Getting Your Gloom On

Probably not the best title for a blog post but appropriate for today's subject.  Generally speaking I prefer bright, sunny days, but can overcast and gloomy be as beautiful?  I'm not sure but I set out to paint a gloomy day in this painting and see what happens.

Click on image to enlarge

"Gloomy Day Hike"

Oil, 14" X 11" on 1/8" panel
Original - $160

Sometimes you just have no choice, you have to take the weather Mother Nature hands you. Especially during autumn which is a fleeting season, you have to take every opportunity to get out and enjoy the color regardless.  That what I did a few years ago when I made a weekend trip to Ogden Valley and explored the preserved nature areas surrounding the Pineview reservoir.  It was a heavily overcast day, the sun never made an appearance but at least it didn't rain...much, I did get sprinkled on a bit.  I took a lot of photos that day and yep, they all came out rather gloomy, including the one this painting is based on.  One thing about overcast days is the lack of a strong light source tends to reduce the value range considerably, darks aren't as dark and lights are not as light so you end up with a middle key image, something to keep in mind while painting from a photo since the values will most likely be inaccurate in the photograph. I did increase the drama a bit from the photograph by making the sky more interesting.  In the photo the sky is just kind of a flat, purplish gray, a common problem for amateur photographers like me.  While I generally prefer to paint sunny days this gloomy day painting was an interesting exercise.  Also unusual for me was the use of oil paint, my paintings tend more towards grayness when painting with oils for some reason anyway, so quite appropriate for this painting.

Oily Palette Knife Fun

Every once in a while I just feel a need to get the oils out.  The result is usually somewhat less than happy but I do it anyway.  I guess my temperament is more suited to acrylics.  However once in a while it does work out, in fact my latest oil painting may be my best oil painting to date.

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"Ogden Valley Marsh"

8" X 10", oil on panel

Available on ebay

I painted this one entirely with a palette knife which may be why it worked out, however it's hard to layer thick oil paint on top of thick oil paint, at least I don't have the touch for it.  The painting is based on one of the charcoal studies I shared in the last blog post which was based on a photo I took in Ogden Valley Utah late fall a few years ago.  The thin little stream of water meandering down the yellowish-orange marshy area made for a great composition, of course the trees and hills in the background helped in their secondary roles.  Ogden Valley is one of my favorite areas to visit any time, but especially during autumn.

Spring Tree

Here I am playing with the oils again.  Actually I painted this three or four weeks ago but didn't decide to share it on the blog until now.  I've already got another itch to play with oils again so you may see more soon.

"Spring is Coming"

Oil on panel, 8" X 10"

Original - $100

This unusual tree resides in a nearby park and I just had to paint it though it took me a while to get to it.  I took the reference photo a year ago!  I chose to portray it in early spring so I could paint that interesting structure yet have some of the leaves coming in to add some color.  That's the famous Wasatch Mountains in the background.



A Perfect Sunday Afternoon for Painting

It's been two weeks since my last post, shame on me.  That has partly been because I've been contemplating and experimenting about a change in medium and slight change in direction, so things might get a bit weird in her for a while, well not really weird just a bit different.

Today the weather was near perfect, a little windy at times but nothing I couldn't handle.  I decided to head out to my favorite convenient painting area, the Jordan River Parkway, there's a twist this time though, I took oil paints.  It's been nearly two years since I last painted outdoors with oils.  I decided it's time to give oils another go.  I want to paint outdoors more often and oils have many advantages to acrylics for painting outdoors so it was time to finally return to them.

Bare trees are a challenging subject even with a medium you are familiar with, this isn't my greatest work but it's not a disaster either.  Right now this is the kind of subject that the parkway is full of and since spring will be here soon covering everything up with leaves and bushes now is the time to take advantage to do these little studies of tree "anatomy".

I used the same homemade paint box that I used for painting with acrylics, the only difference being the plastic shopping bag used for disposing used up paper towels, oils are messy!  I forgot my medium cup which is usually clipped to that little piece of metal on the right side, so I had to just drip some onto the right side of the palette.  I used a lot of medium on this one!  I tried to use the palette knife more than I'm used to but with mixed results.  The palette of colors is the same I use in acrylic, titanium white, yellow ochre pale, cadmium yellow pale, burnt sienna, cadmium red and ultramarine blue, all Winsor Newton colors.  The medium I use is M. Graham walnut alkyd and the solvent is Gamsol.

While Gamsol is less noxious than other solvents it's still strong enough I don't like using it indoors, especially during the winter since I can't open a window.  One of the things I've been experimenting with is water soluble oils.

"Autumn Road"

Oil, 5" x 7"

I painted this little landscape painting in the studio using Weber /F.Martin Woils.  They were a bit stiff but other than that and being able to clean up using water they worked just like regular oils. The smell of the oil paint itself is distinctive and something I'll have to get accustomed to.