I Did It.

Nothing Flat

It's remarkably difficult for me to find source landscape scenes (that I can steal/commandeer) that don't have central flat, calm, and securely grounded areas situated front and center. You know. Quaint recumbent meadows or serene marshes. Right now I am interested in making pictures of outdoor spaces that are insecure, roiling, precipitous, and worrisome. There aren't a gazillion models out there, in any format. (Other than the classic Grand Canyon overlook pictures.)  I am experimenting with taking larger works and cropping out all but peripheral steep and sloping areas. It's not a very satisfying way to find or create this kind of source material. But, hell, hermits can't be choosy. So oh well.

This one is 5" x 5" and is quite rough. I am not sure I like all the light specks of paper peeking through. This was done on an old piece of Wallis paper that has the deep grey tint, so I was reluctant to muddy it up with an underpainting. Next time I'll chance it.

Cantilevered Tree Line

This one is 5" x 5", cropped. It started with a much large nearby tree on the left side. But as I worked the dark green limbs and played around with the foliage mass, that big tree kept growing across the page. Eventually it covered almost the whole left side of the sheet. Too big! The distant line of trees on the ridge line got lost in the shuffle. So I extended the 'scene' further to the right, and re-cropped into a square. I like it better now.

Mozart Miracle

Happy 258th birthday to the miracle that was and still is Mozart.





[This a portion of a portrait painted by Joseph Lange, Mozart's brother-in-law. More here.]

Small and Square

This is a smaller one, 4" x 4". I like the red glow behind and inside the trees. I'm not sure what it is, but I like it.

Then what isn't, indeed?

Adapted from Is This Art? (2010), Maciej Ratajski

Daily Pastel Again

This is 5" x 5" and is another in the series of daily (well, almost daily) pastels.

Daily Pastel

This is another in the series of daily pastels. This is 5" x 5", which seems to be a optimum size both for speed and for avoiding being intimidated by the whole daily concept.

Small Pastels Daily

This is one of a series of small pastels that I am planning on completing every day.

Two Dimensional View

More monotypes today. My goal today was to try to achieve some depth. To leave the 2D realm behind and see if I can make pieces that you can peer down into.

Mixed results so far.

More here.

Grip It and Rip It

This is another of my gelatin monotypes. Fun with geometry!

The gelatin print process is an interesting exercise in envisioning the result of various sequences of events. Mentally keeping track of the probable outcome of alternative catenations is a real trick. Because (naturally!) as the process unfolds in real time, who the heck has time to keep notes? Yeah, okay, hold on. What did I do first on this one? Oh ha. Best to just let 'er rip.

More monotypes are in the portfolio here.

Jelly Belly

These are monotypes made with my brand spanking-new gelatin printing plate. Great fun and the potential to make a whopping big mess.

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My portfolio of Gelatin Monotypes is here.

Park Slope Texture Re-Attempt

This is about 7-1/2" x 9" on textured board, done with pastels.

Here I chose a board that was lilac-toned and textured with random-directional strokes of the brush that I used to put on the ground. Next, I decided  where the foreground/background ridge line was going to be -- where the tree is growing -- and put down a more radical texture below it, using wrinkled tissue paper and bright white ground.

I am not sure if this is a too-obvious use of texture. Yeah, that's supposed to suggest a grassy, weedy foreground. But not scream it. (And perhaps the background slope could have been less textur-y.) So we'll see how I end up liking this notion.

Wait! I wonder if this piece would benefit from some more radical cropping too. Hmmm. Take some of the bottom off and align the ridge line more at the one third mark. Lower in the frame.

Anyway! It was inspired by Donna Timm's wonderful red box, in this posting on WC.

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Bonus! ---> The Road Lined with Trees, from Heirloom Philosophy

Growth Time Lapse

Delightful two and a half minute long vid. Watch THIS.

Texture Experiment

This is about 6-1/2" x 9" on watercolor paper prepared with a radical texture and pastel ground.

My plan on this one was that the heavy texture would preclude any kind of fussy mark-making. That it would force me to be looser and freer.

Wrong. I kept dabbing and stabbing at it and fooling around with it all day yesterday until it wailed STOP. A lesson I need to learn is how to s-t-o-p.

Wolf Kahn

This is a treasure. 

I found it on Casey Klahn's website. Thanks again, Casey!

Yellow Tree Line

This is about 9" x 12" done with pastels on sky-blue tinted sanded paper.

It's inspired by the plein air paintings of BJ Stapen.

I am enjoying the notion of a very high (or non-existent) horizon, where I can play with the layers and the texture of the intervening mid- and foreground. Kind of the exact opposite of my skyscape interest of a month ago.

Que sera, sera. You gotta follow your nose.
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This is about the same size, but done on salmon-tinted sanded paper. Quite a different all-over tone and mood.

This was my first piece painted on Sennelier La Carte pastel card. The sanded surface is delicate and can be dissolved very easily with just a touch of moisture or a drop of water, leaving a plain shiny white card stock below. Interesting. (Annoying?) I have a stack of this La Carte paper and need to begin to use it!

Build Trees, Part Two

Here is a 13-minute vid by Leesa Padget, entitled Painting foliage in soft pastels, demonstrating one way to build a tree from the inside out.

(Apologies for the HIDEOUS ad that precedes the video. [shudder])

Build Trees from the Inside Out

This painting is by Donna Timm, entitled Field Path 2 (10" x 7")

"I would love to see you try under paintings on papers that can take them so you could try to build trees from the inside out. When I paint trees or any kind of foliage, green is the last color I put down. I force myself to think of green as an accent, something to enhance the underlying structure that I've already built. Lavenders, oranges, deep warm reds - they all work to create the right temperatures for various parts of the tree. The fun comes at the end when you get to lay on the sunlight with yellow-greens or push leaves into shadows with cooler greens. You'll notice as leaves move away from the influence of a blue sky toward the deepest, darkest center of a tree that the darks get warmer."

The above is a bit of advice given by pastel artist Donna Timm to a novice plein air pastel painter on WetCanvas. It's a super way to think about painting trees, from the inside --- which is NOT green -- out. Excellent!

WIP? Dunno. Finished? Dunno.

This is in an in-between state. I usually work on a piece until I am more or less satisfied and then put it up where I can see it when I happen by at intervals during the day. Most often I come back and make substantive changes.

With this one, however, I think it might be finished. I am going to give it more time than usual in this bare-bones state to really decide.

This one began with a horribly mistaken underpainting with wide very dark diagonal swatches and blobs against an almost stark white field. I washed and scrubbed most of the offense off, flipped the piece upside down and incorporated the streaks that remained.

Time will tell.

About 9" x 12" on sanded paper, done with pastels.

Giverny

A good friend recently visited Monet's gardens in Giverny and it reminded me of how much I enjoyed seeing Monet's house there, many years ago.

The dining room is particularly French and wonderful.

More on the house is here.

And a delightful blog written by a guide at Giverny and entitled Giverny Impression is here. Nice photos!

Don't lie.

Don't lie. Don't cheat. Don't steal.

But mostly don't lie. The mouth can be vengeful. Careful what you put out through it.

Park Slope Again

This is about 8-1/2" x 11", done with pastels on sanded paper.

It was inspired by a painting by Casey Klahn.

Green Sward

The Pic-Nic
by Thomas Cole
1846
Brooklyn Museum of Art



(A much larger version is here.)

Dordogne

Artists, Dordogne River
Photograph by Jules Gervais Courtellemont, for National Geographic.

Artists paint on the banks of the Dordogne River near Beaulieu, France
(circa 1923; autochrome image)