Capturing Value

On the Bluff oil 12 x 16

Here is a new trick I'm trying.  Value and its structure is one of the more important components of a painting.  I love using color and sometime lose the light and dark pattern in my work. Or I get caught up in the details instead of the big shapes. Look at Sargent's paintings.  He is a master at the big shapes and value placement.

I am using my photo editing program to change my color photos of my work (not the reference photos) to black and white.  It is useful if you have trouble translating value to color. From there I can simplify values if they aren't working and make sure that they lead the eye. Sometimes this trick helps. At other times, the painting wasn't planned well from the start and it is beyond help!

Intention and The Art of Flexibility



Pond Lyric oil 11 x 14

In painting you never do what you set out to do.  Something else happens.  If it always turns out right you are probably doing something wrong.--Ken Kewley

It is very rare that a painting turns out exactly as I had intended or envisioned from the start.  Elements of painting have a life of their own and what I had pictured putting down somehow turns into something else. Hopefully, with a bit of luck and skill, what does end up on the page is worthy of a frame or teaches me something that I can control better in my next attempt.

 Yesterday I made a painting that, with some distance, has a rather bothersome circular pattern that overtakes the subject. I didn't see it at first and I will have to fix it--not what I had envisioned, but hopefully something that can be resolved and maybe enhanced or even made into the main idea of the painting.

I think the intuitive part of painting allows for more flexibility and less attachment to results.  If a shape doesn't turn out just as I had imagined, I try to let it lead me.  Sometimes it can be exciting and sometimes disastrous or disappointing. (There is always that burn pile)!!!  I find that I need the same flexibility in my teaching.  Class planning can be restrictive when a group exceeds your expectations or when they need more work with a certain topic.

 So as much as I try to produce a painting that comes close to my original vision,  I try to stay open to changes that might come up along the way. There. A lesson in bending.

Themes--Earth not Air

When I look for themes or strengths in my work, I notice a gravitation to earth and water, not air. I just don't connect to skies, though I admire a good skyscape when I see one.  Maynard Dixon is a master. I also am intrigued by the cloud studies of John Constable.

Maynard Dixon

As much as I have tried and tried again to paint skies, my efforts fall short.  I paint earth--mountains, trees, fields, rivers--most with high horizons. I like to garden and dig in the dirt.  I love the smell of Spring--its earthy, wet scent. I notice the pebbles on the beach, the hidden aster in August, the cranberry torch of the understory in autumn.  I think I am fairly grounded, not flighty, when it comes to personality. So it is earth and its many variations and surprises that speak to me. You may have noticed if you are familiar with my work.

Is your head in the clouds or do you connect to land and water?



Mountain Theater oil 12 x 24

Caught in the Middle




Reflection-Windsong 36 x 36

 I find that my work falls somewhere in the middle of the contemporary or abstract and a more traditional approach.  I think the paintings that I enjoy creating the most look at the world in terms of shape and color and can present a structure that is based on reality, but stray a bit from what is "real" as well. There are times I feel pressure to create more traditional work that appeals to a broader audience.  I suppose it is a remnant of wanting to fit in. There are a lot of artists out there who have perfected the traditions of landscape or still life or portraiture. They draw from the conventional and give it their own twist. Should I pursue the same?  There are also artists who walk the line between the conventional and the abstract.  I think T. Allen Lawson does it well.  Len Chmiel also comes to mind. At the moment, I continue to dabble a bit in both worlds--I have a long way to go and it is the journey after all. I'm confident that one way or another a method that is completely mine will surface.  I just need to put in the hours.



 



Alpine Sunrise 12 x 9