Making and Keeping New Year's Resolutions
9 of the 22 finished paintings I completed in 2019.
Like many of you, I started on my New Year’s resolutions yesterday. So far, so good!
I’m kidding of course, but I do think it is possible to keep your New Year’s resolutions, the key is just to make them simple from the get go. Its even better if it is a small daily habit that when compounded over time makes a big difference in your life.
Mine are the following:
1) Do not go more than 24 hours without doing studio work
2) Sketch everyday
3) Work out 5xs a week
I started out with a much longer list initially, but when I really dug down deep to the “why” behind most of my resolutions, it became obvious to me that what was driving them was one main idea: that I want to live a long, healthy and prolific life. So I cut out anything that did not directly support that goal. These 3 resolutions made the cut because they all support my why and they are simple enough to do.
Do you have any resolutions or strategies that you would like to share? I would love to hear them!
One last thing, I have to share this funny poll I took on Instagram on the topic. Not sure what this says about the ambition of my followers on IG, but it certainly gave me a laugh!
Have a great 2020 everyone!
Workshop Wednesday: Scott L. Christensen
Scott L. Christensen 3 hour demo.
Artist, Scott L. Christensen speaking to a packed room of workshop attendees.
A special workshop just wrapped up last week at Zoll Studio School of Fine Arts in Timmonium MD. Reknown landscape painter Scott L. Christensen shared with a group of very lucky students his process and personal development as an artist during a 3 hour demo. I was one of the eager fans in attendance.
I am sharing with you here the notes and photos I took during his demo (with permission of the artist). I take copious notes during any workshop/demo I attend because I am a visual learner and it helps me to retain information better that I receive verbally (i.e., in a lecture) and also because I can revisit my notes later during my study time. Self directed learning is something I apparently have in common with Christensen who credits daily studying as one of the keys to his success.
ON THE VALUE OF STUDYING:
-Don’t try to make good paintings when doing plein air. Paint to study, to get information. Worry about the painting itself later.
-”I would rather do volume when working outside then try to wrestle a painting to the ground (by over rendering)”.
-”When you study outdoors you have to sacrifice something. Decide what the focus of your study will be.”
-He limits his palette when making studies.
-He studies for hours outdoors everyday. It is part of his regular working practice.
-”Study paintings and take them apart”. When going to museums, he often takes detail shots of paintings that he admires that have a good solution on how to paint a rock, a tree, etc. He then turns the photos into black and white and studies them more closely to see how that artist achieved that specific effect with value, form, composition… whatever information he is seeking.
-”Ask yourself why the Master did things? They did things for a reason. Figure out why”.
-He has done a lot of studying on Sargent and more recently, Fechin.
-”Study what it is that you like about an artist, and what you don’t”.
NOTES ON CHRISTENSEN’S PROCESS AND SUGGESTIONS ON PAINTING::
-Begins by writing in his notebook, trying to define the scene in front of him with words. He asks himself questions like; What is drawing him to this scene? Is it light? Color, etc? What compositional elements can he build upon? He then settles on something from this enquiry that he wants to explore further, and makes that the theme of the painting.
-He often starts exploring ideas by working on craft paper or drawing in his journal.
-The next step is to distill the composition down initially into “10 lines” on the blank canvas. In the demo he used just transparent red oxide and paint thinner for this step. The idea being to simplify and develop all the elements of the painting at the same time. He is after unity of subject here. Christensen says that “connectivity of things is one of the hardest things to paint”. He believes that connectivity/unity of composition is much more important than rendering a specific tree or rock perfectly.
While making his 10 marks he asks himself:
”What is different with this space compared to that space?”
”Where is my variety”
“Should I add a cloud here for tension?”
“Think connecting points and tension areas (where your eye draws to)”
Some of the beginning “10 marks”.
The entire “10 mark” composition mapped out.
-When working from reference or life, don’t allow the photo or scene in front of you to decide the placement of things. “You decide the composition”.
-He looks for “unequal distribution of shapes and scale” in his compositions. Too many shapes at similar sizes is not interesting.
-”All the detail in the world can take place AFTER you have your design down”.
-While traveling he has started using gouache. He did 100 gouache paintings in one month recently but feels that is not enough time to really know the medium.
-He preferes to paint to music.
-His palette consists of the following Vasari paints (partial list):
Cobalt, Ultramarine Blue, Kings Blue, Video Blue, Yellow Deep, Permanent Red, Ruby Violet, Transp. Red Oxide, Thalo Green, Chromium Oxide green (which he uses less often) and the Vasari neutrals that he developed with the Vasari Paint Company, “Color and Light” set.
-When mixing color he starts with one of his neutral greys and then adds a color hue into that say Bice and Cobalt blue.
-His philosophy on color is based on p. 88 of Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting book which reads, “good color has infinite varieties, a reserve.”
Christensen’s palette. Notice how he efficiently groups values together.
Here Christensen is beginning to lay in some of his color notes. You can see him altering his blue values as he searches for the right relationship between the water and the sky.
