Starting to paint again

It has been a tough two weeks with final exams, grading for three classes, and getting a show hung. Anyway, now with a two-week break I can finally get some painting in:

Recently sold this figurative work, "The Art Class":



Now working on larger group scenes, some more abstract than others. This one is "Serie di rivoluzione quadro uno":



And another, "L'ultima Cena":



In these recent works, preparations for a show at the Springfield Museum, I seem to be moving even more into abbreviation of form and seeking a connection with unknown narratives. Perhaps the narrativeare really known, its just not yet clear how the innovation in expression will link up with more explicit, more detailed areas of the canvas, if that becomes necessary.

Last Week of Narrative Class

We will have the model again but this will also be a chance to rap up certain concepts and review the fundamentals.

We have talked about a goal of producing large, classically inspired academic narrative paintings while remaining modern and informed about the principle of abstraction.

Narrative Painting unfolds intuitively

Well...its November already and I have to get ready for my DIVA exhibit at the end of this month and, I have just confirmed my exhibit at the Springfield Museum for January. The DIVA show will mostly be landscapes but I hope to include some recent figurtive experiments, perhaps work done while teaching this class, the narrative painting course at Maude Kerns.

This was painted last night:



"Untitled"

News flash: Because of a family emergency, I am forced to sell a much cherished painting as soon as possible. This is my "View of Florence from the Effizi Gallery"
which I need to sell for approximately $8000. If you or anyone you might know is in a position to acquire this work, please have them get in touch. The work was completed in 2001 and, as far as I know, is a totally unique vista of Florence. At least I have never seen anything like it. My wife Angela loves this painting which hangs in our dining room, but not it seems it must find another home.

Narrative painting -- 4 value chiaroscuro continued

Last week in class we used the 4-value chiaroscuro as a technique to improve the overall impact of our painting. On can use the computer and photo editing software to view the artwork in grey scale:

Those like the late Albert Boime, the famed art historian who has recently expounded on the phenomenon of abstract romanticism, have been inclined to appreciate a pure abstraction without significant figurative content. I am not as interested in pure abstraction but rather in gestural marks with the brush that indicate figures and "placeholder forms" that can be elaborated further, into narrative and or realism while maintaining their romantic character:


"The Judgement of Paris"

In this I consider myself closer to the original program of the I Macchiaioli group, namely using the "spot" or "gestured spot" and the element of spontaneity to achieve an esthetic that has life and texture but not to betray the revolution, in particular, depicting unadorned social reality as being the principal focus of visual production.



"Esther Before Azureus"

Nevertheless, history and mysthological (include biblical) narrative provides an opportunity for a kind of playing at forms and romantic color to evoke a feeling of grandeur as well as a certain gravitas, regarding the profound story, the playing out in fantasy and imagination, some deeply mysterious yet beautiful portrayal.





"Tintoretto Study"

Here is an interesting note on Tintoretto.



in color:

The Bozzetto for Painting Narrative Scenes

To plan your narrative paintings try to paint in the value range 5-7 when creating the bozzetto which is usually a much smaller canvas:

Getting ready for the Fall class

Start thinking in terms of groups of figures in the context of some sort of narrative. The narrative can be from literature, history, mythology, etc. Begin by sketching and drawing the scene(s) you are planning to use:

TBC...

Onwards and Upwards

Well, Mayor's Art Show and the Salon are both up and open. I can never really look at anything until the crowds thin out, which should be around Tuesday.

I am getting prepared for my art talk at DIVA:



The next class:

Figurative Painting with Narrative Themes

Jerry Ross Class ID #

Using a classical painting approach, you will explore the art of capturing the human form in a narrative style. Review drawing and painting skills to help you create compositions based on historic or literary themes and learn to effectively incorporate the human figure into a scene. A live model will be provided for some sessions and students will focus on incorporating multiple figures into a variety of interior and exterior environments. You will also develop your own painting style as you explore both “dal vero” (working from life) and abstract techniques. Instruction will be in oils but students are invited to use their medium of choice.

