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"Popham Beach" 15" X 22"
Capturing the feeling of sunlight is sometimes difficult, mostly because of our fear of committing to dark values. It is the contrast between these light and dark values that is the best way to convey sunlight.
In this painting of some buildings in Popham Beach, Maine, the cast shadows on the roof and from the building on the left explain the direction of the light. The cast shadows on the road also create a shape of light values that begins on the side of the building and then flows down to the roadway. Squint your eyes and you will see that the light shape is an interesting pattern that interweaves with the dark values of the shadow areas. It is this contrast that is central to creating the feeling of sunlight.
While having breakfast early this morning, I looked up and saw the long dark shadows crossing my backyard lawn with the light in the cove beyond. This is the view I see every morning, but now that August light has arrived, it seems much more crisp and dramatic. I got out my sketchbook and quickly mapped out the values. Then I did the line drawing, and after lunch, it was off to the races!
Learning to see in values takes practice. That's why the value sketch is so important; it helps you to see how to compose the scene with values first and color second.
I took great joy in sketching this scene this morning, as well as looking with joy at the light falling on the foliage. This scene is so familiar that I could have dismissed it as too familiar. Paint what you love!
Many times I arrive at a location that I know well, and may have preconceived notions about what I will paint and how I will paint it. But other times, as I told my students yesterday, I will wait a bit and see what happens or what shows up before deciding what the real subject in the scene will be.
At this location a couple of years ago, it was a woman walking her dog when a flock of geese flew by overhead. Yesterday, I was setting up to give my students a lesson when who comes wandering by but Carlton Plummer who lives just up the road and around the corner from my summer cottage. Carlton set up his easel on the rocky beach and began to paint, so at that moment I decided that I should paint him into the scene.
Figures often animate a landscape that would otherwise be rather lifeless and bland. Don't rule them out as an intrusion into the beauty of nature; rather include them as an element that gives scale and interest to the locale.
In the last entry, I posted two sketches of my cove. Here is the painting I created using one of them.
The value sketch is the place to figure out where your light, midtone, and dark areas will be. It makes decisions easier about what to paint first, (light areas), second, (midtones) and last (dark areas and accent details.) Don't confuse a value sketch with a drawing. Drawings focus mainly on lines, not shapes of lights, midtones and darks.
Value Sketch
Line Drawing
My summer cottage is at the end of a long cove. There is a working dock across the way, and some of the debris from the fisherman's gear has washed up on the bank across the road. An old rowboat has been washed over for a couple of years. The remnants of a collapsed dock has also been rearranged by the rising and falling tides. Old pine trees hang over the cove, casting their shadows and dropping the occasional branch on the mud flat. An old bucket is half submerged in the mud. This may look like trash to some, but to me, it is part of the charm of Maine.
I took the various elements and placed them where I thought they would enhance a composition. Here are the first two value studies in a series I'll call "Flotsam and Jetsam". Paintings to follow.....
22" X 30" - "Quiet Cove"
Once again the problem of being bold with dark values came into play. I put down the wet-into-wet areas, then came forward with the light background trees, then the darker tree silhouettes, and finally the major trees in the foreground. The shaded sides of the two trees on the left required a dark value on the left side and some cast shadows of different colors falling on the main trunks. The values in the reflection also demanded some darks. The problem is that some students are a bit timid about the darks, and again, don't have enough paint to create them.
The clue is to place the midtones first so that the darks won't be so jarring. Look at the highlighted part of the water and then look at the gradual approach to that area. Putting down a dark value in a very light area is always scary because the contrast is too extreme. Leading into a highlighted area by laying down a midtone gives you a chance to gradate to the highlight.
Also, with reflections; be careful not to make a straight line mirror image of the object casting the reflection. No matter how calm the water, there is still going to be some wiggle to the reflection.
A quick reminder: My annual Maine workshop will be held from August 24th - 28th. Tuition is still $400 for the full week. Some openings for the first three days remain. For a supply list or more information, email me at caroljessen@yahoo.com
Wilson Chapel at Ocean Point
I have painted this chapel on Ocean Point numerous times, and always reported the fact that it was next to a large summer cottage. I took great care to draw the complicated angles of the house next door. The structure of the chapel was fairly easy to depict. The problem, then, was always that the cottage began to assume the same importance as the chapel.