-He begins his paintings with brushes of all sizes (including a 2 inch brush for blending water for instance) and will then switch to palette knives after he has locked in the design and is seeking more impasto.
-Reminds us that Sargent stayed in the mid-tones most of the time. He added his darks only at the end. ”Staying in the mid-tones adds unity to a painting”.
-Quotes Carlson, “its the juncture (of values) that require thought”.
-Reminds us that a specific value can appear differently when surrounded by lights and when surrounded by darks. Keeping this is mind will help with the simplification of values.
-”Keep it all in tone. Every note must be in harmony”.
-"Put in determined value, not half value, not “sneaking up on it” value”.
-”Try to go out & do relationship painting. Try to figure out those things instead of trying to paint the perfect tree”.
-”I am big on experimenting with most of my painting”.
-Moves specific temperatures (colors) around the painting by adding it in a new area- but always alters value appropriately first.
-”Sometimes I will completely change the season of a painting”.
-Will recompose a painting as he goes along if needed “I might put something in and the take it out dozens of times”.
-”It doesn’t take long to lose a painting if you (mindlessly) just pat color down for 2 mins”. Be intentional.
-Uses a mirror once his painting is established to check for corrections.
”Landscape (painting) is learning to put parts together more than anything else”.
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE STRUCTURE OF CLOUDS:
-Clouds get warmer at the core.
-Value & temperature changes make something turn.
-The yellow in a cloud will turn to orange and then red as it recedes.
Christensen’s finished painting with palette.
Christensen’s finished 3 hour demo.
“Be willing to sacrifice your paintings to get something better overall.
Be willing to make them ugly, then fight to make them better”
Workshop Wednesday: Kathleen Speranza
“Yellow Cluster”, Oil on panel. 11” x 11”. Artist, Kathleen Speranza.
There are few floral painters today who can conjure up the sublime in their paintings, Kathleen Speranza is definitely among the best of them. There is a palatable, moody atmosphere in her paintings which envelopes her still life subjects. This atmosphere simultaneously ensconces and reveals the delicate forms of her subjects, often English roses. And since I have been in search of the sublime recently in my own work, I jumped at the opportunity to study with her when she came to the Art League in Alexandria VA this past summer.
She will be returning to the area to teach a private sold out workshop in Purcellville VA in early December 2019. If you are interested in getting on a wait list should a slot open up, please contact me directly.
The following notes and photos I took myself so that I could continue to study on my own. Hopefully they will inspire you to spark a little moody magic in your paintings.
Day One/June 11, 2019:
ON THE SUBJECT OF ROSES:
-Kathleen has been working with the subject of roses for the past 4-5 years. She is still working on unlocking the secrets of subtly.
-”The growth habit is more beautiful in a garden rose”. A living plant twists and spirals into form. In nature this is called “Equiangular Spirals” or in design it is known as “Dynamic Symmetry”. Other terms for this are the Golden Mean and the Fibonacci Spiral.
-When she does work from florist roses (long stemmed), three of her favorites are “Juliet”, “Patience” and “White O’Hara'‘, all from David Austin. She recommends purchasing the cut flowers from Florabundance.com, an on-line retailer of flowers.
-When working from the rose she thinks of it as occupying space, and the background around it as space as well.
-She often composes her arrangements with a tiny vase so that flowers spread out - not tall and narrow. Also loves using just the floral frogs to allow for “more air”.
Kathleen Speranza’s charcoal drawing on Fabriano Ingres laid paper.
ON THE SUBJECT OF DRAWING:
-She does drawings constantly. Her drawings help her to “think” about her compositions.
-She uses her prepatory drawings to help her edit her vision for the painting. Kathleen has discovered that if she works directly from the roses when painting that she often ends up painting everything and losing the essence of subtly and restraint.
-When working with charcoal she prefers Nitram and will lay down the charcoal & then lifts the light. “The light is everything”.
-She will also draw with graphite.
-Prefers Fabriano Ingres laid paper. Tip: Place a thick pad of paper behind the Ingres paper when drawing.
-She draws and paints in natural light. Natural light is ambient - it envelopes the subject.
-She thinks in term of “light to dark” and “dark to light” when setting up her still lifes and also when drawing/painting.
-”Feel the gesture, the curvilinear marks”. Create compound curves w/straight edges.
-”You can’t get momentum if you hold the pencil like you are writing - that kind of detail comes later in the drawing”.
-”Make an ugly drawing first - structural, a boxy block in”.
-Lays down several lines with each angle - “feels'“ her way through. Makes cross hatches to indicate the end of a petal. Angled dashes that break the edge.
-”The edge tells you everything about the interior. They are hugely important”.
-”Veils in” the overall shadow.
-Recommends watching Sadie Valerie’s video on shading a sphere.
-”The viewer will see your experience- not your goal. Slow down and enjoy every detail”.
-”The background creates your edges.”
-“Laid paper slows down your darks - allows for the marks to breathe. Much more interesting that way”.
-”The more shapes you put down the more variation in tone you will have”.
