After Merrow-Smith - an Exercise in Oils

After Merrow-Smith Pont D'Avignon, 2011
5x7 oils
(click image to enlarge)

This is an exercise in the traditional sense - copying a master's image in order to learn the techniques and gain an understanding of the gaps that need to be addressed.  The master in this case is Julian Merrow-Smith, whose blog "Postcard from Provence" I follow. Below is the image which enchanted me enough to attempt to copy it.

 You can see why I wanted to paint it - it's a beautiful painting which glows with soft light, executed with minimal well placed strokes that give the impression of vast amounts of detail in a small size.

Looking at my painting, at first glance it's not bad.  The resemblance is quite strong, The colours are off in tone  - attributable to the fact that I painted alla prima, only took 2 hours to do it, and oils are not my primary medium.  (in other words, inexperience).
But it's close.

Close but no cigar, as the saying goes :_).  This is what the exercise is all about - what's wrong with it, where can I improve it?

What I did was to superimpose (in Photoshop) Julian's image over mine, to see where the issues were, with respect to the construction - the drawing phase.  Below is the result - my primary drawing was way off in terms of the buildings in the painting - as you can see by the yellow lines.



Interestingly enough, the horizon line, the bridge beginning, and the reflections are very close - but then I got sloppy.  This is where I start to learn: -

• use the right size brush for the feature you are painting (I tried to use the largest brushes I cold get away with, which didn't work out too well)
• measure measure measure! (seems I really like to center things, and again I rushed. I drew with charcoal, but didn't check against the original, just eyeballed it.  )
• don't over-correct (my trees on the right 'grew' as I tried to fix the colours. This happened under the bridge as well)

Finally, the colours.  I don't normally paint in oils - allergies etc.  In my other mediums (acrylics, pastels, charcoal and graphite) there is no wait time, and if I make a mistake, well it's easily corrected.

In oils, you have to be careful - very deliberate, and very delicate where it's warranted.  I'm so used to fiddling until it's right, that I tried to do that here - and as a result contaminated the colours. You'll notice that there's blue in everything.... 

Now I could let it dry and go back and correct, but my main reason for painting alla prima is that I want to paint en plein air.  I want to be able to take my pochade box and set up in a location and capture the essence of what's before me.

So I'm leaving this as is, to remind me of what I need to improve, before I step out there and try to capture reality the way Julian does.  I feel good about this exercise, and am looking forward to doing more in my journey to plein air :-)

Happy painting!

TTFN

Terry

It's a Grill !

It's a Grill ! 2011
7 x 10.5 inches
Neocolor artist crayons on watercolour paper

It's been a while since I last posted.  A lot has happened - new job, did more work on my studio (I now have a whole wall of reference library! ) and have been working on a number of projects.

I decided to revisit the Neocolor experience, and I'm glad I did. When you combine the brilliant colours from Caran D'Ache's line of artist crayons with the wonderful melting and blending features of the Icarus art board, you can't help but be pleased with the result. And working with Prismacolor pencils for refinements just made it so much more enjoyable.

The piece above shows my love affair with the colour and lines of antique cars, especially when they've been lovingly restored and put on display in summer car shows. Just  remembering the bright sunny hot day, and lots of shiny old cars, trucks, and motorcycles brings a smile to my face. 

The car shows are over for another year, and it's back to school for the kids.  It was a good summer for me, got a lot of painting done, had every Friday off to decompress in the studio, and now it's time to think about building up a body of work for next year. 

Time to get back to work :-)

TTFN
Terry

DRAKO

Drako 2011
20x24 inches, Acrylic on canvas

Drako - dragons - can you see them? How many can you find, floating on the red night sky?

I've long had a fascination with dragons. their mythology, their presence in almost every culture throughout history. In some cultures they are evil malevolent creatures which must be appeased with virgin sacrifice. In others they are bringers of good fortune, protectors of forests, noble beasts, heraldic symbols and astrological ideals (I'm a Leo in western astrology, and was born in the year of the dragon in eastern astrology). And in today's world they are also characters in role-playing games and pewter collectibles.

I choose to see them as bringers of good fortune, with characters of utmost courage and wisdom. 

As for looks - the uglier, the better!  Bring on the scales, the whiskers, the warts, the battle scars, the holes in their wings, the broken claws. 

My dragons can talk, play chess, hold forth on philosophical minutiae, and speak several languages with ease.  They're vain, easily bored, have a major case of ADD, and love to adorn themselves with bright shiny things. 

They're very crafty - you can't see them if you're looking for them. But once you find them you can't miss them.

Lovely creatures.

TTFN
Terry

A Dasch Of Redundor

A few weeks ago I contacted an artist to commission a portrait of myself.  I love this artist's work, and wanted her to paint me.  We emailed back and forth; I answered her questions, sent her some photos, agreed to a price, and then I waited.

Today she sent me a photo of the completed painting, as an early birthday present (my birthday is tomorrow), and I am SOO HAPPY :-)  

A Dasch of Redundor
by Brenda York

(click on image to enlarge)

It's PERFECT!