This time I decided to take my own advice and eliminate the cottage. I also moved the foreground pine tree a bit closer to the entrance for compositional reasons.
So let me reiterate: Be willing to move or even eliminate anything that complicates the scene.
"Glen Cove"
I have a friend who laughingly commented that it's against the law to remove vegetation within 100 feet of the shoreline. In this scene, painted from my dock here in Maine, I love the key tree, the rocks and their reflections. In truth, there are a lot more trees and deep, dark woods, but I wanted the sense of looking through them to the sunlit grass on the far side. I felt free to alter the scene slightly to emphasize the stars of the scene.
This is also a good example of simplifying the shapes of a large mass of trees in the background and the long blades of grass in the foreground. Many students feel compelled to represent every leaf and blade with dots and stripes. The shape is more important than the distraction of texture.
So subtract (and add) when it comes in aid of your composition.
Most students are really afraid to commit to a dark shape and value. The first problem seems to be that they don't have enough paint on their palette to mix a strong dark and then put it down with authority. The second problem is that they isolate the darks against values that are too much of a contrast. The key here is to use gradation, gradually going from light to a midtone to the darkest value.
Study the reflections in this painting. The reflections of the tree shape on the shore go from dark to midtone to the reflection of the sun which is the lightest and the most colorful part of the composition. The ripples on the right hand side of the foreground have two shades of midtones leading up to the dark reflection of the boat.
So get some paint on your palette, mix up two complementary colors and have a fairly good sized puddle, and then strike in those darks with confidence!
Last night I woke up several times thinking about, even dreaming about the value sketch I did yesterday in preparation for today's painting of the Allagash Waterway. I decided that the majority of the painting should be completed in subtle shades of warm and cool grays; and that the gradation in the water should gradually approach the highlighted whites of the water, both in the falls and below the falls.
The most bold decision came from deciding that the canoe and the figure needed some color. I borrowed a page out of Winslow Homer's whitewater watercolors and chose to paint the canoe red. If any watercolorist paints a canoe scene or a sailboat, it is going to call forth the image of many a Homer painting of those two subjects.
Still, the composition is mine. The canoe points toward the waterfall and the figure in the canoe also employs body facing to highlight the falls. So both placement and color emphasize the two major elements in the painting: the falls and the canoeist.
Again, study my value sketch to analyze the compositional planning that went into this painting.
I'm still a strong believer in doing value studies to design the composition. In this sketch, the waterfall is set off by the darker rocks, and the canoe and canoeist break the line where waterfall meets flat water.
Now that the values are set, I'm going to give myself some time to think about the colors. Planning makes all the difference.
The morning was frustrating at first. I drove over to Southport Island to paint at the boatyard. It was a beautiful sunny day, and I was eager to paint. But from the start, I had trouble drawing the boats. Then there was a treeline behind the boats which was, of course, a dark green which I thought I could play up as a value contrast.
The boats got worse when I started to paint, and the trees were a dark mess. The shadows further frustrated me. So I did what I sometimes do when I'm that frustrated: I flipped the paper over and painted with much more abandon.
I had learned something about the shapes of the boats, and drew them quickly. I decided to use the storage buildings behind me rather than those yucky green trees. I also chose a more violet color for the shadows. I strayed from the colors of the actual boats so that I could use the complementary colors of blue and orange.
In other words, I was no longer a slave to the scene in front of me. I could also paint more quickly in order to keep the washes fresh.
Lesson: If you are frustrated with your first attempt, try, try again!
A sailboat sails on by you, and the clouds float away. What's an artist to do? My answer is always, Memorize it.
The sailboat went by and I looked at it carefully and decided which details to include and which to ignore. I liked the billowing sails and their reflection in the water.
The clouds were actually behind me, so I kept turning around to observe them. I wet the entire area with my natural sponge, and then sailed in with some lamp black and ultramarine blue. The far shore was just a shape that I created with gray and a touch of titanium white while it was all still wet. The island silhouetted trees were the same colors, but I just used more paint to create deeper values.
The trick is, I've found, is to go with your strongest attraction in a scene. Then simplify everything else, eliminating any details that call your attention away from your chosen subject. And paint fast!
