Passing Time While Waiting

 Yesterday I took my car into the shop for new brakes.  I put it off for as long as I could, longer even.  I know, I'm a car guy, I should know better but I'll admit I'm very lazy and procrastinate when it comes to maintenance and repairs on my daily driver, good thing it's a car that's hard to kill.  

Fortunately I found a good shop not far from home and I can even set an appointment and have a brake job done while I wait. However, I was looking at a two hour wait.  I could have walked home, about 1/2 hour there and 1/2 hour back, kind of silly when the wait is two hours.  Luckily the Jordan River Parkway is just around the corner from the shop, so while my brake pads and rotors where being replaced I went for a walk with sketchbook and pens in hand.

The first sketch was a very detailed study of a bush.  Why?  I don't really know, I could see it from the bench I was sitting on and it had an interesting shape and I needed to pass some time.  I don't paint realistically but I still think there is value in doing a little study like this.

The second sketch was from the bank of the Jordan River and obviously not nearly as detailed, I was just trying to quickly get an overall impression of the scene, maybe to use as reference for a future painting.

I also took a few photos of course, here are two of them.

This photo isn't the river but rather a pond at the Kennecot Nature Center near Arrowhead Park.

This is the river at the Little Cottonwood Creek confluence. Notice a gaggle of geese are taking advantage of the little island in the middle. Unfortunately our skies are very hazy and gray right now because of smoke from all the wildfires in the west.

Well, it was a well spent two hours.  My car not stops without making odd noises and I got to spend a couple hours enjoying nature and spending quality time in my sketchbook.

First Plein Air Painting of the Year

The weather here has been quite variable this June.  We had high temps drop all the way down into the 50's for a couple days accompanied by crazy wind and thunderstorms so dark it felt like late evening.  Then it got warm for a few days., then if got real cool again. This week has been on the cool side but not uncomfortably so and most importantly it's been at least partly sunny.

I took advantage of the finer weather to get out and paint outdoors (plein air) for the first time this season.  I've sketched outdoors a few times but this is the first time I took the whole painting set up out. I decided to take out the pastels because acrylics can be difficult in our dry climate but I might give the acrylics a try later this week.

I set up at a trailhead on the Jordan River Parkway near where I live in Taylorsville, Utah.  The parkway runs through the whole valley and is full of scenes ripe for the "canvas".  I took a couple short live videos on my Facebook page.

Daily Sketch Challenge May 2020 - Day 16-18

Another three days, three more sketches.

Day 16 - Abandoned Feed Store - Daily Sketch Challenge May 2020

I'm not a watercolorist, I generally just use watercolor to just color pen sketches.  I decided to try a pure watercolor sketch to take a shot at improving my skill with watercolor.  I think it will take a lot more sketches.  This building is an abandoned feed store in Castledale, Utah.

Day 17 - Jordan River Parkway - Daily Sketch Challenge May 2020

Sunday I decided to take the sketching materials outdoors and down the street to the Jordan River Parkway to sketch this scene in pen and watercolor.

Day 18 - Rural Winter Scene - Daily Sketch Challenge May 2020

Prints Available

I got the black dusty sticks out again but this time I left the paper white.  It might be hard to tell but this is actually a winter scene, based on a photo I took somewhere west of Provo, Utah. 

Late Afternoon Light

I think the lighting during late autumn is often the most dramatic.  In particular late afternoon just an hour or two before the sun hits the horizon, the light is low but bright, the trees are nearly bare yet the ground is not yet covered in snow.  I think this situation creates a stark contrast between light and shadow with ground foliage still showing to add interest.  I think taking a walk amongst nature alone at these times has a very special mood that's hard to describe in words, so I tried to describe it in a charcoal drawing.

