Studio Painting Process

I recently used one of my Point Lobos studies to do this larger pastel painting in the studio ...

"Serpentine Coast", Pastel, 18x24

Here are a couple of shots of the pastel painting in  process.  First I started with blocking in some of the darker shapes. 

I then washed this down with isopropyl alchohol using a large brush.  This turns the dry pastel into something very close to watercolor, and it sinks into the painting surface.  This process allows me to quickly establish the composition and the major shapes.  It also sets up my darks and established some initial color I can then react to as I develop the painting.

Notice I don't underpaint the sky.  I did lay in a bit of pink right at the horizon, but I wanted to use the color of the board as the underpainting for the sky.  I also find underpainting tends to darken things, and I find it essential to keep the sky light to generate a feeling of luminosity.

I unfortunately don't have a picture of the painting just after finishing the underpainting - so you'll have to use your imagination.

Here's my studio setup.  I have both a swivel mounted computer monitor (on the left) and my framed plein air study on the right.

Here's the painting as it develops.  See the tree on the foreground rock?  I completely scrubbed it out because I thought it was looking overworked, and once it was gone I thought the painting was stronger as it let the eye move into the painting a little more easily.  This painting has a number of different secondary subject areas, and I decided simpler would be better ...

And then the final piece:

"Serpentine Coast", Pastel, 18x24

For those who like all the details, this was done on pastelmat that I had mounted to rigid gatorfoam.

Point Lobos Trip

I've just returned from a few days in Carmel, California painting Point Lobos.

Sunday afternoon I was checking out the weather forecast and it looked like fabulous weather was headed for Carmel.  I fired off some emails, and in less than 12 hours I was down in Carmel.  Both Kim Lordier and Paul Kratter were nimble enough to swap their busy schedules around to meet me down there.

This iconic location is truly one of the most remarkable and beautiful locations, and such a joy to paint.

That's me painting with Paul Kratter

Painting with Kim Lordier

Pt Lobos, Standing Solo, 9x12, Pastel

Pt Lobos First Light, 9x12 Pastel

Pt Lobos Hidden Cove, 9x12, Pastel

Pt Lobos Last Light, 9x12, Pastel

It's just awesome having some friends who are flexible enough (and crazy enough) to make it on a trip like this. We had a great time, got lots of terrific work done, and kept kicking ourselves that we get to do this for a living. Sure beats working in the coal mines (where both my wife's grandfathers made their living).

Scott Christensen Demo - Carmel Coast

I had the pleasure of attending Scott Christensen's 5-day workshop this last week in Carmel. 

Here are some images from the demo ...

completed demo/study, 8x10 oil

 

His setup - a tiny 8x10 open box M

He did this in about 45 minutes using a little 8x10 pochade with a tiny mixing area.  The man is nothing if not fast :-)

High Sierra UFO

Check out this crazy cloud that went floating by when I was up at almost 11,000 ft in the sierras.  I've never seen anything like it.

It looked like 3 of 4 layered disks, but it also had these funky dark holes punched through it.  Very weird.

Anyone know what this type of cloud might be called?

Some More From The Sierra Trip

Here are a few more images from my  recent Sierra trip.  This first one was a quick stream study I did as we were hiking in:

"Sierra Stream Mini", 6x6, Pastel

For this painting I setup just along the trail, and then of course our mule train with all our gear caught up with me and wanted to pass.  I cleared out what I though was enough room, but that last mule in the lineup must have been really curious.  He swung over towards me and his pack whacked my pastel box.  Luckily I saw him coming and I jumped forward and grabbed my box before the impact.  I kept things mostly intact.  My box got scrambled and required some cleanup, but only one stick was broken.  That could have been a disastrous way to start the trip!

Then the next morning I woke at daybreak and painting this view.  What a place to wake up and have my first morning cup of coffee! I think the view woke me more than the caffeine.

"Sierra Morning Glow", 8x16, Pastel

Artists on the trip

Bill put together this list of pointers to everyone's website.  Thought I'd duplicated it here if you're interested in seeing more work from the trip:

• Daniel Aldana
• Sharon Calahan
• Bill Cone 
• Michele de Braganca
• Paul Kratter
• Terry Miura 
• Ernesto Nemesio
• Bob Watters
• Jim Wodark

High Sierra Painting Trip

I just returned from a week in the mountains.  A group of us (10 artists in all) packed into Chicken Foot and Gem lakes off the Rock Creek trail in the eastern sierras.  This was a trip designed to let us focus on painting, so we had mules bring in the bulk of our supplies and a cook for the duration to keep us well feed.  

I had fantastic time and the days quickly flew by.  Each day went something like this:

-          Wake at dawn (or earlier)

-          Grab of cup of coffee head off to do a morning painting

-          Breakfast at 8:30 or so

-          Pack up a lunch for the day

-          Head off to some more distant lakes or views and spend the late morning and afternoon painting

-          Return for dinner

-          Hang around drinking wine and swapping stories and tried to stay awake until 9pm (without much luck)

I don’t have time for a long post (I’ve got a big backlog of framing to get to for a Sept 10^th show), but Terry Miura is posting a fabulous day-by-day account of the trip that you can read about here:

    http://terrymiura.blogspot.com/2011/08/sierra-pack-trip.html

 OK - I'm going to get back to framing now ...

Figure in the Landscape

I've recently completed this painting, and have noticed that for the first time figures have started making appearances in my landscapes.

As humans, we are naturally drawn to any figures or people that appear in paintings.  I've been trying to add these figures in such a way that they are not the immediate focus of the painting, but rather fun discoveries one can make while looking more closely.

In this painting the figures are particularly small.  Click on it to see a larger image of the painting if you can't find them ...

http://timonsloane.com/artwork/gallery2/v/Hidden-Cove-900px.jpg.html

What I particularly like is that by using figures I can more explicit control the sense of scale in the painting.  In pure landscapes, it can be hard to imply the true sense of grandeur or vastness of a scene.  With a figure added, we suddenly read everything in relation to the scale of the figure.

http://timonsloane.com/artwork/gallery2/v/Making-Memories-900px.jpg.html