“Key” Your Paintings for Special Effect

February 17, 2009

Last Wednesday afternoon, after a day working in my home studio, I could not escape nature’s call. No, no, no, that’s not what I mean. I mean it was a beautiful day outside and I was ready to escape to my outdoor studio. Which, for all intents a purposes these days, is Fort Desoto Park. Fort Desoto is located in West Central Florida, on the Gulf Coast near St. Petersburg. St. Pete is where I live. It is also home for Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays (which may come as some surprise to most ESPN sportscasters). It is also where I was once founding president of the St. Petersburg Representational Art Association. I am no longer involved with the organization or the plein air event it sponsors…but that’s another story. Let me get back to this one.

Every year, from January through April, snowbirds of all types flock to Fort Desoto. Both the human and waterfowl varieties are attracted by the peaceful, reflective, calm of the park’s bays and estuaries as well as the pastel colors and rhythmic surf of it’s Gulf Beaches. The North Beach is a particularly popular spot. It is haven to sandpipers, skimmers, northern gulls, Canadians, Long Islanders, Europeans, Mid westerners and the occasional Floridian. A beautiful spot to the say the least and a favorite for this plein air painter. I rarely see other artists out there unless they are participating in a class or workshop which I am conducting. To a certain extent, the natural beauty of Fort Desoto Park is somewhat unrecognized. For this reason I have chosen to feature it in my upcoming solo exhibit.

For me plein air painting is more about study than it is finished paintings. Once in awhile I go out looking for that big idea but more often than not I use it to study nature. This day was like most. I found an open picnic table on the North Beach, beneath the friendly shade of Australian Pines not more than 20 feet from gently breaking waves. I planted my tripod firmly in the sand, sat on the bench with my back to the table and went to work. In this 30 minute study I would attempt to capture the soft pastel colors in a relatively “high key”. “Keying” a painting relates value and color in a way that is referred to as either “high” or “low” key. In a “high key” painting dark accents and shadows are painted in a medium value range. Mid-tones and lights are painted even lighter. In so doing the artists sacrifices color intensity in the lights as they become washed out. This approach allows for more color in the shadows and the result is a soft, peaceful, pastel look. In a “low key” painting dark accents and shadows are painted on the low end of the scale while mid-tones and lights are painted in a mid value range with more intensity. The result is crisp, colorful and more dramatic. In lower key painting it is said that the shadows carry the drawing while the lights carry the color. In high key paintings the shadows may carry the drawing and most of the color. In this 6″ x 8″ wave study the color intensity is kept to a minimum in both the shadows and lights in an effort to emphasize the soft gentle roll of small surf. All five types of light are clearly, yet simply indicated, depicting just enough form to tell the story.
During the course of this little study I was approached by numerous onlookers and interlopers. Some respected the fact that I was working, others considered my presence an open invitation to talk. One of these asked why I didn’t just take a photo to paint from. This of course opened the door for me to do a little proselytizing for the practice of painting from life and an explanation of the how the human eye is better than the camera. In next weeks article I will offer some tips for interacting with, and in some cases coping, with all the curiosity seekers who may approach you while you paint outdoors. Till then, God Bless.