Painting Relationships

"Life on the Edge"

watercolor 22 x 30 inches

New painters are usually held in absolute hypnotic focus on the details of a subject. That seems to end in frustration most often. That frustration comes when ‘something isn’t quite right’ and the painter cannot identify what it is.

It usually has to do with relationships. What relationships, you ask?

How red might behaves next to green will be different than how it behaves next to, say for example, violet. How one value reads next to a darker value might be quite different in how it might read next to a more medium value. In other words, everything in every painting reads in the context in which it lies. If a triangle shape is the only triangle in a group of many circles, the triangle will seem way out of place, or will absolutely draw the eye due to its’ difference. (contrast!)

As I was painting this piece, the tops of the dark cypress (seen over the edge of the ridge and between the face of the big bluff) they drew the eye away from the focal point at the top left of the painting. Not good! So . . .how to fix it? It was merely a value relationship problem: the bluffs were lighter in value then . . .I had established a contrast that wasn’t consistent with the rest of the painting. Darken the cliff face . . .and keep the color contrasts at a minimum . . .was the solution.

Several difficulties like this arose all through this painting. The beach and the edges along the foam and sand were dangerously distracting the eye, also. Again, value differences and sharply defined edges (sudden value changes) pulled the eye away from what was important in the painting. The beach is meant as a quiet area to rest the eye, not attract it. The white of the foam had to be calmed, the edges blurred, the values brought closer were all slight but significant adjustments that were needed for all the different pieces in that area to relate and act as a whole, rather than individual parts.

Contrasts are what make a painting work, but building harmonies with them and setting up transitions and gradations between contrasts is a great challenge. It goes beyond painting “things” and “details.” As artists, our charge is to paint relationships.

A Nagging Image

"Don't Trip Here"

watercolor 22 x 15 inches

Late last summer, my painting buddy and I went to this location to paint. It was one of those magical days where one could hardly concentrate on the painting because the sights and happenings all around us were so distracting.

I came home with an oil painting that day, but wasn’t all that happy with it. It has been hanging in the back of my mind for months. Really! The scene has been nagging at me so badly that when I sit down with my sketch book, my hand seems to draw it. With variations, of course, but my subconscious is poking me over and over with that incredible landscape. I came home from the workshop last week and was very tired. For exercise, I decided to use a sharpie pen and a large piece of newsprint to just scribble out any sort of drawing. Guess what showed up !!

So, I tackled the idea in a vertical format, which presented some challenges . . .because the bottom of the page was a long distance from the focal point way up on top. I had to design the entire lower 2/3 of the painting to keep the viewer entertained and the eye moving upward. Also, I had decided to use a similar color scheme to some other pieces I had painted.

I am on a tear to paint this week, since I have to teach another workshop the first week of May. I have much to do to get ready, so I must take advantage of the time I do have.

Left Behind to Wander

Here in California and a few other regions of the USA, we are briefly treated in the spring time with the blossoms of wisteria vines. This vine is trained and domesticated to climb various arbors, arches and patio covers by home owners. It is truly spectacular when it blooms, but drops it’s blossoms in but a week or two.

A friend called me to paint with him this week and urged me to come to his neighborhood because the wisteria is in bloom.

Evidently, the last remains of an old, over grown home site are the scrambling wisteria that no one notices among the entangled trees during normal months. Somehow, this vine was left behind to grow wild. In the spring, it jumps to view as a cascade of lavender blooms falling from the crest of an old oak some fifty feet off the ground. And, it has spread over a wide area, virtually invading every plant that extends above the ground.

Yes, we painted. Who could resist? Rather than post the painting, I think it more a gift for you to see this fleeting wonder of nature. Amazing, no?

The Sketch and The Urge

"Almost There"

watercolor 22 x 30 inches

There are curious times for us artists. We have strange urges, sometimes. Those urges have to do with compelling images trying to come out.

This sketch has been in my sketch book for many months . . .probably a year. And every time I go near it, it calls to me. I could feel the emotion of it, but could not put my finger on the sort of color scheme I needed. Then, on a rare quiet moment, alone in my studio while in North Carolina last month, I could stand it no longer. Out came my largest flat brush and lots of reds. I painted furiously and put in the directions, big movements and large shapes. . . . .and I made some serious errors . . . .Edges for one. And there was one edge on a shadow which rode the edge of the path that simply came from bad judgment.

I kept the painting around for weeks. Looked and looked and looked at it without resolution. Then, today, I decided something had to be done . . . .that urge to complete it was nagging. There is no model or place to seek for correction. It is all an abstract notion that came into a sketch.

It sure isn’t much when it comes to being a fancy, recognizable place, but it sure does speak to me at a level I have yet to put my finger on. And in a mat, it just slays me!!

Do you suppose it’s the reds?

A Workhop

I have been teaching a ten week long class entitled “Watercolor, Beyond The Obvious” for over ten years. It was a course I originated with the intent of lifting the students from focusing on photographs and tapping into their natural creative selves. In addition, the content of the class was to teach serious design. From the bases of design, the student could begin to come up with creative approaches to a subject and make original, creative paintings which were ‘beyond the obvious.’

Many painters have immersed themselves in the curriculum and made extraordinary breakthroughs in their painting style and the way they think about painting and design.

CWA, the California Watercolor Association, in Concord, California took the challenge of doing much of that coursework in a one week (five day) workshop. I have spent nearly a year devising ways to teach the information and have the artists walk away with new means of thinking and creating and composing their artwork.

The art of composing is to use a few recognizable shapes, arrange them within a rectangle format, devise a pattern of values, plan a color strategy then make the painting. None of these is an easy task when the subject is a mundane, non emotional subject. The charge to the painters was to remain playful and “Exalt the mundane to the Extraordinary” . . . . no easy task.

