of my Maine summer.  Never fear, though; I'm wandering home for about a week and a half, and hope to be able to paint along the way.  I'll keep the easel on top of the suitcases and try to squeeze in one or two, or three or four paintings from my travels.  Stay tuned!

Going With Your Gut

When painting with the Wednesday Painters in Boothbay Harbor last week, we were positioned near the iconic bridge house on the footbridge across Boothbay Harbor.  Everybody was painting the bridge house, but I turned to my right to the end of the harbor and saw the old clapboard houses with their sides lit up by the early morning light.  Try as I might to paint the building that is more identifiable with Boothbay Harbor, I kept coming back to the light on the side of those other structures.

So, I painted them.  And when I was finished, not one, but two people wanted to buy it! 

More often than not, these days when I arrive at a painting location, I look around to see what really appeals to me, not what should appeal to me.  If I go with my gut instinct, I think I have more invested in the experience of painting. 

For Better or Worse

When designing a composition, I am acutely aware of creating interesting negative shapes. In this painting of a scene near my favorite hot dog stand in Boothbay Harbor, trace your finger along the line where the sky meets the buildings and the islands, and you'll see that the sky shape and the land shapes are jig-sawed, and therefore, interesting.  I made a small but important change right at the end when I realized that the roofline on the foreground right building leads the eye off the page.  So I looked up and saw that there was a building behind it that could provide an eye-stopper as well as make the sky shape more interesting. Better.

The electrical fixtures and wires, as well as the rigging on the boat are not shapes, but do provide some textural relief to an otherwise static sky.  Better.

Figures always claim attention, and the placement of the man in the rowboat is enhanced by its contrasting surrounding of light values.  He is also surrounded by pilings, rocks, another boat and an island in which he becomes a sort of bull's-eye.

Design deliberately for maxim impact.

Shadowy Business

"Chimney Pond, Mt. Katahdin, Maine" 

                     
For the past month, much of my painting has been a kind of series, not of particular things or scenes, but rather focused on shadows falling on things.  Shadows on roads, shadows on rocky ledges, shadows across beaches.  Here's a painting of late afternoon shadows falling across Mt. Katahdin at Chimney Pond.

Working in a series will open your eyes.  You will begin to see things that might have previously escaped your notice.  Find something that gives you pleasure or meaning and I can guarantee you it will result in a series of experiences and paintings that memorialize those moments and feelings.

Mixing Color on the Paper

                                "The End of Newagen"

I love these two rocks at the end of Southport Island, Maine at Cape Newagen.  I've painted them in sun, rain, fog, and overcast.  Since this year I'm adding more color to my rocks, the challenge is to do a bold and colorful underpainting.  I limited my palette to cobalt mixed with Quin Gold for the tree tones,  and cobalt mixed with Quin red, and then adding Quin Gold for the rocks. 

So by limiting the palette, and varying the percentages of the colors, you get a variety of hues, but still achieve a harmony of color because you use the same three colors almost everywhere on the page.

Workshop -- Day 3

This day found my class literally in a fog!  But by the time I finished my demo, the fog had lifted and they were off and running.

Painting out of your comfort zone is always nerve wracking.  But I wanted them to at least think that there are other possibilities to approach a jumble of subject matter. 

The real scene had so many elements in it that it could be overwhelming.  So I asked them to pick one or two elements to emphasize.  I gave them one big hint, too: Forget the trees in the background. At tree-top level, they formed a rectangular shape with a straight line at the top.  Design the scene as a whole piece without encapsulating it with dark tree shapes.  Then it becomes more like a vignette,  in which the jumble of stuff touches three of the four edges of the paper.

I began by sketching in the scene, but quickly put down a first wash that ignored those lines.  The second wash was the midtone that started to find the big shape of the wharf and church.  Finally I started picking out some darks and textures to draw your eye towards the boat and its surroundings.

The key step, though, was the bold color application in the first wash.

Here's the scene and my renditions, both a half sheet version, and then a full sheet that began without a pre-planned drawing.

Workshop - Day 1

Excitement and nervousness mix on the first day of any workshop.  I began by giving a pep talk, and then doing some quick demos of value ranges, color mixing on the paper, and making suggestions about grays, greens and violets that could be used at our first location.

