From Sketch to Painting

 The other day I wrote a blog post about doing some small experimental multimedia sketches HERE. One of the purposes of doing those sketches besides experimenting with new techniques and materials was to test out compositions and ideas for paintings.  I took the first sketch from that post and developed a painting from it.

Winter Tree Trunks at Wheeler Farm
Acrylic, 12" X 16"

I often go for walks at Wheeler Farm in Murray, Utah. The farm itself isn't that big but there is a mostly natural area with trails behind the farm where I can walk for over a mile without covering the same ground.  There are many interesting compositions to find in that patch of land, this painting is based on one of them.  This scene is at edge of a horse pasture where the land slopes up along a tree line and bushes.  In winter the trees lose their leaves which cover the ground in yellow orange texture while exposing tree trunks and branches.  Since there hadn't been much snow lately only a portion of the ground that spends much of it's time in shade was still covered in snow.

This painting was also a bit experimental.

I started by using foam rollers to lay in the basic composition and also applied some acrylic inks and let them drip.

Then I used charcoal and pastels to add some lines and tones to further define the composition.  I sprayed some thinned down mat medium to seal it.

Now I started putting in the acrylic paint.  Working from the top/background down I just used brushes at first and kept the paint relatively thin.  After that I started laying in thicker paint using knives as you can see in these detail close ups of the finished painting.

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A Rare Winter Drawing

Everybody who knows me knows that I am not a fan of winter.  Short days and inclement weather keep me indoors.  Not that I mind being indoors, just not this much, I need some outdoor time too and during the winter I get very little.  I'll admit, I have a very low tolerance for cold, freezing especially so it doesn't have to be dark or snowing or even windy to keep me indoors, just cold. It's probably for those reasons that winter makes a rare appearance in my art, this is one of those rare occurrences.

"Snowbound GMC"

6" X 6", charcoal on paper

I discovered this little scene with the old snow covered GMC grain truck in the small, rural town of Eden, Utah a couple years ago.  The background was actually cluttered with modern vehicles in a parking lot, I changed it to a simple natural background.  The dimensions on this one are 6" X 6", a small a square, I might make a series of drawings in this format.

Making Peace With Winter

I have to admit, this is not my favorite time of year.  I'm not talking about the holidays, (though the commercial hype does get tiring) no, I'm talking about winter.  So, what does a landscape painter do that doesn't like winter, hibernate in the studio?  I confess that's largely been my strategy in the past but what does that say about a landscape painter that does his best to ignore a whole season?  I decided I need to work on my attitude and get outside more during the winter months. I choose today to get started, a day where the high temperature stayed below freezing. At least it was somewhat sunny and only a little breezy.  It was too cold to take out the acrylics so I just went for a walk with a pencil and a sketchbook in Murray Park.  The forecast shows nothing but freezing weather for the next week so maybe I'll take out the pastels one of those days.   Today was more about going for a walk to acclimate myself to the weather but I did manage to get a couple quick sketches in.

We had a couple inches of snow yesterday, the first storm that actually has been sticking this season, some of that was still clinging to the tree branches.  I took a little detour to the upper soccer fields and sketched this tree;

Some of you who follow this blog may recognize this tree.  I've done both a field pastel sketch and an oil painting of this tree neither of which really satisfied me, I think maybe this quick little pencil sketch captures it's character a little better.  Visiting this tree was a bit like visiting an old friend.

I took my camera as well of course, here is one of the photos I snapped.  Maybe I'll eventually develop a Murray Park series of paintings.





Winter Trunks

Just off the easel a small painting based on sketches and photos I made/took in December on the Jordan River Parkway.

"Winter Trunks"

Acrylic, 5" X 7"

Original - SOLD

My Palette and........My Palette

In the art world the word "palette" has two different but related meanings.  One meaning is the physical surface that an artist mixes his paints on.  The other meaning is the tube colors the artist chooses to put out to start.  I'm going to talk about both of my "palettes" here briefly.

Acrylics require special consideration due to their rapid drying time.  Different "wet" palettes both commercial and home made have been invented to keep mixes usable and preserve unused paint.  One of those is the Masterson Sta-wet palette.  This is basically a plastic box with a sealed lid about 12" X 16" and about an inch deep.  The design is intended to be used with a sponge and paper to mix your paper on.  The theory is that the sponge will hold enough moisture for the paints to absorb and keep them fresh.  In practice it isn't so simple, the amount of moisture is hard to regulate and I often had too much which results in my paint piles turning into intermixed paint puddles. I also didn't really care for the mushy feeling of mixing paint on top of a sponge, also mold was frequently an issue.  I ended up tossing the sponge and paper and replaced them with a piece of 12" X 16" glass which fits perfectly inside the box.  I roughed up one side of the glass with sandpaper and sprayed it with gray automotive primer which comes very close to being a perfect mid-tone gray.  The glass is placed with the primer side down.  I take a piece of Viva paper towel, (I only use Viva, all other paper towels are too wimpy.) fold it and wet it, just damp using a spray bottle and place this at one end of the palette and I place my paint piles on this.

