Seeing Color

Posted on March 5, 2015 by OpusPlus

One challenge I have when I’m painting is getting my engineer’s brain to see color rather than seeing what color I think something should be. For example, mountains are green in the summer, right? Of course that’s true when you are standing next to them, but as they retreat into the distance and are subject to viewing through more atmosphere they fade to blue. Getting the right color of blue is a challenge for me. I never could get this right in the picture below although I painted over the mountains at least three times. I love the scene and may try it again, but I decided I’d need to start from scratch.

The first example where I really realized that I wasn’t seeing color was in my class with Jean Barrett (which I wrote about in an earlier post). When I was painting the scene looking out the dining room window of Il Casale di Mele there was a splash of light on the dining room table. My engineer’s brain wanted to see this as a lighter color of brown than the table. That made perfect sense to me since if you shine a light on a color you just get a lighter version of that same color – shadow and light. Jean looks at me and looks at the photograph and says that splash of light is bright blue. After a period of denial, careful consideration, and eventually acceptance I finally agreed that it was indeed blue. I adjusted my painting but Jean and I never agreed that my version was blue enough. Below I have included the painting and the original photo.

Then, in my class with Andras Bality at Nimrod Hall we spent a lot of time analyzing the color of the sky and the clouds. My engineer’s brain thinks the sky is blue and clouds are gray and white. In fact, the sky is not pure blue especially depending on what time of day it is, and clouds include white, gray, pink, purple, blue and often other colors.

I found a book that has helped me get past the color blindness of my engineer’s brain. It’s called “1500 Color Mixing Recipes for oil, acrylic & watercolor” by William F. Powell. Actually this book is a compilation of several color mixing recipe books he’s done. I use the landscape section the most (of course) but there is a section for portraits, which I can see would be very useful. There is also a special section for watercolors. I will probably use that more after I take my next class at Nimrod this summer.

The way it works is that the book has pages of recipes. It shows you different color swatches, and what combinations are used to make them. I have found that it helps me see colors better, including the subtle differences, by comparing the swatches with the photograph I am painting. It also helps me mix more vibrant colors. Before, my colors would get “muddy” because I would mix too many colors together trying to get subtle differences. Now I plan and mix my pallet with the aid of the recipes before I start the painting. I’m very happy with the results so far. Below is an example of a page from the book that I hope will help better show what I mean.

One last note, the index of this book is amazing. You can look up a color based on a detailed list of items including different kinds of trees at different times of year, skies at different times of day, different kinds of rocks, etc. It’s really amazing. I have included an example page below.

Three Ridges

Posted on February 28, 2015 by OpusPlus

In case you haven’t noticed, Three Ridges is a favorite subject of mine. It looms next to Wintergreen, which is actually atop a peak called Devil’s Knob. If I go just up the street from our house to the Devil’s Knob Overlook, which is close to the highest point in Wintergreen, I have a fabulous and ever changing view of Three Ridges. It makes a wonderful subject because it’s familiar and comfortable but different in every photograph I take of it, and I take a lot.

I just finished a painting inspired by a photograph I stopped and took one morning in mid-January when I arrived. The clouds were lying heavy in the valleys and the peaks were above them. There was another layer of cloud above and a strip of colorful sky from the morning sun, which had been up for a while but was fighting the clouds. Below is the painting, followed by the photograph that inspired it. The painting is 36×18 oil on canvas.

I’m sure you haven’t seen the last of Three Ridges. I have many more inspirational photographs. I’ve painted in in the Spring, Fall and Winter. I’m still searching for the perfect Summer view. Maybe when the weather breaks I’ll try my hand at a plein aire.

Nimrod Hall 2014

Posted on February 22, 2015 by OpusPlus

Last Spring in a web search for art classes in Central Virginia I ran across a place called Nimrod Hall. More specifically, I found the Nimrod Hall Summer Arts Program.

Nimrod Hall is a property in Bath County Virginia that dates back to the 1700s. At one point in its history it was a hunting lodge. For the last century or so it has been an art colony. It is now owned by Richmond based artist Laura Loe and her husband.

