Category: Painting

Patterson House at Ardenwood Farm

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date June 27, 2007
18 Comments on Patterson House at Ardenwood Farm

Ink and watercolor in Moleskine large watercolor sketchbook
Click here for enlarged view

This is the Patterson House at Ardenwood Farms, an historical, working Victorian farm in Fremont, California. They have a blacksmith shop and people dressed in period costumes using the tools of the time to cook, churn butter, wash clothes, and other chores; a horse drawn train, farm animals and historic farm equipment. We’d planned to go sketch all the sights and activities on Thursday but when I phoned Ardenwood they told me there would be 250 campers there that day and the next. She recommended we come today when there were no groups scheduled so we did. Unfortunately she didn’t mention that everything was shut down on Wednesdays–no docents in Victorian clothes, no activities, nothing. The only thing to see was the house and a few farm animals.

Michelle and I wandered the property, noting where things would have been happening if they weren’t closed. We decided to draw the house, which was very enjoyable. I drew directly in ink and then added watercolor. Then we visited the barnyard animals, watched the funny goats, some mating bunnies, and drew this solitary bunny:

Ink in moleskine sketchbook

Tonight I went by myself to Ashkenaz Music Center since nobody else wanted to join me to hear the most amazing musical group, The Fishtank Ensemble. They are a unique and extremely talented group of musicians who play a combination of Gypsy, Eastern European, Klezmer and Jazz with some unusual instruments, including a Japanese Shamisen, a musical saw, several different violins and other string instruments, accordian, standup base and a female singer with an extraordinary operatic voice. It was fantastic! I’d heard them live on the radio on an NPR program a few weeks ago and had been trying to find their CD locally and was amazed when I drove by Ashkenaz and saw their name on the marquee for tonight. What a treat! And they had their CD for sale which I bought.

I think I’m finally getting into this vacation thing–going to a musical concert on a “school night” is great!

P.S. Does the picture of the house look overly contrasty or washed out on your monitor? I’m still having trouble getting my monitor to properly display the intensity of the color and contrast. I’m afraid I’m toning down the image in Photoshop to make it look right on my monitor which tends to mamke everything look very strongly colored. So then it looks good on my monitor but I have no idea how it looks on anyone else’s.

Tags Animals, Ink, Pen and Ink

Figure Drawing Gouache Life in general People Sketchbook Pages

Learning to Vacation

Ink in Moleskine sketchbook – Peaberry’s Coffee in Oakland’s Rockridge District, land of yuppies with strollers
Click here to enlarge

Today was my first official day of vacation. There’s something about a week off that makes me want to hoard every moment and then I start worrying about it ending before it’s even gotten started. It usually takes me until the very end of vacation to get into the swing of relaxing. I’m so grateful that the physical pain in my back and hip is gone. Tomorrow I’m going celebrate feeling good and being free.

Today I had a wonderful hour and a half of massage and bodywork that my sister treated me to for my birthday and then I took an hour long walk along College Avenue in the Rockridge District of Oakland/Berkeley and had a latte at Peaberry’s Coffee (above) where I listened to the guy in the foreground rant for 20 minutes to a very patient woman about how he brought dessert and cheese to a dinner party where the hosts didn’t put his dessert out and stole the cheese for themselves and never said thank you. Then I drove over to Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley and exchanged a couple CDs at Amoeba Records. I really like one I brought home today: Rodrigo Y Gabriela–sort of flamenco/rock guitars from Mexico–wonderful!

Ink in moleskine: at Berkeley’s Skateboard Park
Click here to enlarge

Yesterday I rode my bike to REI looking for a Klean Kanteen which is a lightweight stainless steel water bottle to avoid polluting the world with jillions of plastic water bottles and my body with the chemicals in plastic that are now found to be absorbed into the water and the body. They were all out. Riding home I discovered the Berkeley Skate Park (above)– like a whole bunch of concrete ski-slopes, jumps, rails, curbs and swimming pools where skaters try out their tricks (video) without endangering anyone but themselves.

Afterwards I did some figure drawing using a brushpen, adding gouache later to some of the sketches. Here’s a couple of them.

