Categories
Landscape Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting Plein Air

Painting and Sneezing: Cummings Skyway Sunset

Cummings Skyway Afternoon, Oil on panel, 9x12"
Cummings Skyway Afternoon, Oil on panel, 9x12"

The hills were alive with the glow of the sunset, and also, unfortunately, millions of grassy pollen particles blowing in the wind. The sneezing started when the painting was about 3/4 finished. I’ve heard that it’s best to stop painting when you think you’re 75% done so maybe the allergy attack did me a favor. When I realized I was using more of my paper towels for blowing my nose than I was for wiping my palette knife and brushes, I realized it was time to pack up.

I’ve driven along Cummings Skyway many times en route to other painting sites and have always marveled at the amazing views from the road. I was glad when my Sunday plein air group scheduled it for a late afternoon paint-out today. The pull off on the side of the road was big enough for about 8 of us to park and paint near our cars.

In between the roar of speeding motorcycles, passing semi-trucks and the occasional family car that thought it was fun to honk at us as they passed, there was the sound of crickets and the friendly murmur of conversation from other painters. Along with the wonderful warm sun on my face (and the not so wonderful glare in my eyes from facing into the sun) there was the wind that kept me cool (and blew that darn pollen).

Here’s a photo of the scene when I arrived at 3:30. As the sun set, the shadows deepened and the tops of the ridges lit up. This was my first time painting hills at sunset and it was great fun and a good challenge. I tried to focus on composition and selected this chunk of the view from the wide panorama available.

Photo of view when I arrived
Photo of view when I arrived
Categories
Landscape Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting Plein Air

I Lied!

Dish soap Version 1
Dish soap Version 1

I thought it wasn’t good enough and so mucked with it some more (below) but now I wish I hadn’t. This is the theme of today’s post. Lesson learned: Leave well enough alone, or as my boss always says, “It’s good enough for jazz!”

Dish soap and sharpener
Dish soap & sharpener, watercolor 7x4"

And here is another poor retread, worked over and over.

Sibley Final Revision, 12x9" Oil on panel
Sibley Final Revision, 12x9", Oil on panel

I’m not sure whether it’s better to start a new painting or push one that isn’t working to try to make it work. I know I said the SIbley painting was finished, final revision, moving on…but I lied. I spent a couple hours trying to change the composition so that there was more of a path into the scene. That meant getting rid of the wall and while I was at it, I added a little more warmth.

I promise: now I’m really done! And you know what’s really funny? When I scrolled down and looked at all the different versions I like the very first one best!

Frustrated at wasting time and getting nowhere I tried doing a quick watercolor (above) before bed. I should have just gone to sleep since I don’t like it either. Oh well. Tomorrow (well actually today, since it’s after midnight) will hopefully be a fun plein air day.

Categories
Gardening Life in general Oil Painting Painting Plants Still Life

Early Girl on Blue Velvet

Tomato on Purple Velvet, Oil on panel, 6x6"
Tomato on Blue Velvet, Oil on panel, 6x6"

Last year I planted Early Girl tomatoes and Best Boy tomatoes. They must have gotten together and had some fun over the winter because they’ve returned bearing fruit this summer all on their own.

I was ready to paint something other than that stupid scene at Sibley. Rummaging around in the kitchen a  tomato caught my eye and then when I reached into the stack of colored cloths I keep for still lifes (or is it still lives?) in an overhead cabinet, I came away with a blue-violet piece of velvet (actually it’s a small velvet bag).

It was fun working with such saturated vibrant colors but now I have to clean brushes and let go of painting for a few days while I return to my “day job.” Although I often feel grumpy at having to make that switch, today I’m feeling very grateful for a good job and my comfy home and studio, given all the terrible news of financial ruin and weather-caused devastation I’ve heard today. I haven’t been watching any TV for the past month, which has been great, but today I took a look at the news while I ate dinner and was so sad to see all the suffering.

Categories
Landscape Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting Plein Air

OK, Now I’m really done!

Sibley Finally Done!
Sibley Finally Done! Oil on Panel, 12x9"

I’m persistent if nothing else. Now I’m really moving on!

Update 9/15: Katherine posted a really helpful comment yesterday about the real problem with this painting, which is that putting a wall (or any “fringe” at the bottom of a painting) is generally does not make for good composition. She helped me to see that the real problem with the painting is the existence of the wall at the bottom which can’t be solved by painting or repainting the wall.

