Category: Plein Air

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Animals Art theory Landscape Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting Plein Air

Point Isabel Dog Park & a painting breakthrough

Point Isabel Dog Park Plein Air

Oil on canvas panel, 6″x8″ (Larger)

We’re expecting a series of big storms for the next week but the weather today was comfortable, no wind and in the 50s. Although I’ve been working on another painting and wanted to keep going on it, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to get outside and paint before the storm hits.

I headed down to nearby Pt. Isabel, an enormous park along the bay that is designated as an off-leash dog park. It has spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge but smog, fog and clouds made the visibility so bad that I picked a closer view.

I’m really excited about the breakthrough I had yesterday with oil painting, and how I was able to apply it to this little painting. Up until yesterday I’d been using various oil painting mediums to thin the paint and what I kept ending up with was thin, washed out, chalky, greyed, paint; stickiness and smell from alkyd mediums and smell (and toxins) from turpentine. I’d heard people say they used little to no medium and I couldn’t understand how that was possible. It seemed like the paint would be too thick and hard to manipulate without first thinning it down.

I finally tried it and was shocked to discover it works! Of course it means using a lot more paint, especially on this coarser canvas, but I was able to put down one layer of paint, and leave it. If I made a mistake I could scrape the paint off of that section and repaint it, no problem. Before when I tried to do that, there wasn’t really anything to scrape off because my paint was sooooo thin.

I did this painting in about an hour. I know the dogs look a little dorky, but it’s just a little oil sketch, so who cares. Then I was able to go home and continue working on the painting in progress in my studio. That painting is almost finished and I’m just so excited that after all the work and study I’ve put into oil painting it at last feels as if I’m getting somewhere. And I still have 5 more days of vacation!

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Art theory Landscape Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting Plein Air Sketchbook Pages

Learning to Stop (making ugly paintings)

Plein Air - untouched in studio

Oil on canvas panel, 9×12″ (Larger)

The painting above is not great, but it’s loose and free and painted plein air with no touching up in the studio.

I’ve been painting and repainting the formerly plein air painting below over the past few days and it’s been both a good learning experience and discouraging. Mostly what I’ve learned is NOT to (re)do it. When I try to “just fix one little thing” I end up working for hours (days in this case), completely losing the freshness of the original plein air painting and, at the end of the day, finding myself right back where I started from, with dull, overworked paint.

This is the final version and I hereby VOW to not touch it again (other than to throw it in the trash!) I thought I vowed that yesterday and yet today I found myself trying one more time:

Briones again...the end

At several points in the process I had a good painting but just kept on fixing one more little thing until…well…it’s like scratching mosquito bites…I just keep scratching at until it bleeds and then I’m sorry. The original before messing with it appeared on my easel in my post about my studio here (first photo).

This was yesterday’s version:

Plein Air - finished in studio

Part of the problem with retouching in the studio is that the reference photos rarely capture the colors and memories of the scene. This one sure didn’t and yet I continued to work from it and wondered why everything looked so dull!
Briones photo ref

(above: the bad reference photo)

Photoshopped photo reference

(Above) I even tried painting over the reference photo in Photoshop to try to use that as reference instead but I still ended up with mud.

So here’s what I’ve learned (AGAIN!):

  1. Stop! Don’t waste time. Make progress by painting more paintings not the same one over and over
  2. Use more paint and less medium.
  3. Mix the right color, put it down and leave it alone.
  4. Messing with a hopeless painting forever is not art, it’s OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). I need a painting alarm like those car alarms that say, “Step away from the painting…” or a Sister Mary Catherine to smack my knuckles with a ruler and snatch the canvas away from me…
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Landscape Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting Plein Air

Benicia Plein Air Sketch and the Goose Lady

Benicia Plein Air

Oil on canvas panel, 9×12″ (Larger)
Painted plein air

Last weekend the two plein air groups I belong to combined and met at Matthew Turner Park in Benicia on San Pablo Bay. It was a gorgeous, sunny crisp day and a nice switch to be meeting in the afternoon instead of first thing in the morning.

There were a number of odd characters around entertaining us. A middle-aged woman sat in her car nearby us calling her dog (“Dog…dog…come here dog!”). Except there were no dogs anywhere in sight. There were lots of geese though, including one that seemed to be wearing a white, ruffled feather tu-tu.

She kept up her patter and eventually the geese wandered over to her car. For the next couple hours she barked commands at the geese, still calling them “Dog.” She lectured them about being too greedy, warned them they better start sharing nicely, and threatened to leave if they didn’t behave. It reminded me of when my parents used to threaten my sister and I when they were driving and we were misbehaving in the back seat, “If you don’t stop it I’ll pull over and give you both a spanking!”)

Then a man with a grey ponytail arrived and started talking to the geese and feeding them too. He claimed to know each of their names and their histories. The geese were apparently used to this treatment and were quite demanding, pecking at the feet of some of the artists when we first arrived before their benefactors got there.