Now a note about the other meaning of "palette", the colors. 





These are the six colors I put out every single time I paint from left to right, (all Liquitex Artist's grade acrylics.) titanium white, cadmium yellow light, yellow oxide, burnt sienna, cadmium red medium and ultramarine blue (green shade). This is basically the three primaries plus two earth colors and white. Since I mostly paint landscapes always having the two earth colors, (yellow oxide and burnt sienna) on my palette is well worth it.  Some of you may remember about a year ago I had a post about converting Richard Schmid's oil palette to Liquitex acrylics and making color charts based on it.  Well, I deleted that post because I never finished the charts and stopped using that palette, it was just too many colors to manage for my taste. However, there is not such thing as a perfect primary color in pigment so there are occasions where I add to my basic palette.  For example, if I need strong violets I put out alizarin crimson, (hue, permanent) and if I need the color really strong I also put out cobalt blue.  This is because cadmium red medium as a little bit of yellow in it therefore a pure violet can't be made with it since yellow is violet's complimentary.  There's a similar issue with the green in the ultramarine blue.   I recently discovered pthalo blue, I loved it for the shadows in "Winter Ditch" so now I occasionally put that out on the palette.  I sometimes get out the cerulean blue for skies as well.  Occasionally I get out yellow hansa it makes a particular kind of red orange I like for replicating the color of some of the fall foliage, why it works I really don't know.  If the painting is going to have a lot of strong orange in it I'll put cadmium orange out.

When I'm at the end of a painting session or if I just need a clean palette I spritz the palette with some water and get the paint scraper out and in moments I have a clean palette. I also spritz the paint piles and then seal the box with the lid and those paint piles will keep for weeks if need be.

Christmas Eve Sketching

I had the day off today and we finally had some sun and a reasonable temperature after a few days of overcast conditions and snow so I went out and did some sketching.  I went to the Jordan River Parkway again, this time the area near Arrowhead Park.  One of the good things about winter is the lack of foliage exposes scenes you just don't see during the other seasons.  I decided to sketch a bend in the river, this time I got the watercolors out too.

It was still a little cold for attempting an acrylic painting.  I can do a pen and watercolor sketch in 20-30 minutes versus a couple hours for a painting. Not only does acrylic paint not like such low temperatures I don't care for the cold either so sitting in one spot for twenty minutes is much more appealing than sitting there for two hours.  A watercolor sketch gives me enough info to help me recall what it was like being at the scene.  All those bare trees would make a studio painting a challenge though!

I wandered farther into the area up into the marsh.  This is an area that just isn't accessible during the other seasons, it's too wet.  A heavy blanket of snow helped keep me above the moisture for the most part.  I was able to access the back of the pond at the marsh, again something I could never do any other time of the year.  The ground was still quite soft under me so I decided sitting on the stool was not an option and instead did a quick pen sketch while standing;

It may not seem like much but doing a sketch, any kind of sketch helps embed the aspects of the scene in your mind that a camera just can't capture.  I scribbled in a couple ducks that were there.  I don't understand that, if I could fly south for the winter I definitely would! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!



Painting Winter - The Jordan River Parkway

I've never been a fan of winter.  I don't tolerate sub freezing temperatures well at all and my favorite landscape element, the trees are all bare.  There is also a distinct lack of color......or is there?  Maybe it's about time I learned to love winter, or at least the artistic possibilities winter provides.

We've been in the deep freeze the last couple weeks here in northern Utah, some days with the high temperature being below 20*F.  That kind of weather isn't very conducive to going for a walk with the sketchbook let alone painting outdoors.  Finally this weekend the temperature broke the freezing mark and today we had sunlight so I decided it was about time I got off the recliner and got outside.  It was the middle of the afternoon before I got up the ambition and with the days so short I only had time for sketching.  I went out to the Jordan River Parkway searching for subjects to sketch and to photograph.  While I only took a pen and kept the sketches quick, (it was still pretty cold ya know.) I was still forced to really observe my subject, even without using color I believe this helps cement the subject in my mind.  I decided it would be helpful to make a quick painting while the day's observations were still fresh;

"Winter Ditch"

8 x 10, acrylic on panel

Original - $100

This is a good example of the kind of subject that only exists during winter. During the summer this  ditch would be full of bushes almost hiding the fact that it's there at all.  The snow also makes the subject more appealing by simplifying it.  Even in the spring before it gets overgrown all the grass and other plants combine to make the subject confusing and complex.  For these and other reasons winter paintings are worth making, hopefully I'll make many more of them this year than I have in the past.

Here are the two pen sketches I made today;