Most of you know I paint frequently en plein air, that is outdoors on location. All great landscape painters paint from life, at least occasionally, because you just can’t get true results by just using photos. Photographs skew the values, that is the relative darkness or lightness of a color, making shadows too dark and sunlit areas frequently too light. They can also modify the color to varying degrees. Most good artists can tell when a painting is done strictly from photographs.
I don’t often translate or re-paint a studio work directly from a plein air work, but on occasion do just that. Below are a few examples.
The first is of an inlet in Lake Tahoe, on the NE part of the lake close to Incline Village, Nevada.
The scene I was painting
Here is the plein air piece– “Tahoe Inlet”, 9×12, oil on board
and the work done in the studio– “Tahoe Inlet”, 24×30, oil on canvas
The second example is of Santorini, Greece. As the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history, the Greek island of Santorini is one of the most spectacular in the world. Many scholars believe the eruption spawned the legend of Atlantis. Fira and other towns cling to the cliff overlooking the sea-drowned caldera left behind.
I visited there on a cruise in 2006, and did several studies overlooking Fira and the multicolored cliffs soaring a thousand feet above the caldera. What a spectacular view and setting!
Below are pictures of the scene, my small plein air study in acrylic, and a large studio painting in oil I did later. I made very few changes from the original study to the studio piece…it wasn’t necessary to improve on the scene!
Santorini, Greece“Santorini”, 8×10, acrylic on board, plein air“Santorini”, 28×22 , oil on canvas, studio
If you are a landscape artist, be sure to actually visit and paint the landscape in real time!
Some may recognize this painting…but it’s new! I painted a small version, 6×12, several months ago for my miniature show, and posted it on Facebook. It’s also part of the logo picture above. I liked the mood and composition, so decided to do a larger, 15×30 version. Other than adding more detail, and a little more color to the bridge, the paintings are essentially the same.
About the scene–
There are eight beautiful and historic stone bridges in Yosemite Valley, most of them spanning the Merced River. This is the Clark Bridge, just after a snow storm. The Clark Bridge was built in 1928 with a span of 75.5 ft (23 m) over the Merced River and right by the Upper and Lower Pines campgrounds, where I have camped dozens of times over the decades.
Here is the small version, 6×12, oil on canvas. This version is currently available at James Harold Galleries in Tahoe City, CA.
Here is the final version of the painting I started as a demo at the San Leandro Art Association last week. At the time it was less than half done, and I spent another couple hours on it in my studio.
You can read more about the demo and see how much I did in the 90 minutes or so during the meeting here —
A masterpiece of nature and the crown jewel of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, Lake Tahoe is one of the most spectacular in the world. From the Native American word meaning “big water”, Tahoe is the second deepest lake in North America, known for the clarity of its water. The pristine deep blue water against the panorama of the surrounding mountains is unequaled in the world.
I have been showing at the James-Harold Galleries in Tahoe City for around 15 years, and make regular trips to the area to paint and drop off new paintings. I have even driven my Harley-Davidson Road King there, painted for a number of days, and dropped the newly created works off at the gallery.
Hal Slear, the gallery owner, and I have been talking about a little show of miniatures for a number of months, but schedules hadn’t worked out, but finally I just had to do a fall color trip in the area, so here we go!
Thursday
Took off in the morning to drive to the Lake and of course, the worst traffic was just getting out of Silicon Valley! After arriving at the Lake and driving around a bit to check out the fall color, I headed to DL Bliss State Park and one of my favorite places to paint on the lake, along the Rubicon Trail. My plan was to do a time-lapse video of the painting process. I have done these before, most notably “The Painting of TwentyFive: Where Redwoods Thrive” which you can see here. I used the same home made GoPro camera setup, so look for a video soon of the event.
Below are a few pictures of the afternoon. (Click on any thumbnail to see a larger picture.)
