Plein Air Events (part one)

Once again I've been neglecting my blog. But regardless of the lack of posts, I have been painting like crazy! In addition to some new studio paintings (which I will share in a future post) I have been doing a lot of plein air painting.

First up is the Plein Air Competition hosted by the City of Glendale, Arizona. The event was held Feb 8th as part of their Chocolate Affaire Festival.

Check-in was at 8am and I got three of my blank linen panels stamped on the back (I make my own panels with Claussen's oil primed linen. I have a tutorial planned for those too).

Downtown Glendale has a lot of century-old bungalows, many of which have been converted into small shops. My first painting of the day was of a blue house (I think the shop was called the Blue House Botique?).

When I set up to paint this, I noticed that my jar of thinner had leaked all through my backpack. There was just a little bit of "sludge" left at the bottom of the can. So, I had to paint this one without cleaning my brushes. I had to make sure to save a couple clean brushes to use for white later. Good thing I brought plenty of brushes!

After knocking out this painting I drove back home to Tempe. I refilled my thinner container, and I decided to stop by the art store to pick up a new display easel and a couple frames. I hurried back to Glendale...

I picked up a root beer float at Papa Ed's Ice Cream, and as I ate it in their garden I noticed an old wooden door leaning up against a tree. There were some nice cast shadows on it from a tree, and I asked for permission to paint there.

The great thing about painting outdoors, especially in public places, is that people are curious and like to watch. Especially kids. I would ask all of them if they were artists, and most kids reply with a definite "yes!". I had a great time. Hopefully some of the onlookers were inspired to create something.

I framed both paintings and took them back for the judging. I was really happy to win second place with my door painting. It also consisted of a $500 purchase award! Not too shabby!

All in all it was a great Saturday, despite the trouble with my container of paint thinner. Hard work pays off!

Coming up in part two: Plein Air in Casa Grande (And a "Best in Show" award)

Canyon Study

I think this study might make a good large painting. From the Tortilla Trail in the Superstition mountains. About 5 or 10 miles past Canyon Lake.

"Canyon Guardians" Oil on linen panel, 12x12 inches

Sedona and an Injured Prickly Pear

"Spring Shadows" oil on canvas, 16x20 inches

"Untitled" oil on linen, 12x18 inches

Lots of Plein Air

It's been a while since I have posted on here. Fortunately I have been painting the whole time.

Back in April I went to the Plein Air painting convention in Monterey. It was worth every penny. I made a road trip out of it, learned a ton, and did some painting on the coast. After the convention I drove up to San Francisco to check out Academy of Art University (Big mistake, they were extremely rude and unwelcoming), and on the way back to Phoenix I swung by Pasadena on a whim to check out Art Center College of Design. They were awesome, gave me a tour, plenty of pamphlets, and answered all of my questions. That's the way a school should be run (Take note, Academy of Art)

Anyway, about the convention. I got to meet James Gurney, which was really great. He signed both of my copies of "Color and Light" and "Imaginative Realism". Such a great person. All of the presenters were very good, some more outstanding than others. Scott Christensen, Ken Auster, Gil Dellinger, and Ray Roberts were among my favorites.

Here's a few of the paintings I did during/after the convention. They're all 9x12 on homemade linen panels (I'll be doing a tutorial on making panels at some point in the future).

I went on a hiking trip to the pines in northern Arizona last month (Strawberry, Pine, and a hike down to the waterfall in Fossil Creek), and came back with another half-dozen paintings. 9x12 oil-primed linen panels again, with the exception of the sunset which is 6x8.

 This was my first painting up in Strawberry. I'm not used to painting so much green, so this was a good lesson in forcing myself to keep greens muted. It's much easier to brighten up a green than to dull it down!

 There were scattered clouds, and I liked the way the sun would break through on this hill.

 A quick study about a mile in a hiking trail in Pine, AZ. I liked the way the warm reflected light hit that log. I had to cut this painting short because a big thunderstorm was rolling in, and we needed to get back to the car in time.

Got back to the bed and breakfast shortly after painting the log. This one was my first time actually painting in a storm. The summer monsoons in Arizona are something else.

 Later that evening we got a really nice sunset. This one was a race against the clock, but I think I got a decent painting out of it.

This was painted during my last morning there. I toned the panel with a slightly yellow grey, to capture the golden morning light. I don't like the composition of this piece.

