"Snowday"

Had this frame I stashed away sometime and decided to do a third tree study: here's the very nearly finished product.

is it done?

Not too happy with the fine branches: I used a bamboo pen dipped into pools of watercolor, I think it could work but 1) I need more practice getting the wetness right and 2) I need to draw more graceful lines! May just stop here on this study ... Thought of adding some trunks and branches in the background trees (oh, that's what that blob or orange and pink is!), I'm stymied on this for now.

beginning study 2

Here's the first pass on my little diptych: on the left, a mix of wet-in-wet and wet-on-dry painting. I washed out an evergreen I had painted in the left-corner foreground, and also some unconvincing and distracting foliage from the right corner. It lifted really well--one of the characteristics of Fabriano paper--especially considering it was green!
On the right, not much yet, the first pass of blue in the study I'm going to build by glazing.

Second step: On the left I've repainted some of the trunk that was washed out when I removed the evergree. On the right I've added a wash or raw sienna, and I put in some shadows, changing their direction from what they are in the photo ...
I'm going to stop with these for today, while they're what Jan Hart would call adolescents, and think them over.
I especially need to figure out how I'm going to treat/achieve the network of very fine branches. May draw them in with a bamboo pen nib; or perhaps add as the very last step with a water soluble lead pencil, blurring some lines and leaving other sharp.
May need to attempt some studies of just such tracery before proceeding.

1-2-3

So here are the three small studies. Each has things I like and things I don't like ... Tried to approach each slightly differently: the second is warmer, the third cooler.
I'm having some technical difficulties, so can't do it today, but I will post individual, closer-up shots of each.
Getting ready to start on the next studies--I hope to do them this weekend. Was thinking today that I'd do only two this time, around 7.5x11, and I'll do one alla prima--that is, like I did these: in one shot--and for the other I'll do glazing--putting down one color, letting it dry, then painting another layer over it, building up and adjusting layers of color.

next

This will be the subject for my second set of studies. I saw this from the car window ... and loved how the two trees in the center seemed twinned. This one should be easy to name.
A lot of warm, lacy branches here ... maybe a dry-brush technique? That's an option I never think of ...

change of subject ...

Time to turn to winter subjects. Starting with bare trees--and their shadows: a favorite subject, one I want to begin practicing.
I have a number of photos from last Valentine's day snowstorm. Peter drove me around early in the morning so I could get some good reference shots. But this photo is actually just from his front yard!
A la Jan Hart: here are the photo, the value sketch, and not a painting, but a small study (it's about 3x5.5). This is the first of what I intend to be at least 3 watercolor studies ... I've chosen 4 photos that I want to go through this process with before embarking on a larger painting. I want to try different color schemes and techniques, like how to make the tree branches look lacy or how to make the light holes in the shadows.
(Unlike Jan, though, I haven't titled this. Suggestions? Jan comes up with a title for each painting before or while she's doing the value sketch, on the principle that having a name helps you stay focused on what you're trying to convey. I admit I'm not, or can't be, that cerebral about it; maybe I don't want to give my left brain anything to grab hold of. My left brain's a terrier. A Skye terrier. )
This value sketch didn't really serve the usual purpose. I mean, happily for me, who always has trouble with values, it's pretty clear in this photo where the darks are! But it was still way worth the 5-10 minutes it took to scribble this ... a little warmup. (There's no comparison, I'm not crazy, but something about this pencil sketch reminds of all the David Hockney drawings I love--and that I have been looking at: I'm totally delighted to see any echo of Hockney, no matter how much of a stretch it is to see it!)
I found a stash of my favorite paper, which I think is unavailable now, Fabriano Artistico--it's got a scratchy surface but the paint sits on top nicely, and it's easy to lift. I took one sheet (22x30) and halved it lengthwise (11x30), then folded it into 4 panels (11x7.5, roughly), so I've got 8 panels to fill with studies. A few I'll further divide, like the one here.
I'm not unhappy with this study! But I see things to change next time: the branches on the tree at left should maybe go off the top of the page, and the horizontal evergreen (cypress?) branches need to be more of a design element. Here I think I was thinking mostly of color mixes and of how the paints would mingle.
I'll try to do two more studies tomorrow.

glory days

Scrolling through the photos stored on my desktop, I came across these: all photos of paintings done in Carolyn's class. These are all on half sheets (15x22), except the bottles, which is a full sheet (22x30).
These really make me miss that group of painters, who inspired me to commit to more complex and larger paintings, something I never do at home or on my own.
But looking at these also renews my belief in the possibility of growth, that I can improve my painting. Maybe going to New Mexico provoked this reevaluation, or recommitment.

at jay's suggestion ...

