Shade in Mexico

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As I slowly process what I learned from the online tutorials I recently watched (by John Burton and Nathan Fowkes) I find myself wanting to pull out old reference material and look with fresh eyes for potential paintings. This one is from a trip to San Miguel (Mexico) I took with some buddies a couple of years ago. The "thing" to the right of the skirted lady is a big bunch of balloons and toys being held by a guy who (I'm guessing here) was trying to sell as many as possible to us tourists. But the thing that really grabbed me about this scene was the split between light and shadow. It was tricky to get all the value relationships just right, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Florence From a Bike

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Here's one from my trip to Florence last year. I've been sort of avoiding painting anything from that trip, only because I know they will soon run out of reference photos and then I will be bereft. This happens every year, but I will be especially sad, one, because that trip was especially awesome, and two, I won't be able to photograph more people scenes for a while yet, probably. Not until all this crazy-virus-ness is done. But aside from that, what do I miss the MOST? Hugs.

Picking Up Lunch

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Here's another oldie that just needed a few tweaks. Also today I went through my "bad" pile - paintings that did NOT work out, regardless of tweaking. I have been keeping them in a cabinet that I generally only open to add another one to the pile, so I mostly don't see them (unless I am moving and need to decide what to do with them). Today I remembered why hiding them is such a good idea. Why? Because seeing each one of them again makes me feel TERRIBLE! And that just makes me more afraid to try things, which is the opposite of what I want if I intend to grow as an artist, which I do.

So be kind to yourself, and clear out the stuff that makes you feel bad. Throw it away, OR, if you plan to save the surface to paint on later, hide them from yourself until then. But also remember, that the "bad" pile is important, because it means you're working and experimenting, and even the professionals do bad paintings on a regular basis! You just don't want to SEE it on a regular basis. Keep painting, and keep looking forward.

Chunky Apples

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This one's an experiment I did a while ago, painting ONLY with a palette knife. I decided to wait until it dried to post it, and then forgot. The good news - it's dry! I took two pictures in different (indirect) light to give you an idea of the texture.

There are some things I really like about this, and am looking forward to getting back into an experimental frame of mind once I've settled into my new studio in Montana (hopefully March).

Meanwhile, an update on health - I went to a PT this morning about my upper back and he seems confident he can fix me! Fingers crossed.

Honeymoon Phase

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I saw a lot of young couples in Florence, presumably honeymooning. These two were particularly cute. I thought it was pretty funny that he was consulting a map. I personally find that men do lots of things in the beginning that they would never do later. I mean, doesn't looking at a map go against some sort of man code? And look at how hard she's having to clamp her hand over her mouth not to say anything about it. : )

Oblivious

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I've been pretty excited about painting this one. But also scared. It was an overcast day, which means lots of subtlety, which is tough. But I'm pretty thrilled with how it turned out.

Blue Shirt Blue Shorts

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I'm experimenting with leaving some parts of my paintings very sketchy. Unfortunately this one required a lot of, ahem, tuning along the way, and I ended up covering up most of it. But I did manage to leave the darker area to the right of (behind) the man lightly done. Why am I doing this? Might you think more paint is better? What I'm going for is more a VARIETY of paint application, because my lazy self tends to paint everything the same, and I don't necessarily like that. At any rate, I've learned that if I block in my darks first, with thinned paint, and then wipe any lighter bits with a paper towel, this yields very interesting results. Still experimenting...

In the Middle of Nowhere

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On my drive down to the Sierras this year, I decided to do the 12 hour drive in 2 days rather than my usual 1. So I had extra time to explore. I thought I would stop a lot to take pictures, but often there was nowhere to pull over, or I passed by too fast and didn't want to turn around, or ... some other excuse. I did pull off on one side road, maybe an hour away from my destination, following a sign to a trailhead. Least of all I could stretch my legs. After about 20 minutes down a dirt road, I finally found the trail. It was completely abandoned, which felt a little ominous, but I explored it anyway. And found this lovely little creek, deep in the forest. And a wonderful hawk feather, which I keep in my car to remind me. To always explore, even if it's a little ominous.

Generation Gap

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Maybe it's because I have a teenager, but I like watching parents and their teenage kids interact. It's an interesting dynamic, and in my experience, never the same. Like ... from minute to minute. Those teenage hormones are powerful!

On another note, I have been especially inspired lately by the work of Aimee Erickson and her famous GLOW. I'm trying to get more of that in my paintings, where needed.

