technique

Marina

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The Dunes of Monterey, 12×48, oil on canvas

In days past, I often drove by this wondrous area of the south eastern dunes of Monterey Bay, but now find the area enchanting. Recently working on a new painting, I chronicled my efforts on Facebook as it progressed.

My weblog readers might be interested in the development and processes as things went along. Below are my posts from Facebook…

June 20, 2022. So, I have had this 12×48 inch canvas sitting in my studio for 10-15 years. It’s a bit of an odd size, and over the years contemplated on a good composition to fit it. So, this week, let’s try something…

June 21, 2022. An old adage is “paint what you know”. It is a good point, but artists should occasionally push themselves out of their comfort level. In the case of the odd size 12×48 inch canvas mentioned yesterday, I am going to paint what I know. We walk by this view at least several times a week near Marina, CA. Here is just a rough block in of the scene.

June 22 2022. Seems to be interest in the development of this odd sized 12×48 inch canvas, so here is today’s progress …

May not have a lot of time the rest this week to work on it, but stay tuned…

July 6, 2022. Back to the odd size painting (12×48 in) which has been on hiatus for a bit. Working all over the canvas now. Still working on the shape of the trees on the left. I actually scraped part of it off as it was overpowering the painting. Still a ways to go…

July 12, 2022. I did a little revamp on the 12×48 inch painting the last several days. I painted the large trees on the left several times, scraping and painting over. I still didn’t like it as they overpowered the rest of the painting, and didn’t give it the expansive view I wanted. So, I revamped for several days, painting them entirely out, repainting the background, and then a smaller tree. Here is the progression…the original trees, repainting the background, and then the result. I hope everyone agrees the effort was worth it!

July 18, 2022.The 12×48 painting still continues. Normally, I would have a painting like this done in about a week or two, if not sooner, however I have had a lot of distractions with houseguests and other things. You may not notice a lot of difference, but I put in a ‘separation layer’ of liquin, and then glazed some sunshine and atmosphere over the background areas. Also, similar to redoing the large trees on the left, I reduced the bushes on the right middle ground as they were too big and overpowering the view. Hopefully I’ll get this finished by the end of the week!

July 6, 2022.  Coming down the home stretch on this one. Just a little touchup here and there, and will consider it done…for now…

It helps living close to things you paint.  You can see things frequently, and then adjust your work accordingly.  We did a walk in the area a few days ago by the scene, and I noticed the prominent green plants have a bit of dead underbrush.  The green really contrasts with the reds and oranges of the ice plant, and a little underbrush modifies the effect.

In this painting, although true to the scene, I have moved a few elements around such as trees, bushes, etc. for a more pleasing composition.  Cardinal rule of any good landscape painting moves your eye around the piece without going off the edge.  Hopefully I accomplished that.  

For those familiar with the area, the general view is in Ft Ord Dunes State Park from the hillside near the Divarty underpass.    Monterey Bay is shown, and the distant shore is the Santa Cruz area.

For many years, going to my gallery representation in Carmel, participating in the Carmel Art Festival, etc., I drove right by this area to paint the rocky coastlines of Big Sur, the ice plant of Pacific Grove, and other more familiar attractions.  Now that I live in the area, the dunes of Marina and the south eastern shoreline of Monterey Bay beg to be painted.

I’ll consider this done for now. Final painting is shown here and above.

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Mt Pleasant

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From April 2020, for a year, I posted on Facebook a painting each day as a brief diversion from the lockdowns and other bad news this year. Neglecting my weblog, I’ll post in the coming days some of my better posts. Some of these paintings are still available.

“Mt Pleasant”, 8×16, oil on panel, plein air, finished in the studio

I used to live right near the edge of San Jose, close to the east side foothills. Occasionally I would go up in the hills and paint, especially during winter months when the skies were more interesting.

From the “nije studiokarantene”, this piece was sixth in a plein air series of winter cloud studies from the hills above my home about about 5 years ago. The view is from Mt. Pleasant Rd looking west over San Jose and Silicon Valley. The round hill in the middle is Groesbeck Hill Park where I used to walk our Golden Retriever, and our son used to play when he was a kid. In the distant left is downtown San Jose. A few stadium lights were on, probably the PAL Sports Centre, which I indicated.

