Opening Tonight

The colored text is a link to the Kimball-Jenkins Estate Art School Student-Faculty Show Opening, which was tonight. I entered two pieces. This was one of them. As usually, there was lots of art work to enjoy, people to visit with, and great food! The show will be open through Dec 23. Try and stop by!

This watercolor was done in the July Plein Air class. As usual, the last painting of the last day was the best. It always leaves me wondering if I painted an additional day, would things get even better -- or not.

The frame and mat added a lot to the look of the painting and I hope to take a picture so you can see the difference they make. I used a black ready-made frame from Michael's and put the painting on top of a white (or ivory?) mat. Floating would have been better, but this was done quick and on the cheap.

To see more of my paintings, visit my painting page.

Sepia Plein Air

This is a sepia version of yesterday's image.

Cropped Plein Air

This is a cropped image of a plein air painting from last week's class.

Abstract Goes Digital

I cropped the abstract watercolor posted a few days ago and then I digitally manipulated it. This was so much fun! The piece kept evolving. I'll post another edition later this week.

August Plein Air, More of Day 2

Later in the second day of my August plein air class, I started looking at the trees' shadows on the pavement. That's what inspired this abstract watercolor. A few days later, I did some digital modifications of this image, which I will post on Wednesday or Thursday.

Plein Air in August. Day 2 Continued

This one is growing on me. Unlike the previous two paintings, in this one, you can feel the relationship between the trunk, the roots, and the earth.

It was done entirely in watercolor on smaller paper than the previous two.

The bits of blue and pink were inspired by odds and ends left of the grass by the kids in the art camp program.

Maybe I should go back and take a reference photo. It would take the mystery out of the backgrounds of this group of paintings.

August Plein Air - Day 2

On Day 2, I was adrift. I could not settle and was (at best) ambivalent about my work. That night, I realized I was getting sick. I thought it was weird that I had to sit down twice during the session.

Anyway, here's one of the paintings from that day. It's nearly identical to the main piece I worked on the day before. I was hoping to catch more of the twisted nature of the tree trunk but that was not too successful given my inability to settle and focus. I've been going back and forth about which version I like better. You decide. Here they are together so that you can blow it up with a click and have a closer look. I believe this one was done entirely in watercolor, but I can't remember for sure.

In the coming days, I'll post the other paintings I made that day including an abstract piece. Today, I did some digital manipulation of the abstract painting and I'll post that, too.

Plein Air in August

Today, was the beginning of another three-day plein air class. In the July class, I had hoped to use gouache but never got around to it. This time, I started with watercolor, and then, at the end, added some gouache -- in the foreground mostly. I struggled with the background (bushes and an old yellow clapboard building with green shutters and brick foundation). I like the way I used the colors, shapes, and textures behind the tree but kept them ambiguous.

Nearly everyone who stopped to look at this painting commented on the brightness of it. At this point, my favorite part of the painting is the textures in the background. I never really captured the twisted quality of the tree trunk.

Plein Air with a Boost

This is the same image first posted here except that the color has been given a boost on IrfanView.

Last Plein Air for July

This was my last painting for my three-day plein air class last week. I'll be back at in August!

Really Playing

In the last two paintings of the last day of my plein air class, I just let myself play. I think these were the strongest pieces of the week. The last one (my teacher's favorite) will be posted tomorrow. This one was my favorite.

I'm glad I'm doing more plein air painting next month. I feel like these three days were a good warm up and it would be a shame to stop.

Back to Watercolor

On Day 3 of the Plein Air class, I went back to watercolor paint, and was much happier with my work as the afternoon progressed. (it's a three-hour class). Both of these paintings better convey the mass of this tree trunk than any of my previous paintings.

Getting Grounded
I prefer this one to the next because it's conveys the quiet of the place and it's more grounded, however, I could probably fix that problem (on the second image here) by adding some dark color to the area around the base of the tree. Right now, it appear to float and have little connection to the ground.

The Tricky Phase
There's a tricky phase in painting when the image is coming together and you need to tweak a few things. As you work, things are getting better, but if you go too far, you can ruin it. Just like that. (That's when I think, "I'll hit the 'un-do button'", which of course, I cannot do!)

Working in the Details

Working in the details changed the image a lot and it was fun. Most important, the details help convey the scale and mass of the trees. I had to wait for the paper to dry before I used really concentrated paint and a small brush. I'm so in love with my large brushes that I sometimes forget to use the other ones!

Buried Beneath a Tree

As I mentioned in yesterday's posting, this painting is buried beneath a drip painting that was covered, in turn, by a plein painting of a tree. I still like this image a lot.

This was originally meant to be the first layer of a Franz Kline style abstract painting. When I added the black calligraphic structures, things got awful so I turned it into a drip painting. I wrote about Kline here.

Abstract to Plein Air

Top Layer
On the second day of my three-day plein air class, I stayed with the same tree but switched from watercolor to acrylic paint. I was somewhat pleased with the result -- not thrilled.

The photo colors are a bit off -- less vibrant than what you see here. I could not use a flash because it reflected off the surface (even without the flash, there's a glare from the overhead light), so I played with the settings. The canvas is 18" x 24 ".

What Lies Beneath
I started with a used canvas. The texture from the drip painting helped me create the texture of the tree. Under the drip paintaing, was another painting under ! Of the three layers, it's my favorite. I'll post that one tomorrow.

