Black, White and Red All Over

6 x 8" oil on canvas New title: "Bottled Up"
Had to paint. Seems a number of people are doing shoes these days--something I haven't drawn since college.

Update: after reading the comments on this and a recent post on Frank's blog, I am pondering the question of whether, in order to create effective work, an artist must begin each painting with a clear intent of underlying meaning or symbolism. If this is necessary, how does it allow for a stream-of-consciousness-type approach? I've always had more of a vocational than an ivory-tower orientation (was actually tested for this as a college freshman)--thinking about all this too much makes my head hurt.

Age Before Beauty

9 x 12" oil on linen/hardwood panel
It seems that in art and politics, extremes generate the most attention. While I greatly admire and aspire to a more painterly style, my tendency is to work in a manner that is neither extremely painterly, nor tightly photo-realistic. So I wonder--is there any merit somewhere in the middle?

If I were taking Clint Watson's advice in yesterday's FineArtViews blog, the "social object" story I would tell about this painting is that I started it on the first day of the Sac Plein Air Festival , helped give myself pneumonia by standing outside in the wind all day, and ultimately had to pack it in for two weeks.

A deadline looms, and I'm going to have to spend significant time on my book illustrations before doing more personal work. The desire to paint is strong; I'll see how long I can hold out before playing hooky again.

Missing in Action

"Two Tomatillos" 10" x 8" oil on hardwood panel--a piece from awhile back I initially wasn't sure about ; but it has grown on me a little.
Apologies to my regular readers--I was looking forward to having several plein air paintings from Sacramento to post this week. Thought I might be back in action by today; but in addition to still being very sick myself, I have had to care for my son, who has had the same thing for nearly two weeks and had a high fever again yesterday. Supposedly this is not H1N1, but I can't imagine swine flu being any worse.

I have a good friend who often resents family responsibilities that interfere with painting. We both have noted with some envy that most successful painters are men or childless women who can pursue their work less encumbered (though I do not envy those who bear the burden of supporting a wife and children on an exclusively art-generated income.) Since my friend and I both had children later in life, and we each had one with unexpected health problems, the time they required was often greater, and the time remaining when they are gone will be shorter. But we signed up for this, and I no longer have a problem putting family first. Some may view this critically as "an excuse." To them I say, "whatever."

In the inaugural issue of Plein Air Magazine , an article about Edgar Payne says:
"Evelyn Payne Hatcher said said that the last words her father spoke to her on his last day of life were that 'he was sorry that everything had been for his art.' She said it was very meaningful to her that 'he realized it in his last days,' and that he appreciated the dedication and sacrifices Evelyn and her mother had made so he could fulfill his lifelong desire to paint." While I certainly don't deny Payne's contributions as a painter, on a personal level, this seems a pretty mixed epitaph.

Best Laid Plans

Proof I was there
I got a kick out of reading that Kevan MacPherson calls it "complain air" painting. I get it that all the colors in life do not reproduce in photos; and I'm not completely giving up--I will continue doing small color studies outdoors. But, to paraphrase Clint, a woman's gotta know her limitations: I am 90% certain I will never be a die-hard, festival-going plein air painter.

While yesterday's conditions were fairly representative of the plein air painting I have experienced. A cold wind filled the air with debris all day, and I was sick--really sick--but determined to give it the ol' college try. Last night and today I am worse. A remnant of the Pacific typhoon is supposed to bring high winds and dump several inches of rain tonight through Wednesday. Not on me. I got a couple of "studies" painted and took a few decent photos, so I will work with those. May or may not make it out again Thursday or Friday, and may not have anything in the show on Friday. OH. WELL.

Maybe my attitude will improve in a couple of days, when I'm not looking through the puce-colored glasses of this awful virus.

Pink Palms

14" x 11" o/c Purchase
For some of us, avoiding negative language about our own work is a challenge. This is not false humility. The more we improve, the more we recognize the things we could have done better. But I have come to understand the importance of being quietly positive is in preparing potential buyers to like our work. Frank Ordaz has discussed this (having "a bit of the ShamWow guy"), and Lori Woodward Simmons put it very well in this article on FineArtViews. This whole blog is terrific, BTW; it has a huge archive of great advice and inspiring articles on art and marketing.