It is practically impossible to paint a sunset entirely en plein air (on location). The moment you want to capture lasts for only a few minutes. In this instance, I started the painting about an hour before the moment I was expecting, putting in as much as possible based on prior observations from the same location. When the sun hit the right spot, I furiously put down color and value notes, and minutes later the sun was down. I then finished some of the detail in the studio.

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High Sierra Lake

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From April 2020, for a year, I posted on Facebook a painting each day as a brief diversion from the lockdowns and other bad news this year. Neglecting my weblog, I’ll post in the coming days some of my better posts. Some of these paintings are still available.

“High Sierra Lake”, 28×22, acrylic on canvas

From the “kwarantina ?dida fl-istudjo, I have been posting older paintings the last few days as I learned how to paint water with it’s multidimensional layers. Here is another acrylic I did back in the day. It’s a studio painting from studies I did on a backpacking trip into the high Sierra back in 1978.  

I used different techniques when painting water with acrylic as opposed to oils. With acrylic, I would paint the bottom substrate first. Since acrylics dry in a few minutes, I could then keep glazing with a clear medium and add thin layers of paint until I reached the surface. Separating these layers with the glossy medium would give the water depth and a wet look.

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Beneath Half Dome

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From April 2020, for a year, I posted on Facebook a painting each day as a brief diversion from the lockdowns and other bad news this year. Neglecting my weblog, I’ll post in the coming days some of my better posts. Some of these paintings are still available.

“Beneath Half Dome”, 30×24, acrylic on canvas

From the “ny studiokarantene” continuing a series of paintings as I learned to paint water [sic], here is another piece from my acrylic days, painted in the early 2000’s. A quite large piece, the center of interest in the painting is Half Dome in Yosemite Valley CA, with the perspective somewhat unique as the view is from practically underneath the great monolith. This also includes a fairly detailed representation of Tenaya Creek and it’s multiple layers from the creek bottom to reflected light in the ripples at the surface.

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Along Going to the Sun

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From April 2020, for a year, I posted on Facebook a painting each day as a brief diversion from the lockdowns and other bad news this year. Neglecting my weblog, I’ll post in the coming days some of my better posts. Some of these paintings are still available.

“Along Going to the Sun”, 28×22, oil over acrylic on canvas

[Nov 4, 2020]

While the nation impatiently waits for the results of the national election, how about a brief diversion from all the news! Let’s fly off to Montana…

One of the spectacular drives in the world is Going to the Sun road in Glacier Park Montana, It’s a spectacular 52-mile road that winds over passes, crosses the Continental Divide and travels through incredibly varied terrain—from glacial lakes to jagged cliffs. The views are spectacular at every turn, and for some, the steep terrain and hairpin turns can cause a bit of vertigo! From the “vinnustofu sóttkví” is a painting of one of the landmarks along this amazing road. Right at Logan Pass sits Reynolds Mountain. With an elevation of over 9000 feet, it towers over the pass like a citadel guarding the treasures of the high mountain terrain.

This painting of the iconic peak was actually an experiment. Most of the underpainting is in acrylic, and then finished off with oils. 

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Ellery Lake

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Since April 2020 I have posted on Facebook a painting each day as a brief diversion from the lockdowns and other bad news this year. Neglecting my weblog, I’ll post in the coming days some of my better posts.

Ellery Lake, 18×24, acrylic on board

For todays post from the “Studio Oubliette” we go to the high Sierra of California. Nestled along Hwy 120 near Tioga Pass is this beautiful alpine lake. One of my older acrylic pieces, this painting was featured in the book “How Did You Paint That?: 100 Ways to Paint Seascapes, Rivers & Lakes”… https://smile.amazon.com/How-Did-You-Paint-That/dp/1929834454/ref=sr_1_3

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Breakthrough Part 2

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Yesterday I started the first in a series of how I learned to paint water. As I mentioned, what took me a week some forty years ago, I now do in an hour or two. Being primarily self-taught this is the second painting I did trying to learn to paint the multiple layers of water.
From the “quarentena de novo estúdio” I completed this around the same time of the work posted yesterday, around 1979. It was from a photo taken on a backpacking trip in the high Sierra. The deer weren’t there, but added them into the scene. Painting in oils, I first did the rocks, then let it dry, and kept glazing and adding layers. It took weeks between the drying and painting process. Now days I have learned how to paint wet into wet and everything can be done in one sitting.
This piece was also given to my parents which they hung in their home for many years, and now I think one of their grandchildren inherited it.
The photo might be a little blurry as it was scanned from a slide, and not sure what happened in the process.

