Painting Daily - Inside and Out!

Last April I participated in a 3-day plein air workshop led by my good friend, Jill Carver. (I'm SO in awe of her talent...that gal can really paint!)  The location was in picturesque Wimberly, Texas, about 20 miles south of Austin.  At a workshop, the goal is to complete lessons or tasks...and seldom will a good painting surface.  This adventure into the Hill Country was no exception.

On the second day we set up along a riverbank lined with Cypress trees.  Subject matter was everywhere, but 3 trees in the river with their root systems all entangled caught my eye.  There were a lot of clouds that day that changed the light and shadows as they floated by the sun.  I struggled with the light source as well as getting color, temperature and value correct. I can't remember the lesson theme, but I think it was an exercise in frustration. :-) Anyway, I came home with pages and pages of notes, several canvas studies and a resolve to work harder.

Today, after several months, I studied the painting again...and with a fresh look, I realized that it only needed a few adjustments.  Below, on the left, is the result of a frustrating afternoon on a river bank.  The painting to the right is after changes made in the studio this afternoon.

" Three's a Crowd" -9x12 Oil (before)         "Three's a Crowd" - 9x12 Oil (after)

I "warmed up" the Cypress and "cooled down" the background water and trees.  Using highlights and 'sparkle' in the water at lower right as a lead-in, the eye is drawn from there to the darkened foliage near the distant waterline; then upward to the "v-shape" where the trees meet the sky; and then gently moves from there down the Cypress to contemplate a tangled web of roots and soft reflections.

I like it a lot better now.  What do you think?

Several months ago, I was in Granbury, Texas for a 2-day paint out with members of Outdoor Painters Society.  The weather was a little stormy...in fact, on Saturday about noon, it rained hard for about 2 hours.  The weekend was not lost, however!   As a group, we painted  a live model in a       garden settingI was particularly pleased with how the girl in the "Red Hat" turned out. This is a 10" x 7" watercolor on 300# Arches paper.

If the wind isn't blowing, a rainy day has wonderful soft gray light as well as great reflections on   

wet surfaces.The painting of the wine cask and flower pot reflecting in on a wet concrete porch turned out well too.  This is a 7" x 5" watercolor on 300# Arches Paper

After finishing 2 watercolors I was about 90% into an oil painting of a stone building at the Barking Rock Vineyard when the weather turned stormy again.  Not wanting to take on water in my paint box, I packed it up and headed home, satisfied that all-in-all, it was a good weekend's work on location.

Today was my first day back in the studio since before the Christmas holiday and when I looked at the painting again with "fresh eyes", I was more than 90% done..all it really needed was a little "punch" of red for a color discord. If I had continued another 30 minutes, I would have taken it about 20 minutes too far.  I'm thinking that it would be to my advantage if mother nature would intervene with my painting process a little more often......

"Stone Building" - 8" x 10" - Oil on canvas panel

This has been an especially busy commission year for me with "home portraits" being the most requested.  I delivered this painting last weekend.  "210 LaVista" is a Christmas gift for my client's husband.  

As an artist, accepting commissions has both a positive and negative impact on my thought and work process.
Some of the negatives:

~The stress of a deadline date for a gift or occasion.
~I'm reluctant to (and usually don't) accurately depict the subject "exactly" as it is.

~Subject matter issues; I have very little to work with....or... it's a bad photograph...or... subject hasn't any character...or... the season is wrong and trees are growing in odd places. This dialog with myself can go on for several days. 

~Working to include elements that are important to my client, I struggle with design and composition.

Some of the Positives:

~I'm flattered to be the artist selected to suspend time and provide a lasting remembrance for generations. 
~I get excited when I discontinue my "negative dialog" with myself and start to make a connection. About half-way into the drawing and design phase, I begin working as if it's my own "special place". 
~I'm relieved when I deliver the painting and see the joy on my client's face.  

    ~I love my job.  
 

I teach a weekly intermediate watercolor class with students working with ongoing individual projects. A couple of weeks ago, my students requested that we paint a still-life...together.  The subject was a good one with lots of color.  The persimmons laying in a cobalt-blue dish were gorgeous....and inspiring!  We quickly draped a cloth as a backdrop, rigged up a direct light source from the left and began to paint.  I finished this in about 90 minutes.  My class is 2 hours and I was very proud of what the group accomplished within the limited time frame.  Since I don't usually impose a time limit on their projects, it was a good exercise for them; forcing a quick sketch with focus on large shapes, and getting color, value, and temperature right with the first wash....no 'fiddling' with it!  I think I'll make 'painting from life' a monthly project......for all of us!  I seldom do still-life paintings & I was very pleased with this one....so I submitted it into the DeSoto Art League annual membership show yesterday.