The 16 artists who took this workshop had no idea what they were in for. My hat is off to them for taking a workshop from a relatively unknown teacher (me) not knowing if they would get something from it, or not. Moreover, I doubt they had an idea of the speed or the amount of information (and work) that would transpire in a short week.

They Jumped into the water (over their heads) and swam from the very first day !!! They flew through the course matter as fast as I could throw it to them. Language schools call this teaching method “total immersion.” It wasn’t long and everyone was speaking the language of design and using the principles.

Without disclosing everything here, I will say the lessons were dense, extremely pertinent and fast. There was little time to paint, but paint we did and made five paintings in five days. Each day the paintings improved and grew in stature and creativity . . . .from virtually EVERY student. Amazing results !!

It was a pleasure to be among this highly responsive and intelligent group! I had a wonderful week with them and they showed me what was possible. Ladies and gentlemen of CWA, take a bow !!!

When is a Painting Finished?

"Park Guell"

watercolor 24 x 18 inches

When is a painting finished? The famous question for which there must be many, many answers has been asked by tens of thousands of painting students. If you begin a painting 8 years ago, stop and put it away, take it out this month and add the touches it needed badly . . . . is it considered a painting done recently? Or should it be considered a painting done 8 years ago?

I sure don’t have the answers to that question . . .or the one before that. I find that the more experienced I become (read as ‘older’) I can see many more ‘needs’ that an unfinished painting has. Perhaps it all has to do with the spirit of what you are trying to communicate. In this piece, it was the ‘jazz’ of the shapes and the location of Park Guell in Barcelona. I painted much of this painting with my great friend Montserrat at my side. . . .both of us talking, visitors coming by and making comments . . .great friendship in a great place busy at work with making art. Mind you, I said making art . . . .not copying what we saw. We were finding ways to make shapes fit together in interesting ways and to subdue and emphasize different things. Add patterns and textures where they weren’t in order to create interesting and compelling relationships among the parts of the painting.

I really did just finish this painting but a few weeks ago. And it really was in my flat file for nearly 8 years. It had been waiting for me to grow enough to see what needed to be done in order to make a successful painting. Because of the time spent with Montserrat (Muntsi) and the location, I could hardly scrap it 8 years ago. This painting says so much more to me than ‘a place I have been.’

Isn’t that really the reason we paint? . . .to capture a spirit? A feeling? A mood? I suppose the painting is finished when we look at the painting and can feel that spirit.

If you are interested, click on this link to see images of Park Guell . . .designed and built by Antonio Gaudi.

In Consideration of Shape

"Blushing Bluff"

watercolor 15 x 22 inches

SOLD

Mention SHAPE to five different artists and they will all tell you what they think it means. Usually, the answers will have to do with the subject . . ... The “shape” of the pitcher in the still life. . . . The “shape” of the face of the model . . . .the “shape” of the cloud in the sky, etc. There might be five different answers, but they will usually relate to a subject.

We become so lost in the delineation of getting a ‘shape’ correct . . . or deeply engaged in spending our efforts trying to ‘explain’ a subject. In doing so, we lose track of the most important shape in the painting and how it relates to the other ‘shapes.’ That most important shape is the shape of the canvas or paper. Huh???

Yes, we are drawn into a painting by the relationship of the shapes within the painting and the surrounding rectangle. The comparison of size of the painted shapes and the frame of the surface is a huge design consideration. Where the edges of a painted or drawn shape stop or start in comparison to the rectangle is also an element of attraction. For example, in the case of this painting, the edge of the cliff and that tree approximately hit the edge of a square inside of the rectangle, which is remindful of the golden mean. That ratio seems to be highly magnetic to us humans.

Moreover, one needs to look at the overall shapes of the three different groups of value (lights, mediums and darks) within a painting to see how they compare to each other (hopefully, they are of unequal proportion) and how they also relate to that same rectangle of the outer edges. The character of the shapes is also something often overlooked. Are the shapes generally organic in nature, or geometric . . . .curved or linear? It all has to add up.

Some artists sense this stuff and never consider it cerebrally, but they definitely feel it when it is ‘right’ or ‘wrong.’ There are those of us who sense that something is at work that sets us to feeling something good or not so good about a this stuff, but can’t isolate just what it is that makes us feel one way or the other. So, it pays to understand the design relationships and their dynamics so we don’t fumble around so much.

I will be presenting information such as this at a workshop for the California Watercolor Association in Concord, California this coming week. Let's hope there will be time and inclination to post once or twice during the workshop. 'Till then . . . .

Blow Hard

"Blow Hard"

watercolor 15 x 22 inches

SOLD

This location here on the west coast is but a teensy little spot which has massive interest to me. I cannot count the number of paintings which have come from this location (Davenport, CA). Every view imaginable has been put to canvas or paper . . .and more images await the brush.

This clump of trees sits at the very edge of a sheer cliff into the rough surf below . . . .probably 100 feet or more! (30 meters). The cliff face is absolutely vertical and these trees and their roots are holding the cliff from eroding into the sea. The cluster of trees juts out into space as the wind beats at them daily. Thus, the name, "blow hard." Their shape and their trunks and branches tell much about their struggle to remain in that place. The salt, the fog, the wind, the cold . . .it all contributes to stealing their healthy appearance and at the same time giving them strength.

I have been working on developing a new workshop for the last few months and travelling, too. The mental focus to compose the lessons, examples and order of this workshop was weighing on me. So, yesterday, I took the day to play at the easel. This was the result. I had fun and am now ready to refocus and finish my tasks to compile this workshop.