Jan Hart, the artist who hosted/taught the New Mexico workshop, was assisted by her son, Jonathan (or Jay), who is also an artist (her other son's a musician). At critique one day Jay suggested I try a tertiary color scheme; this unfinished painting is the result. Looking at it now, I see that fussing with the little shapes is hindering reading the space ... especially in the parallelogram(?)-shaped formation in the top-middle section; maybe a neutralizing glaze over the area to the right of it will set that area back in space and make this less troublesome. May have to glaze over the saved whites here too though; it's too jumpy. Well, I do like the colors and the cascading pale shapes in the foreground. Those pinons just fascinate me ... leaving some circles intact and pulling a wet brush across others to let them run and bleed: they're fun to paint--you muck them up, but they still look like something!

Oh JMJ! I just noticed that one pinon dead center at the top ... Just when I say how I love them ... Well, it's easy to fix. One lesson I mean to take to heart from the NM workshop: when something bothers you, add more of it! It's counterintuitive, but it works. Dilution.

24

No time at the moment--wading into a large job, which is also occupying most of my work space--for a larger painting, so I did these four small (about 4x6) studies over the last 24 hours.
Feels important to me to keep the New Mexico momentum going. These small paintings, though not tremendously satisfying--they don't represent any kind of a breakthrough ... more of what I feel safe doing--at least have me keeping the paints wet.
The first two were done from sketches made here in Jersey; the second two from photos from NM.
If anyone is interested in viewing my New Mexico photos, email me, and I'll send you a link.

santuario de chimayo

new mexico sketcbook II

new mexico sketchbook pages I

Land of Enchantment

"If we wonder often, the gift of knowledge will come."
--Native American proverb

Here're the paintings I completed in New Mexico (there are two more--one incomplete, and one a small one done on location at the Santuario de Chimayo; I'll post it tomorrow; I'll also try to post better photos of these first two). I'm surprised I don't have more--I do have some nice little sketches--especially since the workshop was full of hardworking and talented painters (there were twelve us, from all over the country: CA, AZ, FL, MD, TN and yours truly, NJ).
These paintings are all on quarter sheets (11 x 15).

Our teacher, Jan Hart--a lovely person and a terrific teacher; we got not only encouragement and great critiques, but also some very useful information about the properties of organic v. inorganic pigments --was also very good about getting us around to see the sights: her itinerary for us was ambitious, exhausting ... but I'm glad she went to the trouble; I feel like I saw everything I should on a first trip--Taos, Santa Fe, Chimayo, Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu. (I ate everything too: all manner of tamales and chiles rellenos, killer breakfast burritos, stuffed sopaipillas--amazing!!--and fabulous Frito pie.)
Jan's son, Jonathan, a pastel artist, was visiting from Seattle, and was wonderful--he was just always there to help with anything you needed, and offered very valuable comments at critique time. One morning he gave a demonstration of his pastel technique: it was amazing, like magic!
Visit Jan's website, http://www.janhart.com/, to see her artwork and link to Jonathan's.


We met in the studio for breakfast around 8:30 and critiques and/or painting. Jan would answer questions and often gave a demonstration. The demos were highly instructive--and inspiring: you wanted to try it right away! At lunchtime we headed out for photo ops, sightseeing (the O'Keeffe house was a revelation; if I lived there, I'd live to be 99 1/2 too), and, on at least two occasions, painting on-site (though there often wound up not being enough time for this before dinner; and no one wanted to be late for dinner). We were welcome to return to the studio after dinner to paint, and many did. One night I painted until around 10:30 before retiring to the Days Inn for a Tecate.

One very useful thing Jan shared with us was her sketchbook.
When she works from a photo, Jan tapes the photo to the left page and does a value study on the right-hand page. Along with the value study, she also thinks about a title (I had always discounted the importance of a title, thinking of it as no more than and possibly a great deal worse than a label; but it also makes you think of what the painting's about--something else I am not in the habit of doing!), and notes the direction of the light and any other things she wants to keep in mind while painting. It seems a great way to prepare to paint, to gather your thoughts. Like in Chinese painting, when we would grind the ink before beginning.


This flat-topped mountain is the Pedernal, the one O'Keeffe said god told her she could have if she painted it enough. And I guess she did, since her ashes are up there.