What’s Your Batting Average?
October 24, 2009
I was shuffling some paintings around my studio yesterday deciding which ones to send where when it occurred to me that I paint a lot of boat pictures. I said to my wife, “I might be a maritime artist.” She remarked, “Ya think!!!?” It was like one of those, “You might be a redneck if….” jokes. “You might be a maritime artist if 3 out of 5 paintings have a boat in it.” That’s me. Is that you? If it is you may remember that last week I teased you by promising to reveal the location of my new marine painter’s paradise. It’s a little place called Green Cove Springs, Fl. It’s in Clay County along highway 16 on the western shore of the St. John’s River. There are several boat and ship yards with public access roads. It’s great for painters and photographers. Here a some pics I took there. Believe me these only scratch the surface. There are numerous ships, tugs and pleasure craft, both in and out of the water, in various states of repair (or disrepair as the case may be).
This is the time of year when the Florida weather spawns several plein air painting events. These events are fun for a variety of reasons. I like to participate in them and plan to do a couple of posts on tips for paint out participants. I haven’t abandoned the “Form Principle” thread. I just want to take a detour.
Paint Outs require the artist to produce new works in a short period of time and exhibit them for sale. By their very nature, these events, bring the concept of “batting average” into the minds of artists. By “batting average” I mean the number of good plein air paintings relative to the number of starts. When I paint outdoors at home my batting average is low. Maybe 1 in 6 starts turns out to be something. That’s because I am focused on study. I try new things, attempt different designs and do color studies. I’m not trying to come up with a finished paintings. If I think a composition has potential I go back to that spot and develop the idea. In paintouts there is little time to dither around with ideas. I want to hit for a high average. So I stick to subject matter I know and love. Boats, water, clouds and trees.
There is still the possibility of painting a dog (figuratively speaking). Each dog increases the pressure to produce a good one. Consecutive dogs hurt momentum and effect the pocket book on opening night. It’s better to avoid them at all costs. Which begs the question, “How do I do that?”.
Years ago I was friends with a guy, who grew up with another guy, who became a PGA Tour Professional. My friend got us free tickets and clubhouse passes to a lot of the Florida golf tournaments. Sometimes we ate at restaurants with this professional golfer, his wife and caddie. I remember having lunch during a rainout after the pro had played poorly. He started talking about his struggles. He was frustrated. In a moment of clarity he said, “I have been so focused on results that I have gotten completely out of rhythm. Tomorrow I’m going to focus on the process.” When play resumed the next day this golfer had a great round and subsequently played several consecutive good tournaments.
I had a conversation on this subject with a former “Mini Tour” player just a few weeks ago. He said he plays his best golf when he is focused on the process instead of the results.
The concept applies to plein air painting, too. Probably all painting for that matter. I know artists who say that they sometimes get so excited about a painting’s potential that they have to stop working on it. Finding yourself in that circumstance is not a good thing. That means you are focused on results rather than process. I’ll talk about process in my next post.
This week I will participate in the Crescent Beach Paint Out in Crescent Beach, Fl. That’s in the St. Augustine area. I hope to see you at the opening which is on Halloween. I’ll be the guy dressed as the short, bald, artist.
Always Put Warm Sky Color Down First!
October 18, 2009
In my last post, When Fall Color Turns Values Topsy Turvy, the readership suffered my lamentations over a seemingly endless summer. Well guess what, after intensifying over the last two weeks, the summer heat has finally given way to some cool weather. Today’s forecast high is in the upper 60’s. It’s time for all you Florida artists to get out and paint in the “open air”.
Rust Bucket
I have been absent from the blogosphere for a couple weeks because I was participating in “Painting the Region: The Bartram Trail”. It was a plein air event that took place along the St. John’s River in and around Switzerland, Fl. The already beautiful scenery which included parks along the river and a working ranch was enhanced by dramatically cloudy skies. Not be confined by “suggested painting” territories I ventured into other areas and found a marine painters heaven. I’ll write about this gorgeous location later this week.
Today I want to show you two of the eight pieces I painted during the 4 day event and talk a little about color and value in the sky mass. Here they are:
Old Glory, oil-linen, 8 x 10
Haul-out, oil-linen, 9 x 12
The painting of the dock with “Old Glory” is, obviously enough, facing directly into the sun. The one of the sailboat in “Haul-out” is a face lit subject with the sun at my back and slightly off to the left. Let’s talk a little about how value and color behave given these two different lighting situations.
