Painting in Suisun

Suisun Sparkles - 8x10" - oil

Yesterday, I painted in Suisun with "DaGroup," a local painting group. This is the tidal marsh at the edge of the city. Tidal marshes are difficult because not only is the light changing, but because the patterns of the grasses and water change as the tide rises or falls. I totally love sparkles on water, and there were lots of sparkles in this scene! And we had nice weather (unlike last week, when it was so cold.)

I hope you are having good weather and can get out and paint!

Photographing large paintings

Photoflood light with polarizing filter

Yesterday I took pictures of some larger paintings. It is always a challenge to get good pictures of oil paintings because of the shine and texture of the surface. Smaller paintings can usually be photographed in the shade or in a lightbox. But, if you want a really good professional quality image, it is necessary to use a polarizing filter on the camera lens, and on the lights! Here is one of the lights with the filter gel clipped in front of it. Looks crude, but it works! The filter is just a sheet of plastic that will melt if it gets too close to the heat of the light bulb. Now I have some good images for juried shows!

Have a good new year!

El Cerrito Art Show

Evensong - 6 x 12" - oil on canvas  SOLD

This past weekend, I had entered three paintings in the El Cerrito Art Association all media show. I am happy to report that I received a First Place award in the oil painting category! And my painting, Evensong, sold! Unfortunately, I don't have a good photograph of the first place winning painting, but will put one up later.

The show was very well organized, and well attended, and there were lots of sales. A fun event!

Painting in the Middle of Nowhere

This morning, I went out plein air painting with two artist friends. Robert had suggested we go to Skaggs Island. When I couldn't find it on Google Maps, I asked him where it was, and he said, "Out in the middle of nowhere." Well, he was right! There was not a house to be seen (and we could see for miles). It was so off the beaten path, that we set-up our painting stuff right on the road, on a bridge, no less! Here was my easel. Only two cars went by while we were there, and they got around us pretty easily!

I though you might like to see more of this place:

There were tracks of wildlife in the mud. Red tailed hawks and snowy egrets were flying over. It was great!

Decisions, Decisions...

"When you get scared, go for the clothes!" -- Joy Thomas

I have been working on a portrait, the first oil portrait I've done in years. Wow, it is so easy to get rusty, and forget things; like which colors to mix so the skin won't look chalky. So... taking a break from the struggle to get the skin tones right, I went for the shirt. Here's where it is so far. I looked at it and realized this is the kind of unfinished look many contemporary artists use in their portraits. Here's an example. Should I leave the shirt loose and unfinished looking? Another decision!

By the way, you may have noticed that I haven't posted in awhile. Well, Blogger would not take my photo uploads. Today, I told myself I would do a blog no matter what! I cleared the cache, the cookies, disabled the popup blocker, and a bunch of plug-ins, all to no avail... Finally, I downloaded the Chrome browser, and it worked! (I had been using Firefox.) It feels so good to be back online again!

Hope you had a good weekend!

The White Test--After 8 Years...

Back in 2004, I was part of an online art discussion group called GoodArt. Virgil Elliott was the moderator, and he was then working on his book, Traditional Oil Painting, Advanced Techniques and Concepts from the Renaissance to the Present. He talked about how white was such an important color on an artist's palette, because we mix it with virtually every other color, and its properties affect the whole painting. This inspired me to test some whites.
I recently discovered that another artist, Jonathan Linton also tested whites and his results were almost the same as mine! The problem, as far as yellowing goes, seems to be the oil used. Linseed oil dries faster than the other commonly used oils, but it also yellows more. And if it is combined with a more transparent white pigment, like zinc or lead, the yellowing is even more apparent!

WHITES TESTED:

Gamblin (Artist Oil Colors)
  Quick Dry White
  Zinc White (Linseed)
  Titanium White (Linseed)
  Titanium-Zinc White (Linseed) I have a new tube of this color, and it is now made with safflower oil.
  Radiant White (Poppyseed) Gamblin now uses safflower oil for this one.
Le Franc (Artists Oil Color)
  Titanium White (Soybean)
Rembrandt (Artists' Quality)
  Zinc White (Safflower)
  Mixed White (Safflower)
  Titanium White (Safflower)
Utrecht (Artists' Colors)
  Titanium White (Linseed and Safflower)
Grumbacher (Pre-Tested Artists' Oil Colors)
  Soft Titanium White (Poppyseed and Sunflower)
Vasari (Classic Artists' Oil Color)
  Titanium White (Linseed)
  Flake White (Linseed)
M. Graham (Artists' Oil Color)
  Titanium White (Walnut)
Blockx (Artist Oil Colors)
  Titanium White (Poppyseed)
Permalba (Artist Oil Color)
  Original White
Winsor & Newton (Artists' Oil Color)
    Flake White #1 (Safflower)
Winsor & Newton (Griffin Alkyd)
  Titanium White
Winsor & Newton (Winton Oil Color)
  Soft Mixing White (Safflower)
  Flake White (Safflower)
Art Spectrum (Artists' Oil Color)
  Titanium White #2 (Safflower)
Holbein (Extra Fine Artists' Oil Colors)
  Silver White
  Ceramic White (Poppy)
Daler-Rowney Georgian
  Mixing White

The Results

Still bright white!
  Le Franc Titanium
  Rembrandt Titanium, Mixed, And Zinc Whites (this was the only zinc white that stayed bright)
  Utrecht Titanium
  Permalba Original
  Blockx Titanium
  Holbein Ceramic
  Art Spectrum Titanium #2

Kinda soft white:  still acceptable
  Winsor & Newton Flake #1
  Winton Flake and Soft Mixing White
  Winsor & Newton Griffin Alkyd Titanium White
  Holbein Silver White
  Gamblin Titanium, Titanium-Zinc
  Grumbacher Soft Formula

Not acceptable, sorry guys...
  Daler-Rowney Georgian Mixing White
  Gamblin Quick Dry
  Gamblin Zinc White
  Gamblin Radiant White
  Vasari Titanium White
  Vasari Flake White

  This is supposed to be white? It looked even worse when I first took it out of the dark. All colors were allowed to bleach in the light for a month before I photographed them.

Plein Air--Going Back

Cariquinez Bridge (final version)

I think I should tell you that even though this painting is done plein air, I actually went back to the same site on three different days to complete it. And each day, the previous day's work was dry. That is how I was able to put in those fine lines of the bridges and towers. By this time, walkers were saying, "Back again?" as they went by. The wind was so strong, that by the second day I didn't even try to use an umbrella or easel. I sat on a rock and held the painting in my hands.

I had thought the painting needed some life, and luckily, here it came! A ship painted faded red was moving under the bridge. It was accompanied by two motorboats, one on each side, with another boat behind, but I only put in one of the motorboats. Now we have more interest!

This painting is now hanging in Epperson Gallery in Crockett, CA, along with another one that also took three days to complete. I'll show the other one next time! Have a good weekend!