There is so much going on in the painting.  Brenda puts scribbles (writing) in the background, little snippets of my answers to her questions, the colours are so me, and she even put in my dog Dasch - a true gift, and a surprise.

The title is so apt - Dasch is my Red Tri Australian Shepherd, and I'm Redundor, the superhero who constantly states the obvious (my son named me one long car ride as we discussed what kind of modern superheroes we might be - that was a hilarious ride, the whole family got superhero monikers).

But the resemblance is amazing  - there are enough likenesses (she has my mouth, chin, and yes, my jowls down pat) that the abstracted parts are pure personality.  I held the photo up to my face and my son broke out in a huge grin - "yep, that's you, Mom".

The painting should be dry sometime next week,  and I expect to receive it sometime the week after, most likely.  I can't wait to see the original - it will be amazing, as the photo is wonderful.

Please check out Brenda's website - you'll love it.  Who knows, maybe you'll be inspired to commission her yourself.....

Brenda - THANK YOU  :-)

COUNTERPOINT

Counterpoint 2011
30x36 inches Acrylic on canvas

It's been a while since my last post.  Since cleaning my studio (at least 2/3 of it) I haven't had much time to create.  The new job (5 days old) had been taking all my energy, it seems. This weekend I have been resting up - mid afternoon naps are wonderful, aren't they? But they mess up my biological clock and I find myself staying up way later than normal (for me).

The painting above, Counterpoint, has been finished for about a month, but I haven't posted it because it's been difficult to photograph.  It's highly textured, very glossy, and just plain big! It's also dark, and incredibly detailed, and the photo doesn't do it justice, but for now this is the best image of it I can get. The camera flattens the depth of the colours, and blurs the details because of the texture, so it's hard to explain that you feel like you're falling into it when you're up close.

My grandson Jade says it reminds him of a volcano :-)

I think it's a metaphor for the ebb and flow of existence. Tumultuous, sometimes dark, many times passionate, with threads of brilliant light breaking the surface - the perfect counterpoint to the main melody of  life.  Never dull, always exciting. often beautiful.

I promise I will get a better photo of the painting, but for now I just had to share.

Next post will be another painting that has been finished for about 3 weeks, but I still haven't found a name for it yet. Sigh.

TTFN
Terry

Renovate! (or How I cleaned up 2/3 of my studio)

This past week I started to clean up my studio - I had let it get messy, so messy I could no longer move around easily to paint - aargh.

Now, if you're like most artists, much of the furniture in the studio has been re-purposed, and you've spent your money on easels, paints, and tools.  That's exactly how my studio was, and how parts of it still are.  But something had to be done, and while sitting in my computer room looking at my shelves of Cd's and DVDs it hit me - IKEA!

My new storage shelves
(click to enlarge )

Now I had a perfectly good utilitarian grey plastic storage unit - 5ft tall, 30 inches deep, 3 shelves - but it was too deep. I never could find what I was looking for because there were 30 bottles of mediums on each shelf (or so it seemed to me).

The tall skinny Ikea CD units, on the other hand, are about 8 inches wide, 6 inches deep, about 7 feet tall, and with many adjustable shelves.  I could separate my mediums, they fit 2 deep (so are easy to find), and all my brushes and palette knives are right there!

I bought 3, my son gave me a fourth, and my 6 year old grandson Jade and I built the shelves and installed them in about 3 hours.  Heaven!

new tables and paper drawer
(click to enlarge)

Then I bought 2 tables - well, in Ikea speak 2 tabletops (24x40 inches each) and 8 legs - cost of each table = $29!  Placed so they form an L, on one table I now have a perennially clean surface to draw on, and on the other table space for my pencils, charcoal, erasers, and my Icarus drawing board.

And bonus - my old Ikea paper drawer fits perfectly underneath one table!

I am in heaven.  I now have room to walk around, room to stand at my 2 easels, to step back about 5 ft when I need to, or sit at my drafting table.

Now for the final 1/3 of my studio - where the reference bookshelves are, and the canvas storage - it's behind the tables (so I don't see it when I'm painting, smart move eh?) - but I'll work on that next month.


It was a good weekend - I'm itching to start painting again.

TTFN
Terry

CALDERA

Caldera 2011
16x20 inches Acrylic on canvas

This past week was one of momentous decisions.  I refinanced my mortgage (for the first time in 30 years, except for my house and car, I will be essentially debt free),  I opened up a TFSA, and I accepted a letter of offer for a new position in another department.

I felt it was time to make these changes for my personal well-being, and after some anxious moments (I nearly threw up on the way to sign the letter) I have accepted my decisions and am ready to tackle the new way forward.

In much the same way my art has changed, as I embrace my new vision of abstraction - more fluid, full of unanticipated surprises, yet more controlled and very, very detailed. 

Caldera comes from the Latin caldaria meaning cooking pot. It is also a cauldron-like volcanic feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption (Wikipedia).

My painting Caldera represents this new beginning - all fire and ice, the change of the old into the new.

Ah, exciting times!

TTFN
Terry