Lake Tahoe from DL Bliss
Along the Rubicon Trail
Painting on the Rubicon Trail
Much of painting plein air is deciding what to put in, but more importantly, what to leave out! At the time, I was undecided on including the larger tree on the right so didn’t put it in. Later on, I touched the painting up on Saturday while in the gallery, so put the tree in. Here is the final piece, which I finished a couple days later in the gallery —
Across the Rubicon, 8×10, oil on board, plein air
Note this isn’t the greatest depiction of the painting as it was taken with my cellphone camera, but hopefully you get the impression.
After checking into my motel in South Lake Tahoe, I was so exhausted, it was a very early bedtime for me!
Friday
Friday we were expecting rain almost all day, and it did, so outdoor painting was not in the plan. I drove around the lake, enjoying the stormy weather and stopped by the gallery to drop off the batch of new miniature paintings for the show. I took a few pictures, and here is a panorama from the Sand Harbor Boat Launch…
Stormy Tahoe
Saturday
We advertised my presence from 12-5pm to paint in the gallery. There was a break in the storm on my hour drive there, so just had to stop and take pictures of the next storm front coming in—
Another storms a coming! I used this photo later to do a painting in the gallery
Storms!
Storms a comin’
I liked a little 5×7 nocturne I did of Lake Tahoe for the show, so decided to do another larger one for my demo in the gallery. I almost finished it between talking to customers and other passers by, and well, just taking my time!
Painting in the gallery
Painting in the gallery
Miniature show
Painting in the gallery
My easel and mini show in the gallery
Starting a Tahoe nocturne
Harvest Moon over Tahoe, 8×16, oil on board
Long time friends, Clark & Elaine Hockwald are full time RV-ers and they had been staying at Lake Tahoe for the last 6 months so we arranged to meet at the gallery, and then have an early dinner. I have known Clarke since I was about 11, and Elaine from college days. They have a wonderful weblog about their travels which you can find here.
It was their choice for the dinner location, so they picked an excellent nearby place, Christy Hill, which was right on the lake. It was a fabulous dinner and we sat for several hours just watching the stormy lake, dining, but mainly telling stories from old times, and a few recent happenings! The Moroccan Lamb I had was just delicious…and I will be looking for a similar recipe!
Dinner with Clarke and Elaine
It was a long drive home at night through the pouring rain, but we all made it safely!
Sunday
I was scheduled to be in the gallery from 12-3pm, so drove back through the rain around the lake. I finished yesterdays nocturne painting and had enough time to do another small one, so started a 5×7. Another stormy Tahoe scene was in my mind, so I used a picture I had taken just the day before as a study. With a palette of already mixed colors, everything ‘clicked’, and I knocked it out in no-time.
Storms a comin!, 7×5, oil on board
Around 3:30, I headed home in pouring rain, taking over an hour longer than normal.
So, if you are in Tahoe the next month or two, stop by and see some new Donald Neff miniatures! All the paintings depicted in this weblog entry are now on sale in the James Harold Gallery. I have priced these to sell over the holiday season, and a number are already gone, so it might be time to add one or two to your collection!
The year long quest to paint “The Creeks and Rivers of Silicon Valley” has been so well received I am going to continue it, however in a completely different direction. Over the next year, about once a month, I will do a larger studio painting of one of the plein air paintings done in the quest. The larger paintings will be different sizes, and not necessarily the same aspect ratio as the plein air. Some will be landscape orientation, and some portrait (vertical) as the painting requires. I will expand some into panoramas, and some just details of the original plein air.
The first painting in this new endeavor is FiftySeven: Sycamore Haven, and painted fairly close to the original, including the aspect ratio. Below is the original plein air followed by the studio painting, which is 16×20, or four times as big. Click on a thumbnail to open up a larger picture and slide show***
FiftySeven: Sycamore Haven, Plein Air, 8×10, oil on board
Sycamore Haven, Studio Edition, 16×20, oil on board
These studio works will be for sale. If you are interested, just email me privately at donald@donaldneff.com . I will also entertain requests for certain paintings.