I’d planned to finish and touch up this painting in the studio, but I’ve learned my lesson. After wasting the past few days trying to “finish” another plein air painting, I’ve decided to leave plein air sketches alone. I’ll make another post about that tomorrow with before and after pics.

Categories
Landscape Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting Plein Air

View of Mt. Tamalpais from Pt. Pinole


Oil on canvas panel, 9″x12″ (Larger)

I started this painting at Point Pinole last month but it had so many problems that I put it aside and never posted it. Today I decided to give it a do-over. It was either that or reclaim the panel by covering it in gray paint and using it for another painting.

When I compared my photo of the scene to my painting I could see how far off I really was — I’d both enlarged and shrunk the scene and painted distant details I couldn’t really see. So I did some redrawing, repainting, and I’m happy with the progress I’ve made and the understanding I’ve gained since the first version.

Of course there’s a huge difference in the level of difficulty between painting in the studio vs. painting plein air where the day’s changing light makes the scene change constantly. Even so, I’m missing painting outdoors and have vowed to get out there again next weekend, no matter what the weather. I wimped out this weekend while we were having a cold snap (for the SF Bay Area — frost in the morning and then temps in the low 50s during the day).

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Art theory Landscape Oil Painting Other Art Blogs I Read Outdoors/Landscape Painting Photos Plein Air

View from Viansa Winery

Oil on Canvas Panel, 12″x9″ (Larger)

On November 3 I went to Viansa Winery in Sonoma County with my plein air painting group. It’s a beautiful estate in the wine country with wonderful views in every direction. I painted the first layer of this painting on site and then today at home I painted another layer, correcting the original plein air sketch. I set my timer for one hour and completely redid the whole painting in about 45 minutes. Then I had dinner and when I came back I forgot my plan to do a one-hour painting and spent another two hours fiddling around with stuff I could have left alone.

As Karen suggested in her comment here a couple days ago, it’s good to focus on one goal per painting. I did that with this painting. My goal was to create a sense of distance, and I think I accomplished that. (Yay!) What’s interesting is that even though it’s only been three weeks since I started this painting, I see how much I’ve learned just in that short time…or maybe how much of what I’ve learned in the past year is starting to sink in and take hold. The on-site painting was out of proportion and very flat–no sense of depth or distance. But it was colorful which was my focus on that day — getting some color into my painting.

As I worked on this tonight I was thinking about two things my teacher recently pointed out to me that applied to the problems I’d had with this painting:

  1. Paint the dog before the fleas (in other words, get the big shapes in before starting on the little details)
  2. When you have man-made objects in a painting, such as buildings or fences, they have to be the right size or the whole painting will look wrong because we know what the object is and what it’s size is.

Here’s the photo I took of the scene:
View from Viansa Winery Photo
Larger

In the original version I got really involved in painting the little building in the front left and the bigger one halfway back on the right. But I’d made them bigger than they should have been so I could paint the details. And they were definitely the fleas, not the dog!

Categories
Art theory Oil Painting Painting Plein Air

What “we” did in painting class today

My teacher helped paint this

Oil on 12×9 panel
Larger

First a disclaimer: There’s more Elio than Jana in this painting. I started this painting and really liked where it was going, with a decent composition and nice fressh, bright colors, but asked for help when my path wouldn’t stop looking like a waterfall. My wonderful teacher, Elio Camacho, has been hesitant to paint on my paintings but I encouraged him to do so since I was confused. Once he’d solved all my problems and added some beautiful touches, I stopped working on this one and started another so I could save this in order to remember the things he did.

Elio is such an amazing teacher. His shares his incredible enthusiasm for painting, his knowledge, experience and skill so generously. After the five-hour class ends, he starts a very large painting and paints until sunset. If we stick around, he will continue answering questions while he paints, which makes it very tempting to stay and paint or just hang out for another hour or two.

I thought I’d share a few of the things I learned in class today that I think are going to really help my painting (CLICK on “Continue Reading” below) to read what I learned about color, plein air composition, highlights, mediums, darks and sky-holes:

Continue reading “What “we” did in painting class today”
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Art theory Landscape Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting Plein Air

Tilden Park Re-do

Tilden Park

Oil painting on panel, 9″x12″
Larger

Last Sunday in my plein air oil painting class I painted this scene on this panel but it pretty much looked like dark mud so I worked on it some more today. I like to keep going with a painting until I either succeed, push it as far as it can go, get sick of it, or it just gets too late and I have to go to bed. I think tonight I hit all of the above.

I have the hardest time painting outdoors in the bright sun. Everything ends up much darker than it should be. I’m also not very good at mixing light colors in oils—possibly due to never using white in watercolor. Adding white to oil paint creates quite different color mixtures than adding more water to watercolor to let the white of the paper shine through and lighten the color.

I’m going to be plein air painting both Saturday and Sunday this weekend, and given the weather report of sunny days, I’ll continue trying to find my way painting in bright light. Tomorrow I’m going to try wearing my polarized sun glasses and see what I come up with. I’m also going to try forcing myself to make high key paintings, with most of the painting lighter than middle gray to force myself to get away from the dark mud.

