Wednesday, September 29, 2010

on my book shelf

Making Color Sing Making Color Sing by Jean Dobie . Color is very important to my painting process. Here is the book that lays out color theory in a logical way and shows how it is applied on a practical basis. (I am an amazon associate, so I get a small ad fee if you purchase via this link.)

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Working in a Series-Meadow and Trees Subject

One of the things I learned long ago is that my best paintings are painted when I am excited by a theme and really get in there and work the variations. Here are three in the order I painted them.


Carpet of Flowers 16 x 12
First in the series , this was a study in texture and color that I enjoyed doing. I liked the qulaity of light and for me, relatively quiet mood of the palette. I would have normally put in some darks to compliment the lights.


Pacific Meadow 18 x 10 .
Here I've accentuated  the vertical composition,  and made the value contrasts more dramatic . I've also made the trees into one mass , which simplifies and strengthens the composition. The use of color is more vibrant, but I've still carefully controlled the values to avoid chaos.


A Tangled Place 14 x 14.
Here's the top square of the previous painting, accentuating the placement of the trees to the left and playing up the colors and shapes of the meadow. The simplification and abstract quality of this would not have been possible for me without working through the other paintings.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Fall Watercolor Class

 Here's the information about my Fall Class

Landscapes in Watercolor
Taught by Robin Purcell
In this hands-on class you will be guided in the art of color mixing and harmonies for
landscapes in watercolor. Robin will share how she developed her own style of painting
that lead to Signature Status in the National Watercolor Society and the California Art
Club.
Robin has been passionate about creating art for over twenty years. She chooses to
work in a series of paintings – to connect and interpret the landscape that has been
described as “a patchwork of vivid color, almost jewel-like.” Beginners to
advance students are welcome, age 16 plus, please.
____________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Friday, September 10, 2010

Demonstration of "Water Line Napa"



Water Line Napa was painted during the California Art Club Paint Out at the Oakville Grocery, Napa. I was interested in how the irrigation changed the landscape into something completely different from what occurs naturally. With our drought here in California I've been thinking about water and it's uses ( another tenative title was "water into wine").Many painters look west towards the lush mountains, I feel more at home painting the eastern view. It reminds me of the forms and colors on Mount Diablo. This is the final ( I think )version, I need to recrop it because of the upper right corner.


 
Water Line Napa, 14 x 21



Here's my working process, which is basically top to bottom, using the patterns of oak trees to establish movement and direction. I love using diagonals.



Stage two, moving down  the painting to start to develope the foreground



End of plein air painting session, about 2 and a half hours. My composition is established and most of my thinking is done, I can see it finished in my mind's eye.( that streak of gray on the lower right is from a shadow cast on the paper.) I usually don't add shapes in the studio, just adjust values because I paint the lightest value that I think should work.  It is so much easier to make watercolor go darker, than to lighten it.

 Recropped and larger, Water Line Napa 14 x 21

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Two New Plein Air Paintings


 Sacred Grove WIP 12 x 16

I finally finished two plein air paintings from this summer, "Sacred Grove" 12 x 16 from a paint out at Borges Ranch and "Forest Hill" 14 x 14 from the Paintout at St Mary's Hearst Gallery for the summer landscape exhibit  (see my previous post.)
The exhibit at the Hearst Gallery inspired me to try my hand at doing something other than a panorama, because all three of the painters had such gorgeous trees in their paintings and favorite trees at that!
I am really happy with the foreground on Sacred Grove, just enough suggestion of detail and the colors are very true to that paradoxical blue green from the invasive star thistle. The young oak trees were fun to paint, they seemed like they were dancing in a circle.

 Forest Hill 14 x 14