Lovely Tuscan Tree

"Lovely Tuscan Tree"

11x14 oil on canvas board

Almost one year ago I traveled to Tuscany Italy where I taught an 8 day plein air workshop.  Before arriving in Tuscany my daughter and I took an extra week to visit and travel through Rome and Florence.  It was my third time traveling to Italy to teach and paint.  Italy is one of those places that I have been where it feels like home to me, so comfortable and so beautiful and full of inspiration!  I always tell my students that it's life's experiences that brings richness to the canvas, not just technical knowledge (although very important as well).  Having the experience of being in Italy, breathing the air, eating the food, hearing the sounds and absorbing the sights through our eyes richness the soul of the artist.  This experience will never leave me and as time goes by it seems to rich en.  So, one year later I am now painting my memories and experiences of this life enriching trip.  "Lovely Tuscan Tree" is my recent studio piece of this Lovely Tuscan Tree overlooking Sienna.  I loved and will forever remember the beautiful weight and form of this tree and it gracefully opposed the distant cool blue recession.  

Good news!  This painting will be traveling to The Small Works Show at the Bennington Center Of Arts in Bennington Vermont.  I'm hoping to make it to the opening of this show in June, 2013.  

Some March Color

"March Still Life"

14x11 oil on panel

Sometimes a painter just needs a little color!  We still have snow here, a LOT and today I just needed some color.  So, I went to the market to find some inspiration.  Look what I found!  As deep as my passion is for painting landscape, I LOVE painting flowers!  Obviously I'm drawn to their vibrant and rich color but I love their life and vitality and when I paint them I'm just happy!  Pretty good reason to paint flowers I'd say.  :)  This is what I did today in the studio.  

Reflection Studies In March . . .

"Against The Pink Glow"

9x12 oil on linen panel

"Looking Across"

10x12 oil on linen panel

Here in Minnesota it's still very much winter and we've had a LOT of snow this year, and it's still coming!!  I love the snow and find so much inspiration from the harmony it provides but this time of year I am more than craving the river open, moving, and warm with the reflections of It's banks pulling down.  It's almost as if I need it more for my soul which as far as I know is where my art comes from.  Years ago I would not have imagined that my muscle memory for imagery would ever be as strong as it is now but it's even stronger.  Especially for images and scenery I have painted from life countless times.  On these two studies above, I used a couple photos I took last year along the river, the photos were used simply for memory 'joggers'.  The imagery from the photo supplies enough info to trigger my memory of the scene when I was standing there and I'm able to use the photo as a spark to make a painting.  As far as color reference goes the photo was virtually no help at all.  The greens looked as if they were green straight from the 'lime-green' Crayola Crayon.  The warmth and feeling of a place has everything to do with temperature and saturation of color, not so much the local color.  

I each of these paintings in my 2 advanced studio classes last week as a demo on how to paint reflections.  They were each painted in under an hour.  It won't be long before we'll be out on the banks of the river again painting the moving water from life!  

Where I Paint, Demo!

I'm not sure where the time goes these days but I do know it go by quickly!  My issue is not so much finding the time to paint, like so many struggle with, it's finding time to keep up on all the other things in life, such as computer work and cleaning my house!  This morning when my kids absolutely could not find one clean sock and I got out of bed to trip on a pile of laundry I decided, okay Kami - A break from painting, clean your house!"  So, that's what I'm doing!  And to tell you the truth, I think of it as a way to clear my head so that next week I can paint even better!  :)  

Not to mention my 12 year old is in hockey!  Never thought I, of all people would be spending more time in a day at a hockey rink or driving to one, than along the river with my paint box, but I am, and now finally realizing this season of my life will pass and is passing faster than I want it to.  I remember when he was 5 years old, we were driving to the rink at some unGodly hour in February, I was grumping about it, I looked back at happy freckle faced kid with his stick across his lap and he said "Mamma, you don't get it!  This is my ART!!"  :)  Forever changed my attitude.  I watched him that morning on the ice, put down my Henri Art Spirit, and saw the hunger and passion in his eyes, just the same way I feel about painting, and GOT IT! Yup, it is his art.  This passion can be very inspiring if we let it be and hopefully we can bring it to and through our art.  All these pieces of our lives.

  Now to my poor deprived blog.  (FYI, I post almost daily paintings on my Facebook page. . . .)

 I've been meaning to make this post on the building of "It's Where I Paint" for a good couple of weeks now.  I've since painted many paintings that have yet to be posted, and started up teaching winter semester of classes at my studio and school, St Croix River School of Painting.  I promised weeks ago to my students I would have this demo here posted so here it is!  

