Go Bold Or Go Home

My goal with this image of Charlie Parker was to do it in a bold, spontaneous manner. I had recently seen a video by Don Andrews and I love his style of laying on the paint. In my attempt I feel that I was quite successful. I started out with a red wash over the entire paper except the white areas. Then while still wet I laid in some strong darks particularly in the background. As per usual I then wanted to let that wash dry so I could evaluate things. This is my comfort zone in painting. I had a real moment of insight when Sharon Williams suggested not to wait for it to dry but keep working it, laying in more darks and linking the background with the darks in the face. All of a sudden the light bulb just turned on. I could see myself pushing through my comfort zone and just letting it go. I think that would have given the painting even more spontaneity an most importantly I would have learned something really new about painting and about myself. I find this idea incredibly exciting and intend to do some real exploration of this approach. It's moments like this that keep me moving along this art journey. So I really like this image for what it is but I'm most inspired by where it might lead.

The Power Of Community (and extra sets of eyes)

I am posting this image again because after undergoing a fairly rigorous critique and by making a number of changes I feel it has improved substantially. This reminds me of the power of having other people give their thoughts and evaluations. We artists spend so much time with with our noses right up against the work and often with our minds locked in our own notions that we can be blind to elements that are already on the paper and unaware of other directions. Some works just seem to come from some other place and almost paint themselves but for me the vast majority of paintings are works in progress. I take them to a place where I need to stop and live with them for a while and then, hopefully, I will know how to proceed. For this particular piece the entire process was speeded up by listening to other peoples feedback. Painting is a solitary pursuit, the art journey is not.

Blob People

As an introduction to figures I just blobbed paint on the paper with no drawing and no preconception of figures. Some white spots were left. Then this mass of various colours is refined partially while still wet but primarily when dry. I tried to visualize figures in the colour and sort of teased them out. You get a very spontaneous and effective grouping of figures. I created the dark background just to accentuate the figures. In this painting I added gouache to give more definition to the proceedings. This is a very enjoyable process in part because you need to give up control which is liberating.

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The Art Of Abstraction

Using a reference photo that I have mined for an entire series of images I tried to take it further 'out there' into abstraction. I simplified, rearranged, modified and changed to create the above image. When I first imaged what I wanted to do I envisioned a scene with all these rounded shapes and a sense of enclosure. I feel that this image does have a real sense of place. I'm still debating about adding more to the background, and more leaves but at this stage where it's about 80% done I like to live with it for a while until I know what it needs. The palette was predominately warm and uses watercolour and gouache. The colours used were Indanthrene Blue, Manganese Hue, Emerald Green, Alizarin Carmine and Winsor Orange.

The Process In Action

I've posted this image because it is a good example of the painting process that I have been studying. I had an old photo I'd taken of a little creek right that's right beside Elbow Falls. I've used this image for a painting before but at that time I just took the entire image with a few minor adjustments. This time I was looking at it and and focused on a tiny section of the photo and it gave me an idea. I quickly did a small compositional sketch then a larger value study. The tall and narrow format came because I had a frame that size. Anyway the next day I did this painting. I used thalo blue and cadmium scarlet almost entirely. I like the painting which I call Chance Encounter since it's a little scene that I often happen upon and it has, for me, that feeling of seclusion. What I really enjoyed about this painting was having and using a process to go from reference material to a personal statement.

As a little aside I also used the idea from this same photo for the middle ground in the scenes shown in some earlier posts called 'Analagous Colour Schemes'.

Introduction To Abstraction

This week we began looking at abstraction. This was done by creating a composition of objects that have some significance for my wife Susan, over which I layed a grid (the letters 'Susan'). Then in painting it, basically, whenever I came to a new line or shape I painted it using none realistic colours. Also the paper was prepared by creating a random background wash which was allowed to dry before beginning. It was interesting in this painting because I wasn't sure how to create the original composition of objects that meant something to Susan. There was a random shape that seemed to mirror the head of the large central figurine so I began by drawing it to fit with that background shape. This became the figurine's head. I really enjoyed doing this and I certainly like the results. I'm not sure if it's finished but if I continue I will probably use gouache or acrylic so that I can add lights over the darker colours.

Art Instruction Videos

In a little bit of cross referencing I would like to mention that we (myself and my wife, Susan Sauvé), in our other life, have a video production company, WhitePine Productions and we are now combining our interest in art with our video pursuits and are producing original art instruction videos. We are the very first company in Western Canada to specialize in this. We presently have 3 DVDs out. You can see a preview of them at WhitePine Videos. We also have 3 more in the can. We are really pleased to mention that we just finished filming one with Eleanor Lowden-Pidgeon. Her bold, colourful compositions are certainly unique. Look for that to be available in the fall. We just put out Brent Laycock's first instructional video. Brent is one of Canada's most recognizable and respected landscape painters and we are pleased to be able to offer this DVD. In a little syncronicity we also have Sharon Williams first DVD available. Sharon is the instructor of the art course I am taking. Her well thought-out approach to painting is clearly demonstrated in her DVD. If you would like to push your own artistic development forward why not try one of these DVDs. These workshops on a disc are really convenient for home study as you can stop and start and move to various sections of the painting as desired.