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Breakthroughs

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Most artists can pinpoint certain works or events which led to a breakthrough painting, allowing them to reach a new plateau in their journey in creating art.  In the next few posts, I’ll show a few works from the ‘way-back-machine’ on how I learned to paint water.  I’ll tell the end of the story now…what used to take me a week to paint, I can now do in an hour or two.  Due to the popularity of the book “Outliers”, they say it takes 10,000 hours to be truly “world class” at something.  I am not sure about that, but learning to paint is a life long journey and endeavour!

     From the “noua carantin? de studio” is a piece I did around 1978.  The scene is a creek in the San Gabriel Mountains just above Pasadena, CA, probably the West Fork of the San Gabriel River.  I took a photo of this scene during a hike and later painted it in my art studio (at the time also known as the living room) in Altadena, CA.  The painting is a bit monochromatic, but I loved painting the clear water and rocks below.

    As a post note, I later gave this piece to my parents which they hung in their home for many years, and now I think one of their grandchildren inherited it.

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Glacial Bookends

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Glacier Point View, 22×28, oil on canvas

One of the spectacular views in the world is Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park.  The point offers a superb view of several of Yosemite National Park’s well-known landmarks, including Yosemite Valley, Yosemite Falls, Half Dome, Liberty Cap, Vernal Falls, Nevada Falls, Clouds Rest, and Yosemite’s high country.  It is a must do if visiting Yosemite National Park.  I just completed a new commission of the Glacier Point view, but maybe a little backstory first…

We started 2020 with a move to a new home in Marina, CA, not far from Monterey and Carmel.  Due to last minute flooring problems with the new house, we had to change our plans and put all our stuff in storage and stay in temporary housing for almost a month.  Well, we finally made it to the new place, and then the virus stuff hit!

The last painting I did at the old home was a commission piece and the subject of my last blog.  Recently I posted a photo of that painting on Facebook, and another long time collector wanted one similar.  So, the first painting I did in the new place is another commission piece of the same scene.  Kind of like bookends to our move. I won’t make a duplicate of a prior painting but in order to be true, you can’t change the features of Half Dome, the falls, and other landmarks, but you can change the viewpoint, make it different in mood, skies, time of day, lighting, etc.

I don’t really have a studio set up yet as we are planning on building an outbuilding for the studio, so I set up in the garage.  The contents of my old studio is still in boxes, some of which you can see in the first picture below.

Below are some pictures of development of the painting.  This might look a little familiar as it seems a rerun of my last blog post!

I used my plein air easel in the garage to do the painting. Since the light is poor, I only could paint during the day under natural sunlight.

The block-in. I wanted to limit the foreground to give the viewer an idea of the over 3,000 foot drop off to the valley below.

I do another block-in starting to indicate the local color. Most of the sky is completed in one sitting so-as to keep itsoft, fluffy, and loose.

Continuing by painting the far mountains and Upper Yosemite Valley, including Liberty Cap. Also developing patterns of sunlight and shadow.

Starting to work on and define Half Dome

Further defining Half Dome and the bench it sits on.

Here is further definition of the shadows and lit areas. I am also working out how much of a foreground to put it.

Putting in the foreground. I am wanting to show the drop-off from 3200 feet to the valley floor.

More foreground definition.

The bottom left looks a little empty, and I need something to bring the eye back into the painting, so I keep adding trees to the drop-off.

The final painting is at the top of this weblog entry. I always seem to want to keep on working on a piece but then it starts to look overworked, but I think I stopped at the right level here.

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Yes, Commissioner!

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“Morning Light on Half Dome”, 22×28,oil on canvas

Awhile back, a couple from the bay area, Van and Kathy, visited Yosemite and saw one of my paintings hanging in the Yosemite Renaissance show at the Yosemite Museum.  The painting, titled “Misty Sentinel” can be seen here. They liked my work, so made an appointment to come by the studio and look at more paintings.  They ended up purchasing 3 paintings, and mentioned they might want me to do a commission.

Van had hiked and camped all over parts of the Yosemite back country, from Tuolumne Meadows to Yosemite Valley, including a trek to the top of Half Dome.  What he wanted was a morning view from Glacier Point, Yosemite as a reminder of his trekking.

