Back to work.

Sorry for the long layoff, and thank you to everyone who has written to inquire about my wellbeing! It's been a rough transition--sometimes we don't realize just how miserable we have been until that misery is relieved in some way. Then the after-effect is disorienting and can inspire a lot of self-doubt. I'm working through that now, and think I can finally get back to work. I really want to thank two dear friends, Jana Bouc and Melinda Esparza for their compassionate insight and sincere advice. Can't thank them enough.

Early last month, my husband and I drove up the coast of California on our way to Oregon to visit my mom, and we stopped in a couple beautiful places so I could paint. I did studies at El Capitan State Beach near Santa Barbara, and further up the coast at Shell Beach, near Pismo Beach. That's where I painted this study, that I plan to work from to create a larger finished painting. This was a really beautiful place, and the early morning sun was luminous.



This had to be a very quick study, since we still had a lot of miles to cover that day. My sweetie used the time to take some photos of the scene for my reference, and he got one of me setting up too. More soon!

Square One

This is the first oil painting I ever did. 24 X 18", painted entirely from life (that baguette was hard as stone after the two weeks it took us to do this assignment), completed January 2000 in art school. The assignment was "verisimilitude", to portray reality as closely as possible. This work marks the beginning of my love affair with oil paint. Until then, I had used watercolor, gouache, and acrylic; the first time I touched the canvas with a brush loaded with oil paint, I knew. It felt effortless, like I had done it all my life. I asked my professor, "does the color change as it dries, like acrylic?" Nope. That clinched it, I was in love. Such directness and honesty in wet media can only be found in oil paint, as far as I know. When other media change color and/or move around as they dry, it feels like a betrayal. They say one thing as you're working, and then they change when you're not looking. I hate that.

This painting was shown a couple times, and was partly responsible for my scholarships. I didn't have a photo of it until now. It resides with my mother, whom we just got back from visiting for the first time since our return from Italy. Last October, while we were in Europe, she fell and broke her hip--but is doing fantastically well now, walking with a cane. She's about to turn 81, and I'm really proud of her. She inspires me every day.

Workshop Results

Of the four studies I did on Friday, this is the one I chose to work from. The photo was taken before I started painting. The upper left of the 8 X 10 painting is quite unfinished, but the color notes of the tree are what matter most.

Back in the studio, we spent the next day finalizing a layout and underpainting of the final work. I did mine on an 18 X 14 canvas, which seemed large compared to the small formats I've been using recently. At this point, we used the reference photo to nail down the details and composition. The photo can be manipulated in many ways, using an image program like Photoshop, to help visualize the final image. Besides cropping and contrast, we can edit out elements, or even superimpose the main object over a slightly different shot of the background. I didn't need to do anything that drastic.

The composition of my plein air study was weak, because it's split almost exactly down the middle between tree and background. The gesture of the tree isn't clear either--it needs more visibility of the branches and sky-holes to show the graceful curving movement. Using a photo reference, it was easy to make changes in the painting's layout to remedy those problems as I laid in a thin-wash underpainting. Ray kept insisting, "no second guessing." The purpose of this stage is to completely resolve any and all elements of design, drawing, and detail. There should be no unanswered questions, so that the final stage is only about the color and paint application.

For me, this allowed the final painting to have a freshness and unlabored look, because when the final color went on, that's all I needed to think about. In the field, it's a constant balancing act between accuracy and freshness. There is a time constraint to catch the light before it changes, so we can't possibly nail down all the details fast enough. We fudge things a little, which works well in a small format; but in a larger work, those uncertainties will show. Painting from photos alone is not the answer, if we want to have true color and any sense of freshness. But Ray's strategy allows us to use the best of both.


"Sycamore", 18 X 14.

Ray Roberts Workshop, continued...

I have been wanting to explore ways to make larger studio paintings from my many small, quick studies. It can be very challenging to maintain the freshness and observed sense of light and color, while resolving everything as it needs to be in a larger work. That's the focus of this workshop, developing a strategy to make that possible. The quickly-painted color studies are not meant to record detail or accurate drawing or composition, because reference photos can resolve all of that later; but the plein air studies are crucial as a record of the color and light that can only be observed by the human eye. They are the only color reference used in creating the finished painting.

On Friday, we painted quick color studies in two beautiful places here in San Diego. Marian Bear Park, and Torrey Pines State Reserve. Here are the 8X10 color studies I did, along with photos I took of the scenes.























Torrey Pines Reserve is full of rugged, tangled trees and harsh, windswept landscape that doesn't really have a lot of color (especially when the ocean mist is in the air, as it was that day). The photos show just how much chaos there is in the actual landscape, and this is easiest to edit when you can move side to side to see beyond the unwanted obstacles and observe the color of the area beyond.



Over the next two days in the studio, we chose one of our studies and learned how to use various image manipulation techniques with the reference photos to resolve all matters of composition. Then, using those corrections with our on-site color study, we completed a larger, finished painting. I'll post more about that process tomorrow, along with the finished painting.

Ray Roberts Workshop

It's day one of a three-day workshop with Ray Roberts, and today we did several color studies plein air. This first exercise is to encourage emphasis on the relationship of the color planes, rather than relying solely on absolute color and value. The top painting is normal key, color and value (intended to be) just as observed. The painting is then re-done in high key, such that the darkest value is 4 on a scale of 1 to 10. This is my result. All the studies done today were done quickly, to record the color notes as observed.





And pictured below is Ray Roberts' result. I only just found out about this workshop three days ago, and it's here in San Diego! I'm excited because the topic is specifically what I've been wanting to tackle: how to use field studies to create a more developed studio painting. For the next two days, we'll be working in the studio using the color studies we painted today, along with photos we took of the scene as a reference for composition. We will use image manipulation to help construct a source for a final result.

