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!