Quick Draw

I apologize for the delay in posts. Been busy after my return from Italy getting things ready for the Festival of Arts in Laguna this summer, Telluride Plein Air, commission finalization, etc. (It’s good to be busy ... I think!)

This past week was the local Paint San Clemente competition and above was my winning painting from the Quick Draw that started off the week. Since they extended the duration of the quick draw to 3 hours this year, I used the extra time to get down to their local pier and set up. And the threat of rain kept the normally crowded beach parking manageable.

When faced with such a complex subject as an old wooden pier, the most important thing is simplicity. First, I try to set up at an angle where all the pier pylons appear as a mass instead of from the side where they look equally spaced. This eliminates the temptation to paint them all the same size and distance apart which is not very dynamic. Then I massed in a general pylon color for the middle to distant underside of the pier gradually moving forward in space and intensifying my colors. I pulled down dark suggestions of where I wanted the closer pylons, rather than trying to draw exactly what was there. The idea is to get a good “feeling” of the pier rather than attempting to paint in every piece of wood. After the whole pier was massed in loosely, I moved to the water and sky. I painted in a rough aqua color for the water leaving the white wash areas for later in the painting. The sky was painted next as it appears with no revisions. Now that the canvas was filled, the trick to making it look believable without being overworked is a slow building process of nuances, varying the temperature and not the value in the large masses of the water and pier underside. The only real details in the pier are the just the small edge highlights. I finished with the whitewash of the waves making sure I carried them through the pylons and keeping the shadows more purple. Lastly, I added the side support planks that nicely move your eye down the length of the pier. With some light poles and suggestions of people along the top, the painting was finished.

These old structures can be challenging, but they make a great subject if you succeed. Enjoy!

Seeing Red

Friday, we happened across an amazing field of poppies that put the prior one to shame. It was as if the ground opened up and oozed lava over the entire area. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to capture this onto canvas -- a nice treat for our last day of painting.

I normally don’t sit when I paint, but in this scene the best view was when you crouched down and immersed yourself in the crimson pool. I wanted to show the layers of depth, not just in the field, but also in the distant hills. With so many flowers, I felt my best approach would be to invent a pleasing pattern inspired by the red. I started this painting by completing all of the far trees, hills and cypress first. Then I proceeded top to bottom with the poppies, choosing a grayish red for the back and intensifying as I moved forward in space. I varied the colors from red to orange to purple to give it a nice variety. Then, as that became more of a foundational color, I used bits of white and yellow to move your eye around, fading it as it recedes. To show the far village in the distance, I re-introduced a reddish tint to give a hint of warmth in the upper part of the painting.

Note: Using your drying box as a stool is not advisable if you enjoy circulation in your legs. Ciao.

Entry ... Italian Style

Here is an Italian-style entry gate that seem to be very popular in this region. Some are quite ordinary, but others such as this one above, seem ancient and are truly beautiful. They have interesting stone-work and feature decorative plaques, wrought iron rings and other adornments. As far as I could tell, they serve no purpose other than to mark the driveway to a sprawling property or maybe just to one-up the neighbor.

Since the entire gate is the main focus, I kept the other elements at a minimum. There were some complex trees, and an entire horse stable in the background which I eliminated. It was difficult to see the light direction on the form because of the stone color, so I forced the issue by painting a simple blocked in shadow on the front side and then a lighter color for the “sunny” side. It was only after these two colors were massed in, did I get involved with the subtle color shifts and textures. The iron rings were added last, but kept very close in value, so you’ll only see them on closer inspection. Good drawing was key to pulling this one off, plus a variety of edges.

Below is our group at another incredible dinner. Smiles everyone! Ciao.

Market Day

It was market day yesterday, as we traveled into Siena for our painting excursion. I always find it a challenge to try and capture a busy, constantly changing scene such as this. But, I figure if you can pull these off it’s all downhill from here! So, as we plodded through the bustling market, I found an area off to the side with this great view of a meat and cheese vendor. 

The hardest part of a moving scene is deciding what moment in time do you capture? There are tons of people merging in, out, and making purchases, with the busy vendors trying to accommodate their requests. I find it best to watch the action for a while before deciding. As you observe, I look for the nuances that make up the action: People pointing to what they want, resting a hand on the counter with their money, leg and arm positions, clothing, accessories such as purses or bags, etc. Once I’ve determined what I’ll include, I sketch it in quickly with pencil on my canvas. Then I start the painting by keeping all of the elements loose and sketchy while working around each of the figures. After the whole scene is blocked in, then I move to the people. Each person is a combination of many as they come and go. As I see someone move or stand in a way of my original idea, I paint it in, one body part at a time. There is lots of invention here, and I find that you just have to keep manipulating until it looks believable. They just don’t hold still in plein air!

