30 Seconds of Painting

Playing with some new technology today (Timelapse app on iPhone) I decided to share a  video of a start. This is a large one - 24x24 - and what took me an hour has been reduced to 30 seconds. 

I like to work fast and get lots of information blocked in early in a painting and like to work all over the canvas. First, I make lines and points to note where things are to be, measuring and comparing objects and then begin to draw my "map" a little more clearly and then begin to mass in big shapes with color. When there are many darks, I begin with thin washes and leave a lot transparent, but in this case, I wanted the painting to have a higher key and went right into more opaque paint.

From here its all in the details. That will take another couple of hours or days. Some of this rough start may be left alone - it's background info. But there is still a lot to do in my focal areas. And I want I be sure I represent that hazy, humid glare of a hot day in New Orleans.

Work in Progress

Well here it is - a little glimpse of a work in progress. Isn't that white daunting? This is my first larger "vignette". I love the intimate, slice-of-life, subject matter and have wanted try working on a larger scale. I didn't do much to alter this blank sheet of linen (I'll stretch or mount it later). I first tried sketching in with my brush but then felt I needed more drawing so went in with charcoal. And made a mess.

Once I wiped off the false start, I used my more usual method of sketching a road map of sorts with the brush and then massing in. The goal is not to create an exact duplicate of a scene, so I forgave myself little errors in drawing and eliminated some clutter.

I made some "notes" on the darks and then used my favorite little trick of wiping out the lightest lights with a little OMS on a rag. Linen is great for this reason - you can wipe it back to a clean white surface again. And clean lights/whites are important to create beautiful highlights.

 Now I worked all the darker and middle tones -most of the painting.

A little more progress being made... but its not done yet. I've left her face and clothes undone and set the painting aside today to work on a new painting while I mull this one over for a few days. I'm not quite satisfied with the "tightness" either. (Everything is compartmentalized. ?) I might even have my model come back to sit for the final touches. This was painted from a study and photos of a model. My second go at a larger work began more easily - with lots of massing in and moving around the panel.

This is as yet unnamed, and is 22x28" on linen. My plan is to show it at the Russell Collection Fine Art Gallery "Femme" show opening in December in Austin. Its nice to have time to work on these larger pieces and live with them before sending them out.

If you care to keep reading, I will tell you that I my plan this year is to paint larger and slow down. I tend to work fast, but that meant that each week I was trying to create multiple gallery-worthy paintings and stressing about it. I have a lot of work available (lots of small works since the Vignettes show) and I think I can relax and really consider what I want to paint and what I want to say.

Park Shade - WIP

18x18 oil on canvas

I've been struggling this week and I'm not sure I like this either. I definitely don't like the blue in the foreground. How did that get there?
When I sat this and the other one (below) aside next to another painting I did this week, there is an interesting, and previously unnoticed theme going on in my work from this past week. Check my blog tomorrow to see what I mean - and see our monthly challenge group pieces too!

Park Avenue - WIP

16x24 oil on linen - work in progress

I've been trying to paint a little larger lately. I've been working on this since last week. I've finally covered the linen now (its just a large piece taped up and not mounted yet.) I so much like to work alla prima and get the idea out at once... working larger means I can't do it all in one session. Which means the brushwork becomes a little more labored, less spontaneous; and my initial enthusiasm fades, which means I grow to hate the painting by the time I decide its done (or give up). I am going to look at this one a little longer and see what it says to me next week. Maybe its done, maybe not.

I do want to keep trying to paint some larger works though, i just need to figure out how to scale up. I think there is an art to it - to still be able to suggest and mass things in but not have the whole thing appear messy. It requires a balance of spontaneous brush work and quiet areas. And I need to figure out how to "suggest" things rather than describing everything just because the image is larger.

What's funny, is that this isn't that large! (baby steps)

Needlework - WIP

12x8 oil on panel - work in progress

There is a lot going on in this painting. And I am not sure its working. First, the figure ended up too small and the room is really quite cool in person, but a little busy in the painting. I need to look at it another day, and probably simplify. Its tough getting my brain and hand communicating right when I've had a break. This might be one of those that I just start all over.

I just wanted to post something to tell you all that I am here! My daughter began school this week and I pushed past the boxes, frames, and other debris littering my studio space to get back to work. Painting time is spotty this week still however since we have had some work going on in the house. As of tomorrow sometime, we will not be able to come upstairs at all. I plan to get my pochade box out and try to work downstairs, but the noise might drive me away entirely.

Whats on my Easel

First some sketches working out some designs and value studies. All of these are from a visit to a really hip Austin espresso bar, Little City. I like the marker value studies a lot. Lets see if I can pull the oil painting together.

30 Minute Start

If you haven't guessed by now, I am becoming quite the advocate for using a timer in the studio! I thought I'd share an example of my using it to start a painting. With only 30 minutes to get as much in as I can, my brush moves quicker, I mix paint faster and more intuitively, and use more of it. It stretches my observation skills.

This is a 12x16 panel* and in the first 15 minutes you see my drawing set and the bones in place.



Then in the next 15, the whole panel is covered with masses blocked in. Now all I have to do is model my forms and play with highlights/shadows. I can also decide at this point if its going to work. The colors and composition are balanced. The focal point - the figures - are in an interesting spot and from the viewer's point of view, we are going to meet in the crosswalk.



Now, I'm working from a photo in this case. But I've been doing it when painting the model from life. And I think it would be an ideal way to approach plein air landscape painting. Think how fast you could get in your masses and determine the sun/shadow before it changes.
Granted, this doesn't appeal to everyone. Its not for the realist or the person who likes to render objects. My buildings will be left as masses of obscure shapes, for instance. But it works very well for the impressionist. Try it!!
(and wish me good luck not messing up from here!)

* note: the diagonal lines through my panel help me locate objects in my sketch. While I am being loose and gestural, I do want my figures to be the right size relative to their environment, and I want the right perspective. This is a trick I learned from Jeanette Le Grue (great painter!) and I do it both with photos and from life.

Subway Start

16x20 oil on panel

I thought I'd share this new painting. I usually can paint this size in a sitting. But I think I must have broken up the morning by going to a class at the gym. So its still a work in progress. You can see how I start though. This is on a gessoed hardboard (Ampersand) which I "primed" with a gray housepaint.
The big X across the panel helps me accurately place things from my reference material. I learned this from Jeanette LaGrue. She even had little viewfinder cut out of mat with string across the opening to help compose our plein air work. It's a neat little trick.

Eating Establishment - WIP

24x36 oil on linen

Stage two. I put about 3 hours into this today and worked mostly the darks, circulating around the painting and connecting them. I wanted to work all the darks and gradually move up to the lighter values rather than work one section at a time. I think this will help my motivation to finish. So if I was looking at the value scale, I might have come up to a 5, or 4. The whites are still the areas that I have not painted yet.
The part that I most enjoy in painting is the highlights. Those magical strokes that transform the flat planes to illusions of three dimensions. The right highlights will round out a form and give the illusion of light.
As Skip Whitcomb called them, "the money shots."
Those go in last. And in the end, you do a lot more looking than painting. The canvas before you will tell you where to put those special strokes, and I love that part.

Eating Establishment - WIP

24x36 - work in progress

On our recent trip to the dude ranch, we stopped in Fredericksburg to eat lunch and I got a couple of great shots of the activity inside the brew pub there. I've been mulling this over for some weeks now. Building up I guess to tackle something large and needing the right images, and the right energy. This is my underpainting and sketch. Stay tuned!