Brush pen in Aquabee sketchbook

Brushpen and goauche on hot press Arches paper

I’m also a little frustrated because I’ve finished all of my work in progress and it’s time to start some new work but I can’t seem to settle on what I want to do next. After a couple days of trying to make myself settle down and get to work in the studio I’ve realized what I really want is to just be outdoors, drawing and painting what I see, rather than working in the studio. So that’s what I’m going to do because it’s my birthday vacation and I get to do whatever I darn please, so there!

Tags Figure Drawing, Pen and Ink, People

Landscape Outdoors/Landscape Watercolor

Judy’s House – A Watercolor Dilemma

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date June 24, 2007
19 Comments on Judy’s House – A Watercolor Dilemma

Watercolor on Arches paper 15 x 22″
Click here to see large version

This was a painting that was going well–it was commissioned by a friend as a gift for her husband for their anniversary. She wanted me to paint their home and cats in their favorite spot at the front window with their tulip tree in bloom.

As a first step I’d done a perfect flat wash for the sky. Then I did the cats in the window since that was a key feature and moved the rest of the painting along, blocking in the shadows, doing the shrubbery and the other other windows, and the details. Then disaster….

I had a latte sitting on a tall table in the studio. The painting was taped to a drawing board that was sitting on the floor leaning against the table. The next thing I knew the cup was knocked over and coffee was dripping off the table, down the sky in the area to the left of the chimney. I quickly blotted the painting and used a sponge to successfully remove the coffee before it stained. It left that area looking slightly lighter. I tried to ignore it, but today, when the rest of the painting was finished I decided to go over the sky with another wash of blue. But by now the paper was wrinkled and the paint sunk into the valleys, creating anything but a flat wash. So, I tried another wash, which just exaggerated the valleys. Then I tried removing paint with a tissue to give the effect of wispy clouds but that didn’t look right either. So I wiped off as much as I could, waited for it to dry and painted another glaze of blue which not only did the same thing, but also got a little splotchy on the right side.

I’m going to flatten the painting by pressing it under tissue paper and a pile of books for a few days and then maybe try again to glaze the sky. I have this awful feeling that I’ve ruined the painting, not just the sky but many other areas too, and that I should probably start it over again, which I really don’t feel like doing at this point … or maybe it will look better after I don’t see it for a few days.

What do you think?

UPDATE: Here’s the finished painting

Flower Art Life in general Painting People Plants Portrait Still Life Watercolor

Birthday flowers from my neighbors

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date June 20, 2007
12 Comments on Birthday flowers from my neighbors

Watercolor painted quickly and directly on Arches hot press watercolor paper without preliminary drawing and then when dry, Pentel brush pen to draw/paint the lines. 7.5″ x 11″
Click here for enlarged view

My wonderful next-door neighbors brought this potted azalea for me as a birthday gift yesterday, along with a nice card and a hug from each child. I have the sweetest neighbors. Not long after I first moved in I fell in love with their kids and after photographing them at baby Alex’s baptism painted these portraits of Alex, Yessica and Erick which they have hanging in their living room. We help each other with all sorts of things and they often bring me delicious home cooked Mexican food (including delicious barbequed salmon with cactus relish).

Then my sons took me out to good Thai food last night. It was wonderful being with them and realizing more than ever what great young men they’ve become. It made my day, even though I looked like a gimpy old lady with my limping and had to sit on my fleece jacket because the sciatica makes it hurt to sit without extra padding. But the combination of their good company, the good wishes of people who’ve written or called to wish me speedy recovery and happy birthday, the yummy Thai food, some nice pain meds and a Singha beer made for a perfectly happy birthday! And I am getting a little better each day.

Tags Ink, Pen and Ink, People

Landscape Oil Painting Other Art Blogs I Read Outdoors/Landscape Painting Photos

Pt. Reyes in Oil

Oil on canvas, 16 x 20″
Click here to see enlarged view

Yippee! I finally got back to oil painting and I think that everything I’ve learned in acrylic and gouache and from reading books on landscape and seeing other people’s instructional photos and videos on the web and especially the great advice I’ve gotten from other art bloggers finally clicked. I was actually able to capture just what I wanted to in this painting, which is a rare gift!