The artist workshop program has been around for a while. Until last Summer they had only done week-long workshops, but they decided that weekend workshops would be a good way to reach more people, including those hesitant to commit to an entire week without seeing what it was like. I signed up for a weekend workshop with Andras Bality, also Richmond based. I was drawn to Andras’ impressionistic landscapes and believed I’d enjoy his class. I was right!

First, Nimrod is rustic, but comfortable. The setting is beautiful. The photo below is of the main house. It’s a large property with many buildings situated on the Cowpasture River. The workshops include three home cooked meals a day, and the food is excellent.

The weekend began with a demonstration by Andras on Friday evening. Then we painted all day Saturday. We set up a scene on the pond down by the river for our first painting. Below is my painting from that session (14×11 oil on board). It’s not my best work, but it was a good learning experience. Plein Aire painting is hard, and not something I’m practiced at. I usually paint from photographs.

After we completed the first painting we were encouraged to chose another scene and paint a second painting. Along the hillside down by the river there was a row of cabins, from a boys camp. These were essentially in ruins, and not particularly pretty until you spent some time looking at them. I painted the tiny painting below (8×6 oil on canvas board) and gained a real appreciation for their beauty. Laura says she’s going to try to restore these so they can be used. She has her work cut out for her.

In this workshop I learned several things from Andras that I have carried forward. First, I learned a lot about mixing color. He taught me that colors you would least expect to use in a mix can have a profound effect. For example, cadmium orange can be used to tone down colors without dulling them. I also learned to mix my whole pallet at once before beginning the painting. That doesn’t mean that you don’t continue to add and mix colors, but it gives you a broad starting point. Finally, I learned that clouds have many different colors in them. My engineer’s brain wants to see white and gray, but they have blue, purple, pink and many other subtle colors. Each of these has improved my results in paintings I’ve done since the workshop.

I’ve signed up for a Watercolor Painting workshop by Purnell Pettyjohn at Nimrod July 10 -12 this summer. Watercolor has always been a challenge to me so I’m looking forward to becoming more comfortable with the medium.

Painted Deserts

Posted on February 15, 2015 by OpusPlus

I was born and raised on the East Coast, but I love the desert. I find it spiritual and cleansing. It’s also beautiful and therefore I’m drawn to do paintings of it.

My experience painting the desert began a while ago with a trip to Santa Fe New Mexico. I enjoyed painting the adobe structures. Unfortunately, I haven’t photographed any of these early paintings (which aren’t very good). If I do I’ll come back and add them.

In 2004 we went to Fountain Hills Arizona and addition to playing a lot of golf we did some hiking. I painted this painting in 2004 from one of the photos I took on the hike. It’s 28 x 22 oil on canvas. I liked the painting, especially the highlights and shadows in the mountains, but always felt it lacked composition.

In 2012 we went to Utah canyon country, which is unbelievably beautiful. I wasn’t painting much at the time, but when I started again the photos from that trip were some of my first subjects. All three of these come from photos taken in Devil’s Garden, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Park. These are all 16 x 12 water mixable oil on canvas.

We’ll start with my least favorite of the three, the toadstools. I suppose I should skip this, but in the spirit of sharing both the good and bad in this blog I’m including it. I didn’t really get a good 3D look here and the rocks below the toadstools never really worked.

This next painting is an arch and I like it better. I realized later that I missed an opportunity to get more highlights and shadows in the distant mountains. The 3D effect in the arch itself is good.

I actually did this one on my iPad too, after I did the painting. In many ways like the iPad version better. The Procreate tools allowed for much softer shadows and features in the arch itself. I also got better depth in those distant mountains.

The third, and my favorite, is from a photo of a series of hoodoos on a very flat sandstone rock. This actually looks much better in person than in this photo. The photo flattened it out. The actual painting is very 3D.

I also did a watercolor study of this before I did this painting. I’m generally not very good at watercolor. This is one of my better attempts at the medium.

iPad Art

Posted on February 4, 2015 by OpusPlus

I’m a big fan of my iPad. I’m always looking for new ways to put it to use, and drawing on it seemed like a possibility. From my early iPad days I purchased apps like Brushes and Sketchbook Pro. More recently I got Procreate. Mostly, I would tinker around with them but I’d get frustrated before getting too far.

