On Location....September 29

On Location....September 29
..it was spitting rain this morning, so it was either set up the umbrella over the rig, or paint in the car. It worked out ok....intermittent wipers on every so often, duct tape the painting to support board, duct tape the support board to the steering wheel, water cup in the cup holder....tarpaulin on the seat. I set up the paint from the back hatchback, and only brought the essentials up front.....that really limited the mess. Next time I'll put a garbage bag over the gear shift, so I don't slop paint water as I dip my brush at the cupholder.

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September Pasture

(Sold)......Using the collage also helps me deal with the initial impact of the scene (the reason why I chose it). It forces simplification and concentration on the essentials. Without the collage, there is a tendency to complicate.....the eye sees many things and wants to record 'as is'...but the mind is more selective and leaves a lot of things out.....as if you say 'this is the thing that affected me...this is the more important part!"

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8 Inches Square

This is about all I know....
Never mind the style, everything you've learned, the degree of finish.....the world around you is moving and alive......the picture will reference the world but it has to be kept to that general statement, not more specific than that......and the picture has to have a pulse, give the illusion of being alive as well......just that.....let the picture have a pulse.

..on 8 inch gessoed thin Masonite panels, some done right on location, some in studio with collage in the first stage...

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Recent Drawings

(bottom drawing is sold)

I used to make these sitting in the front seat of my car, and will likely resume that again when the weather gets colder. In the summer, I'll often take my little portable chair and do these right on location. 2b, 4b, 7b pencils are used...a razor is kept for sharpening, and a white eraser is used less for removal and more as a technique. Each drawing usually takes about an hour of continual work...the pencil is always moving....

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Curve Lake First Nation Powwow

Yesterday we attended the Curve Lake First Nation powwow. Although it rained for most of the day, it was gentle, warm rain, and really quite pleasant. Although I imagine as the day wore on, it must have been a challenge for the powwow dancers. I really enjoyed this! Wonderful drumming and singing, great dancing, exciting regalia, and a lot of fun. We hope to attend next year again and take in more of the exhibition dancers. Also got turned on to some exciting new first nation fusion music.....A Tribe Called Red, who I think took part in some of the drumming.

I planned to do some plein air painting later in the afternoon, but since it was still steadily raining, I worked from memory....

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Today's Plein Air Piece....Squirrel Creek

 

Squirrel Creek
...a beautiful riverside place. There was nobody here when I came, but some fishermen arrived, a few people launched their jetskis, and a couple unloaded their boat from a trailer, and launched it. I love working in the shade.

I like that I got the highlight on the bridge buttresses and gravel of the shore. It was part of the reason why I chose this spot, but the light moves very quickly....and I noticed that by the time I finished the piece...those highlights were gone in the scene.....


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Forest Road, Plein Air

I am enjoying these plein air sessions...they continue alongside in-studio work. On the very edge of a Ganaraska Forest entrance here.....

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Stylistic Range....

(top image, sold) I seem to have 3 types of pictures that I alternate between. One type is a straight observational record, with plenty of abstraction and design underlying the construction....but it attends to a strong desire to set down what presents itself to the eye (this type is not shown in these slides, but you see examples in the post previous). The second still follows observation but also asks for more 'bending' (emotion and interpretation also informs everything seen)....and the last type is based on memory of location but does not necessarily conform to the experienced visual layout. I need all these 3 types to account for my experience of this wonderful place I'm living in.....

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Plein Air on Location

 

A few more shots of recent plein air sessions. Today I used the more portable aluminum easel. It was a cool, beautiful morning for the first day of September! (painting in bottom image sold) 

 

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Plein Air at the end of August....

 

Plein air location shots.....
The sky changed every 15 minutes, but that seemed ok. Being in the shade is helpful. Do you see that pail that I would normally be sitting on? I picked that off the shoulder of a road today when I was on the garage sale trail. It was just the right height to serve as a chair....


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West Sky at Dusk

West Sky at Dusk (Sold)
Acrylic on unprimed Arches paper 8.5 x 12 inches. It's always interesting to see which images end up being more popular than others. This one sold quickly and received many responses. I tend to like them all, as I make them, so can't really tell which ones will receive strong response.

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August Haze

Every time I change the paper I use, the work changes slightly as well. I'm enjoying this Arches paper. Many of my paintings start with an undercoat wash, usually a light red. The image is then drawn and painted over that. This paper buckled a fair bit initially, sometimes making it distracting to produce the painting, and some of the buckle remained afterward. There is a simple and very effective fix for this, at least for work of this small scale. I let the work fully dry, place it upside down on a clean, flat surface, and spray the back gently with water and let the paper fully saturate. I brush the excess water with a larger house painting brush so that all parts of the paper have equal access to the water. I place this wet sheet in between sheets of Masonite, and many sheets of blotting paper. This is then all placed under a very tall stack of heavy art books. I remove the painting after a day or more, and the piece is perfectly flat. Sometimes a bit of buckle in the work is fine, and even preferable.

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Drought Relief!!!!!

We waited so long for rain, which finally came, although not really in the abundance needed. It's too late for many of the crops, but the trees, bushes, perennials, and wells will be happy! These paintings are all on unprimed Arches paper 7.5 x 12 inches.

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