Overcoming Big Design Errors

"Blowhard II"

watercolor, 22 x 30 inches

It never fails . . .or, so it seems. When I think I know what I am going to do . . .and begin without a substantial plan . . . . .I end up digging myself out of substantial design problems.

D’ya suppose there is a relationship there?

Okay, okay! The tree part is where I put all the plan time, but the rest of it got the best of me for a good while. First off, after the painting was blocked in and I had established the darks of the tree mass, it occurred to me I would be making two, not one, but two different paintings on the same piece of paper. I had divided the paper right across the midline of the page. Ouch!! As well, I had put a number of small shapes together slightly left of center, which crossed over the dividing line.

Oh NO!!! oh yes! Not only did I need to find a way out of the space division, but also I had created a large to small contrast well away from the center of interest (upper right) and set up a competition for attention. Gads!!

That entire ‘shelf’ on which the trees stood had to be broken in some way and I had to figure a way to have that big dark value bleed down well beyond the ‘shelf’ line so I would have a large, prominent dark holding a large chunk (more than half) of the paper real estate. I had to sponge off a bunch of pigment to obliterate the small shapes then use that space to create an addition to the large dark (the trees). So I did.

All of that has taken almost five days to bring to conclusion. There is a lesson here: Plan First. And not just in the mind. Make drawings and studies first. It seems like the long way, but it really is the shorter way.

Experimenting with the Elements

Line Experiment

watercolor 14 x 21 inches

It has been a while since posting last. To get back into the painting mode I will sometimes take on a familiar subject and ‘let her rip’ by applying the paint in ways that are completely different than my normal painting ‘style.’ In this painting I used wet paper and an oil painting filbert brush to scrub in the paint. This yields wild and brilliant colors but also opened the door to using line in an otherwise different way. In the end, all of the elements (7 of them) are present, but some are emphasized in such a way as to attract attention.

This painting of half dome in Yosemite was more of an experiment than a painting. It may never see a frame or a mat, but it certainly allowed me to ‘get off the leash to run’ and get the crazy urges out of my system. It served another purpose: discovery. While fooling around in a free fashion, I found a few little ideas (like red shadows) and using dense, opaque colored line (integrating gouache into the watercolor pigment) atop the trees. This shifted the focus from the dome to the trees and the white shape behind them. These discoveries of how to exploit the different elements of design can often lead to new approaches in more serious paintings.

Open Studio is finished for 2009. Now I am putting everything away for next year and attempting to get back to living a normal life. Thanks to all who came and a special thanks to all my enthusiastic patrons.

More Self Promotion

"Yosemite Awaiting Winter"

watercolor, 21 x 29 inches

There are just weeks where everything seems to work right . . . .that is to say work properly. And these last few weeks, have been very very exciting and rewarding . . .all the efforts are bringing wonderful rewards.

Over the last several weeks, I have been planning a trip to Yosemite while preparing for open studio. To say the least, I haven’t been able to get Yosemite out of my thoughts. A special about our National Parks on TV hasn’t helped, either. It served to hammer me into a mental place of craving to paint. So, this is another of the Yosemite pieces done while prepping for Open Studio.

Oh! Did I just say OPEN STUDIO again? I did. It is only half over. If you didn’t make it by my home and studio last weekend, there is still one more weekend . . . .October 17 and 18 from 11 AM to 6 PM.

The first weekend of OPEN STUDIO was exciting! We had approximately 500 people come to visit. Not all at once, but it was a steady flow of people for both days. With over 70 framed pieces up and my studio set up to accommodate lots of interesting art thoughts and demos, people were glad they came. Won’t you join us on the 17th and 18th?