M.E. BAILEY ART: Painting Light

I have an acquaintance in the UK . . .Paul . . .his link is here on my list (Learning to See) . . .look for him. He is a disciplined painter from whom I should take lessons. Right now, he is painting blocks . . .wooden blocks . . .and testing his skills at nailing values of light. He is very good at it, yet he studies more.

There is much to this idea of painting. Waaaaay more than making pretty pictures, that is for sure! Painting the right value and color of light (Not Things or places) lifts a painting into another world. This white pitcher was a great exercise for me this morning. That is an exercise in seeing. I am sure I didn't nail it, but am getting closer and closer. It takes practice. Lots and lots and lots of it. Painting the shadows first, in the right value, I was convinced that the shadow portions on the pitcher were the wrong color and tooooo dark! As it turned out, they weren't too dark . . .they were actually too light! One learns to trust one's self in this game. When all the colors were on the canvas, I could see instantly that the relationships between colors and values were right enough to make the pitcher appear to be white. In fact, there is no pure white in this painting. Interesting, eh?

Tomorrow I won't be posting until late, if at all. I am going on a weekend plein air 'painting intensive' to paint cliffs, rocks and surf in a workshop environment. I love being near that stuff, much less painting it. So, this weekend might produce a few nice pieces . . .then again, maybe not. If I get something out of the weekend, I will post on Sunday evening . . . hopefully.