That's it for now. More to come!

It's been a while. New year, new paintings, new post...

A lot has happened in the past few months. Back in January I took a 4-day workshop at the Scottsdale Artists School, with landscape painter Matt Smith. The workshop really opened up my eyes to some new ways of thinking, especially in regards to color. I've been experimenting with his palette, and while I like it, I had to make a couple modifications.

Matt Smith's palette:
Titanium white, cadmium lemon, cadmium yellow medium, cadmium orange, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, alizarin crimson, mauve blue shade, ultramarine, cobalt blue, cerulean blue hue, phthalo blue, viridian hue, Thalo yellow-green (Grumbaucher)

I dislike how this palette does not contain a warm red. You can mix one from orange and alizarin crimson, true, but it is not the same as a good, medium red. I also hate phthalo blue with a passion. It gets everywhere and ruins your mixtures. Cerulean blue hue is a mixture of phthalo and zinc white, and since there is so much white the tinting strength of the phthalo has been knocked down. I can justify using that. Viridian hue is made from phthalo green, which has a much higher tinting strength than real viridian. I prefer to go with the pure stuff.

Anyway, here is my improved palette (In the order I arrange them on my palette)
Titanium white, cadmium lemon, cadmium yellow medium, cadmium orange, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, bright red (Winsor and Newton), quinacridone rose, alizarin crimson, mauve blue shade, ultramarine, cobalt blue, cerulean blue hue, viridian, yellow-green (Utrecht).

This one is a 24x30 Studio painting. It's still not quite done. My camera really brings out the blue in this painting. It's not that blue, but one of the things on my list of improvements is to dull down the blue shadows a bit.

I've also been doing more plein air painting. Speaking of which, I will be going to the Plein Air convention in Monterey, California in April. I'm really excited for it. 5 days of painting and learning. I'm also taking an extra few days to do some painting on my own. Can't wait.

Anyway, here are some recent plein air paintings. I spent maybe an hour on each sketch. 9x12 panels, painted in my Guerrilla box easel.

I also took this photo for fun, just to see how well my painting matched up. This is in Sedona, AZ

That's it for now. I'm going to try to update this thing a little more often.

Testing out Acrylics

I decided to test out some acrylic paints. It's been forever since I used them (not since high school, actually). I picked up a few tubes from Utrecht:

Titanium white, hansa yellow light, yellow ochre, quinacridone red, burnt sienna, burnt umber, ultramarine blue and chromium oxide.

I knew acrylics dried fast, but I was really surprised at just how fast that was. I guess it's from 6 years of using oils and being spoiled with such a long working-time.

The positives:
The quick drying time allows me to knock out paintings in one evening (This one was painted in an hour). I think this could be a good medium for doing color studies, working out compositions, etc. Potentially even as an underpainting for an oil painting. The speed of drying made me realize the importance of making every brushstroke count. I think acrylics will continue to be a good exercise in that sense. Making the most out of every brushstroke means a "fresher" looking painting, less "muddy" colors, and ultimately a quicker painting.

The negatives:
Acrylics dry darker than they are when wet. I totally forgot about this. My painting turned out much darker than I anticipated. I'm going to have to mix colors lighter than they need to be. It's going to take practice before I can figure that out exactly. The quick drying trait means that I can't mix lots of custom colors and let them sit on the palette for future use... I'm going to experiment with drying retarder next, but the window is still very narrow with how long I can work with the paint. Colors will still have to be constantly re-mixed. This adds time to the painting process.

A few new paintings

I haven't updated in a while. I've got a few new paintings to share...

 First up is the finished Camelback Mountain painting. I think the most successful areas are the large boulders in front. Least successful is the large rock face in the back left. It looks like I got lazy on it. 24x30 inches

 I think this one is 10x14. I think the most successful areas of this painting are the rock faces. The part I find most interesting to paint are the bright, sharp highlights on the top and edges. They really stand out when the rest of the rock is in shadow. I will be painting more rocks with this type of lighting. I think the foreground is least successful, especially the two trees.

This Sedona painting is one of my largest. 30x40 inches. It was a challenge for me, working this large. Normally I work fairly small. I forced myself to use a large brush for most of the painting, so I would not get caught up in the details. I think the composition here is good, though if I could go back I would have waited a few more hours for the sun to go down a bit and cast longer shadows. I think there is not enough cast shadow shapes.