She asked whether I’d done compositional/value study thumbnails first. I did do one but should have done more than one, with and without the wall. In the original thumbnail, the front of the wall and the two trees were the darkest darks but when I painted it that way it looked wrong.

I’m so grateful for our wonderful international art group with so many brilliant artists who can I ask for help and who are so generous to share their wisdom!

Categories
Drawing Outdoors/Landscape Painting Plein Air Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Pardee Home Museum Tea Party

Pardee House Water Tower, ink & watercolor 8x6"
Pardee Home Museum Out-Building, Ink & watercolor 8x6"

Driving by Preservation Park in downtown Oakland today I noticed this odd little structure on the grounds of the Pardee Home Museum and pulled over to sketch. I have no idea what this little building was for, but it’s in between the carriage house and the main building.

The museum is available for tours by appointment but had the nicest “Closed” sign I’ve ever seen. It says something like, “If you find yourself on our doorstep without an appointment, try phoning our office as we may be able to assist you with a tour on short notice.”

Their office must be located in the neighboring Preservation Park collection of Victorians, now homes to non-profit organizations. The Pardee Museum offers a full house tour for $5, a “Tour and Tea” for $10 (tea and scones), and more elaborate teas, with as many as eight dishes, can be combined with tours for $25 per person.

The tour and tea sounds like fun and I’m trying to think of an excuse to schedule one. There are four parlors, four bedrooms, the billiard room, the curio room, and the hallway lined with cabinets of Mrs. Pardee’s antiquities and the cupola, or tower, to admire the views.

Categories
Art theory Landscape Oil Painting Painting Plein Air

Sibley Take Two: Better?

Sibley Take 2, Oil on Panel, 12x9"
Sibley Take 2, Oil on Panel, 12x9"

When I took a peek at yesterday’s painting this morning I was disturbed by the color of the foreground wall (“YUCK!” I said out loud when I walked in the studio). I worked on it some more and now it’s closer to how I actually saw it.  I also touched up a few things here and there.

I noticed that I’ve broken a rule of composition: avoid placing two of something, better to have three. For some reason human minds prefer three items to two: two is boring three creates interest. Also avoid two shapes of the same size because contrast is what makes the painting interesting I’ve got two trees the same size, though one is a little further back; two bushes; the wall is split in two, etc.

So what do you think? Is this better than yesterday’s version? Am I done? I’m still bothered that the road and the top of the wall are nearly the same color, but they actually were just about identical and pretty close together.

Advice always greatly appreciated!

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

Painting in the Dark for More Colorful Paintings

Sibley Park View from Visitors Center, Oil on panel, 12x9
Sibley Volcanic Park: View from Visitors Center, Oil on panel, 12x9"

OK, it wasn’t really in the dark, but I was in deep shade and could barely tell what colors I was mixing. Yesterday I went to a non-painting event in 105 degree heat and blinding sun and came home with a migraine. I just couldn’t take another day in the sun today but wanted to join my Sunday plein air group. I set up in the shade of the visitor center at Sibley Volcanic Regional Park in Oakland where we were going meet for our group critique at 2:00.

Bicyclists and hikers stopped by all afternoon to eat lunch in the shade, get water, or use the restrooms. Two hardcore women cyclists spent their entire lunch discussing in great detail their recent fruit purchases. Another woman cyclist in full cycling gear told her cycling buddy that her ex-husband married her ex-best friend. Then she dated that woman’s ex-husband. But when her ex-husband and ex-best friend divorced, she and former best friend fell in love and recently got married thanks to California’s same sex marriage law. They rode off before I could find out if the ex-husbands fell in love with each other too.

The rest of my plein air group painted the amazing vistas along the roadside on Skyline Drive and Grizzly Peak Boulevards but they had to put up with the heat and direct sun. I was perfectly happy with this lesser vista and the lovely shade.

Painting in the dark
Painting in the dark

I discovered an interesting phenomenon. When I paint in the bright sun my colors look really nice and bright, but once out of the sun, the painting looks duller and dark. Just the opposite is true when painting in the shade. The colors look much dull and monochromatic in the shade (see above). But in the light they’re bright and colorful. That also seems to happen when I wear gray tinted sunglasses.