"Late Afternoon Walk"

9.5" X 12", charcoal on paper

The  drawing is based on a photo I took in the South Jordan area of the Jordan River Parkway.  This was one of the few places on the parkway where there is a significant hill to climb or descend, it's fairly steep and not real short.  I think the perspective of looking uphill added to the effect.  I made some small composition changes, adding the distant bush at the upper right and the distant hill for balance.  I think I captured the mood pretty well, makes me want to go out for a late afternoon walk.

A Week for Sketching

I kept my art activities strictly to sketching and playing on the computer this week.  I don't know why, I just wasn't in the mood to pick up the paint brushes.  I think maybe I enjoy sketching quickly and loosely with charcoal rather than doing the tighter, more detailed drawings I've been doing lately.  I think charcoal is a good medium for studying compositions and subjects for painting.  It seems like many figurative artists use charcoal a lot for studies but landscape painters not so much.  Charcoal seems to have a kinship with oil painting that other sketching mediums don't have, I think that's because the marks made with charcoal are so malleable, they can be relatively easily be removed, adjusted and blended much like a brush stroke in oil painting.  Maybe these experiments in charcoal will lead to me giving oil painting a shot again.

"Roots I"

8" X 10" Charcoal on paper

Original - $80

I really like tree roots, especially those that grow from the bases of pine trees when the soil has eroded around them and they no longer have much more than rocks to cling to.  I found this scene in Big Cottonwood Canyon in the Wasatch National Forest in northern Utah.  This area is a short drive from where I live.  I need to visit the local canyons more often, I used to go up there nearly weekly, however the crowds have become kind of overwhelming.

The alternative to going up in the canyons is staying near home and visiting the Jordan River Parkway.  The Parkway is an oasis of nature running through the middle of the heavily populated Salt Lake Valley and even though it's very close by, (I used to walk to it) I don't visit it often enough.  Seems I've been getting more and more lazy every year.  Today I took a step to rectify that and went for a walk on the Parkway and I took my camera and sketchbook of course.

These were very quick and basic sketches, just ten minutes or so each with .9 mechanical pencil.  The idea was just to practice observation and get a feel for the sense of place.  It's easier than ever to take great photographs but cameras aren't experiencing machines, they don't feel.  I feel art should be about the human response to our subjects, not our response to an image captured by a machine.  That said of course I often work from photos, far more often than not.  Part the reason for that is the fact that I still work full time. From November and into March the lack of evening light limits me to only getting out on the weekends and even then the weather often does not cooperate, not to mention I have other interests and often they take up time on the weekends.  I believe a good compromise is to just take out a sketchbook and a pencil and make some direct observations of nature.  Not only is this good drawing practice but it fills your memories with sights, sounds, and smells that just don't come through in a photograph, even if you take that photograph yourself.

All that said about photographs I still take lots of them, (thank heaven for digital cameras!), here are a couple from today's walk.

As you can see while autumn is winding down it's still spectacular.  It was a perfect day for a walk, sunny and 60 degrees.

Daily Painting Challenge - Pastel Landscapes No. 1

I'll admit it, I've been in a bit of a slump lately.  It's not that I haven't made any art, it's that my heart hasn't been fully into it and so I've been kicking around from one project to another not really finishing anything, at least not to my satisfaction.  I decided it's time I gave myself a good, swift kick in the butt, it's time for a challenge.

It's been some time since I last painted with pastels.  Pastels were my first painting medium but I've largely abandoned them lately.  I enjoy painting with acrylics but I figure a change of medium might help me get out of my slump so I got the pastels out.  To really kick it in gear I decided to challenge myself to not only paint with pastels but to also finish one small pastel landscape painting every day for at least a week.   Hopefully this will create the jump start that I need.

Just like much of the country northern Utah is experiencing a bit of a heat wave, though if memory serves me 100 dg+ weather used to not be all that uncommon in July and August but by the way they are making a big deal of it the stats must say different.  Anyway, it's way too hot to be painting outdoors in the late afternoon, or evening and that's the only time I have available during the week so I have to settle for using photo references and work in my comfortable, air conditioned studio, boo hoo.