The day was sunny, but cold and windy.  I did my demo, and then the students had lunch (delivered by my able assistant Betsy Smith), but after doing their thumbnail sketches and drawing on the watercolor paper, we all trekked back to the studio and they painted inside, sans cold and wind. 

Critique followed, and I was very encouraged to see that attention was paid to the suggestions on technique that I had offered. 

Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer, and somewhere in Maine tomorrow, it may hit 90!  I look forward to the wild swing in temperature!

Here is the location where we painted, Hendrick's Head Lighthouse on Southport.

Sidelight

The theme of the last few weeks is August light.  The angle of the sun is slanting more and more.  The shadows are longer and more dramatic.  I look for that in every scene.

The high horizon line in this painting allows the land to dominate.  The light on the hill and the road are the "stars" in this painting, created by the shadows.

Values play a big part in the focal point of this painting as does the spot of red on the house. The foreground tree stops the eye as other lines lead to the house on the hill.

Most of the colors in this painting are grayed or "broken" so that they are grayed.  That allows the light areas to shine in their more pure states.

Values, colors, lines.

Having Something To Say

                            Shadows at Boothbay Shores

In many ways, this summer has been a break-through for me.  Colors, reflections, shadows, light....all have become more important than depicting a particular place or scene.  Yes, the scene or object might be important, but now I start by asking myself, "What is the loveliest element in this scene?  What attracted me to it in the first place?  What's the story here?"

In the case of this painting, I was driving around my cove a few days ago, when I spotted this group of rocks.  Instantly, I knew that it was the late afternoon shadows falling on the rocks going into the light where one particular striated rock caught my eye. But mostly it was the drama of the shadows.

Only after identifying that could I begin the planning stage of my composition:  lines that pointed, colors that contrasted, values that told the story of those long lovely shadows. 

I read somewhere that if you are not thinking when you are painting, you are painting a thoughtless painting.  How true that is!  Know what you want to say, say it with words, then devise a strategy to get you there.  You'll have a richer experience by telling your viewers, "Look what I saw today!"

Painting Shapes

Yesterday another painter came by to show me his painting.  The first thing I noticed was that everything was spotty or striped.  The water was not a solid shape, only a series of stripes all the way out to the horizon.  And the trees were a series of dabs that didn't read as leaves and certainly didn't form the shape of the foliage.

This is the most common mistake I see when painting trees and water.  In this painting of Boothbay Common and the Civil War Memorial, the trees are one shape, delineated only by subtle changes in color and value along the way.  Their dark shape acts as a foil against the light shapes of the statue and the city hall.  If you try to define every leaf with small dots of color, then the leaves become a distraction from the things that you want to highlight.


When painting trees, connect the leaves into clumps or shapes.  Too many light sky-holes are not shapes, but only more dots.  There's a nervous quality to paintings with so many short strokes and dabs.  It belies an amateur quality with its hesitation.  Be bold in the application of the strokes! Watercolor's charm is in the flow of the water, so stroke, don't dab.

Time of day

Many times artists paint in the morning.  But lately, I've been painting late in the day or early evening.  This time of year, the light is so beautiful because of its angle.  In this painting on Grimes Cove, I fell in love with the light on the pebbly beach below the cottage.  The back lighting cast some wonderful shadows, both on the beach, the house, and the clouds.  The reflections of the rocks in the water also caught my attention. 

Painting at a different time of day can reveal subjects in even the most familiar of locations.

Judi's Tree

Pardon a personal note.  My very good friend Judi Wagner gave an annual workshop here in Boothbay Harbor each September.  Every time we went to Knickercane Island, Judi would paint the same tree for her demo.  I came to refer to it as "Judi's Tree."  So I picked another tree as my favorite tree to paint every year.

Yesterday another friend of Judi's went painting with me at Knickercane.  One of the first things we noticed was that over the winter my tree had been cut down.  But Judi's tree is alive and kicking!
So in tribute to Judi, I painted her tree.  Rest in Peace, my good friend.

The Rocky Coast of Maine

I'm just back in Maine from a 36 hour trip back to St. Louis.  I miss my adopted state so much when I'm gone.  And one thing I miss most is the rocky shoreline.

Rocks are hard to paint.  But being a painter in Maine means you must at least try once in a while.