Last spring I took a four-hour class through Falls Church Arts from Bobbi Pratte. Bobbi is a wonderful landscape artist and I’m going to take an afternoon painting class from her in May. I’m looking forward to learning a lot.

In the class we experimented with Zen Brush, Sketch Club and Brushes. After we’d done some experimenting with each Bobbi gave us each a photo of a flower and we “painted” them using Sketch Club. I got a good start but ran out of time and had to finish my painting after class. The most important thing I learned was to use lots of layers! Below is my iris.

I was pleased with the results and since then II have gone on to do several more iPad “paintings”. Some have been studies that I did in conjunction with actual paintings, but others I just did for fun. I will save the studies to discuss with the associated paintings.

Mostly I use Procreate. I’m more comfortable with that than Sketch Club. I have tried several types of stylus — my favorite for painting on the iPad is the Sensu Solo.

As you know, I’m a big fan of butterflies, so I needed to try that out. Here is my monarch on pink pansies.

After some time of not doing much iPad art I was worried I’d lose my knack, so I took on something pretty challenging. I drew the post office building from Nimrod Hall. (Nimrod Hall is an art retreat in Bath County VA. We’ll talk about that in a future post)

Finally, what’s really fun is that most of the apps record your brush strokes (mistakes and all) and you can play them back as a movie. Below is the movie showing the strokes involved in me drawing the butterfly. It’s 3 minutes and 16 seconds long.

Green Show at Falls Church Arts

Posted on January 31, 2015 by OpusPlus

Two of my submissions to the upcoming Green Show at Falls Church Arts have been accepted. The interpretation of “green” is left up to the artist. I chose landscapes, although one of them is not very green. I also consider my paintings to be eco-friendly because I use water mixable oils.

The first I painted last Spring. It’s a view from the Devil’s Knob overlook in Wintergreen where everything was green and the red buds were blooming.

The second is a painting I did a few months ago from a photo I took on the Skyline Drive in the Fall of 2013.

The show is at Art Space in Falls Church located at 410 South Maple Avenue, Falls Church, VA 22046. It opens on February 12th and I plan to attend the opening night reception. It runs through March 8th.

Classes with Jean Barrett and My First Show

Posted on January 25, 2015 by OpusPlus

Around the time I got serious about starting to paint again I met my friend Dede Haas for drinks. I knew Dede through my networking activities while I was running my company. She is a consultant to technology companies specializing in channel sales, but she took a couple of years off while back to explore her love of photography. Her work is fabulous. Dede also lives near me and when we met she told me I should get involved with Falls Church Arts.

I decided to enroll in a class taught by Jean Marie Barrett called painting from the inside out. The premise was painting scenes looking out through windows and doors. It was a fun and challenging class and served the purpose of getting me back into painting again. Painting with Jean also served to build my confidence. Whenever I would cower in my lack of ability she would simply tell me I had the skills to do something and I should just do it.

I painted two paintings in that class. Interestingly enough, they were both from photos taken at Il Casale di Mele on a trip to Umbria Italy a few years ago. The first one is looking out the kitchen window. That’s my friend Sophie at the counter. This was my first painting in the class. In my opinion it’s not very good, but it did serve to get me back into practice.

The second piece I did is one of my best paintings ever. I’m not sure I would have even attempted it if it had not been for the confidence Jean instilled in me. This was done from a favorite photograph from the trip looking out a huge plate glass window from the dining room into the garden.

At Jean’s suggestion, I timidly entered it into the Falls Church Arts All Members Show (Spring 2014). It didn’t win anything, but I was quite proud. This was my first show.

Painting Party at Mad Fox

Posted on January 21, 2015 by OpusPlus

Last night Mad Fox Brewing Company, a craft brew pub near where I live, had a painting party. They brought in a company called Creative Mankind, who conducted a two-hour workshop where people could paint. No painting experience was necessary. I was curious enough to sign up.