Facing into a sun which was fairly low in the sky everything was imbued with an orange yellow tone. The glare of light “washed out” the color making it less intense. I actually under-painted the sky with a pale orange yellow. I graded the under-painting to contain slightly more red away from the sun and almost no red near the sun. I then painted cool blue sky color into the still wet under paint. As you see, the result is a subtle vibration of pale warm and cool. Perfect for an evening sky.
This particular scene included the effects of some dense humidity which not only cooled and subdued all of the colors but brought the values of sky, horizontal and vertical planes, with the exception of the back lit tree mass, into a fairly close range. The result is a very tonal and simple four value painting. If I were to use this study as reference material for a studio painting I would probably try to wash out the colors in the sky and water further and put more intense color into the back lit tree.
“Haul-out” was painted at the same time of day at another location on the other side of the river. Since the sun is behind me all of the colors are more intense. The ground and upright planes were endowed with a certain warmth. The sky is bright and intense with the abiding presence of purplish blue. I actually under-painted this sky with a pale red. I graded the value of the under-paint getting slightly darker from left to right and slightly lighter from top to bottom. While the under-paint was still wet I painted the sky blues into it making sure to include a temperature change from green-blue to red-blue as I moved from left to right. These subtle gradations in color and value were mainly because the sun was not only behind me but slightly off to the left. The daylight sky is always lighter and warmer nearer the sun.
In his book, Gruppe On Painting, Emile A. Gruppe says, “With paint, it’s always easier to make a warm color cool than it is to make a cool one warm. So always put down your warm sky color first.” (page 40 - Color in Nature). He recommends putting down yellow when looking into the sun, orange when the sun is off to one side, and red when the sun is behind. “You’ll be surprised how little cool color is necessary to make the sky look natural“, he says. He also says that students almost always use too much blue. Interestingly enough, John F. Carlson said the exact same thing about student’s skies.
Later this week I will be traveling to the east coast of Florida for the Crescent Beach Paint Out. It’s a great event and I will be staying in a cabin just one block from the Atlantic Ocean near a ramp that allows cars to drive onto the beach. I hope the surf is up!!! I luv me sum wave paintings! Why not come check out the event? The weather is great for a road trip.
paint out info
When Fall Colors Turn Values Topsy-Turvy!
October 3, 2009
Morning Catskill Valley by George Inness
I really had to laugh the other day because a friend on Facebook invited me to participate in “the First Annual Autumn Arts Painting Challenge and Competition”. It’s not that I didn’t appreciate the offer but I live in Florida. My autumn paintings will look like my summer paintings, which look like my spring paintings. In west central Florida the trees don’t change much. Basically we have 8-9 months of summer, 2-3 months of spring and 2 weeks of wintumn. Wintumn is a word I made up that is sort of an autumn-winter hybrid. It’s usually in February and may include some cold weather. In fact, it could get down into the 30’s a couple of nights. It’s also the time of year when the humidity and most of the leaves drop. Then, poof, as quickly as wintumn arrives it goes. The trees bloom and it’s spring. Don’t get me wrong, I love Florida but I miss the change of seasons including fall colors, apple picking and snow on the ground. I don’t think I’ll get to visit fall colors this year but Penny and I are committed to seeing some snow. We’ll shake the cobwebs off our snowboards in Colorado.
But enough about me…a lot of you live where fall colors delight the soul. Out west the cottonwoods and aspens are in all of their glory. Back east and in the Midwest the maples and oaks are approaching that autumn splendor. Since so many of you are heading out to paint those beautiful colors this is a great time to talk about how fall colors effect our basic model of the Four Value Planes.
Passing Clouds by George Inness
In fall and sometimes even in early spring the local color of trees may become a faded yellow orange or a pale yellowish green. In both instances they can appear to be lighter than the ground and/or slanted planes. This phenomenon may also occur when cloud shadows cover the ground plane. According to Carlson they “persevere” as upright planes because the masses are still darkly accented. These “dark accents” will be found near the core or center of the mass. Notice how Inness maintained them in his light tree masses. Maintain them in yours and the apparent reversal of the 4 Value Planes will read properly.
Next week I will be participating in a plein air event in Switzerland….Florida that is. That’s about a 3 hour and 45 minute drive. The event is called Painting the Region – The Bartram Trail. It takes place at Alpine Groves County Park in Switzerland, Florida from Oct. 6-10. For details and directions to the event visit paintingtheregion.com
Both Inness paintings are courtesy of the Art Renewal Center.