My approach is to paint an interesting underpainting with varied colors.  The next layers define shape and finally texture.  I also try not to define every single rock so that attention may be drawn to the focal area.

Here are two paintings dealing with the subject.  In the first one, I've limited the emphasis to shape.  In the second, I've added texture to the mix.

P.S.  Anyone want to become my 70th member??

Brush Choice

For many years, I used flat brushes almost exclusively.  They covered more territory quickly.  And if I wanted a straight line, a flat usually did the trick.

These days, though, I usually begin with a mop brush with a fine point.  The difference is that the strokes I make with a round brush are much more spontaneous and tend to move in more directions. They still carry a lot of water which is important when trying to extend a color or value.

As for straight lines, by pressing a round flat against the paper and then stroking it quickly in one direction, the line stays just as straight as with a flat.  The round brushes seem to hold more water and can therefore spread the paint farther without replenishing it.

In summary, the rounds lead me to be more spontaneous, to paint faster, and achieve an effect that is more impressionistic than the careful strokes of a flat brush. 

Experimentation never ends!

Street Scenes

Here is a street scene in Boothbay Harbor.  I was struck by the shape of the house at the top of the hill.  Its silhouette was very interesting and didn't need much interior description. 

Note:  Some students have tried to convince me that since a house is painted white, that it must be depicted as a white shape against a dark sky.  But the value of the white house was a midtone against the light sky. 

Likewise with the road.  I know it's blacktop, but it is catching the light, and is very light in value.

Sometimes students get help with the aid of a red cellophane viewer that makes the values clearer.  I think careful observation does just as well!

Late Afternoon

                                    "Townsend Gut"

When the sun reaches a lower angle in late summer, the shadows get longer earlier in the afternoon.  I wait for this sunlight here in Maine every August.  Recently, I've been going out in the afternoon rather than the morning because the long shadows in the late day are more dramatic.

Here is a ledge in Townsend Gut where the sunlight hit the rocky ledge while shadows crept up on the rocks resulting in an interesting lighting  effect.

Including figures

Learning how to include figures in a scene will help give your paintings life.  Rarely is there a scene without human or animal life.  Having some experience including them in the composition will help give movement and interest to an otherwise lifeless scene.   Figures can be used to interrupt lines or overlap a shape so that they can be a compositional device.

Practice figures separately to ease the fear of placing them in crucial areas.  Heads are smaller than you might think.  Legs are longer. 

Figures also can provide scale by comparison.

Cast Shadows

                                           "Treasure Island"

Cast shadows in landscapes can help your painting in several ways.

1. Placed in the foreground, they can act as a frame or lead-in to the focal area.

2. The cast shadows can help define the light areas.

3. A cast shadow can provide gradation opportunities.

4.  A cast shadow can add drama to your composition.

Even if in reality there is no cast shadow, consider adding one for these reasons.

Painting Water

A common mistake I see in students' work when painting water is to paint hard stripe-y lines all the way out to the horizons.  If you really study the water, the ripples closest to you are the ones where you can see the shadow side of the little wavelets. 

 Gradating the water so that near the shore, the water appears darker and a bit warmer because you are looking down at the bottom where the rocks are warmer.  The reflection of the sky happens out closer to the horizon.  Gradation also suggests the softness of the water.  Stripes make water look like concrete.

And finally, reflections.  Again avoid stripes that start right where the boat or object meets the water.
Define the ripples at the edge of the reflection, not in the middle.  As you get further down, then you can start spacing the ripples again.

Also, study the reflection to see if it is lighter or darker than the object being reflected.  A white boat in shadow will often have a darker reflection.  This also will determine the order of painting.

Alternation

When considering this technique, think Checkerboard.  Now, think three values instead of two.
 
For instance, look at the stern of the focal boat.  It's a midtone.  Next to it on the side is a light value.
Also next to it is a dark value, the reflection. 

Trying to keep that pattern going is like juggling; you have to keep track of all three balls--the two in your hands and the one in the air.

The key is to start with the lights.  Make a trail of linked light shapes by cutting around them with the midtones.  Then add a dark that is contiguous to one of the other two.  Checkerboard!

Here is another example of the same subject, both using alternation.

