Tag: NH

As an artist, this is interesting.  I feel as if I’m finding my personal voice in terms of influences: Impressionism v. Tonalist & Luminist art. (Those links open in a new window and take you to Wikipedia.)

For me, Impressionism includes apparently disconnected colors & textures (at least, up close) that create the visual and emotional impression of the scene.

Tonalism is less about color and more about misty, foggy, or mostly-dark scenery and (often) a glassy surface to the finished work. 

In many cases, both styles are best viewed from a distance of 20 feet or more. That almost always applies to my paintings.

Luminism — which came before Impressionism — is more about the glow, and it’s currently a leading influence in all of my work.  (See work by James Augustus Suydam for the glow I’m talking about, and Sunlight and Shadow by Martin Johnson Heade for the colors.)

I also keep revisiting the images from the Like Breath on Glass exhibit, and the audio tour (with images) that’s online.  There’s something wonderfully rich but also eerie about many of the paintings.  For me, they’re compelling and hauntingly lovely.

So, I’m experimenting with different painting styles, pushing my limits and then absorbing what I learn from each experience.

The painting shown above is this morning’s sunrise study. It shows a fleeting moment and the rapidly changing skies.  The original is 9″ x 12″ on canvas board.

At right is a detail from the painting.  That’s about a one-inch section of the canvas, from top to bottom.

I think I’m moving away from harsh edges, though many of my sketches will — by necessity of the time available — look somewhat sloppy and ragged.  For me, capturing the light & color at the moment I see it is key.  The urgency in those works is clear, and has its own merits in terms of visual and emotional energy.

Many of those quick sketches will be resources for later, larger, more Luminist works.

Last night, I’d worked after dark, creating a color study inspired by the sunset.  As usual, I was challenged by artificial light (v. painting in the dark) and — when I saw the painting this morning — I wasn’t satisfied with it.

That’s it at left, after I worked on it this morning. Fortunately, minor tweaks restored the creative vision that had sparked the work.

I feel as if I’m finding the middle ground (no pun intended) between soft edges and color contrasts.

I’m not entirely sure where this is going, but I’m pleased with my progress.

And, of course, I woke up in the middle of the night with an idea for an abstract painting… and had to sketch it immediately, with notes.

In other words, my art is still a juggling act with a variety of inspirations and influences.

I’m not sure that I’d want it any other way.

Sometimes I look at an older painting and it’s lacking something.  Oh, it’s often “nice enough,” but… well, that’s not enough for me unless it was just a quick sketch.

My March 2010 painting, Spring is on the way, was like that.  It just didn’t have the oomph that I wanted; that may be partly because it was a difficult week for my family.  Sometimes I paint just to keep busy while I’m processing challenges in my life.  When I’m not fully committed to the art, particularly in terms of my emotions, the finished work can seem a little lackluster.

Also, I’ve learned a lot about color and technique since then.

Anyway, feeling very pleased with the improvements in Orange Hills, Revisited, I decided to improve the spring painting as well.  That’s the finished version, above.

Much of the work involved bringing the colors forward, and softening the areas that weren’t well-defined. Sometimes when I keep fussing with part of a painting, the area doesn’t emerge clearly and the busy-ness of it detracts from the finished work.

That’s what happened with the previous version of this painting.

This week, I was reminded of when I studied art with Larry Gluck, and he’d talk about turning paintings into “little gems.”  That’s what I was doing with this canvas.  (And yes, it is fairly little at 8″ x 10″.)

Fortunately, this week’s landscape colors were surprisingly similar to when I began this painting last March.  (With the winter we’ve had so far, I’m hoping it’s an indication of an early spring, as well.)

On the right, you can see part of the canvas, suggesting the subtle colors and the varied brushstrokes.

I’m very pleased with this painting, now that I’ve polished it into a more vibrant and representative work.  The emotional content is richer, too.

The colors and textures have depth.  I look at this painting and smile, because it’s tremendously evocative.

I’m still learning when to leave a good painting alone, and when my art can be improved upon with just a little finesse.

With this painting, the latter was definitely the case and the final product is truly good.

This is an example of what happens when I look at one of my earlier sketches and all I feel is, “Well, it’s okay…”

I started with the oil sketch from January 8th, the Orange Hills at Sunset painting.  Frankly, I was going to put it into eBay at a low starting price, just to keep the art moving.  (If art just sits in my studio, I reach a point where I stop painting… creating empty space is vital!)

However, I just couldn’t do it.  I mean, I don’t want to wince when I think of ho-hum paintings out there, when they could be so much better.