The Glow of Florence

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Here's one from Florence. The shafts of light that run between the buildings are just magic. My camera has a hard time capturing it, but I did my best to recreate it from memory (and my poor references). I wish I'd had time to do some studies from life.

Rainbow Pond

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Last one! Last painting from my Sierra trip. And I personally think it's one of the best. It's from the upper pond, which my friends are now calling "Marine Pond," or "UltraMarine pond," but I'm calling this one "Rainbow Pond" because of all the colors.

Here's the whole crew. What a trip!

Mountain Layers

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Here is another Sierra painting that I worked on more back in the studio. The biggest thing I changed was darkening the values of the shadow in the foreground. The reality is that as we look around at the world, our vision adjusts to the varying lighting conditions. When we look into shadow our pupils adjust (open) to see more there, and as we look into light areas, they adjust the other way. So when we paint, if we're not careful, our values can all start to fall in the mid range, without enough contrast. That's what happened here, but fortunately I was able to make the adjustments at home. Woo!

My Five O'Clock Appointment

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I'm off on my trip, but I pre-posted this one painting. This is a spot I painted years ago, on my first trip into the Sierras. The first painting was done in the morning, and this was late afternoon, so the light was completely different. You may not even recognize it as the same place. Well, and this new view is shifted over a bit to the right. They do share one tree.

At any rate, it was late enough in the afternoon that the light was changing very fast, so I only had time for a quick lay-in. This was on the second to last day of our trip, so I knew I had to get back to the same spot the next day if I wanted to finish it. So I went around the next day telling everyone I had a 5 o'clock appointment I couldn't miss. They laughed but understood, since several of them had similar "appointments."

I got there early, around 4, set up, and sat in the shade while I waited. Eventually I got bored, so I started working on the areas in the light, and the distant mountains. After that I started really trying to design the rocks in a pleasing way, because the reality was a little awkward, which is often the case outside. I ended up learning a lot more this way, because it made me really THINK about what I was doing, especially the design/composition. Before I knew it, the whole thing had come together, and it wasn't even 5 yet! I waited a little while longer to make sure the value relationships were all "correct," packed it up, and hiked back to camp for a G&T.

I will resume shipping again as late as 9/18/19.

Upper Pond

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This year we went to Garnet Lake to paint. About a 45 minute (hard, uphill) walk from there is a little melt pond that we call the upper pond, which I adore. The rocks in the water are a dark red, and the sand at the bottom is a kind of turquoise. Everyone who goes up there says, "wow!" before they even realize it's come out of their mouth. I've painted it before, and I painted it again this time, a few times. Here's the first one. And below is a shot that includes a few of my buddies.

Catch Up

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I'm back from the mountains, but unfortunately we did get eaten -- by mosquitoes! Ack. There were swarms of them, actually. I guess it's because there was tons of extra snow this winter, which has melted into ponds, which the little buggers reproduce in.

You were probably expecting a landscape painting, but I had this one left from before the trip. And I need to pick all the mosquitoes out of my mountain paintings before I photograph them.

Chit Chat

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This'll be the last painting until I get back from the mountains. Unfortunately this means I won't be able to ship anything (paintings or books) until 8.27.19. Cross your fingers for me, please, that I avoid seeing any animals close up that are capable of eating me or any of my artist friends. I'd really like to keep painting.

Waiting for the Boys

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Just three days left until I head up into the wilderness (Sierra Nevada Mountains). Meanwhile, a few more paintings done in the studio. Here's one from Florence.

Lovely and Waiting

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These are the same steps as yesterday's, but in the sun.

My Yellow Bag

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Here's another scene from my trip to Italy this spring. Apparently Florence is famous for it's leather, and this gal had clearly invested in a beautiful yellow specimen. The wall she was leaning against was the same color as the steps - gray. So I used Photoshop to mock up some alternatives. A purple wall was the winner, which is how I painted it, being careful to keep the "shadows" around her. But my favorite part is that little light reflection on her glasses. It's pretty funny, the things I'm proud of.

Being Seen

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Some people seem to get dressed in the morning with the sole idea of being SEEN. I find this especially funny when the outfit looks uncomfortable. But over-all I am so GLAD about it! Because I get to 1. enjoy it, and 2. take pictures to paint later! So, if fashion is your thing, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

This is a scene I photographed in Florence, and actually tried to demo for my students. "Tried" being the operative word. Luckily it was the only demo that didn't turn out. But of course I had to try it again in the comfort of my own studio, and this one I like.