In this painting of the Bay Lady, a little Friendship sloop whose home port is Boothbay Harbor, I decided two things: first, that the dozens of buildings on the far shore weren't important and therefore should not be rendered precisely or at all; and second, to make the focal point stand out, the background color should be muted while the little sloop retained some color.
While painting, once your eye wanders away from the focal point, the temptation is to include all sorts of irrelevant details. Think of ways to tone down or eliminate those distractions. Graying them and only suggesting them with a silhouetted shape are two ways to keep the attention on the focal point.
This is Windjammer Week in BBH, so I'm sure you'll be seeing more boats very soon! And if you'd like to paint these scenes in person, sign up for my workshop in August!
This is the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library, right in the center of town. Today the Plein Air Painters of Maine painted on the library lawn.
The problems presenting themselves in this painting were several. I arrived early to get the right light and shadows. I also had to eliminate a tree and add some people to give the scene some life.
When I was about halfway finished, tourists started coming by and photographing my painting. Then, a young black couple arrived in their wedding garb with a minister and two official witnesses to preside over the ceremony. I was so close that I felt like a bride's maid!
Technical problems again presented themselves. Perspective, big shapes, color, and the addition of people were decisions I made before the brush hit the paper. And being right in the center of tourist country, you have to deal with people who want to connect with the artist. Sometimes I feel like I'm a representative for the Chamber of Commerce!
But get out there and take a chance. Painting on the spot will only sharpen your drawing and painting skills. Never mind the curious bystanders. Most people are impressed that you're willing to put yourself out there, and they know they can't do what you're attempting to do. Have fun!
After an absence of 8 months, I get nostalgic about the sights and sounds of Maine. The little village of East Boothbay consists of a couple of boatyards, a restaurant that hangs out over the water, the post office in an old gray shingled structure at the bottom of the hill, and a general store and the Methodist Church at the top of the hill.
Since it was Sunday, and the post office was closed, I could park my car in front where I had a good view of the hill leading up to the church which presides over the small hamlet. The road crosses a reversible falls which flows in and out of Mill Pond at high and low tide. (I think I'll save that for next Sunday!) The sounds of the seagulls and the gushing water tugged at my heart, and I spent a happy two hours painting the familiar sight that I see every day.
Getting the perspective right was the major problem in this painting. The horizon level was very low, about at the point where the road begins to rise. Everything above the horizon line slants downward.
As usual I painted a light wash as the underpainting. You can see the first especially on the road, but also realize that the trees had a first layer of yellow green which I built upon in the next glazes.
The red foundation of the old church conveniently provided the complement to all the green foliage, and helps the viewer focus on the church. The shadows across the road keep it from getting too uniform. I even made up a shadow at the bottom of the paper to keep the composition from running off the page. (More on the use of shadows in compositions at a later time!)
Paint, write, sculpt what you know and love.
"Anderson's Poppies"
Many of my novice watercolor students ask me, "Carol, how do you know what to do first?" Or "How do you know what to do next?"
Over the years, I've developed a checklist. At first I literally wrote it out. Then at the end of the day in my own little private critique, I would go through the list and see if I had paid attention to the elements and principles that are the building blocks of painting.
1. Always start with clear values and shapes. Have at least three values plus your white paper.
A value study is most important. Plan the large shapes; skip the accents and details.
2. Decide what you want to do with color. Will this be a predominantly warm or cool painting? Or is a neutral palette called for?
3. Paint a light first wash with some color changes in it.
4. Think about glazing. Direct glazes are developed by charging color into an area of another color.
Or, when an area dries, you can paint on top of it with a darker value.
5. Plan your darks so they will be at or near the focal point.
In this painting of a ceramicist's front yard which blooms with vibrant red poppies each June, you can see the first and second stages in which I developed the shapes, the complementary colors of red and green, and the underpainting on top of which will later be painted the midtones and darks. I try to start with a wet in wet technique so that I can choose to either keep an area soft or place hard edges on top of it. Since flowers are soft, I tried not to dot the page with hard edges, but rather flowed on the orange-red suggestions of the poppies at the beginning on the wet page.
