The Art of the Ordinary

The dilemma of what to paint. Over the years I've wondered about it and faced it by looking for strong subjects everywhere I go. These subjects are around us all the time and it's a good exercise to find and paint them. I like to walk around with a small digital camera and point it in the direction of anything interesting. Later, I go through the images to see what grabs my attention.
Often I'll make paintings from compositions of several photos. Moving subjects around until I get a dynamic design is one of my goals. If your painting is only as good as your reference material, you may miss a feeling you want to convey. I let the reference be a spring-board from which I develop my ideas.

In this painting of a city maintenance crew, the men are working to repair stop lights after a storm. I let the reflections on the wet street as well as the rich warm colors against the grey backdrop tell the story. With a value plan of a large light with small darks in a field of midtones, the eye is drawn to the focal point of the worker carrying a cone and then around the painting.

Let Intuition Lead the Way

Many artists who have worked with young children notice that they have a natural ability to create effective design using contrast, shape and color. As children mature, their natural strength in design is often replaced by their desire to "get it right". Over the years, I've sought to return to these beautiful designs and subordinate hard facts to a more appealing design-oriented direction.

I like to set up paintings that allow me to discover new motifs. In the watercolor at the right, "Adirondack Chair", I used a color underpainting to achieve the variation in color and texture on the side of the building. My article in the April 2011 Watercolor Artist magazine entitled, "Setting the Tone" discusses methods for opening intuitive paths to successful paintings. Hope you get a chance to check it out.

Frisket or Not

As a young artist I believed that masking agents (tape, film, drawing gum or liquid masking fluid) created stiff, contrived watercolors. As the years pass, so has my opinion. I now think that these materials can be a great aid. For example, try painting a smooth, gradated sky around some light-toned, lacey branches. Well, you get the picture: it isn't easy unless you mask the lights. Also there are numerous textures that you can create by applying masking agents. Go to my website for my Winter 2010/11 newsletter . It's a short lesson in masking with a demo painting.

"New Snow, Grizzley Creek" is one example of frisket at work.

Is Snow White?

In my experience as a Colorado resident, the answer to this question is, "Only a small percentage of the time." When snow faces directly at the sun it appears pure white. Most of the time it will be a warm shade of gray. On days with bright sun casting hard-edged shadows, the snow will be warmer in the light and colder in the shadows (as in the photo above).

The opposite occurs on cloudy, over-cast days with diffuse shadows. In the photo below, the color temperature of the lights is colder while the shadows will be darker and warmer. You can also see that the edges are softer on an overcast day.

I like to look at and paint snow because it lends itself to watercolor techniques. In particular, I like to start wet-in-wet with stucturing the whites and then proceed by adding the hard edges.

Recently finished the fall newsletter where I talk about painting skies. See my website for more painting info.

Compositional Clarity

A question my students often ask me is how do you know what to emphasize/de-emphasize. I showcase my "first impression" or what attracted to the subject. It could be a single person in a group, the sunlight on a mountain top or a texture on rusting metal. Something first grabbed my attention. Whatever it is, this should be your star. Think of the other elements in the painting as supporting members; they are necessary but must be played down. So always ask the question, "what is this painting about?". If you can answer it, you're on your way to compositional clarity. A vignette is often a good way to get to the point.

A Summer for Plein Air

As the summer ends, it's still hot and sunny in Colorado and I've extended my plein air season. I love to take students out on location to work -- we see so much more by looking directly at our subjects vs. working from a photo in a studio. We see color and tone more easily, the scale is correct and gone is the exaggerated perspective of the wide-angle lens. Many of my original plein air sketches surpass later studio work. So I encourage everyone to get outside while the weather's good. Paint and enjoy it!

Newsletter on Glazing Now Available

Just uploaded my Summer Newsletter on a topic that's received a lot of interest in my classes and workshops: Glazing. It's a way to paint luminous backgrounds in watercolors that add interest and depth. I often start paintings by glazing with different transparent watercolors followed by more opaque pigments. This painting, "Riding in Style", is an example of glazing using semi-opaques for the final glaze. Enjoy!