Scale

I had intended to paint the Cuckold's Lighthouse from the Southport Town Dock, but this huge sailing yacht came by and grabbed my attention.  But how would I show its height?

Placing similar objects nearby or overlapping things will show their relative size.  Without the smaller boats, the size of the large yacht might not be apparent.  Also, the trees give scale to the boat.

It also took some careful and quick observation of the values in the sails because the boat was soon going to be out of sight.  Don't assume value---study it.  The cast shadows made parts of the white sail darker than the sky.

August Light

I wait all year for August light in Maine.  Late this afternoon I went to the entrance of my cove and saw this little beauty at the entrance to Little River.  It was gone in ten seconds so I had to memorize the light effect.  What a beautiful day to paint in late summer!

Identifying Subjects

On Wednesdays, the Plein Air Painters of Maine paint together at various locations around Boothbay Harbor.   This past week we went to a location where I often have had trouble being inspired by subject matter.  This time, however, I developed a pattern of finding a subject that revolved around elimination. 

The boats that I was attracted to were across the cove.  There were wonderful trees and rocks in the foreground, but I determined that the boats were my subjects so the problem became a situation of eliminating anything that wasn't relevant to my subject. 

Next came the problem of placement.  I chose two boats, and put the main one on the thirds.  Then my thinking shifted to how to emphasize and draw the viewer's eye to that place.  The background provided the foil for pointing to the boats via value.

Finally, I needed a few elements to point to the subject.  The major one was to paint the water leaving the lighter "z"  to lead into the area surrounding the boat.  I am very conscious of lines that point to the focal point of the subject.  Values and line accomplished that for me in this painting.

Disappearing Subjects

                                    Ocean Point Marina

When you paint boats in the harbor, it's not uncommon for the boat you picked out to paint to sail away.
But in a boatyard?  I had just finished the drawing of this scene on the watercolor paper when along came a boatyard worker with a cradle and hauled it away to the launching ramp!  I had my easel all set up and the drawing was finished, so I decided to forge ahead.  But I was standing in front of a big empty space, painting a boat that wasn't there, so I got a lot of strange looks!

But the worst case happened a few years back.  I was down on Boothbay Common painting a small Victorian cottage.  Halfway through the painting, a flatbed trailer pulled up, they jacked up the house,  loaded it up on the flatbed and hauled it away!  Now if you can't depend on a house staying put, I ask you, what can you count on??!

Maine Workshop

Just a reminder.....There's still time to sign up for my September workshop (9th - 13th) in beautiful Boothbay Harbor, Maine.  Great studio space, lovely plein air locations, fun people, and helpful, specific instruction. 

Tuition is still only $400.

Contact me at:   caroljessen@yahoo.com      or                    207-633-6414

Five full days of concentrated painting will do wonders for your work.  Give yourself the gift of time, and come paint in Maine!

Avoiding Monotony en route

                                 Southport Boatyard

Ed Whitney used to caution students to "avoid monotony en route." 

So, you have a line.  It goes from point A to point B.  It's a long line.  Mr. Whitney would insist that you give us a break along the way by interrupting that line. 

So, you have a shape.  If it's a rectangle, try getting something to pop up from it, or overlap it with another shape to interrupt the first shape..

So you have line of trees.  Avoid the monotony by changing the color and the value en route.

In short, look for potential areas which could be monotonous and think of a way to make it more exciting and less monotonous. by changing color, texture or value along the way.  And definitely look for uninterrupted lines that need to be broken.

Silhouettes

                                Main Street - Waldoboro, Maine

Interesting shapes that interlock with their surroundings, creating negative shapes that are also interesting are always a priority when I'm designing silhouettes.  The silhouette in this painting is much more important than any noodling I could have done in the interior of the shape.  It also makes painting easier!  Watch your silhouettes and check to see if you are designing with interlocking shapes.

Still Life Paintings

I became a  landscape painter because still life paintings looked so static and boring to me.  All those fruits, flowers, and dead rabbits. 

But every once in a while I make a foray into the genre.  This scene of some hanging lanterns was inspired by the remnants of a bygone era hanging in my friend Joan's shed. 

I kept the colors in a kind of sepia tone.  The grey of tin and glass surrounded by warmer colors of the wooden interior made a striking contrast.  I've said it before:  restricting the colors, keeping a limited palette, allows you to concentrate on values.  And the slight tilt of the lanterns gave the still life some tension. 