After about an hour of tweaking the eBay auction — never fully satisfied with it — I gave up and removed the auction listing.  I put the canvas back on my easel and started working on it.  This wasn’t just sketching… I wanted to push the colors into a far higher realm.

Of course, it helped that the sunset outside my window was cooperating.

At right, you can see an actual-size detail from the painting.  I added a lot of color to bring the hills to life, and to give the sky more energy.

The original painting is lighter and more vibrant than this photo, but the picture shares the general idea.  If you compare it with the sketch as completed on January 8th, you can probably see a significant improvement.

When the painting was finished, about an hour later, I decided that this will be a gift for HT’s mom.  She’s a wonderful woman and I want her to have some of my artwork.

 

 

Orange Hills, Revisited
NH landscape at sunset
9″ x 12″ oil painting on canvas board
21 January 2011
Private collection

This morning’s skies looked ominous at first, and the colors were there for just a couple of minutes.  I was glad that I’d already set out my palette with the colors I was likely to need.

This was a small, fast oil sketch on an 8″ x 10″ canvasboard.

Many sunrises feature the brightest colors dusted on the surface of the clouds.  This was one of those other mornings, when the colors were inherent to the sky, and acted as a backdrop for clouds ranging from white to lilac to lavender.

The snow reflects the skies colors, so it was like watching a flashing sign or something, as the snow went from muted blues and greys to shades of peach and orange… just for a second.

When I work this quickly, the paint runs the gamut of something thick like lathered butter to just grazed color as my brush skims the surface of the canvas.

At right, that’s about a 1 1/2″ section of the canvas, to show you the textures, colors and brushstrokes in the work.

Since I plan to clean off my palette today, I was freer with the white paint than usual.  It’s a habit that I want to get into.  (Using the paint with more freedom and abandon, that is.)

On my errands today, I’ll be buying more paint.  This time, I’m investing in the big tubes of white and blue.  I usually buy white in volume, but since I mix most of my colors from red, yellow and blue, I’m going through a lot of blue (French Ultramarine blue) with the sky and the snowcover.

I’m really enjoying starting my day with these sketches.  The art puts me in a strong and happy frame of mind, and I think everything else goes better when I begin the morning like that.

And, yes, my computer keyboard now has paint on it.  I didn’t clean my hands — which always end up with paint on them — before sitting down to post this.

It’s time for me to get ready for a day of errands now… with a smile because I was able to capture a truly lovely (if fleeting) sunrise.

It was another sunrise with quickly-changing skies.  I had to work very quickly to capture the colors on these two 8″ x 10″ canvasboards.

The first one includes darker colors and higher contrast. (In real life, the reds aren’t that vivid, blue-ish, or light.)

The sun was just coming up (in back of me) and so the hills were still very dark… but the painting’s hills are a lighter green than in this photo.

Mostly, the higher clouds and sky caught the sun’s rays; everything else was relatively dark and sometimes subdued.

The morning’s second oil sketch is below.  As you can see, the contrast was not so extreme and the hills were lit by the sunlight.

The snow was whiter, the red in the sky was diminished, and the clouds were fluffier and more clearly defined.

If I’d been painting realistically, it was the kind of sky where an artist would be tempted to add a colorful hot air balloon.  It was that kind of “picture perfect” coloring, and almost too-perfect cloud formations.

Mostly, these are color references.  They were so hastily worked, unless someone already knows that the subject is a band of trees on a hill, with snow in the foreground… well, I’m not sure that it’s representational enough to discern the subject.

Because of the pace of my work yesterday morning (when I painted these), the colors are fairly vivid.  They’re far more energetic than they look in the photos; I’m still learning how to tweak the colors with this new camera.

Later in the day, I completed another, full-size painting.  However, I wasn’t going to post it here because it’s not my usual style or subject.  In fact, it has an odd backstory.

However, I’m waiting for the right light because the colors are a little difficult to capture in a photo.  And, since I’ll be out most of today, I may not have that painting posted here until early next week.

With some minor changes, the larger Flurries at Dusk painting is now completed.

(See the nearly completed version plus backstory, here. Mostly, I added contrast in some areas, and softened the white areas in the sky.)

It’s a higher key than I’d expected, but I’m pleased with the lyrical quality of the color.

The completed work is 18″ x 24″ on stretched canvas.

I like how far I pushed the colors in this piece.  It’s not quite what I’d planned to paint, working from the original sketch, but… well, it’s a pretty painting.