To cool myself down, at least mentally I picked an autumn scene and to help keep it simple I chose a nature scene.  I encountered this quiet, shady spot while taking a walk on the Jordan River Parkway in the Jordan Narrows section.  I enjoyed taking in all the various colors and textures of the foliage, trees, grasses and bushes while I rested a bit, of course I enhanced those things a bit in the painting;

"Quiet Moment"

9" X 12", pastel on paper

I really enjoyed getting dusty with the pastels again, this should be a fun week.

Spring Painting Outdoors

The weather was a bit iffy.  The air was quite breezy, however it was also quite warm for the season, well into the 80's.  Pockets of storm clouds were threatening, but alternating with pockets of intense sunshine.  All in all far from ideal conditions for painting outside with acrylics, I packed up my gear and headed out anyway.
I knew exactly where I wanted to go, it was a spot I saw while on a "sketch and walk" over a month ago.  The trees were still bare then and much of the landscape was still a bit brown but now the foliage is nearly full and everything is very green, we've been having a lot of rain lately, a lot.  So, even though the weather was far from ideal I saw an opening in the rainy weather and dove in.

 "Spring Walk"

14" X 11", Acrylic on panel

This little scene is by the banks of the Jordan River in Murray, Utah and is part of the Jordan River Parkway.  The Parkway is an endless source of artistic inspiration and my favorite section, the Murray-Taylorsville section is a very short drive from my home, even walkable without a backpack full of gear.  I really liked how the seldom used pathway meanders through the grasses and wildflowers and ends at the large tree, it made for a near perfect composition, I embellished very little.  I spent a few minutes in the studio making some minor adjustments, but the painting is at least 95% painted on location.

I took my larger plein air set up that uses a tripod easel but figured out a way to pack it all into a backpack rather than the huge tactical duffel I usually use.  This meant using a handheld palette but the tradeoff was worth it and it actually worked quite well.

I did get rained on just a bit and the wind was a bit of a handful to deal with at first but later settled down, overall it was a pleasant plein air painting session. The forecast is for continued unsettled weather, no telling when I'll be able to get out with the paints again but that's normal for this time of year.



A Perfect Spring Day for Sketching

It was a beautiful spring day today so I just had to get out and go for a "walk and a sketch" at the Jordan River Parkway.  The leaves are only just barely starting to come in so the trees are still mostly bare, so I took a pencil and a small sketchbook since this would be mostly linear work.

This little scene was right on the bank of the river, there are a million similar scenes all along the river.

This scene wasn't close to the river bank but not on it.  What interested me was the little pathway full of small rocks with the tree background.  There was nowhere for me to sit for this sketch so I did just a quick tonal hatch sketch just to record my impressions of the scene quickly.

There's a small ditch that meanders around this section of the parkway, in fact on one part it's lined with cottonwoods, (hence the name for this section of the parkway, Cottonwood Park). This ditch hardly ever has water in it but a section of it did today, not much but enough to create an interesting lead in to the tree.  I just sat and watched the trickle of shallow water for a few minutes, it was kind of mesmerizing.  Even though I'm studying nature by doing these sketches I've found I often get so involved in the sketch I miss other surroundings.  It's always a good idea to stop and just observe, be in the moment so to speak.

This looks complicated, but I simplified it quite a bit.  These trees with the multitude of trunks always create interesting shapes.  I had one of those "stop and observe" moments while sketching this.  Something landed on my knee, my automatic reflex is to brush the thing off but I looked first this time and noticed it was a lady bug.  I stopped and watched it walk around on my knee for a couple minutes then coaxed it to walk onto my finger and watched it walk up and down my finger until it flew away, A short break from sketching that was worth it.