So I finished this painting, at least for the time being. Nope, I didn’t achieve all I had hoped, but I still like the subject and more-or-less got the light effect I wanted. I think I am pretty good at recognizing a good scene or still life composition—not as good at editing and finding well-composed paintings in less-than-perfect scenes. This one was almost perfect to begin with. I only had to remove some wires, poles and signage and adjust the trees a little.

I also finished two book illos this week.

Pink Palms--Work in progress

"Pink Palms" 14" x 11" oil on canvas
In my eagerness to finish paintings and update this blog, and in frustration that I can't do so as often as I would like, I am reluctantly posting this work still in progress. Every morning I drive by this little white house at sunrise when, for about five minutes, the trees and peaks glow with warm pink light. I am not succeeding yet, but am struggling to keep it looser. Even though the top may look finished, it's not. Got this far, then had to put it aside and go back to my mind-numbingly tight book illos. Here's the latest one finished.

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Pattern (Detail vs. Simplification)

9 x 12" acrylic on board
I wasn't going to post any more illustrations, but this topic is pertinent to my struggle to define a fine art style. Pattern and detail appeal so much to my right-brained side , and I went hog wild with them in Scottish Alphabet: Celtic knots behind each letter, borders of plaid, more knots or needlework (yep, every stitch painted) , and tight rendering of everything.

As you see in my links, I enjoy representational painters with both "tighter" and "looser" styles. There is a fine art market for photorealism. But after awhile, rendering can be crazy-making. Effective editing and intentional looseness actually are more difficult skills to master. So the struggle to discern an idea, simplify, and paint directly with decent brushwork continues to be my greatest challenge. Tight being my natural inclination, it's a big one--but worth it, I think.

Island Reflection

16 x 20 o/c
This painting sold a couple of years ago. It is another image from a family trip to Hawaii seven years ago, which was a surprise Christmas gift from my amazing bother-in-law, Mike Yaconelli--whom we will miss forever.

I highly recommend a couple of his books: Dangerous Wonder--which opens with a story about my son that you can read on Amazon's preview--and Messy Spirituality.

My "real" job

This is the one of two illustrations I have completed for my next book--about how animals behave before a hurricane. I'm posting it because I feel bad about not being able to do any new personal paintings until Don Hatfield's next workshop on Tuesday. And whatever I do there may be awful again. For a change, I am trying to do this book as expeditiously as possible. I just signed up for the first annual Capitol Plein Air Festival. Since I've actually done very little plein air painting, that should be interesting (read: stressful.)

Post deleted

Another workshop study I didn't want to show forever.

End of Summer

8 x 10" o/c, unfinished study
For the final session of Frank Ordaz's workshop, I continue trying to apply his lessons on temperature and simplified "value shapes" and to combine them with the more painterly brushwork and impressionistic color treatment I'm learning from Don Hatfield. Since we spent the first hour setting up and talking, this was about a two-hour study done from a photo Frank provided of his son. Note to self: it helps to start with a great photo.

As much as I would like to do a little more work on it, I need to get going on my book illustrations--especially since I will be spending at least one more afternoon in Don's workshop (tomorrow.) After wandering alone in the desert for a long time, I have been renewed by my time with these guys. Painting is actually feeling fun again, and I am eager to do more.

Remembering

Twin Towers Sunset

Progress

11 x 14" oil on canvas
Her very ribs showed. After pretty much bombing at my first workshop with impressionist Don Hatfield last week, I was fairly happy with the results of my 3-hr figure study today. He demonstrated, and I finally understood what he meant by "painting through the form." It means if you are painting the background color, let it continue on into the figure; then cut the figure color back into the background--or vice versa. This softens the edges and creates lovely color blends that unify the painting.