-”The whole thing is straight lines. Take extra care around strong contrasts. Make sure each petal is where it should be exactly at this stage of the drawing.
-”if you go into details too soon you will make it too complex. This is not what you want. You want to simplify and go for subtly”.
-Use a grey scale with 9 steps and work toward those values in your drawing.
Kathleen’s paint mixing demo using the Munsell Color System to dial in on the exact value, hue & chroma of the rose petal above.
INTRO ON THE MUNSELL COLOR SYSTEM:
-Comes out of the French Academic system.
-Hue + Value + Chroma = Subtly
-It is based on 9 value color chart.
-Kathleen creates a mixture she calls “blumber”. 2/3 ivory black + 1/3 raw umber. She then adds white to this mixture to achieve the correct value and finally adds a color hue to arrive at the final value and color of whatever she is painting.
-Always add dark to your white. If you go the other way you will use too much white. Conserve your white.
-The student Munsell book contains 60 colors.
-Practice the color system by doing master copies. Use Google Art Project for references of the highest resolution.
-Be aware that the influence of black in the Munsell color system makes everything you mix a little greenish.
-It is a good idea to tube your paint in advance (blumber + white to achieve the 9 values in a value chart).
Underpainting block in
DAY TWO/June 12, 2019:
NOTES ON PAINTING DURING HER DEMO:
-Kathleen set up a split compliment for her demo composition. Yellow & grey.
-”Color is relative- edge to edge”.
“The classic still life is light to dark, or dark to light”.
“Look for structure, large mass & contrast”.
-”I have to believe the space I am making. Sometimes I get it right away. Other times I have to sand it, mash things around first”.
-Quotes Flannery O’Connor, “I don’t know what I think until I read what I write”. Feels the same way about her work.
-Uses a colored sheet, studio wall or box as her background.
-Degreases panel first with gamsol on a brush.
-Starts the underpainting with yellow ocher and plans to work in values 1 - 5 with a little darker for the leaves.
-Her set up has a nice horizontal arc so she is creating her composition horizontally on her panel.
-Does not start with “darkest dark” works in mid tones first.
-Starts her under-paintings with a floppy brush. For this demo a large comber.
-Masses in background with fluffy brush. Leaving object as negative space within.
-“You are making a space, not an object”.
-“Don’t think roses, think midtones, large shapes etc”.
-Consider light, height and spread of plant when composing.
-Wipes out as needed.
“The one thing your eyes can hold is light. So we are after that one thing our eyes can truly hold. Think about that for a minute”.
-”You have to look at the whole thing or you won’t make a space”.
-“It is much better to do a “raw underpainting”—meaning not too developed because otherwise I won’t want to cover it.”
-“If I put an edge there it will pull everything forward. I want to delay those decisions until later”.
-”If I am struggling with a painting I will overlay a grid on it to look for the path of composition. But I don’t start out rigidly with the grid”.
-”I work around an object until I understand how something is unfolding”.
-”Keep the edges soft”.
“Save your best drawing for the end of a painting. Delayed gratification”.
“Think about the paint and not about what you are painting. You have to trust that you can paint your way out of anything”.
Underpainting with background lay in.
Establishing the darkest green shapes of the painting.
NOTES ON PAINTING WITH COLOR:
-The understanding of color is all about relationships.
-The color of roses is deepest always in the center or in the creases (unless it is red). The color compounds by the overlapping of each petal. In other words the petals are all actually the same color but they appear darker as they overlap.
-She uses just a simple yellow & black mixture for her leaves & stems. Try black + yellow ocher, black + lemon yellow, black + cad yellow med and black with indian yellow.
-For blue greens try; lemon yellow + ultramarine blue, cad yellow med + cobalt blue, or cad yellow med + cobalt blue + ultramarine blue.
-Think “dark, blueish green”. Think in 3 descriptive terms when mixing, it will help.
-When people paint flowers they tend to use too much chroma.
-Sargent is known to have said “Use fewer colors & more values”.
-Kathleen uses the following colors from Marvin Mattelson’s flesh palette (with whom she has studied) , terra rosa, indian red and yellow ocher to use when painting roses.
-”Here’s a tip for painting clouds and skys. Start at the top of the painting with ultramarine blue and as you get closer to painting the earth, switch to cobalt blue then cerulean blue and finally manganese blue. The color of the earth affects the air around it - so it becomes greener as it gets closer to the ground.”
Kathleen’s demo at the end of Day One.
FINAL MUSINGS:
-”If you copy from a photograph you are not making space”.
-Do not paint all the edges the same, it will not have a life force. It will turn out flat.
-“Hedge the whole painting with edges that are “open” so that when you harden an edge it leads the eye immediately”.
-When working, Kathleen often pushes the subject “out” and then paints the background “in” towards the subject. She then works that edge. {Sargent is said to have also worked this way}.
“Get rid of the word background. It doesn’t exist. Everything is relative in color. Color exists edge to edge.”
“Do not make pictures.
Make experiences.”