An Autumn Miniature

Remember Ten Minute Sketch #14?  If not look at the last post, it's there.  I made a small painting based on the same photo and TMS #14,

"Firery Bush"

Acrylic on panel, 6" X 8"

Original  - $60

I often go for walks on the Jordan River Parkway.  The Parkway is not far from my home however the Parkway is quite long, running through the whole Salt Lake Valley starting at Utah Lake in the Utah Valley and dumping into the Great Salt Lake at the other end.  Thanks to conservation and restoration efforts the Parkway is full of beautiful, natural spaces as well as recreational opportunities.  In this case I was exploring an area of the Parkway not so close to my home, near the south end of the Salt Lake Valley in an area called the "Narrows".  I saw this small, simple scene with the bright red/orange bushes framed by a cool background and yellow grasses and just had to take photos and make sketches, I knew some day I would paint it, and I finally did, about two years later.  TMS #14 helped me establish the value pattern.  I used a palette knife for most of the painting so it's full of thick, textured paint.



First Day of Summer

I celebrated the first day of summer by getting out and painting outdoors.  I didn't get out until the afternoon and it was a bit windy and quite warm but I decided I had to take the paint outside, it's been too long.  I visited one of my favorite areas on the Jordan River Parkway and painted the river.

"A Bend in the River"

Acrylic, 11" X 14"



With all the sketching and painting on the Jordan River Parkway I've done this is the first time I've painted the river itself.  I spent over three hours on this painting which is the most I've ever spent on a plein air painting.  That's one advantage to painting at the height of the day, the shadows don't change as when the sun is nearly directly above.  Still, I couldn't have painted much longer, by the time I finished up the afternoon was turning into evening and the sun was getting lower and into the west.

Sketching in the Rain

Mother Nature hasn't been too kind to me lately.  Seems like whenever I have the time and want to go out to paint or sketch she decides we need water.  Today was looking like one of those days as well, however in the afternoon the showers were intermittent and we even had periods of spotty blue sky revealing the sun.  I decided to take my chances and grabbed my sketching gear.   Besides getting some sketching in, one reason I wanted to get out was to scout out some possible painting locations that I could get to quickly after work, so I explored a small section of the Jordan River Parkway that I hadn't visited in a long time.  While exploring a little used "unofficial" path I didn't find any good spots for painting but I decided to sketch this tree on the opposite bank of the river anyway.

The leaves are just starting to come in which allows me to add some color but much of the structure of the tree is still visible.  That's what these sketches are mainly, just studies.  I'm no watercolorist so I don't expect to create real paintings.  For me, watercolor is just a convenient medium for adding color notes to my sketches making them studies that will hopefully help me when developing paintings in the studio.  Shortly after I started this sketch it started to rain.  It wasn't really a rain, more like a heavy shower.  I could tell it wasn't going last long so I decided to wait it out.  I did have to turn my sketchbook over though while I mentally kicked myself for not getting the umbrella out of the trunk of the car.  To make things even more fun the rain turned into hail but at least the pellets were small and it lasted less than a minute.  And then the clouds parted and the sun appeared and wouldn't you know it, but it was directly in my eyes for the duration of the sketch.  Only in spring can you go from overcast, to rain, to hail and then to full sun in the space if ten minutes.

I then wandered over to the other side of the river and found this interesting scene with a tree giving a strong reflection in the water and decided I had to sketch it.  I'll admit, I kinda rushed this one.  I found a stump to sit on but it wasn't as comfortable as I thought it would be.  After finishing the sketch I then started to continue up the path and realized the sky to the North was very dark, so I turned around and went back to the car thinking my sketching session was done for the day.  However when I got to the car I realized all those dark clouds were moving to the East so I decided to chance it and headed back to the path, this time I got the umbrella out of the trunk and took it with me.

The umbrella did come in handy, it was a light shower that only lasted a few minutes just before I started this sketch but still, it was nice to not get any more wet than I already was.  I discovered a sand bar that was accessible that gave me a real good view down the river.  I suspect this sand bar is under water much of the year so I took advantage, I might return with the painting gear soon before it gets flooded again.  So, it was a little wet and a little cold at times today but it was worth it to finally get out of the house and do some sketching!