I just wish I could tell whether the images look right on the screen. I still haven’t quite gotten my monitor calibration dialed in. In the painting the distant hills and mountains look a little misty–like there’s lots of atmosphere/fog between them and the viewer, subduing the colors. The blue peeking through the clouds is ultramarine not cyan like it appears on my monitor. But this afternoon I wanted to paint, not futz around with computers. I did enough of that last weekend!

Here are the things I’ve learned about oil painting that I applied:

I limited my palette
toned the canvas with a wash of acrylic yellow ochre
painted the sky white and then blended in the blues
blocked in the darkest darks, the mid-value big shapes, and then did the next smaller shapes and then added details.
I made sure to wipe my brush if it picked up some of the wrong neighboring color before applying more paint
I didn’t let myself get lazy about mixing colors from whatever was left on the palette instead of adding the missing color in fresh paint
And I stopped before I overworked it and didn’t get hung up in details

And here are the people who I pestered for oil painting advice (which they generously gave me) that finally sunk in:

I did the painting from this photo I took on a hike in Pt. Reyes to the ocean. I painted it this afternoon in about four hours (including cleaning up), trying to pretend that I was painting plein air:

Tags Photos

Gouache Life in general Painting Still Life

Papaya in Gouache

Gouache on Arches hot press watercolor paper, 10×7.5″
Click here to enlarge, then click again

I meant to paint in oils this afternoon and I meant to go to bed early tonight and I meant to get some good exercise in today. Oops.

Instead I spent the afternoon with the president of my neighborhood association touring the former private elementary school around the corner from my house that is on the verge of being leased to a new charter high school. I’m feeling very much the Nimby-ite (Not In My Back Yard) because the school will almost literally be in my backyard — on the next block. While the school’s focus is supposed to be all about community service and group hugs, my experience with the nicest of teenagers (including my own who weren’t always all that nice) is that high school students are noisy, drive like fools, and have lots of trash that rarely ends up in the trash can.

By the time I got home I had to cook dinner and then clean up the huge mess from chopping tons of different veges for a stir fry. When I finished it was 9:00 and I was about to head to bed for a nice early night when I saw this lovely half papaya I bought today calling out to be painted.

“OK, you have one hour” I told myself and then to bed!” Two hours later and here I am uploading the picture. I still have to do my back stretches. But at least I’m happy I painted today because tomorrow it’s back to the office.

Art theory Faces Gouache Painting People Portrait

Girl in Gouache

Gouache on hot press watercolor paper, 7×10″
Click here to see large (then click again)

I painted this from a photo I took of a little girl at my niece’s high school graduation. I’m learning a lot from working with gouache–it’s a great way to experiment with seeing values and color temperature which is so important, especially for working with oil paint. I’m also learning that while you can repaint layers with gouache you do eventually get unpleasant paint build-up and it becomes more difficult to blend, as layers beneath get reactivated (unlike acrylics).

One note for anyone who’s interested in working with gouache: Many of the colors are not at all permanent since many artists who use gouache are painting for publication and the work only needs to look good until it’s photographed. When shopping for gouache, make sure the tube of paint has an A or AA permanence rating. Anything below that (B or C) and the paint may fade or change color rapidly (just in case you paint a “keeper”).

Tags Faces, People

Art theory Dreams Gouache Other Art Blogs I Read Painting People

Painting with Gouache

Gouache on hot-pressed watercolor paper, 7″x11″
Click here to enlarge

I’ve been wanting to experiment with painting in gouache (opaque watercolor) and today finally got the chance. I so adore the artwork of Maira Kalman and the painterly, juicy way she uses gouache….which reminds me a lot of the kind of oil painting I want to do–John Sonsini is one of my current favorites…and his work reminds me a lot of Alice Neel, one of my major art heroes, who, at the age of 80, did a wonderful nude self portrait of herself painting herself.