Balboa Park

This morning was the first San Diego Art Institute Paint-Out that I've been to since 2005. A very nice group of painters! The Institute is in Balboa Park, a deservedly famous destination in San Diego. There is so much to paint there, it would take a lifetime. Even so, today I really struggled to find a scene about which I felt I had anything to say. After numerous sketches, I settled on this, mainly for the tree practice. This is how it looked after two hours of battle; once I make a few corrections, I think it'll be okay!

San Diego - Sunset Cliffs

I've been in a slump since returning home, there's so much to do...but also a very big change in just about everything. A happy change, because I really love being here, but any transition of this magnitude is bound to have an effect on the work. I've had trouble producing anything, so when I learned of a paint-out group on Meetup.com, I signed up! Saturday was my first paint-out with them, and it was just what I needed. It was very overcast at first (almost always the case at the ocean shore) and the light was muted by a warm gray sky. These two 8 X 10's are shown here exactly as I painted them on site, no changes after the fact. They both need some touch-ups.

By late morning, the sun had come out and the color of the ocean was brilliant. This second painting was done very quickly, less than a half hour.



Happily, my husband was there with the camera and got this shot of us, painting away, with the Pacific Ocean as a backdrop.

Toulouse Train Station

A small portion of the train station, actually. This very rough sketch was done in the early morning from our hotel room across the street. Rough because I only had this rough canvas panel, and a brush that was so worn, it was like painting with a broom. But I wanted to get the sense of the light coming up behind the station, because that was beautiful.

We're safely home in San Diego now, and it is wonderful to be back. As soon as we catch up on sleep, I'll get out there and paint some new stuff.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned Yoko Ono's conceptual instructions. Many of these are things that you could actually do, and they would be life-changing.

If I were to write my own conceptual instruction, it would be this:

Open two suitcases, and fill them with your most useful and treasured possessions.
Sell or give away everything else you own.
Move to a new country with your two suitcases, and start a new life.

This is something you can really do. I know that, because last year it's what we did. When things did not work out in Europe, last week we followed these conceptual instructions again. It is probably the single most liberating action I've ever taken in my life.

Heading home

Time to leave this lovely region, and return to San Diego. After a year in Italy which turned out to be disappointingly other than we had hoped for, it's been great to spend a restful month here in France and renew my passion for painting. Home is where the heart is, and it's in San Diego. Look for new work from there, to be posted soon.

Gray day trees

A series of gray days gave me a chance to work over this painting a bunch of times, scraping, painting, scraping, repainting, exploring a lot of different ways to say "tree" both near and far. There is a lot more mood in them when the sun isn't hitting them. Me too.

Trees behind the house

It's a jungle on the hillside up above this house, so I'm trying to define just enough of the trees to make sense of the chaos. Color is always an issue with trees, and since green is not a favorite color of mine, it has been a challenge. I love the shapes, and I need to look past the local color to see the many other beautiful hues and shades that are there.

Trees

Trees are my nemesis. Of all the forms and structures that need to be expressed in landscape painting, trees are the most troublesome for me. Painting is a language, and I am not fluent in "tree." So, I'm doing a few studies of the many sizes, shapes and colors here. This first one shows the trees along the road in front of our house.

Aveyron 13 - Tobacco Field

They grow some tobacco here. Not a lot, but the color of those fields is neon green and they really stand out. It's a different green than any other crop I've seen.

Aveyron 12 - La Salvetat des Cart

It was a very hot and hazy day; we followed the road down to the Priory (11th Century) and as we left, we stopped beside the highway which gave a good view of the whole setting. There are three or four ridges visible from there, but the haze made it hard to distinguish them. This is a small 30-minute study.

Aveyron 11 - above Castanet

Another quick sketch, when we stopped on the road above this village. About all you can see is a lot of trees, a few glimpses of house roofs, and the cathedral spire. Very characteristic.

Aveyron 10 - Plowed Fields

Quick sketch, cropped a bit to improve composition (thanks Jana!). Our almost-daily routine here is to take off for a few hours in the car (a real luxury, since we haven't owned a car for 5 years) and do some sightseeing. We stop in shady spots (it's really hot here) and my husband Jim takes photographs while I try to knock out a 30-minute plein air study. Sometimes those little studies really come together well (like the last one), but sometimes the heat and time pressure conspire to cause severe errors in judgment. :) Doesn't matter; it's all good practice and "brush mileage."

Full disclosure--this is the full-frame of the painting, before cropping.

Aveyron 9 - Lavender Field

A few kilometers southwest of where we are staying (so this may be in the Tarn-et-Garonne). This painting also works well cropped in half to give more emphasis to the lavender field in the foreground, but I like it a lot this way too.

Aveyron 8 - vers Le Batut

A bit more time went into this one, mainly struggling with temperature and value of the main shadow. Still not sure.

Aveyron 7 - near Cantagrel

These fields on the tops of hills are beautiful from a distance.

Aveyron 6 - near Testas

New brush, so there are lots of hard edges all over this study. I'll probably use this as an underpainting and re-paint it on site.

Aveyron 5

All these scenes are within easy walking distance from the house where we're staying, which is in small valley. Walking up in any direction yields some nice views. The terrain is undulating, steep in places, and covered with agriculture and some wooded areas.

This painting was a struggle, and ultimately I gave up--but then later, saw that it had some merit. A few small corrections, and it seemed not so bad. Now, afer some time, I like it quite a bit! I wonder why it takes us time--sometimes a few days--to decide how we feel about a work. And why can't they all be good? I still don't get that. :P