Clover Valley Bridge

24" x 8", o/c
This granite bridge in a little park near my house was built by Chinese laborers in about 1900. It is one of the few charming remnants of historic Rocklin. The morning light gave it kind of a storybook quality.
Purchase

Magnify

AVAILABLE

Lemon Fork and Crystal Stopper - 5" x 7" oil on canvas
After yesterday's workshop debacle--and then posting it for the world (or at least the 5 people who read my blog) to see for awhile--I treated myself to this indulgent little painting inspired by the IF theme, "Magnify." I used black out of the tube, glazed the ground shadows, rendered it to death, and basically ignored any number of alla prima rules. So there. I'll get back on the horse with another piece tomorrow and prepare for next week's workshop beatings.

Blog edit

With apologies to those who left nice comments, I have deleted a couple of recent posts that showed existing illustrations for Illustration Fridays, because they simply do not reflect where I am right now or what I want this blog to be.

2/3 Kamikazi

AVAILABLE

4.5" x 6" oil on linen canvas laminated to hardboard
OK, I lied again--I did do my "real" work all day, but in spite of saying I had "no time," I spent a couple of evening hours on this tiny personal painting.

Wrapped

AVAILABLE

AVAILABLE

5 x 7" oil on canvas
As part of my transition from illustration, I have resolved not to post any more existing artwork for Illustration Fridays. As time allows, I will use IF as I think it was intended: as a prompt for new paintings. I hope, however, that any new work posted here will be illustrative only in the sense of reflecting or being inspired by the topic. Which brings me to . . .

a cranky little opinion: if an illustration effectively solves the problem (which is what illustrations are supposed to do), its relationship to the topic should be obvious or at least discernible. If a submission requires words to explain how it relates to the topic, it has not solved the the problem. I guess submitting completely unrelated illustrations is fine, if the only purpose is to drive traffic to one's site; but as an illustrator, I am always a little annoyed when I click a submission and find it only vaguely, tangentially, or sometimes not remotely related to the topic except through some contrived explanation. Conversely, I am delighted by the clever ones, as my own ideas are usually fairly literal.

Made in the Shade

AVAILABLE

16 x 20 o/c
I started this a couple of years ago, from photos I took in Hawaii about six years ago, and then it sat. So it was nice to finally finish it. I believe we would call this a circular composition.

I am traveling to a scenic locale this week and taking my supplies. So maybe I will return with another small painting or two. Maybe. Or maybe I'll just take photos and veg out until my "real" work (on the next book) begins again in earnest the following week.

Coconut Palm, work in progress

16 x 20" o/c
Blogging imposes a strange sort of accountability. Even though it is, at this stage, more of an indulgence than a marketing vehicle, it nevertheless creates some degree of pressure and committment to post more or less regularly. Sketches for the next book are in progress and need to be completed ASAP; yet the call of my easel and of paintings waiting to be born is also strong. Are they a calling or an escape? Messy and pointing in many directions--with some tough nuts in the center--this tree is fitting metaphor for my life.

Radioactive artichoke

AVAILABLE

8 x 10" o/c
Since this originally was just a value study, it isn't much of a composition. I may have been influenced by the friend I was painting with yesterday, who kept nagging me to push it and make it more colorful. I think the underpainting, which I usually do not do, also intensified it.
Next goal: a palm tree close-up-- a larger. "real" painting I started a couple of years ago and never finished.

Plein Air--not

Old Auburn Cemetery Redux
AVAILABLE

8 x 10" o/c .....
I dunno--my first attempt to re-paint this didn't work out, because of the surface: I tried it on gessoed masonite, which I've always hated and still do. I keep thinking it shouldn't matter what I paint on, but it does. Even with some texture in the gesso, the paint slides around, looks transparent and feels like grease. So I wound up reworking the original location painting. But whenever I work from photos, I tighten up, and my piece ends up looking more like a photo than it does a painting. Oh well--onward and upward.

Today I'm going painting at a friend's house. She works completely differently, often abstractly; so I'm thinking I will take along the artichoke value study to use as an underpainting and add color.

Plein Air: Old Auburn Cemetery

Dying to plot my course (awful puns intended)

8 x 10" o/c; On location at the Old Auburn Cemetery for the last class in Frank's workshop. See the finished painting HERE
I am not experienced at plein air (hate heat, schlepping/
juggling supplies, etc.), spent barely an hour and a half painting, and didn't accomplish much--which is why I am posting it small. Nevertheless, I love the (actual) trees at this location and think the composition has some possibilities. So I am dying to give it another shot in the studio using my photos and this field study as reference--which I will do the minute I complete the last of the 10 large posters I am illustrating and before plunging into work on the next children's book.