Below is a diary of our journey together to create a painting. At each step of the way, I would email a photo to them so they could give their input as we progressed.

We started out by trading a number of photos to nail down the location, perspective and view he wanted.

I sent him this composite of several photos I took quite a few years ago of Glacier Point. You can see Nevada Falls in the middle right. Van wanted a view which showed both Vernal and Nevada Falls.

Van then sent this view closer to what he wanted, which showed both Vernal and Nevada Falls.

Van and Kathy cut out some cardboard to see what size painting they wanted, and put it up on the wall it will hang. We decided on a 22×28 canvas.

To get the view correct, I first did a pencil sketch and emailed it to them. He wanted to show a little bit more of the cliffs on the left and right, so I erased that part, and redrew just the sides resulting in this sketch. Since I had to push in from the sides, the scene is not exactly correct to perspective. I also wanted to bring forward the falls on the right, so made them a little more pronounced than what you might see in real life.

We were in the process of selling our home so my studio was crammed full of storage boxes and no room to paint.

So, I set my portable easel on the side of the house by the trash cans to do a small color study.

Van was very discerning on what he wanted, which was a view at around 10:00am, so I did a rough color sketch to see if I got the right mood and general colors correct.

The next step was to transfer the sketch to the full size canvas. I usually do this freehand, and don’t use grid marks, but in this case used a grid to ensure all elements, especially Half Dome were in perspective according to the approved original pencil sketch.

In the meantime, our house sold and we didn’t have to keep it quite so ‘staged’ for potential buyers. It was the start of the rainy season, so our solarium sun room became a temporary studio.

Next is a color block-in with one color, a purplish hue from a mixture of Ultramarine Blue and Quinacridone Red. The underlying purple will give the entire painting a warm undertone.

My palette consisted of the following: Cobalt Blue, Thalo Blue (just for pure sky), Ultramarine Blue, Quinacridone Red, Cadmium Red Deep, Sap Green, Transparent Red Iron Oxide, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Orange, Hanson Yellow Light, Quick Dry White.

The next step is a continuation of the block-in putting in a little more neutral grays and refining the drawing. The gray is a varying mixture of Cobalt/Cad Red Deep.

Van wanted lenticular clouds, so those were sketched in.

I now start to refine from the sky down to the distant mountains, and start putting more color in the valley to the right.

Detail of the ‘Little Yosemite Valley” area at this stage.

I now turn my attention to Half Dome, the star of the show, and start to detail it continuing to use the Cobalt/Cad Red gray and the purple mixed with various amounts of white to detail the cliff. I also begin to add Yellow Ochre, and Hansen Yellow Light for the trees both in sunlight and shadow.
Also, Van wanted more lenticular clouds over the distant peak, so put those in. I also start placing some morning fog and other wisps of clouds here and there.

The foreground is next, where I place the trees, and continue to work all over the canvas adjusting accordingly.

Continuing the foreground and adjusting.

Several times during this stage, I let it dry, and then put a coat of Liquin over the background mountains to isolate the layer and thinly paint in more atmosphere in the distance.

Detailing the foreground and adjusting.

At this stage, I made an appointment with the the collectors to deliver the painting, and for the next several days made minor adjustments prior to delivery.

The night before delivery of the finished piece, something still bugged me about it, and my wife suggested more green and brighten up the foreground. I also didn’t like the straight line. on Half Dome’s shoulder, so broke that up to make it more like a ragged cliff. This was done the morning before the delivery, so it was still a little wet.

Here is the piece as I delivered it to the collectors. Please note throughout this diary, the painting was photographed in various lighting, and although I tried to correct it in Photoshop, sometimes it just was a little different.

Upon arrival at the collectors home, Van asked for a few changes, as it is really hard to judge a painting by online photos.

I touched up the sky a bit, and also downplayed the foreground taking out some of the highlights so the eye would tend to go to the distant peaks and valleys.

Here is another picture of the piece in their home. Since it wasn’t framed yet, we propped it up on a few open drawers

Doing commissions can sometimes be a hit and miss, trial and error process until both the artist and collector are satisfied. When the collectors first saw the piece in real life, they said it did not look quite like the pictures I had been texting and emailing online, even though I tried to send as accurate photo of the painting I could. After touching it up a bit at delivery time, though, it seemed they were pleased, at least I hope so!!

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