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Landscape Oil Painting Other Art Blogs I Read Outdoors/Landscape Painting Plein Air Sketchbook Pages

Lake Merritt Japanese Garden

Lake Merritt Zen Garden

Oil on Masonite Panel, 12×9″
Larger

I’ve been studying oil painting for months, reading piles of books, learning from others, watching endless painting videos (some that are literally “like watching paint dry”), taking a class and practicing every chance I get. Last week it seemed that despite my study and “book learning,” while I had the knowledge of how to paint in oils, I didn’t have the skill to actually do it. Today I think something has clicked and I’m finally starting to get it.

I nearly finished this painting on site with my plein air group this morning at Oakland’s Lake Merritt Botanical Garden. Unfortunately (or fortunately, really), the painting had a little accident on its way home and got smeared. That gave me the perfect excuse to work on it some more.

I’d been having difficulty with painting on the slick surface of the gessoed masonite with the stiff bristle brushes — the paint wouldn’t stick and kept sliding around when I tried to paint another layer on top. Then I got an email message from Nel, raving about a new softer brush she was enjoying: a Raphael Kevrin Mongoose Series 877. I picked one up at Artists and Craftsman in Berkeley and used that to fix and finish the painting. She was right — it’s a fabulous brush!

I had the most trouble painting the water, especially since I omitted the little island/tree in the middle of the pond and moved the big redwood tree all the way to the right. I had to adjust the reflections from what was actually there and I don’t think I quite got it right. Hopefully it looks a little like water and not grass!

Any tips appreciated (I mean advice, not spare change.)

Here’s the photo I used to finish the painting at home, and a couple steps along the way:

Continue reading “Lake Merritt Japanese Garden”
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Art theory Landscape Oil Painting Other Art Blogs I Read Outdoors/Landscape Painting Photos Plein Air

Inspiration Point, Tilden Park

Inspiration Point, Tilden Park

Larger
Oil on panel, 9×12″

Sunday was my plein air oil painting class in Tilden Park and we met at Inspiration Point in Tilden Park in the Berkeley Hills. On a clear day you can see far into the distance from this site. Unfortunately, when we arrived at 9:00 a.m. the fog was so thick we could barely see halfway across the parking lot. Our teacher, Elio Camacho, had planned to start class by doing a demo — an expansive vista on a large canvas. To try to accomplish something until the fog cleared, he had us set up our easels facing the alleged view and get ready to paint. I enjoyed the idea of randomly picking a spot with no idea what I’d see or paint.

At 10:00, after delicious coffee and treats from Peets Coffee generously brought by a class member, Elio did an amazing small demo of the sun glaring through the fog above some nearby trees. Happily, just as he finished the fog lifted and we got to work.

This time I remembered to take a photo of the scene before I got started so that I could finish the painting at home:
Inspiration Point, Tilden - Photo

Continue reading “Inspiration Point, Tilden Park”
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Art theory Oil Painting Other Art Blogs I Read Painting Photos Plein Air Sketchbook Pages

Treasure Island Marina, SF Bay, Plein Air

Treasure Island Marina, SF Bay
Oil on 9 x 12″ canvas board
Larger

My plein air group painted on Treasure Island this morning, a former military base and site of the 1939 World’s Fair in the San Francisco Bay. There were some amazing views of the SF skyline, the Bay Bridge, and Port of Oakland but it was very foggy and windy (as usual for the bay) when we arrived so I chose to paint in a more sheltered location in the marina.

Here’s the scene when I arrived:
IMG_1328

And here’s a quick snapshot I caught of the sailboat in the foreground as it glided past me:
IMG_1335

These are the sketches I did when I arrived, trying to decide on the view and focal point.
At first I was going to do the SF skyline but after sketching it realized it didn’t interest me; the shape of the dip along the skyline of trees on the hill did.
Treasure Island thumbnails

I did some things right on this painting, after taking to heart the good advice from my wonderful oil painting mentor Nel (whose wonderful Everyday Paintings deservedly sell Every Day — I own two), from Katherine Tyrell‘s post about plein air painting, and from the comments here on my last plein air attempt.

This time I didn’t chase the light (changing the painting every time the light changed). Instead, I noted when I started that the light wasn’t interesting–too foggy–but guessed it would probably clear up at some point. So I decided to block in the masses–the big shapes of the hills, sky and water and as soon as the sun came out I would then add the light effects, which worked fine. I also remembered that boats are flat on the bottom because the water line is flat and level. I also liked the the way I did the tree tops against the sky.

A couple things I didn’t quite get right: I forgot that everything looks darker and duller when you bring it indoors–it looked so pretty in the bright sun but is actually a little too dark. Also last time I swore I wouldn’t “fix” things in the studio, but I hadn’t had time to finish the boats so I worked on them, which was fine,. But then I “touched up” the hills and lost some of the glowing edges I had originally.

It might not be great art, but at least I didn’t feel like I had no idea what I was doing, as I had a month or two ago.

Advice, critique, comments are welcomed!