I have two books to do in the coming months and am hoping not much else. More and more strongly, I feel that if I do not change direction I will die. My new plan is to spend some time every week creating a body of work I can eventually show and market in galleries--or wherever. Although I dearly love the work of all the wonderful CAC (should I begin the process of joining?) and other California plein air painters, I am not sure the world needs another--especially one who is mediocre at best. So I am still pondering my direction and possible niche.

Next book: animals before a hurricane

Sunflowers again

AVAILABLE

9 x 12 oil on canvas panel
This was a workshop project, done from a photo taken in flat light. The idea was to design the shapes and capture the colors and three basic values.

Butter on blue

AVAILABLE

5 x 7" o/c
This is the second homework assignment for Frank Ordaz's workshop--a study attempting to accurately capture the color of a cube of butter in north light. Couldn't resist adding the blue glass plate. With regard to the color treatment, I already see quite a difference between this and all of my previous work. It's like a small miracle.

Out with the old

NOT AVAILABLE

12 x 18 O/C
This is a scan of a photocopy (because I gave away the original) of a painting I used to like. It was done mostly from life as a 3-hour demo at a gallery some years back, and the final touches finished from photos at home. I say I "used to" like it, because today in Frank Ordaz's workshop I became aware of a deficiency that I now see in all of my work to date: a failure to correctly evaluate and depict the temperature of light as it moves across subjects. For example, the warmer blue foreground colors show a little of this, but those squash surely should have had some cooler hues in the darks. Of course, seeing and understanding a concept is one thing, and implementing it quite another. But I believe this understanding has the potential to eventually transform my work. Anyway, one can hope.

Value study

8 x 10 o/c
This is the first project for a workshop I am doing with Frank Ordaz. The assignment was to paint a simple object (OK, so mine is a complex simple object) in warm and cool tones using a limited palette of only black, white and burnt sienna.

Sea and Sky

AVAILABLE

20 x 24" acrylic on canvas
This painting has been hanging around for awhile. A gallery once collected a deposit on it, and number of people have expressed interest, but none have been willing or able to afford it. I'm considering making prints.

As for the fate of this blog--waah. I have two more books ahead and not enough time.

Twin Towers Sunset

Click HERE to purchase prints

8 x 10" o/c
Is this just too painful? I have been meaning to paint it for years from the photos I took during a perfect sunset Circle Tour on my first trip to New York in the late 80's. Every time I look at my pictures I am saddened and still incredulous.

Sweet and Sour

AVAILABLE

5 x 7" watercolor on 140# Arches paper
At last!! The latest book illustrations are finished and shipped, we have returned from a week-long trip, and I am back to doing some weekly paintings!! Whoohoo! I have missed being able to paint what I want to paint. It won't last too long, though--illustrations for the next book, River Beds, Sleeping in the World's Oceans, are due in January.

Point Lobos

AVAILABLE

Point Lobos, Monterey Peninsula 9 x 12: o/c
Hawaii is beautiful but too hot in the summer. To me, the Monterey Peninsula is about the most perfect place on the planet. Unfortunately a lot of other people think so, too. If I could afford it, I would live there in a heartbeat.

Memorial Day

acrylic on board


15 x 36" o/c
Donation to U. S. Air Force Art Collection

Lilies

AVAILABLE

5 x 7" Watercolor on Canson Montval 100% rag paper

Carmel Mission

AVAILABLE

"Mission Gate", 6 x 8" oil on canvas, 2-hour plein air study

The cemetery gate at Mission Carmel--a lot of California memories there.

The Sickle

AVAILABLE

8 x 10" oil on 1"-hardwood panel

Nothing truly twisted or sinister--just an old tool my father used in the yard in the days before weedeaters. I liked the "twist" of the shadow.

Purple Blotch Pansy

AVAILABLE
Click HERE to purchase original or prints

5 x 7" w/c on 140# Canson Montval paper. From life.