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.

A Warm Winter

I really feel for you folks in the eastern U.S..  Back in December Northern Utah was in the deep freeze with low temps that are rarely seen here, I was afraid we were in for a long, frigid winter.  While the winter has continued to be extreme in the East, Utah started warming up in January and for the most part we've been warmer than normal, I can't complain. However, I just feel bad for those of you who just aren't getting any breaks from the heavy snow storms and sub zero temperatures. Hang in there guys, spring is on it's way......eventually.

Today was typical gray, gloomy overcast winter day here in the Salt Lake Valley....except that it was warm, in the high 50's even.  Normally it's very difficult for me to feel motivated to paint outdoors without some sun but I felt I better take advantage of the warmth and get out there.  I drove just a short distance to the Jordan River Parkway to paint this little study.

"A Warm Winter"

Acrylic 10" x 8" on panel

I had the presence of mind to take a couple photos of my plein air painting set up for small paintings.

In this photo you can see everything I take with me out to paint for 8" x 10" and smaller paintings. Everything but the chair fits in the backpack that's sitting under the brush holder.  The plastic box is just something I picked up at the local grocery store and is just the right size to hold a few tubes of paint, a view finder, a couple pencils, a palette knife, medium cup and small spray bottle, (which I forgot to pack today, good thing it wasn't too warm!).

Here's a close up of my home made painting box.  I started with a cigar box I bought at a yard sale for a quarter.  The original box hinges were removed and replaced with resistance hinges. The screws that hold the hinges to the lid also hold a piece of aluminum angle that provides a shelf for the painting to sit on. I use a little spring clamp to hold the painting to the lid.  There's a piece of bent sheet aluminum attached to the right side for medium cup to be clipped to.  A hook is also screwed into the right side to hang the solvent can on.  I cut a piece of glass to fit the bottom of the box, painted the back side gray and glued it in for my palette. I installed a 1/4-20 nut insert into a piece of 3/8" plywood and glued that to the bottom of the box to allow the box to be mounted to a tripod.  There you have a it, a home made plein air painting setup that's about as thrifty as it gets.



Details

While I don't strive to put lots of detail into my paintings I think it's worthwhile to spend some time on occasion to sketch something in detail from life.  The more you know about your subject the more effectively you can represent it in paint whether you intend to include all those details or not.  I think pen and watercolor is the ideal medium for this purpose. We had another day of winter sun with bearable temperatures so I ventured out to the Jordan River Parkway again, the same area I went to on Christmas Eve.  I decided to record some details on this trip.

I honestly don't know what kind of tree this is but I thought it was interesting how it had three trunks, one large and two small.  The handful of leaves that managed to hang on through fall added a bit of interest and color.

I fully intended to do two detail sketches but when I saw this scene I had  to sketch it.  Not only was it  a great subject but I was able to sketch it from a position I normally would not since most of the year it is under water;

That far bank looks like it may have been created buy a machine, which is possible because part of the river restoration efforts was to return the river to something closer to it's original path with lots of bends creating endless compositions.  I'm sure they didn't have artists in mind during the restoration but I appreciate it anyway.

I meant to share some of my photos in the last post but forgot so here are a couple from Christmas Eve.

This is the view you get of the river after crossing the bridge that goes over Little Cottonwood Creek.  This is near Arrowhead Park.

Here I am standing in the middle of a marsh, one of those locations you just can't get to except during winter.  I'm looking towards the back of the pond that borders the paved trail in back.  You can see one of the boardwalks that jut out into the pond at the top left.  They have three of these on this pond, great spots for bird watching.

Here are a couple photos from todays walk in the parkway.

This is near where I made my second sketch.  You can see the big (machine made?) bank on the left but this is looking straight west whereas for my sketch I was facing Southwest and from a lower perspective.

"Winter Walk"

Here I was getting back to the trail that would take me back to the car.  It was 4:00 pm, the sun was getting low and it was getting cold!



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;