Please leave a comment or reaction so I'll know you were here!

Horizon Lines

The horizon divides the painting into two parts:  sky and earth.  But, placing the horizon at or near the center of the composition will give equal weight to each part.  By putting the horizon higher up, it becomes an "earth" painting (sea included.)  If the horizon were low on the paper, there would be more emphasis on the sky.

So it's important to ask yourself, Which one do I want to emphasize?  If it's the sky, there had better be some drama there:  clouds, color, light or dark values.  If it's the earth, think about having several planes, and perhaps more texture in the foreground.

In this painting of Grimes Cove, I wanted to emphasize the earth portion of the painting.  There are about four planes working forward:  The far island, the near island, the rocks, and the tree/foliage.  And as I worked forward, there were more and more textures to entertain the eye.

When composing a landscape painting, decide first which area you want to emphasize.  Give that area the biggest space and shape, and the viewer will know what you want them to look at. Then, using values, colors and textures, show him what you found interesting in that area.

Relying On Memory

I have painted schooners, lobster boats, sail boats, row boats, shrimp boats and oyster boats so many times that their shapes are second nature to me.  So anytime I need a boat in a painting to add interest, I go to my repertoire and experience with boats. 

If you have an interest in some subject, draw it until you can do it on demand.  Find out what interests you, then study its shape and draw it from many angles.  I love all things afloat, and have learned a lot from boat owners and sailors.  Know what you love and show it to us!

Moon, Boat, Reflections

I missed the perigee moon last month due to rain, and overcast.  I wanted very badly to see that huge moon, and I was determined to work it into a painting.  Here's the painting.

It was a bright, clear, hot day, with about 50 boats in the harbor.  The trick is to say what you want to say.  I wanted to say "Moon, Boat, Reflections", so I chose a small trawler and made up the rest.  Several tourists came by and wondered if I had been out all night, presumably painting in the dark!  I explained narrowing of intent, and artistic license.  Some did not seem convinced and gave me a wide birth!

Elimination is often the hardest choice for a plein air painter to make.  With all that "accuracy" out there, the temptation is to be "truthful" at the expense of emotional content.  Before your wet brush hits the paper, stop and think what it is you want to communicate to the viewer.  If your list is too long, reduce it to two or three ideas.  It will not only focus your attention, it will also simplify the painting process.  After all, it is easier to say one boat than fifty!

Lazy Days

Yesterday was hot and steamy.  There's only one place to be on such a day:  Ocean Point.  It was low tide, and I knew that when the tide turned it would bring a cool sea breeze.  Several other people had decided the same thing, and were basking in the sun, enjoying the sights of sailboats just off the coast.  That seemed to be what the day was about, so I decided to depict that.

In painting landscapes I often try to determine what the day is about.  That requires some personal reflection and reaction.  Stop, look and listen.  Something will surely call to you, and it's not always the first or most obvious element.

Process

Normally I do not resort to using masking agents to preserve the white of the paper, preferring instead to paint around those areas.  But for this painting I needed to put in the sky in one flowing pass, so masking was the option.

When such a large part of the painting must be preserved, masking tape is the most efficient choice.
The most critical element is to choose a tape that is sticky enough to prevent leakage under the tape which would destroy the crisp edge that is desired.  Also make sure that the wash is completely dry before removing the tape.

I used scissors to form some of the shapes.  This may take a little time, but is well worth the effort.

Here's how the painting proceeded.  The scene is of Spring Ledge Breakwater Lighthouse near Portland, with Portland Head Light in the background.

Edge Quality

One kind of contrast to consider in your painting is edge quality.  All soft edges or all hard edges confuse the viewer.  By providing a contrast between hard and soft edges, you can direct the viewer's eye to a focal point.

The shoreline is often a place where hard edges are made, thus creating a straight, hard line.  By making a blurry, fuzzy soft edge, the viewer's eye will not stop there so readily.  Rooftops are another place where hard straight lines can over-define a shape that is not worth the attention.  Suggesting these elements with softer edges will cause the eye to seek out the harder edges.

In short, hard edges attract the eye, while soft edges keep the eye circulating around the composition.
A judicious use of both will come in aid of the focal point.