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The largest homeless camp in the United States is right in the heart of affluent Silicon Valley*. Situated just south and less than a mile away of downtown San Jose, there are up to 350 residents living in “The Jungleâ€, as it is locally called. Just a few yards away, across Story Road, is the beloved kiddie amusement park and zoo, Happy Hollow, and is one long block from the city’s municipal ballpark and San Jose State University’s stadium. The Japanese Friendship garden painted in TwentySeven: Koraken is less than a block away.
The Jungle in essence is a city for the homeless on the banks of Coyote Creek. (Coyote Creek was previously painted in this quest at other stretches in Eleven: Christmas Day, Twelve: With the Los Gatos Elves, and ThirtySix: El Toro.) Driving by on Story Road, you would never notice the despair below under the trees as cars, buses, and minivans of families head to Happy Hollow Park and Zoo.
Most of the residents are San Jose locals. Snaking trails wind through trees and bushes, with Spanish-speaking sections and neighborhoods like Little Saigon, where Vietnamese residents have dug large rooms into steep hillsides. There are makeshift shelters, tents, hand-dug latrines, tree houses, piles of human waste, cast-off clothing, lots of shopping carts, car parts, and discarded food rots. There are cats and kittens, dogs large and small, chickens, ducks, even a bunny. There is a large drug culture in parts of the camp.
There are numerous other camps all over Santa Clara County, some at times get cleared and cleaned out, but The Jungle is entrenched. Santa Clara County has the dubious honor of having the fifth-highest homeless population in the nation. A report, released by the city of San Jose, found 7,361 homeless individuals around the county with 4,770 people identified in San Jose.
Many more news and other articles are available about The Jungle, a few are here, here, and here.
A number of government and private groups are helping. You can read about a few here, and here.
Here are some of my personal photos of The Jungle, albeit mainly around the perimeter– Click on a thumbnail to open up a larger picture and slide show***
Here is Coyote Creek by Happy Hollow Park just before it flows under Story Rd and through The Jungle.
Looking down into The Jungle from near Story Rd.
Looking down on Coyote Creek and The Jungle from an abandoned railroad bridge.
A new fence was recently built around parts of “The Jungle” with this ominous sign.
Painting The Jungle has been on my list almost from the beginning of this quest. Besides showing the beauty of the creeks in Santa Clara Valley, I wanted to show some of the grit along the waterways. I have reconnoitered the area several times, but never actually gone in. While doing research, a knowledgable friend strongly advised me not to go into it and do a painting by the creek. The area is lawless and not safe, including a lot of drug trafficking. Although groups of aid and other workers visit, I didn’t really want to bother anyone to form a posse of bodyguards, so put on my scraggiest clothes (actually my normal plein air garb) and walked around parts of the perimeter and in a little ways to get a feel for the place, take pictures, and color notes, etc.
I spent as much as I could on-site gathering information, but this painting is not plein air, and is the first, and hopefully only non-plein air painting in this quest. I would have liked to paint right on the creek, and wanted to include it in my quest, so painted it alla prima (all at once) in my normal plein air style in the studio.
*Considered by most as the largest, but the population varies.
***Email subscribers may not see all pictures. Just click on the title for a link to the online version.
After having been out of town for quite awhile, I am finally getting around to finishing the large work of Iguassu Falls. I have been posting a bit on my Facebook artist page here, and previously in this weblog here.
One of the methods many artists use to aid in making sure their values are correct is to view the painting in black and white. I took a snapshot today, and made a greyscale version of it, both shown below (you can click on each picture to see a larger version). I think the values are pretty close, but see some minor changes here and there. I am also still undecided on the foliage in the foreground. There are lots of darks and greens, maybe too much, but after all, it is in the jungle! What do you think?
The falls is such an awe inspiring natural wonder, it is really hard to take in. To paraphrase Eleanor Roosvelt when she visited, “This makes poor Niagra look like a kitchen faucet”. It was a long time wish fulfilled, and I did two plein air paintings while there. Well, it is time to do a studio piece, and I started by doing a 12×24 inch ‘small’ study shown below. I may make a few minor adjustments, but it is pretty much finished–
You can click the image to see a larger version. Well, it’s time to break out the big brushes! I have two 36×36 inch canvass which I am going to paint the smaller study onto. It will be a diptych with final measurements of 3×6 feet, which is the largest work I have done so far. I don’t plan on offering it for sale, but want to hang it in my living room as a reminder of my visit to this spectacular wonder of the world. Stay tuned.