Also, since I wanted the tree trunk to remain warm, I painted it first and then painted the whole cool background around it.
Begin with a plan. Paint with words in your head. Not "house", "tree", or "poppies", but with wet into wet, color choices, values, and shapes.
First there was packing. Then there was hauling all my stuff down to the car. Then the long drive to New Hampshire where I had hoped to get three days of painting in, but alas, it rained the entire stay. Finally I arrived in Maine, but there are always the start up chores: banking, grocery shopping, gardening, etc. Then the weather was rainy and cold. Today, the chores were done, the weather was perfect, and I headed out to do what I come here for.
What to paint my first day out? I have certain go-to locations, and this time I chose the end of the pier at Sample's Shipyard. I must have painted this two dozen times, but it's nearly a ready made composition, so I don't have to struggle too much on the first outing of the season. I also have painted this boat every summer. Getting back in the routine, for me, means going back to the basics: getting the drawing right, figuring out the values, and remembering the procedures.
I'm sure that later in the summer I'll experiment again, and that will be fun, or maybe a challenge. But for now, I just needed to swing the brush again! More to follow without such a wait. Thanks for your patience.
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I was packing up to travel east for my annual trip to Maine. Now that I'm in New Hampshire, it decided to rain non-stop for the entire three days I've been here, so plein air painting was out. I finally dug out my sketch book and went to the North Conway Railroad station and did a quick sketch with the windshield wipers going! No instruction this time....just an apology for being absent so long, and encouragement to keep your sketch book handy!
Sometimes a landscape composition will benefit from the inclusion of a figure. The fisherman in this painting anchors the scene, even though the painting is about the waterfall.
I am convinced that most men who fish secretly do it because it gives them a manly reason to be out in nature. The quiet (well, waterfalls aren't exactly quiet!), the beauty, the wildlife....all give a peaceful atmosphere in which to rest, to heal, to contemplate and to slow down. Anyone read Hemingway?
A few years ago there was an obituary in the Boothbay Harbor Register that read: "In lieu of flowers, take a young person fishing." I didn't know the deceased, but I sure wanted to.
"Morning Harbor" by Maine Artist, Carol Jessen
As artists, we sometimes seem to think that the more paint we spread on a piece of paper, the more saleable it will be. In depicting this quiet harbor scene, though, I felt that I had to convey the serenity of the scene by limiting the number of "busy" areas in the painting. This painting was all about the warmth of a quiet morning light, and the reflections in the still waters.
A big wash of mostly warm color suggested the sky and water in the scene. Cluttering up the painting with more objects would have only destroyed that calm feeling. It's not about buying a painting for the amount of paint expended in creating the work; it's about selectively leaving out anything that would destroy the mood.
"All Saints By The Sea Chapel"
by Carol Jessen, Maine Artist
Last week I gave a workshop in St. Charles, Missouri. My students were great! We had a fun time, and I hope they learned a lot, too.
One piece of advice I gave them is to work towards the dark shapes. In order to do that you have to know how to mix a really dark paint color. And that requires a lot of pigment!
So many students are not squeezing out enough paint on their palettes. You can't mix a dark with a tiny bit of paint.
A couple of years ago I visited the Wyeth Museum in Chadd's Ford, Pennsylvania. There was a special exhibit that taught me a big lesson. As I walked around looking at wondrous paintings by Andrew and Jamie Wyeth and Rockwell Kent, I began to notice that much of the drama of their work was due to the ability to create very dark shapes to set off the lights. Get a book of reproductions and study it and you'll see what I mean!
Speaking of workshops, don't forget my Maine workshop July 20th - 24th in beautiful Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Here is one of many possible spots we may paint that week. Please notice the dark shapes around the front of the church and especially the steeple.
"Tying Up" by Maine Artist, Carol Jessen
In this painting of a lobsterman tying up his dinghy, the sky area provides a foil for the hard edged shapes of boats. Creating soft edges requires speed so the transition areas are still fully wet and not just damp or else a hard edge or jagged edge will result. It also helps if you have some courage when hitting a wet area with a fully loaded brush of pigment. Remember that if the paper is fully saturated, you need not bring more water to the paper when you dash in the color in that area.