The large studio piece is 24x24.  I worked from my plein air piece 12x12 and a really bad photo of the place.  All I can say is thank you Nature for revealing such absolute beauty through light and color!  I could have never done this painting without studying directly from the source last summer.  My photo was virtually useless where color and temperature is concerned!  A camera can record objects and color but not temperature.  If you want to paint landscape, you need to get your butt outside and paint directly from Nature herself.  

I start off by using Transparent Oxide Red with Gamsol and lay in a wash.  Partly to loosen up my arm and partly to get rid of the white canvas.  I do not always use an undertone (wash) but most likely if I'm painting a warm light source I like to use a warm tone.  For instance when I'm painting a winter scene I may just go directly into my white canvas or I might lay in a Magenta undertone.  

I always mark 4 marks on the canvas dividing 1/2 on all 4 sides so that I can see where the middle is.  I try to avoid putting any major lines of contrast in the middle of my paintings, generally speaking.  

Then I start right in with my drawing.  (note: I always do several composition studies, value studies and small color studies before I start a large painting)  

As far as I'm concerned, this initial lay in is the most important part of the painting, the rest is just painting.  The concept and composition really needs to be solid right from the start.  I'm so much more conscious of this now than I used to be.  I used to just start painting with little thought to my division of space and how I could best say what I'm trying to say.  

Still working up drawing with only paint and thinner, no white.  I'll often times use a paper towel at this point to push and pull the shapes.

And I'll keep working the shapes until I'm happy with what I see when I stand across the room.  Then I start working up darks, I always leave my light areas until I absolutely need them to relate my darks to.  Just understand the reason is that the canvas is already in the key of light, the darks need to be developed by you.  Since everything is relative and we are simply manipulating our small range of value to create an 'effect of light' it's important to get as much of the canvas covered as possible.  

Okay!  Time to start massing in my averages.  I started with the back because it's pretty large and consumes most of the canvas.  It would be difficult to guess the rest of the color without it's 'support'.

Here you can see how I develop my pools of color.  I start by using a limited palette of Ultra Marine, Cad. Red, and Cad. lemon or Cad yellow light.  They are all mixed separately with white at the same saturation levels.  Then I begin to merge the 3 primaries together, this way I keep a clean mixture of paint, that I have control over.  I see way too many times students just grabbing paint and guessing and they make nothing but 'mud' as we tend to call it in the painting world.  Most colors I've seen in Nature of tertiaries.  This is where we have difficulty mixing color.  A tertiary is a color composed of each of our primaries, yellow, red, blue.  I think of each color as have a dominant primary, then a secondary, then the 3rd.  If we mix them equal or at different saturation levels, we lose control over our color and people get frustrated.  Try and identify what the dominant primary is in your color, then your 2nd, then your 3rd.  This will help you identify and mix your color with less frustration.  And if you want to know more about this you can take one of my color mixing workshops!  :)  

On with the painting!  You can see my plein air piece to the side here.  I just continue to mass in my large averages.

still massing but starting to get some opaque paint on the tree trunks.  I tend to work up my entire painting at once, meaning not finish one area but work up all the areas.

Starting to break into the large flat averages by noting notes of color shifts that would represent form and vibration within the masses.  

Thinking quite a bit about form within the island. . . 

"It's Where I Paint!" 24x24 oil on linen

So, as you see I got a little too deep in the zone once starting the water and forgot to photograph it. . . oops!  

Again, my pool of greens in it's different values and temperatures.  Each time I go into another mass, I clean my palette and start a new pool.  

January 12, full day painting Demonstration

Last Saturday I hosted a painting demonstration at my studio.  I had a very good turn out with lots of painters, some collectors and even a writer!  

It was a full house!  I started the day off with a discussion on how I came up with my concept for my large studio piece (20x24).  You can see to my left I have my Mac set up with a photograph of the scene, on the far easel on the right is my 16x20 plein air piece, and in the studio I came up with a small 6x8 color study to try and improve my composition and color in the 20x24 studio piece, that was the plan anyway!

I get started on a piece of C12 linen mounted on gator board, oil primed.  I begin moving a thin washy layer of transparent oxide red mixed with turps.  

After I play with the drawing a bit I always wipe it out to tone the canvas.

In this phase I'm still moving pretty freely but I'm more deliberate with my drawing and division of shapes.  Still in a transparent oxide wash until I like the drawing.  

