HAVING FUN IN THE STUDIO!

I just wanted to share with you the joy I feel being back in the studio this week and last.  Usually takes me a couple of weeks into January before my responsibilities and chores fall away and I can see the open road of painting through March and sometimes even April.  My garden demands its spring cleanout in April, I dream about and organize my planting sequence for the year and my heart yearns for that warm Colorado sun on my face.  But, until April, except for the occasional balmy day, I am happily holed up in the studio, great jazz or classical music playing on the iPod and the fireplace ablaze.  Last year I returned to oil painting during this time (can’t believe a whole year has passed already) and have never looked back.  When you paint in such a concentrated effort miracles do happen.  If I keep my head down, try new things, challenge myself with difficult subjects and remember to stand back frequently, suddenly I see change happening and I know I have jumped another fence in my growth as a artist.

Of course, I started with a simple composition and easy subject – willows next to an irrigation ditch …. Not much challenge, but a nice way to get back into the swing of painting.
 
Willow Shade  14 x 18 oil  (you can follow along as I painted this by going here)

Next I decided to challenge my palette.  Usually I clean off my palette many times to keep my colors fresh.  Richard Schmid says, “What’s on your palette will end up in your painting.” And I have agreed with that for the most part.  So this time, I decided to approach the painting like Tim Deibler does – never clean the pallet, never change brushes, barley clean the brush as you mix new colors – thereby keeping an overall tonal quality to the painting.  I also tried to loosen up, but found that I couldn’t get that loose with the subject and the small size.  (Sorry, Tim, I didn't mean you never clean off your palette, just that you don't do it during a painting.)
 
Harvest Snow 8 x 16 oil
Successful to some degree but wish I had chosen a less detailed barn scene.  We learn as we go!

Keeping the focus on tonal continuity and  a more loose painting style, I began another:
     
On the Easel Tucson 12 x 12 Oil - A start,      

On the Easel Tucson 12 x 12 Oil - Adding dimension,             
















Water Rights  12 x 12 Oil
Better subject matter, for sure, but those rocks…..somewhere between in focus and not loose enough.  Darn, this is tough.  So, I reworked it a bit, added my usual fussiness and like it better, but was that what I intended originally?  Thought I was trying something new.

Then I just pulled a photograph at random out of my stack of maybe 300 photographs on the studio desk and tried to apply some of the lessons just learned to this next painting.  This “at random” approach is sort of like driving down a road somewhere, seeing something really fascinating, stopping to set up for plein air painting and dashing off a painting before the light changes.
 
Emigrant  12 x 16 oil
Okay, so you just knew it would be a Montana scene did you?  Well, most of my photos in the stack are currently of Montana so you would be right, Mate.  Pretty loose for me, tonal to a point, some yin yang between the mountain and the right foreground color of the sage….Will think about this one and keep you posted.  

In the mean time, got any comments?  Questions?  

Cheers!  I’m off to the studio for the rest of the day.

Ginger

Dream Lake – Rocky Mountain National Park 

Welcome!

Thanks for visiting my new blog.  I aim to slowly introduce you to who I am, where I have been and what I think about various art related subjects.  Artists, collectors, casual observers, and anyone else who drops by, can tune into my approach to painting, learn how I choose a subject and what important elements caught my eye when I took photos or stopped to plein air paint.  I’ll share with you my methodology and mental wanderings as I begin a painting and probably throw in some incidental stray thoughts that pop into my head as I write.  I taught middle school academics many years ago and now teach workshops once in a while, so please accept that I will sometimes take the teacher role…it’s only natural.  

I write for you.  You can help guide me in my subject matter by asking questions or just making comments on my ramblings.  Anyway, welcome to the first…..

Good news came on Friday, when I learned that 5 of my oil paintings had been accepted into PaintAmerica 2008 National Traveling Exhibition.  Only two of these, “Not for a King’s Ransom” and “Fall Anthology” will join the traveling show.  The others are in honorarium only.  You’ll find my work in PaintAmerica last year and in Paint the Parks too.  These are the folks who took over after Arts for the Parks came to an end and they are working hard to make their traveling shows first rate.  

Because good painting habits flew the coup during the holidays, I felt a tad uncomfortable back in the studio.  So instead of boring you with my current painting efforts, I thought you might enjoy seeing the painting progression for one of my current PaintAmerica Top 100 paintings.

Last summer I zigzagged across Montana, staying a day here and there with good friends, eventually arriving at our cabin along Rock Creek.  After years of drought and wildfires, this spring brought abundant moisture and the multitude of tributaries which weave their way toward Rock Creek were still flowing in early July.  Unbelievable greens covered the ground and hillsides.  The cottonwoods, loaded with foliage, camouflaged their dead branches completely and the timothy grass heads swayed in the breeze at about 4 feet high – incredible. 

Please excuse this terrible photography from my easel.
Instead of drawing, I use transparent oil paint to place the key elements and shapes of the composition onto the canvas.  Notice that I always mark the center – with my astigmatism, I need this reference point to keep things level.


Next, using a thin wash of oil paint, I add color shapes close to the value I think will be necessary.  In this way, I test my concept of the painting, composition, values and color strategy before too much paint has been applied.  Here too I locate the dark colors which will eventually lead you into the painting.


I painted from top down on this painting because, with the trees, being rather feathery, I thought it important to get that nice flat sky in first.  More frequently, I key the sky to the rest of the painting later on in the development.  Fantastic atmospheric perspective (provided by the amount of moisture in the air) helps give this painting depth.  Usually I have to create it as in our dry West, little moisture means little atmospheric perspective.  I’m also testing the bright green on the right and eventually will tone it down a bit.

Not for a King's Ransom  14 x 18 Oil on board
Now complete, will you join me and walk up this shallow stream to see what is just around the corner?  The day is hot, but the water is refreshing on your feet and memories flood through your mind of days just like this when you searched for crayfish or wonderful colored pebbles – the smell of grass fills the air, caught in the gentle breeze and brookies tickle your feet as they glide by.  

I will paint this scene again and again.  The day will stay in my memory forever.  I hope I have successfully brought you with me on our journey.up this small stream.

Don’t forget, you can sign up for this blog with the RSS feed and you will be notified by email when I post a new one.

Thanks for checking in.    Ginger