The Next Step

Ron Ford playing his guitar at the opening of my current exhibit at "The Moon Upstairs." The exhibit opened June 7th and will continue until June 30th at the Springfield location.

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View From Janiculum Hill, Rome

Between these two different paintings (each in its own stage of development) exists the "next step", namely going from the oil sketch to the finished work. Maintaining freshness and sponteneity.



Coburg Hills

So what is this "Next Step?." Frankly, I would like to know. Mostly it is hard work and painting, paying close attention to value: very subtle changes in value within the same hue is the challenge, namely, how to make these changes visible so they provide structure, texture, and glue (cohesion) to the composition.

Moreover, this is the subject of an upcoming workshop in August. As I prepare for that workshop, I will be posting notes on this blog.

Painting with a Loose Brush Part2

In this blog post I am reporting on some plein air painting that I have been doing of late. Here in Oregon the weather doesn't cooperate much and one has to take advantage of whatever sun breaks occur. Yesterday I was in the Coburg area and painted from in front of the high school.

Painting on white canvasboard (unprimed) gives an immediate effect, very much stronger than when painting on a toned ground. The colors and the darks are more intense.




Here is another oil sketch on white canvasboard. In this composition, wet in wet painting is done using thick paint and not bothering to draw at all. Everything is massed in with brushes and I am working as fast as possible.



This painting is more finished but was still completed in one session.




One in my Italian beach series. Here the loose brushwork is actually calligraphic drawing that is used for a minimalist rendering of the scene. The idea is to keep the painting minimalist and fight the temptation to finish it to death.



The painting above was completed in several sessions at a location near my home. Note that painting in Oregon is somewhat delusional. The sun comes out but the sky is always full of grey values. This tends to deepen the greens which are truly lush.
On the other hand many plein air artist have difficulty with the sky and they tend to make it too muddy and too grey.

It is important to get enough blue into the sky and to use violets and violet-blues to represent dark areas in the clouds.

Painting with a loose brush

"View from Spring Boulevard"

Sorry, if you were looking at this page a few days agao. Blogger had closed down for "maintenance" for one hour which because one day, then the page completely disappeared. As time allows, I will recreate some of the writing I did on "loose brush" which was posted here before.



"View from Owen's Trail, Eugene"

Oil sketching involves making quick paintings in full color but just capturing structure, leaving out details and finish. the idea is to capture the composition and to use loose brushwork doing that. Work quickly and sketch out the painting in any size, preferably small, and then move on to the next location.



"Loiano, Italy"

Pay attention to value when you are sketching. The goal is to achieve an interesting "macchia" or pattern of darks and lights. A misconception of making the "macchia" is that it has to be a strong 2-value (black/white) or at most 4-value pattern. It can be that but perhaps in the most ideal form it should be more complex with all sorts of gradations of value. The criterion for a good macchia is somewhat indefinable but might be described as subtle complexity with strength as values tend to form patterms that move the eye in and out of various locations. Macchias cannot be discussed intelligently without simultaneously talking about eye movements.

Why most landscape painting go bad

Students have always remarked on how difficult landscape painting is to accomplish. Things can go very bad quickly. Often the result is not satisfying. The problem usually comes from trying to paint at "high noon" when the values go flat and it is almost impossible to see contrasts. A very common problem is that the range of values is too simplistic and/or not interesting enough to keep the eyes moving around the composition.



This sketch might be borderline but you will have to be the judge. As long as eye movement can be brought into the canvas and then move laterally and then takeoff into another direction, it might work out.



Sometimes the result is dictated by the location. In this painting (above) the eye moves along a nearby diagonal and then shoots out to the horizon and then the sky. There is enough of interest in the sky with lazy soft clouds and a variety of values in the blues that keep the attention there for a moment and then the eyes can slide back to the ground.

How Sketchy Can You Get

Exercise: see if you can get really minimalist in your oil sketching. Just put down the barest getsure to create a mark, an object represented by that mark on the canvas. In this sketch made today at an Alpaca farm, see if you find the animal with no legs, just the body indicated?

Back to Blogging

Sorry for the interuption but after returning from Rome, I had to prepare two painting shows, one right after the other. Now back to blogging!



This was the first portrait I painted after getting back. The face is invented, just to practice a new technique which consists of painting the entire canvas black and then scrapping it all off with a razor blade, leaving a thin black background then painting wet into wet with flesh colors.

Note that the subject's left eye isn't finished yet. something wasn't quite right and I had to scrape it out again. Perhaps I left it this way because of the problems I have been having with my own left eye.

This technique comes somewhat from Sargent who used no painting medium, just oil paint out of the tube and who scraped out the face or areas of the face to make corrections. More on this later.

Remember seeing this gal?



She is from Napoli but I found her working in the Loiano area when visiting friends there. The technique here is the direct opposite of the man because here the background is the pure white of the canvas and the paint is a light sienna used to draw the face. Both works are linked by another dimension of painting, loose brushwork and expressive portraiture where the face tells a story, hopefully an interesting one.

After returning to Eugene the rain was coming down almost every day. Only now, in the last few days have I felt like going outside to paint en plein air. Its going to take me some time to warm up properly but here is a first attempt from Mt. Baldy.



I have shown the following Rembrandt study before but have recently been working on it again, so it has changed. I know I am supposed to have more color in the face but have been spending time instead on the subtle value changes in white and grey:

Painting in Milan

the sketch for "Italian campagna"



the painting (of same)



A composition study for a painting on the risorgimento...influenced by Milanese style.



oil sketch for "Garibaldi"

Paiting in Rome -- Part 2

Establishing the "macchia" takes concentration and attention to spatial relationships.



painting directly on white canvas from the color pool enhances color clarity and allows for more freedom of expression and color mixing on the fly.



As per usual, looking for strong 2-value contrasts simplifies the task while you sketching, especially in unfamiliar locations.



Keeping a sketchpad for small thumbnails is a good way to set down notes for paintings to be completed (or at least started) in the studio.

Here I have been very fortunate to have a studio based in the Gianicolo. Here is a picture of our apartment building followed by a painting made from th studio window.





That last one was on canvas paper. Do you remember me discussing "painting as discovery" ?? Well here it just happened -- using poppy oil alone without any thinner. The paint is very fluid and dries fast. Who would have thunk it?

Painting in Roma Al Fresco

Painting for me has always been based on "discovery." Especially when I have been traveling and away from the paint brush for several weeks, I "forget" how to paint, in a sense, and have to rev my engine for a while before I can accomplish anything.

The "remembering" process always, at least for me, begins with the macchia and establishing patterns, usually drawing with the brush.


"Macchia Uno"


"Macchia Due"

Here at the American Academy, it is customary to leave a small self-portrait for exhibit at the bar. I have been working pretty casually on one for the past week. I have some changes to make but here is what I have so far:



As you can see, it needs some color which I intend to add after it dries a bit. I am using terpentine and poppy oil as an experiment. The local art store had poppy oil which I have wanted to use for some time now. So I went for it. It takes a little getting used to. It is thicker than linseed oil but shows brushstrokes a bit more dramatically.

As per usual, my interests focus on the "veduta" or distant view. More on this soon.