Wednesdays, October 1-November 19, 6:00pm-9:00pm

To register contact Sabrina Hershey, Associate Director,
Maude Kerns Art Center, Phone: 541.345.1571 and Fax: 541.345.6248

This Thursday: We will try again for 4:30 - 6:30 at Sunset Hills.

Session Sei (6)

ATTENZIONE! CHANGE IN PLANS: DUE TO OPENING OF MAYOR'S ART SHOW i HAVE TO BE DOWNTOWN AT 5:30 pm and so will NOT be at the Sunset Hills site this Thursday but plan to be there the following week (9/18). Sorry for this but you are of course welcome to go there and paint anyway or join me at the Hult Center.

Again, thank you for your participation in this class.

Topic for Last Session: Eye Movement and Linear Perspective in Relation to Concept of Verism

Lets start with a blank canvas:



We will use an underpainting in sienna utilizing gesture brushwork. I notice that most beginners establish their "macchia" exclusively in line. You see here that mass is used and also some line but the idea is to paint at the onset, not as an afterthought. This is in the true spirit of the I Macchiaioli, our "spiritual" forebearers:



The focal point for eye movement will be the small house and the main, central tree. But we are also attracyted to the road which winds down the hill.



Use of expressive brushwork in the folliage of the tree will provide resting places for the eye as it moves throughout the composition.



This is an oil sketch, so we must remember to keep it as such. Too many beginning students insist on a "finished" painting and they ruin the sketch by making it such. The oil sketch in the tradition of the I Macchiaioli and Constable is closer to the modern spirit of the abstract expressionists and keeps the painting fresh and spontaneous. Develop a taste for these oil sketches and begin to collect them.



Every painting needs a logical focus, a place where your eyes can land in the pictoral space but it is also important, perhaps more important, to supercharge the entire visual scene with verism (an sense of unadorned realism) as is probvided in the work of Giovanni Fattori, as one example:

http://www.italica.rai.it/index.php?categoria=art&scheda=fattori_epopea_vero

For example, in the following set of images, I am trying to show the progress made using this approach: beginning with a rooftop view intended to move the eye into the center of the picture (focal point the near rooftop) and then provide two alternative routes for the viewer to travel. The first goes out and up into the distant sea and mountains, the other goes to the right into the adjacent houses.













To be continued...

Session Cinque (5)

We will be meeting at Sunrise Hills Cemetary off of Willamette 4:30 pm to 7:30 pm (sun is setting earlier).

Note: Exhibit at Silvan Ridge Winery is being held over through September if you still want to see it. Also this Sunday, 2 pm - 5 pm a big crowd is expected for wine tasting and Richard Quigley's art exhibit (watercolors of Tikis), if you want to come out.


Before starting this session's lesson, let's review again the color pool concept with the benefit of some photos taken by Hugh:



Note the use of an old canvas as a palette which is sometimes a good idea because you have a bigger surface to work on and the colors show up nicely when you create the mix. By placing white somewhere near the top of the pool you can access white and mix it into the pool as needed.

THIS WEEKS' TOPIC: Creating Atmospheric Perspective





Each of these works creates a distant view, an added perspective, through the use of atmospheric perspective. To give the works a sense of the third dimension, colors become cooler in the distance and an object becomes lighter in value.

Many plein air painters say they are not really painting objects but rather air and atmosphere. The idea is to try can capture the atmosphere present and not to attempt to make a cloudy day into a bright cloudless one...try to capture the moment as it really is before you. Many of the works of Signorini and other great I Macchiaioli painters are depictions of merky or very atmospheric days. As Fall approaches and we have rainy or overcast days can actually be opportunities for you to paint atmosphere. Here is another example of a painting done from our last painting location at LCC that has an interesting cloud-filled sky:



"View of Mt. Pisgah" (featured in DIVA exhibit opening Friday, Sept 5th)

If you are painting on a grey day, it is more important to present thr mood and feeling of that kind of day than to draw too much or paint too much detail. Use large and simple masses. Simplify shapes into a few brush strokes. Mute your colors and crreate soft edges by paining wet into wet and value into value. You can paint the sky first and then paint the distant hills into the wet sky. The two layers of paint will interact bluring the sharpness of the brushstroke and lightening the values.