I also thought I’d share this little sketch of the poppy fields that are in full bloom this time of year. This was a 30 minute painting, 6 x 10 in size at the end of a full day. The colors were amazing and I just tried to get the essence of the scene before the van arrived to pick us up. Eddie Felson -- fast and loose!

Here we are ... poppy painters impatiently waiting to go to the gelateria! Ciao.

Chianti Hills

Well, I’m finally abroad painting the Italian countryside. The Tuscan landscape is quite beautiful this time of year with nice warm weather and interesting skies but it’s very green. The workshop I will be teaching starts soon, but I’ve been working on a commissioned vineyard scene this past week. Looking forward to painting some town scenes after five solid days of vine rows. Plus, I’ve had to fill all my down-time with double espressos, prosciutto and Sangiovese, so its been a tough week.

Here is one of the views I found with these amazing flowering bushes that are a nice break from all the verde. Another feature I love are these tall Italian Cypress trees that are conveniently everywhere to break the horizontal horticulture. They’re a great simple shape, but still have subtle color shifts that keep them interesting. In this composition, I was trying to keep your eye bouncing from the yellow flowers on the left to the big cypress to the villa in the distance. I popped in more Cypress as needed to break lines and hold you in. Nothing like an game of visual pinball as your eye caroms back and forth on all the juxtaposed diagonals. Ahh the 70’s! Ciao.

Structural Concepts

Here is another painting from Sonoma Plein Air. “Morning at Ernie’s” was my submission for the main gala event. I’m always inspired by the works of Scott Prior and William Wray, and this place was right out of their playbook.

Ernie’s Tin Bar is an auto repair shop slash bar joint, in which I’m assuming you can get your car fixed and drink your way though it – an interesting concept. The best thing about this place is its character, a lean-to structure with mish-mash construction and lots of junk that begs to be painted. The toughest part of this scene was setting up. I’m across the street, wedged between the highway guard rail and a ten foot hedge, standing on an uneven slope, with barely enough room for me and my easel, and just four feet from a busy car and truck route. (Disclaimer: please don’t attempt this at home, plein air artists are trained professionals).

I felt this was the best angle for the composition. The framing of the white sign against the mass of trees in the background was extremely important. As was the large area of darks that make up the left side of the painting. This allows my white areas to pop and hold the focal interest. My overall success though, hinged on edge-work. I kept my straight lines extremely varied. It might look like it’s just a painterly way of working, but it was well thought out. By forcing the white sign pole to be imperfect, gave it the character I was looking for. Ditto for the roof eaves, guard rail and scrap metal storage rack. I painted all of the foliage as unelaborated simple masses so not to detract from the building. The silhouette of the oval sign holds your eye from all the angles sliding to the right. I adjusted the far fence and tops of the distant trees to counter-balance those angles as well. 

Or it just could be my hands were shaking so much from the trucks screaming by at 60 mph! Enjoy.

Go with the Flow

I just returned from the Sonoma Plein Air painting competition. It was a great experience with challenging weather, good crowds and a very talented group of artists. My friend and fellow painter Robert Sandidge won the Artist Choice award with a well-deserved entry. Thanks also goes out to founding artist Keith Wicks for his hard work in making the show such a success and honor to be a part of.

The week started out with rain, but you can always find an interesting subject if you look for it, as is what happened with “Puddle Patterns” above. I am never opposed to altering my original idea if the opportunity presents itself  and what started out as a simple road scene was completely revised after noticing the amazing sky reflections in the water.

Upon pulling over and trying to figure out the composition for several minutes, I walked around to see if there were other good views. Once I saw the puddles, everything changed. My idea of the road leading you up to the tree was revised to be the puddles. I used the dirt and grass to widen my entry into the painting. Then made the puddles smaller in size as they went back into space. As I was painting the reflections and enjoying them more, I decided they would become the main focus. The original focus of the tree was now secondary, so I kept it simple and everything else soft. I also juxtaposed the sky clouds to the angle of the mountain so your eye zig-zags down from the top. The hard edge where the road meets the dirt was varied so as not to detract from other important areas.

Taking my time to stop and smell the roses turned out to be a good thing after all! Enjoy.