It turns out gouache, at least on the two relatively small pieces I’ve tried so far, actually combines the best of watercolor, acrylics and oils. You can blend easily, paint with bright juicy colors, it dries quickly but not too quickly, you can paint over areas, and it cleans up with water. I had some ancient tubes of Winsor Newton Designer’s Gouache and bought a few new tubes since some of mine had turned to cement. I love it!

I’ve been trying to paint in that juicy, painterly way with acrylics and oils but haven’t succeeded so far. I haven’t worked out the balance between working quickly, free and loose, and still trying to capture a likeness of my subject and getting to detailed and tight. Then there’s the problems associated with the actual media–acrylic dries too fast too do much blending and oil dries so slowly that I keep having to stop and let it dry for a week before continuing.

I’m excited about the possibilities with gouache and enjoyed this first experiment, which was inspired by a dream. I posted the original sketchbook image here.

If you want to see more of Maira Kalman’s art, she’s had a monthly art blog on the New York Times website and the work is stunning. It will be published in a book in October. The NY Times offers a free 2-week subscription, which I took in order to look at the whole year of her art blogs.

Tags People

Other Art Blogs I Read Outdoors/Landscape Painting Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Ten Minute Trees on Memorial Day

Post author By Jana Bouc
Post date May 28, 2007
13 Comments on Ten Minute Trees on Memorial Day

Click here to enlarge

All images ink and watercolor in Moleskine Watercolor Notebook

I got inspired to get back to sketchbooking after looking at Pete Scully’s watercolor sketches (scroll down on his site to see entries from May 9-13) from his recent trip to Santa Monica, where I was born. They reminded me how sketches of even the most ordinary sights of daily life can make exciting sketches when seen through fresh eyes (and with some talent and skill like Pete’s). I decided to just go around my neighborhood, doing 10 minute sketches of trees, trying to capture their various personalities and gestures.

The one above is viewed past the flag on my next door neighbor’s house looking across the street to a little house and its very big tree.

Click here to enlarge
Above is my little Bay Laurel tree in front of my house. I thought it would be nice to have bay leaves at my disposal but it’s a weird tree that stays green all year but grows sort of clumpy and doesn’t really seem that tree-like. My drawing doesn’t either–I think I made the trunk to wide for the leafy part. I guess I should have added a little background to give a sense of size but my 10 minutes was up. (I gave myself up to 10 minutes to sketch and 10 minutes to paint and used the timer on my watch.)

Click here to enlarge
Above is my other next door neighbor’s tree–some sort of non-fruiting plum tree that really is this color and while it was planted a year after my Bay Laurel it’s twice as big.

I didn’t get any further than my own front yard but thoroughly enjoyed myself, listening to the birds chirping and neighbor’s music playing through their windows on this first sunny day in a week.

Tags Pen and Ink

Flower Art Painting

Mothers Day Bouquet

Acrylic on canvas, 12 x 16″
Click to enlarge

On Mothers Day Robin brought me a lovely bouquet which I started painting that afternoon. The picture below is as far as I got that day. I was liking how loose, free and sketchy it started out:

Then it was back to the office for the week. By the time I returned to painting, the flowers had moved and changed. I kept trying to work from the flowers, but once they got stinky I gave up and used a photo reference I’d taken, but it was from a slightly different point of view:

My main goal in doing this painting was learn more about working with acrylics and to try to find a way to make them work and blend more like oils. I’ve been told that you can do everything with acrylics that can be done with oils but I’m not convinced yet. I did learn a whole bunch while doing this, and did find a good way to blend (misting the canvas before applying the paint which has been mixed with gloss glazing medium or gloss gel…and not the satin medium I’d been using which has dulling matting agent added).

The thing I’m having the most trouble with is mixing the colors I want and getting bright light colors. Acrylics dry quite a bit darker than they look when wet because the acrylic medium is white which makes the colors seem lighter until they dry because then the medium is transparent, no longer white. Also I’m finding that acrylics seem more transparent than oils and don’t cover as easily (although you can always go over any area mid-painting with gesso for an instant undo).

I don’t like how stiff this painting is and how corny (although I do like the way the vase turned out). I think that for me to enjoy easel painting I’m going to have to work bigger

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Tags Acrylic Painting