Assignment: Go out painting on a cloudy day and try to emphasize these techniques of atmospheric perspective. Remember that it is much more than painting the distant hills blue or using lighter values. Don't let your large masses and shapes break up into myriads of little dabs. Group your lights and darks so that the painting has a focal point. Try to direct the viewer to one or two spots on the painting. But as you do this pay attention to the difference in colors near and far away. Use greys and smaller brushstrokes for the distant areas.


"Amazon Park"


"Oregon Coast"

Note: the exhibition at Silvan Ridge has changed -- thanks to all who made it out there -- you can see the Tuscan landscapes, however, during the DIVA studio tour in October.

FYI: In case you haven't seen it yet, this months Alternatives Magazine is featuring my artwork on its cover. Its a portrait not a landscape, but you might want to pick up an issue. Here is a link that shows the cover:

http://www.alternativesmagazine.com/47/fall08.html

Session Quatro (4)

We will meet at LCC near welding shop one more time:



In case of heavy rain head for Maude Kerns.

Firstly, to review color poolo mixing concept:



The exact placement of the colors making up the color pool does not matter that much. In this picture you can see I have switched the location of yellow and red.
The idea is to have two separate mixes of complements (warm yellow and cool blue, on he one hand, and warm red and cool viridian on the other end). If you switch locations of red and yellow then the mixes are different (warm red and cool blue, on the one end, and warm yellow and cool virdian on the other). In any case, you get a lot of neutrals in the mix of complements, especially when you add white.

Note that the pool is dominated by the two different complement mixes. Each os the mixes creates a set of neitral tones that can be made warmer or cooler by addition/subtraction of an appropriate amount of the complement involoved in the mix.

New Topic: Gesture and Perspective in Landscape Painting

In order to create an interesting landscape painting in plein air, it is important to capture the gesture and perspective of a scene quickly. By "gesture" I mean the same thing as when painting from the nude when we capture the gesture of the body in a few strokes. Landscape also has its gestural movement which can be captured by paying attention to main diaglonals, horizontal, and vertical lines:

Note: eye movement and gesture are created at the very start when a very simplified drawing is created. In this initial sketch we are still looking for "effect" or the dramatic (dal vero) impact of nature as well as your feeling and your own sense of empathy for and with the scene:

Note: look at the diagonal movement indicated by the arrows. One must keep an awareness of the overall slope and movement of the scene by discovering the main pivot lines, horizontals and verticals and sweeping diagonals which aid in recreating the energy and power of the scene.

When sketching like this, deliberately exaggerate and emphasize the dramatic elements, especially shapes of the cloud masses that give the scene movement. Even on a cloudless sky I sometimes introduce clouds that are not there for this purpose:

After we study and discuss these preliminary sketches we shall look at painting examples along the same lines. Your success as a plein air painter will depend on your ability to capture the gesture and movement (energy) of the scene.

Example in painting:
Here is how I approach creating a Tuscan landscape with eye movement and gesture in mind:

Note the diagonal created with paint -- the brush comes right out of the color pool mix and does not have a single color on it. Notice the "point/counter-point" with the two opposing diagonals that play with one another and give the painting tension:

This diagonal is strengthened by adding some dark green accents:





Starting a painting of the Tuscan town Cetona, with gesture:



Assignment for thursday: When you arrive on the scene please try to begin with gesture painting without preliminary drawing this time. Paint wet in wet and try to discover the scene through gesture and movement. Look for strong diagonals, verticals, and horizontal formations. Piant with as big a brush as you can and avoid any details until later. Establish your color pool first.