Thursday, May 11, 2017

Joshua Been Lecture and Demo

I attended a Joshua Been lecture and demo last Saturday at my friend Hai-ou Hou's place, Chesapeake Fine Art Studio. It was fantastic. He has it down to a science from figuring out a myriad of plein air gear to his approach to plein air painting. His method is very disciplined, which I lack, that includes always doing a pre-sketch with four value markers before starting to paint. This neat little pack is what he uses to make black-and-white sketches. You can buy it on his website.

 

The pen with a little white sphere on top is what he uses to determine the precise direction of the light source. 

He breaks down the visual language into four elements: values, shapes, edges and texture. The values are the foundation and you lay it down by doing pre-sketches. I use this method sometimes and make a thumb-nail sketch before painting. But it's usually for my studio paintings or for figuring out a composition for my ideas. When it comes to plein air painting, I feel an urgency because the light changes so fast, so I tend to jump right in. If the first composition doesn't work out, I'll just wipe it out and redraw it. That tones my canvas too. In a way, I like the chaos, the not-knowing, and the unpredictable nature of the process. My friend Janice has been doing these sketches. They do help make sure your painting come out better. Maybe I should start making them now!

 

This is his palette on the day-tripper easel he designed and sells on his website. Janice already bought one. It's very lightweight. He only uses seven colors: titanium white, lemon yellow(missing?), cadmium yellow medium, cadmium orange, burnt sienna, cerulean blue hue, alizarin crimson, and ultramarine blue. No black. He starts the painting thick, no thinned washes.

 

This compact little thing is his fly-on-the-wall easel. It's good for painting in tight spaces where you really don't want to cause a scene. He used this to paint the dinosaurs in the Smithonian museum in DC. I like his dinosaur paintings.

 

 

And this little sunset(sunrise?) painting.

 

Then he did a demo, a larger piece from a smaller study. 

 

 

He's a great plein air artist, and articulated his methods clearly. I bought his book. It will come in the mail. Now the thing for me to do is go out there and practice it myself!

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Outdoor Figure Painting

Oil on linen panel, 12 x 16

This is my first ever outdoor figure painting. Can you believe it?! I painted this with my artist friend Abigail on my deck. Abigail has a lot of experience painting outdoor figures since she studied with John Ebersberger and at the Cape Cod School of Art. She's done many mud heads, figures on the beach, etc. She couldn't believe I had never painted a figure outdoors. But it's true. Somehow all my portraits and figures were done indoor with controlled lighting. But I'm liking the outdoor light with the cool reflected light on the model's face.

It was a cloudy day and made for an interesting study of the colors on the model's skin and kimono. But the sun kept going in and out of the clouds, making painting more difficult. It's a complete different painting when the sun came out! 

Kuniko is a wonderful model. She always arrives early, times herself, and holds the pose steadily. We are happy to have her working with us.

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Azalea Garden

 

 

 
The weather is getting warmer and better for plein air painting. My artist friend Janice told me about this pretty azalea garden in Clarksville and I painted with her there a couple of times in the past two weeks. There are tons of azaleas in different colors -- white, pink, fuchsia, and violet. They peaked last week and are going away now. But what a beautiful sight when they are all blooming by the water!