You can also wait until the paper is completely dry and then re-wet it with a light stroke before hitting it again with a darker color. The paint will spread and create a soft edge.
This takes quite a bit of practice to understand the ratio of water to paint. It's like practicing the scales. Skip at your own peril!
"Mountain Village" by Maine Artist, Carol Jessen
Creating a sense of depth in a landscape depends on both value and color.
As things recede in space, they become lighter and lighter with ever so much more atmosphere between the viewer and the landscape. Since the watercolorist usually proceeds from light to midtone to dark, the lightest value is the sky, the farthest plane is a light midtone, the middle plane is the middle to middle dark, and you will find the darkest values in the foreground.
Also in landscapes the coolest colors are likely to be found in the far distance. Colors tend to become warmer as they advance toward the viewer.
In this painting of a little town in Germany where I taught for a year, I used a thalo blue-green, light toned color for the sky. When transitioning to the farthest mountain, I switched to a warmer ultramarine blue which I grayed. A little more ultramarine in the nearest mountain which is a little darker as well. Finally the dark green foliage which surrounds the center of interest is warmer, too, because of the addition of yellow and burnt sienna.
If you can begin to think in terms of these planes, your paintings will portray distance in a much more believable way.
"Regatta" by Maine artist, Carol Jessen
This is the first of the series of sailboat paintings I've been doing. Everything was wet-in-wet, soft edged. In subsequent paintings I tightened edges up, and then loosened them up again. Scroll down to see other paintings.
Sometimes just playing around will show you a new possibility. Colors, edges, shapes, accents....all can be changed around and manipulated. Staying with the same subject and taking a different approach can be very educational.
"Larry Lobster Goes Out On A Date" by Carol Jessen, Maine Artist
In this painting of lobsters, I wanted warm colors, especially red, to dominate. But a warm themed painting needs a bit of cool colors to provide some relief. So, in the first wash underpainting, I splashed in some blue. This takes some courage! Don't let the white of the paper fool you. Be bold!
I titled the painting "Larry Lobster Goes Out On A Date". Just having some fun with this one!
One way to insure that the paper will accept the pigment is to pre-wet the page using a natural sponge. First, this removes the sizing on the paper, making the application of the paint more uniform. Second, it slows the drying time down. Finally, it creates soft edges that can later be contrasted with hard edges.
In this painting of a sailboat regatta, I wet the entire page and then lightly brushed in the first wash. When this was dry, I made the decisions about what to keep soft and where to emphasize subject matter with hard edges. Gradation is a form of soft edge formation, too.
Last, I added textures and calligraphy for interest and movement.
My goal in this painting was to suggest the movement of a regatta race. I started by painting the negative space around the white sails. The design of those sails was crucial. The big shape of the foreground sail was balanced by the shapes of the other sails as they recede. I created a sense of movement with brushstrokes and with the tilt of the sails which gave the negative spaces different sizes and shapes as well. Once that was done, the colorful accents and darks were dashed in to create texture and visual interest in the white shapes.
Keeping the negative shapes relatively neutral in color was also helpful to keep them subordinated to the sails. As a result, any orange and black accents stand out.
Don't forget about my May workshop in St. Charles, Missouri, and my annual Maine workshop in July!
Several autumns ago, I drove down to Carthage, Missouri for some fall painting. I discovered a little recreated farm village. I even met the man who conceived it and transported the buildings from far and near. I also sold a painting of one of the buildings to its owner!
This morning I found two photos of my trip. I combined the farm and windmill from one, adding the little cupola to break up the straight line of the roof, and then added the chicken from another shot.
Don't be a slave to your photos. Play with composition, values, colors, adding and subtracting where necessary.
"Hendrick's Head Summer"
15" X 22"
Most watercolorists will tell you that you begin with the lights, proceed to the midtones and then punch it up with the darks. Goodness knows that's the way I was taught and how I've painted through the years.
However, some watercolorists begin with the darks, among them Ted Kautzky. I've always resisted this idea because when I first tried it, the darks would bleed when a midtone was placed on top of it.
Also, certain color combinations would create muddy darks. It always resulted in an ugly mess.
Now that I understand a lot more about the amount of water, brush pressure and color combinations, I've once again tried the darks-first method with a little more success than my first attempts at this sequence.