Plein Air - Tentative Start

Last week, I took a three-day Plein Air class. If you are following my work, you will know that I took a similar class last August. Since then, I took an abstract painting class in the fall. Other than that, I haven't painted since. It's easy to get rusty fast, but still, skills do come back faster than expected.

Typically, I have multiple paintings going at once. On Day 1, I used watercolor; on Day 2, I switched to acrylic; and on Day 3, I went back to watercolor. The first paintings were tentative but I got stronger as each day progressed.

But at the beginning of the next day, I felt like I was back where I started -- tentative. This set of watercolors is from the tentative phase, which lasted into the third day. The images are scrambled in no particular order.

By the third day, I was putting detail into the paintings, using my smaller brushes to add leaves and twigs. In this way, some of the paintings were done over several days time.

I'm not too crazy about these paintings, but I think it's important to see where I started. The stronger paintings that followed have a basis in these early efforts.

I was free to move about, but it was easy to stay with the same tree for three days. I really love this tree and could paint it for several weeks without tiring of it. In fact, I painted it from the other side last summer. A photo of the other side of this tree can be found here.

Last week, temperatures in the Northeast soared into the mid-90s and beyond; fortunately, I found a place in the shade with a slight breeze. I was very caught up in my work and really did not notice the heat until it was time to pack up the car and go home.  Despite the heat, it was really wonderful just to be outdoors on a full-blown summer's day. These are the days I longed for through out our long, cold, winter.

Abstract Painting - Kline

Franz Kline was the focus of our work in the sixth week of the abstract painting class. Here's a link to some of his work. In November, I went to MOMA and viewed Painting Number 2. It had a lot more drips and layering than show up in photographs.

My goal for this painting was to capture the style rather than the exact image. It was one of those magic moments when the whole thing comes together quickly and with little effort. I liked it enough to put it into the student show, but wish I had signed it on the back rather than the front. This piece is considerably smaller than Kline's paintings. I like working large but I hate trying to find a place to storage all the paintings.

This came together so easily that I thought I could easily produce a series of them. A few weeks later, I tried with no success. I will post my attempt once I get it back from the art school studio.

Abstract Painting - Rothko

Mark Rothko was the focus of our work in the fifth week of the abstract painting class. When I finally saw Rothko's work at MOMA I was surprised. Photographs do not really capture what he has created; all the layering barely shows in photographs. In person, they convey something atmospheric and seem to change before your eyes -- and even more so, if you move around them. I fell in love with Number 16 (Red, Brown, and Black). This series with rectangular shapes is called "multiforms." Listen to this commentary about one of Rothko's multiform paintings the link is at the bottom of the screen.

Again, the originals were in oil and we were working in acrylic. I messed this up when I tried to "fix" something and in the process narrowed the horizontal space between the two rectangles. I also learned how difficult it is to get even color across such a large expanse. More than any of the other painters studied in this abstract painting class, this one makes me want to work in oil.

Abstract Painting - de Kooning

This fall, I took an abstract painting class. Each week we studied a different painter, attempting to emulate their style. The third week, we studied Willem de Kooning, an abstract expressionist. His painting, Woman I, took years to complete; he painted it over and over. I had one night. He used oil; I used acrylic.

In November, I went to MOMA to see this painting. After working from a color photocopy, it was a real delight to see it in person. I was surprised to learn that the vertical strip on the right is metallic silver.

I'm not wild about my painting but I am proud of one of the feet which I though really captured the feel of de Kooning's original.

If you want to learn more about de Kooning, check out the links above. The second link is from MOMA, and has an audio commentary at the bottom of the screen.

Drip Painting on Paper

Before I started my drip painting on canvas, our instructor pulled out some large sheets of paper for us to experiment. I ended up working back and forth between the two paintings. This one is my favorite. It's quite large -- over 49"x27".

As with my other drip painting, I can't decide if I prefer it horizontal or vertical. Hanging it seems an expensive venture unless I just use push pins -- which someone already did. When I went back to the studio a week later, it had been moved from under the table where the instructor put it to protect it while it dried.

The shadows at both ends were created because I got too close with the camera so the flash did not really cover the entire piece. This photo does not convey the impact of the vivid red, nor the different blacks (some glossy, others matte). The black lines really add punch to this piece. Try clicking on the photo to enlarge it.

Abstract Painting - Pollock

I'm finally getting back to my paintings from the abstract painting class I took this fall. Jackson Pollock was the second painter we explored. Here are three links if you want to read about him, view his work, or watch and listen to him.

Pollock created  One: Number 31 in 1950. It's over  8' x 17'. The size and detail cannot be fully appreciated looking at the piece online. Go see it at MOMA, if you can.

I did several paintings using Pollock's techniques. This one is done with house paints on unfinished canvas. The canvas had been folded and it was impossible to remove the creases. I tried getting the creases wet and that helped a bit but in the end I decided to not fight the canvas and  let the folds define "quilt blocks."  As things progressed, I decided to obscure the edges of the blocks. It's 46"x 29.5". I can't decide if it should be a vertical piece or horizontal -- or a floorcloth, which would mean hemming the edges (I think) and adding a layer of varnish.  What do you think?

Frankly, I thought this class would be boring -- just mindless dripping of paint. Instead, I became engrossed in the process. In fact, I ended up doing more drip paintings on the last night of the class.

I used to wonder why Pollock had so many layers of dripping, until I tried his technique. I stopped painting because the class had ended 30 minutes earlier and it was time to go home. Otherwise, I would have continued adding layers. For me, it feels more like a sketch than a finished piece.