Category Archives: Uncategorized

September 20, 2015

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Tonight I painted the plate with its pattern of blue splotches and then added some thin color to the underpainting of the peaches. It always amazes me how different the painting is from its underpainting. In the next session, I will paint the peaches closer to their final form and then finish the tabletop.

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The base color for the plate was a neutral mixture of Prussian Blue, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Yellow, and Titanium White. The spots used the same colors, but almost no yellow.

For this study, I first painted a neutral plate in shadow and light and then went back and added the blue splotches on top of the wet paint. As I suspected, this approach worked better than starting with a blue plate and painting neutral around the spots.

Bennington Peaches III

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My first project with the new still-life stand was another Bennington Peaches study. Zip-ties hold a mirror that gives me a perfect top-down view of the peaches on the blue plate.

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Here’s the underpainting on an 8″ x 8″ stretched canvas.

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I started by covering the canvas with a random pattern of middle value acrylic colors, including French Ultramarine, Burnt Sienna, and Burnt Umber, all lightened with Titanium White. I also painted the sides of the canvas with black acrylic paint.

When this was dry, I started the oil underpainting using water miscable oils. First I established the outlines of the peaches, the plate, and the core and cast shadows using Burnt Sienna. I then painted in the shadows using a combination of Prussian Blue, Terra Verte, and Burnt Sienna. A final step was to lightened the table with a bit of Titanium White.

Adjustable Still-Life Stand

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After a brainstorming session with my classmate Chris, I managed to put together an inexpensive, adjustable still-life stand. My goal was to provide a fairly large tabletop whose height could be easily adjusted. Since I stand when I paint and I’m pretty tall and often paint scenes at eye-level (see this onion painting), it was important that the table could be positioned six feet or more off the ground. I also wanted the ability to clamp on lights and easily hang backdrops. Here’s what I came up with.

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It’s based on a inexpensive plastic shelving unit with PCV pipes replacing some of the risers.

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The PVC pipes are small enough that the shelf can slide freely up and down. The shelf rests on pipe clamps that can be loosened and tightened with a screwdriver.

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PVC bushings mate the pipes to the fixed shelves.

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The system seems pretty versatile and I can easily reassemble it in other configurations.

PAWA Columbia Gorge Paintout

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This weekend I attended the Plein Air Washington Columbia Gorge Paintout in Washougal. I chose to set up next to the Fern Prairie Modelers runway, across the street from the transfer station. This is a great location because you can paint right next to your vehicle, there are trees for shade, and restrooms nearby at Captain William Clark Regional Park. The view is looking east into the Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

When I started the under painting around 10am, the sun was in front of me to the right. It was very hot, but also hazy, and the haze was a good thing because it helped to keep the scene from changing significantly over the next 5 hours as I painted. During this time, the sun moved to a position directly to my right, so the main changes in front of me were the snowfields on Mt Hood (it went from back-lit to side-lit) and the form shadows on the near trees. Everything else – the distant hills, the barns, and the foreground meadows stayed pretty much the same.

I spent about 30 minutes on the under painting, using thin Burnt Sienna and then Raw Umber.

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As often happens, I found the half-finished painting to be nearly as compelling as the completed piece. I really like the way the Burnt Sienna foreground plays against the Cerulean and Raw Umber in the distant hills.

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Here’s the finished piece, a 9″ x 12″ canvas panel.

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The paintout was a lot of fun and at the end of the day we all met for dinner at the Puffin Cafe, a Caribbean restaurant floating on the Columbia at the Port of Camas. All in all, an excellent trip with lots of painting, interesting people, and great food!

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Bennington Peaches II

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My peaches watercolor was pretty successful so I tried a similar composition in oils. It’s an 8″ x 10″ canvas panel with water miscible oils.

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Since the goal was a quick study, I chose to reuse a panel which had previously been painted a solid, dark burnt umber. This turned out to be a mistake – starting with such a dark support made it really hard to establish the proper values and I found that the painting was too dark for much of the time.

The texture on the plate was more successful in the watercolor. When creating the oil sketch, I first painted a solid blue plate, with dark blue shadows and a gradient from dark into light. Then I painted the white areas around the blue spots.

The next time I try this plate, I will start with a neutral color gradient in grays from dark to light and then I will add the blue spots. I think this will be easier and will lead to a more natural looking texture with better light and shadow effects.

A final note is that I overdid the chiaroscuro effect on the peaches. For the next go around, I will use a neutral toned panel and try to go for less contrast.

Minimal Travel Kit

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I’m putting together an absolutely minimal plein air kit for traveling. It is based on the Winsor Newton Professional Watercolor Compact Set, a small 4″ x 5″ case with 14 half-pans of watercolor, a nine section palette, a water cup, and a small sable brush.

To this I added a pair of Black Gold pull apart travel brushes and a 5″ x 7″ block of Fabriano Acquarello cold pressed watercolor paper. I’ll probably also need a water bottle, paper towels, pencils, and an eraser.

Here’s a close up showing the colors included in the set. Can’t wait to try it out!

July 4, 2015

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Awoke with the dawn for another session at Kelsey Creek Farm. This morning was all about modelling sunlight on the trees and adding sky holes and light and dark branches. I also added some more texture to the grass in the foreground.

If I continue to work on this painting, I will probably refine the trunks and then knock back some of the highlights, make the sky holes more natural, and figure out what to do with the large empty space in the lower left. Not sure if this will move the needle, though. I might be better off starting another painting. There are lots of other nice spots at Kelsey Creek . . .