I wish I had more photos of the stages of developing the painting but this is what I have.  You can see here my shapes are pretty much in.  If you were at my demo you would see me in this phase using my papertowel to clean up negative shapes until I'm happy with the drawing.

The color on this photo is not correct, it's not nearly as yellow but you can see how I start laying in color.

I move all around the canvas pretty quickly covering all large masses in averages.  

This is a close up of my green pools, they move from temperature to temperature.  

A close of my sky holes in the trees.  

A close up of the temperature notes as they move away into the distance.  

Very attentive onlookers!  

My 6x8 studio color study in hopes to achieve this same light in a larger version!

The final finished demo!  20x24, painted January 12, 2013.  

Thanks to all the 26 people who spent the day with me!  

Painting Arizona - Tuscan, Tubac 2013

Last week I was in AZ for the AWA show, American Woman Artist show in Tubac, one hour South of Tuscan.  I flew in on Halloween where I met friend and painter Kim Casebeer to paint in between events.  We had scouted out our painting location the evening before in Catalina State Park to save time Thursday morning.  We were both just about set up when I realized I did not have the right quick release for my tripod!!  :(  boooo!!!  In case you don't know what that is, it's the piece of hardware connected to my paintbox that connects the tripod to the box.  Without it there is not a way to secure the box.  Kim was already set up and the light was fantastic.  I quick called her to let her know what was happening and decided to go back to the parking lot, find a picnic table and make the best of what the situation was.  Hard to not get to crabby when you travel all the way from MN to AZ to paint, have perfect fleeting light and find this out.  But, like I always tell my students "no excuses!".  So, I made a painting!  

My set up!  I was canopied by the trees so couldn't see the tops of the mountains so zoomed in on what I could see, trees!  

"Morning At The Catalinas"

8x10 oil 

'my little plein air study from sitting at the picnic table making the most of the situation'

It was an interesting study of light.  It was really interesting to note the differences between the mountain area in the back to the warmth in the trees in front.  It's all 'relative!'  

 Luckily by the next painting we had gotten a hold of a painter that lived in the area (Carol Sweeney) and she borrowed me her soltek easel for the day so I could stand and paint.  Thank you Carol!  We went back to the same place to try and catch the mid day light.  Funny enough, we ended up both standing under the trees where the picnic tables were because it was too hot to paint without shade over us, and in the desert there is not a lot of shaded areas.  

The 'start' above is how I started my next painting, blocked in washes of color  . . .

"Last Light Near Tubac"

11x14 oil 

After the opening at the K.Newby gallery, we ran out quick to catch Friday's light fleeting quickly!  this study was done in about 45 minutes, if that. . . 

"Tuscan Sundown"

6x10 oil

(last little study from Thursday night, light went fast!)

(me painting Friday evening after opening exhibition)

Saturday we were to paint at the Sonora Desert Museum, an incredible place near Tuscan.  The quick paint was 9:00-11:00.  

my quick draw in action

"Desert Gold"

8x10 oil (sold wet at the museum)

It was a very quick, refreshing, inspiring, and productive painting trip!  

"The Story"

"The Story"

24x30 oil on linen

This is my latest studio piece, just finished!  Art making is interesting. . . Is there ever one way to make art?  In "The Story" my approach was much different than my last two studio pieces.  In the bean field pieces, I had a very deliberate plan as to how I was going to paint the pieces and spent more time planning my studies than I actually did painting the 2 @ 20x24 paintings.  I knew I wanted a very buttery paint quality, an alla prima approach where I planned to finish the paintings each in one session with lush wet edges melding into one another and bold stroked of paint.  That worked out well for those two paintings, in fact I already pre-sold one of them for our show opening Friday in Pepin!  

Now, the painting "The Story" was completely different in my approach.  I worked from a photo I had taken a couple years back in Door County, and knew when I shot the photo I'd be making this a large painting someday.  I have very vivid memories of the 'mood and feeling' I had for that day and place.  I felt very much a part of the place and knew it would be important for me when creating the painting that I would want to translate that feeling, there was a sense of mystery to the place as well.  This is a painting I would say I 'painted myself into'.   

When starting this painting I had no intention of working through this piece quickly, I knew I would work in layers in attempt to build up the depth through transparencies to create in the painting the feeling of vibrancy in the grasses and queen anne's lace in the large foreground area.  

I worked back and forth with warms and cools until I felt I achieved what I was after without hopefully over working it!  After time and thoughtfulness to this painting, it's finished.  :)