Here's an example of this approach.
"The Bay Lady" 15" X 22"
I placed the Friendship sloop Bay Lady on the third, but needed something else on the other side of the teeter-totter, so I placed the distant three sails near the shoreline to balance the large boat in the foreground. The sailboats at shore's edge also helped break up a straight line to avoid what Edgar Whitney called "monotony en route."
Consider balancing one large shape with several smaller shapes on the other side of the page.
Hendrick's Head Lighthouse "22 X 30"
I'm so happy to announce my 6th summer workshop in Boothbay Harbor, Maine July 20 - 24th.
Contact me at caroljessen@yahoo.com or call me: 314-968-5567. This is a beautiful area with loads of subject matter. Check out this painting of one of our painting sites.
Lessons change every summer. I still encourage beginners as well as seasoned painters to come enjoy the Boothbay Region, and to try out new techniques and especially to figure out how to begin a new painting.
This is Hendrick's Head Lighthouse. I've painted it at least a hundred times, but never tire of the challenge of different ways to approach the subject.
" Cornwall Beach "
15" X 22"
I am happy to announce a two day spring workshop to be held at the Missouri Artists on Main Street in historic St. Charles.
Dates: Thursday, May 7th and Saturday, May 9th.
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Tuition: $150
Subjects: Landscapes in Three Steps
1. Wet-Into-Wet
2. Gradation (of color and values)
3. Drybrush and line
Underpainting/Glazing
Contact Jean McMullen at 636-724-1260 or jmcmullenart@aol.com
There is a limit of 10 students for this fact-packed workshop. Make your reservation soon. Last fall's workshop filled up quickly!
Sometimes it's a good idea to de-emphasize the foreground or background by painting wet-into-wet to keep the edges soft. But in some landscapes, I like to look past something interesting in the foreground to something interesting in the mid-ground and the far distance.
In this painting, I looked through the trees at a serene lake scene. In the foreground I placed a focal point of a birch tree on the left. Knowing that a flat lake would hold little interest, I added some sailboats in the middle ground. And finally, a low hanging cloud and its cast shadow on the distant mountains provided a point of interest even farther back.
In this way I supply a pathway through the scene.
Watch this space for a workshop announcement soon!
Now that I have to start thinking about packing up to go back to St. Louis, it's finally gotten warm enough to paint outdoors in a T-shirt. It is 76 degrees here on the panhandle this afternoon! I'd stay longer but I have an important doctor's appointment.
As with many trips, I find the view from my room quite memorable. This is my second painting of the view from my balcony. I like sitting in my room looking up river past this old tree and will miss it when I return to the frozen north.
You don't always have to find the "iconic" view of the area you are visiting; the familiar view will do just fine!
I've been in Eastpoint, Florida for most of the time since Dec. 21st. The weather has been completely uncooperative, not allowing me to paint outside even once. Today I finally had the opportunity to paint in my tee shirt. I could have driven miles to find a subject to paint, but instead I chose to paint this scene off my balcony here at Sportsman's Lodge. The reason was because I saw the layers of landscape as the subject matter.
Look around you, and you'll probably be able to find suitable subjects not far from your front door!
In this painting of an historical meeting house in Manatee Village Historical Park, I was trying to set the feel of the day, which was overcast and rather spooky with the Spanish moss lending its ghostly mood.
A scene like this does not call for carnival colors. Grays were the order of the day. The only relief comes around the bottom of the old building in the form of some warmer colors.
Part of the challenge of painting is to convey a mood to the viewer. Consider color as one of the most powerful allies in accomplishing that goal.
When I'm on vacation, I always take my sketchbook everywhere. Lunchtime is a perfect time to make a record of where you've visited. While waiting for my food down by the sponge docks in Tarpon Springs yesterday, I took advantage of the view from my table. Rather than trying to include the whole harbor, I zeroed in on the reason for the docks: the sponges.
First I drew lines to indicate the direction of the string of sponges. Then I carefully drew some of the individual sponges while suggesting the outlines of other strings. The values and details fade the farther they are from the focal point.
I still maintain that drawing and painting focus your attention from a casual glance to an intense study of your subject. So take that sketchbook with you!
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