Using A Limited Palette

One of the two main benefits that I'm getting from my art class is a better understanding and use of colour. This has come mainly from using a limited palette. My preferred method at the moment is to choose 3 analagous colours and one contrasting or complementary colour. It gives the paintings a guaranteed colour harmony. In this picture I used Alizarin Crimson, Cobalt Violet, Phthalo Blue and Viridian. I also got to include a crab shell from one of my travels to the Maritimes.

Painting From Memory

On the last morning of our visit to the cabin on Lake Of The Woods this summer, we went for an early morning paddle in the kayaks. On the way home I was paddling into this view. I loved the feeling of all the shapes melting into the misty distance. Later in the day I did a quick study from my memory and a while later I did this version. I like that it captures quite a bit of the feeling of that morning. I really like the feeling of the light in the sky and it's reflection in the background shore. The closest piece of land was painted using thalo blue and cadmium scarlet, a pair of complementaries that I had just learned about from my Stephen Quiller workshop. I loved the rich dark that they produced.

How To Add Comments

I've heard that some people are a little confused on how to post a comment on this blog. It's actually quite simple. You need to click on the 'comments' link at the bottom of the post and you will be taken to a new page where you can see the blog entry and there is a text box where you can add your comment. Below the text box is a 'comment as' drop down menu. You need to choose one of the options there. If you have a google account you can use that. You may need to sign in to your google account. If you don't have a google account you can sign up for one which is very easy. I've also enabled the option to comment as 'anonymous' which means you don't need to sign it at all. The comment is labeled as anonymous so it would be very nice if you put your name at the end of the comment so I'll know who is commenting.

Commenting is the life blood of this whole blogging process so I hope you will leave one.

Thanks,

Rex

Still Life & Composition

I'm starting to get a much better understanding of value, colour and composition. The use of limited palettes has helped to better understand individual colours and using compositional, value and colour sketches is making me feel more confident about composition. I'm finding painting now is less hit and miss and more consistent. I used to do some really good paintings but also many that didn't work out. Now, with the planning I'm putting into my work fewer and fewer are throw aways. This assignment was to practice composition using a still life. I used Yellow Ochre, Cad Yellow Medium, Cad Red Light and Cerulean Blue. I like the low perspective.

The Art Of Subtraction

This week we did, in class, a still life with fruit. Unfortunately, for reasons that don't really matter, I was completely uninspired and bereft of creative thoughts and my painting showed it. It was too dark & unfocused, in other words a real mess. As I have discovered, however, painting is a process of problem solving and when I have something that is destined for the garbage I like to play a little and see what I can do. From my workshop with Stephen Quiller this summer I was very impressed by how much he uses 'subtraction' in his work. In other words he frequently lays on paint and then lifts some of it out. In some of his demos he would lay a cool neutral wash over the entire paper and then lift out sections in which he would paint very bright trees for example. It was a natural and planned part of his painting process. In the above painting I thought rather than throw it out directly I would engage in some lifting. I found the result very interesting. The lifting is particularly visible in the fruit on the left which I felt became a very interesting shape. The dark fruit on the left went from basically a dark blob to a dark blob with some character. This particular work may still make it's way to the garbage but it certainly became a different experience after extensive lifting out.

It's wonderful how we can gain some knowledge from almost any experience if we keep our minds open.

Using A Mother Colour

This version of the same scene was done primarily in class. It uses another approach to colour, namely, using a mother colour. In this case the mother colour was phthalo turquoise. Every colour used in this picture contains some phthalo turquoise. Personally, over the years, I have had some difficulties managing my colour choices so I have appreciated having limitations on the colours I use. It has enabled me to gain a better understanding of colour.

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Analagous Colour Schemes

These paintings use exactly the same composition and 2 different analagous colour schemes. It helped me to have a limited palette like this. It enabled me to concentrate more on the value. I was particularly pleased with the composition. I took 2 old photos I had, one of the mountains and one of the foreground and combined them in composition that, I feel, holds together.

Altered Journal

Last January I was shown a really interesting way of recording the significant events for a full year. Towards the end of the year I became aware of the idea of Altered Books and I was intrigued to try to combine these 2 ideas ie record the significant events from the year in an artistically interesting way. The above image shows the front and back covers of my journal. It was a very spontaneous and liberating experience trying to start with the book's graphics and then embellishing and playing with them. The front cover was done as a collaborative project with Susan Sauve. The back cover was a totally spontaneous, free form activity. I found this process a whole lot of fun.