Prologue: As mentioned in my previous blog, I originally intended to write one blog entry a day during last weeks workshop with Marc Hanson at Scottsdale Artists’ School, but for some reason could not upload pictures to my weblog from my laptop. For those who follow me on Facebook, I was able to upload some photos there, so pardon the repetition. Below is a day by day account written after arriving home…
DAY 1
Today was the first day of class with Marc Hanson at Scottsdale Artists’ School. There are only 6 in the class, from all over including Alaska and Canada.
In the morning, Marc went through a slide show of his paintings, both plein air and studio works to give us an idea of what it takes to do small plein air pieces then a large studio work from the plein air. Marc then did a black and white value sketch derived from a plain air piece he had just done in Sedona, AZ a few days before. I have never done a value sketch like this, but can see the advantages if you need to work out certain ideas and values without color getting in the way.
In the afternoon, he did a large color painting of the same scene, Courthouse Rock in Sedona, Arizona.
DAY 2
The next day we went to a nearby city park, Papago Park, to gather some small field studies. One late student arrival showed, which made the total class size seven. The object of this one week workshop is to gather field studies the first couple days, then take those into the studio and produce large paintings from the field studies.
Papago Park has some nice desert scenes with large jutting rocks, cacti, palm trees, ponds, and other formations. It was a nice place to work, and also during this time of year it is warm, but not terribly hot! I decided to first sketch a group of rocks in a black and white study (using only Ivory Black and White paint) as Marc suggested.
Below is the scene. The rocks are in the distance, although they were actually closer than what appears in this photo…
The park was nice with picnic tables set up with a roof. Just right for getting out of the Phoenix sun…
Below is a quick snapshot of the value study on my easel…
I then did the exact same scene in color. Good practice! I actually like the black and white just as good or better!!
DAY 3
We met again at Papago Park, this time by some ponds just a short distance from where we were the day before. I decided to do a piece concentrating on the water. Below is a picture near where I painted, but I forgot to get a shot of the exact scene…
Some pictures of the group painting around the pond…
DAY 4 & 5
We met back at Scottsdale Art School for two days of studio painting from what we gathered in the field. I had painted 7 small pieces, 6×8 & 8×10, including both black and white value studies, and color studies.
Below are a few shots of the classroom the two days…
I finished two ‘large’ pieces the two studio days, both 16×20 shown below. These are snapshots from my iPhone, so maybe not the best quality. I had to leave the large wet paintings with my nephew in Phoenix as I had no way to carry them home on the airplane.
After spending the weekend with my nephew Jeff, I flew home late Sunday night.
All in all, it was a great week. It was my first time at the school, as I have always wanted to attend a workshop there. Marc is also such a good and helpful instructor. Hopefully our paths will cross again soon!
I have now done 9 of the 12 paintings in the new series introduced in a previous blog post. I am painting each one to about 60-80% complete, then will finish them at once so-as to ensure continuity and progression of colors, and values, etc. The series is 12 paintings (maybe a few more before I am done) of an event in 2006 which took about 15 minutes. Each canvas is 24×18 vertical orientation.
I previously referenced Warhol’s Campbell Soup Cans exhibit of 1962 when he painted 32 ‘paintings’ of all the Campbell Soup Can flavors mainly because my series are all the same size and orientation.
I won’t reveal the subject matter yet, as people are still guessing. Legend has it that some of the rock formations I am painting helped inspire Walt Disney when they designed the “Big Thunder Mountain Railroad” roller coaster. A little research seems to dispel this myth, but you never know. Below is a quick snapshot (using my iPhone) of another partially completed work which is somewhere in the middle of the series…