In the same way that squinting (reducing the light coming into your eyes) removes the color from the scene, allowing you to see values better, painting in the shade or wearing dark glasses reduces the perceived intensity or saturation of the colors you’re mixing. That in turn tricks you into mixing more brilliant, saturated colors. Or at least that’s what happened to me today. I was pleasantly surprised each time I carried my painting out into the sun to see what it really looked like.

Me enjoying the shade at Sibley
Categories
Life in general Other Art Blogs I Read Painting Watercolor

Stop by the gallery opening….

I was invited to participate in a two-person show for the month of September and the reception is Friday night September 12, from 7:00 to 9:00 P.M. I love the paintings of the other artist, Lin Salamo. The opening coincides with the festive monthly “art walk” called the Stockton Stroll (the gallery is on Stockton Avenue) but the show is up for the rest of the month.

If you’re in the neighborhood stop by for a sip of wine and say Hi!

Paintings by Jana Bouc and Lin Salamo

Fingado Art Gallery
Above El Cerrito Recycling Center
El Cerrito Landscapes ~ September 4-27, 2008


Watercolors by Jana Bouc and
Acrylic paintings by Lin Salamo


RECEPTION
DATE: Friday, September 12, 2008
TIME: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
LOCATION: 7025 Stockton Ave., El Cerrito, CA 94530

in conjunction with the Stockton Stroll

For more information please contact Fingado Gallery (510) 593-9081

or  email Jana Bouc

Jana Bouc’s Website
Lyn Salamo’s Website
Categories
Oil Painting Painting Still Life

First Gnarly Tomato of the Year

First Tomato, oil on panel 6x6" (click image to enlarge)
First Tomato, oil on panel 6x6
I didn’t plant tomatoes this year, but oddly, last year’s plants came back on their own. This critter was the first one to ripen and it was so gnarly looking I had to paint it. I wonder why it turned up with this shape? Could it be 3 or 4 tomatoes that grew together like Siamese twins? Or did the tomato frame that supports the vines dent it?
I started by doing a couple watercolor sketches to get an understanding of the shape. Then I made a gallant start on the oil sketch, getting it almost done but then fiddling with it until I had to scrape it all off, repainting and then fiddling some more. I must have scraped and fiddled and scraped 10 times. I called it done at midnight and went to bed.
Tonight after work I gave it another shot, and am happier with this version (painted on top of the first). I can see that I wasn’t using enough paint the first time around. There are so many other colors than red in a tomato and mixing the right color for the right spot is surprisingly challenging.
Categories
Colored pencil art Drawing Illustration Friday Life in general Sketchbook Pages

Don’t Get Old and Confused — Get a Clue

Get a Clue Necklace (detail); click images to enlarge
Get a Clue Necklace (detail); click to enlarge

Memories! Everyone I know is losing theirs including me. Ater repeatedly walking into a room and then forgetting why I’d gone in there, it occurred to me that if I carried clues with me, I’d save lots of time and extra steps.

So I invented the “Get a Clue Necklace” complete with a key ring, a tiny flashlight, sticky notes to jot down reminders, an attractive small pen to write them with, a magnifying glass for small print, an optional “My name is…” tag with a reverse side note “If found return to…” should I ever get REALLY forgetful, and a little pill box for those vitamins I always forget to take.

Below is the full page which you can click to see bigger to read some of the funny quotes about aging, as well as my list of the pros and cons of aging back when I made this.

Get a Clue Necklace; 12x9", mixed media
Get a Clue Necklace; Mixed Media, 12x9" (click to enlarge)

Here are a few of the choice quotes from the piece:

Gloria Steinem:

I’m at the age when remembering something right away is as good as an orgasm.

Whenever I meet a woman over 55 who’s just fallen in love, I always ask, “Are you taking hormones?” I tell her, “If it turns out you’re in love in a way that’s not good for you, stop taking them.”
[Addendum: Gloria Steinem, the feminist icon who once dismissed marriage as an institution that destroys relationships, became a first-time bride at the age of 66, a few years after that quote was printed.]

Peg Bracken, 81 at the time this quote was printed, said:

“These are your declining years and you can jolly well decline to do what you don’t feel like doing!”

Right on Peg, wherever you are now!

P.S. When I saw Illustration Friday’s prompt this week was “Memories” I had to share this, even though it’s from my journal several years ago.

And one more Pro to add to the Pros and Cons of aging is that when your memory goes, everything old becomes new again. Stories and jokes you’ve heard (or told) before sound vaguely familiar but since you can’t remember the punchlines, they’re good for a whole new round of laughter.