First of all, it was very popular. There were probably close to 50 people who had signed up. Creative Mankind set up spots with tabletop easels, a canvas, water, brushes, and acrylic paints including black, white, and the primary colors (red, blue and yellow) on a paper plate pallet. They also had a small photo of olives in a martini glass for each person. Once they got us all organized they gave some instructions and we all got started.

The subject was simple enough that even beginners had good success. We started out painting the olives, then we painted the background, and finally we painted the glass and the reflection. Most people did pretty well as you can see from the photos.

Some people went a little off script 🙂

I love the fact that organizations like Creative Mankind are encouraging people to explore their creative side. A good time was had by all!

Water Mixable Oils

Posted on January 17, 2015 by OpusPlus

As I said earlier posts, when I started painting I used acrylics. They are great for beginners. You mix them with water and they clean up easily with water. They dry fast.

I particularly liked the fact that they dry fast when I started out. My engineer’s brain liked to paint from back to front. (It still does but I’m working on it.) So I’d paint the sky and the background. Then I’d paint the things that were further away, finishing with the detailed things in the foreground. This made sense to me. Acrylics were great because they dried in a few minutes and I could move on to the next layer.

When I first painted with oils I realized that as convenient as fast drying paint is, it also has its downside. You can’t blend the colors well. You can mix colors on the pallet, but getting those soft edges by mixing with your brush once the paint is on the canvas doesn’t work well. Because of that, oil paint became my preference.

As wonderful as oil paint is, you thin paint and clean up with with turpentine or turpenoid. Turpentine is pretty toxic. Both are smelly. For that reason, I tried to go back to acrylics when I first started painting again a couple of years ago. This lasted less than one painting (I didn’t finish it).

I started doing some research and discovered something called water mixable-oils. These are oil paints, but they are made with a particular kind of linseed oil that is water-soluble. That means it can be thinned with and cleaned up with water. My research showed that opinions vary on how these compare with traditional oils. Some people say they behave differently. I would agree that they are slightly different, but I think the tradeoff is worth it. I’ve been using them for about a year now and I like them. They dry slowly enough to mix well. They still smell like oil paint, which is nice. The colors are pretty consistent.

I’ve tried two brands, Windsor & Newton and W Oil. Both are pretty good. I might have a slight preference for the Windsor & Newton. There are water-mixable linseed oil products you can buy if you like to thin with oil. You can buy several brands of water-mixable oils online at Dick Blick or Cheap Joe’s.

Classes with Jennifer

Posted on January 11, 2015 by OpusPlus

In 2002 I decided that I needed to take some basic art classes. I was in the middle of starting my own company, so I had my hands full, but somehow I found time to sign up for a drawing class with the county adult education program. It was called Drawing to Paint, and the teacher was Jennifer Schoechle. I expected to do to class to learn to sketch so I could paint better. It was quite different from what I expected, but it was very useful.

The class was based on chiaroscuro, which is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark. We used primarily charcoal and usually began by covering the entire paper with a charcoal base and then using erasers and more charcoal to establish the lights and darks. We also worked on perspective. As it turns out, Jennifer was a gifted portrait painter, and chiaroscuro is a common technique in figure drawing.

While the class was very different than I expected, it was very good for me because it taught me to see contrast and value. We also learned some basic techniques like drawing the negative space, which is sometimes very helpful, especially with composition.

I went on to take a second class through the county with Jennifer in figure drawing and painting and then a third where she had a group of students take a portrait painting class in her home. I never imagined myself painting portraits, but it was a very good experience. It was also my first exposure to oil painting – I had always used acrylics before that point. Below is the portrait I painted in Jennifer’s private class.

Sadly, I haven’t done anything in portrait painting since. When I picked up my paintbrushes again in 2013 I thought I might try to take another class from her. I looked her up and learned that she passed away in 2010 at the age of 61, far too young to lose such a gifted artist. Below is the only example I could find of Jennifer’s work on Google.

Cynthia Gilmer Fine Art

…a former entrepreneur's search for her new passion as an artist