Apples of Gold in Settings of Silver
It's warming up here, in central Wyoming and I'm thinking about getting outside to paint. We don't have any leaves on the trees yet, but the days are warm and it won't be long before we're in full swing!
Are you an outdoor painter? I love painting outdoors (plein air painting)! I like the challenges involved and I like just being out there in some remote spot with only 4 legged companions. Of course, some people paint outdoors in urban settings too. Either way, if you're new to painting outdoors, you probably have a lot of questions. One thing you might not have considered is the sun's position and your position in relation to it.
I turned this around to be in the sun for photographing it. I painted it
facing into the sun and looking to my right to see the scene.
One very important thing about painting outdoors is positioning yourself and your easel according to the sun's direction. There are a few different ideas about this. The main thing is to try to be in a position that as the sun moves, it isn't going to affect your palette and painting very much. You have about a 2 hour window for painting any one scene, before the sun has moved enough that you need to quit.
I prefer to be in the shade because when I'm in the sun, my paintings tend to be darker. Being in the shade can be challenging in Wyoming depending on where you are. We don't have a lot of trees to stand under. Using an umbrella is good if you live somewhere that you can use one. Here, it's generally too windy to attach an umbrella to your tripod and the ground is too hard to stick a pole into. So, plan your trip and find shade if you can.
If you can't find good shade from which to paint your scene, the next best thing is to position your palette and painting facing into the sun. If you have a palette like mine, which opens like a book held sideays, you can angle it with the tripod handle to be at about a 45 degree angle and your painting at a vertical angle. This is my favorite thing to do when I can't find shade. I use this often, even if I have to face away from my subject, which can actually be helpful in a way, but that's a different post. If you have an easel that holds the palette horizontal you can sometimes prop up or clip a piece of cardboard to your tripod, to shade the palette. It's best if you have the same light on the palette and painting. It makes it much easier to judge color when mixing.
The next option is to have your palette and painting in full sun. This is the hardest of all! Often you end up casting a shadow across everything as the sun moves. Then you have to move your set-up in order to keep everything in the sun. I try to avoid this at all costs, although some people are just fine with it.
Someday I'll make a lightweight shade canopy I can wear, but until then, I'll keep facing into the sun. Do you paint outdoors? Have you got some handy tricks for dealing with this?
Happy painting!
October Morning on Casper Mountain, 8x10, oil on panel
I'll be teaching an outdoor painting workshop in September through the Casper Artists Guild. You can sign up or get more info here.
If you can't make it to Casper, I'd love to come to your neck of the woods and teach an outdoor painting workshop. Contact me here.
Welcoming Spring, 24x18 available
Do you often - or only sometimes - get pretty far, or almost done, in a painting and decide you think a major change would be helpful? I mean like changing the whole background color or something as large as that. It happens to me every now and then. Often I kind of like what's happening, but am not totally happy with it and want to try something different. It's stressful to think about just starting to sling paint on! I don't want to mess up the good that I have going in case my idea doesn't work!
A great way to test your idea is to use a trick I learned from one of Kevin Macpherson's books. You take a piece of clear plastic, like acetate, and lay it over the part of your painting you want to change. Then make your changes on the acetate to see if it's going to work. You can really try all sorts of things this way without ruining what you have in case you decide no change is the better choice.
I just did this on my last "cow tea party" painting. I loved the background. But it seemed to be competing with the cows. I didn't want to mess it up though. So out came the acetate. In this instance, making the change was the better choice. Totally stress free!!
Here you see the section with the acetate experiment. It had enough static electricity to stick to the dry painting.
Here's the acetate on a piece of cardboard (sorry about the glare). You can see the places I tried different paint.
The revised painting. The cows show up much better and it still looks sunny!
I have an outdoor workshop coming up in September, through the Casper Artists' Guild. Click here for more info. If you'd like a workshop in your area, contact me. I'd love to do one!
This painting is a combination of the view out my back window and my artistic license. It is a beautiful view in the winter when covered with snow. It always captures my attention around three in the afternoon, and sometimes I drag my easel to the dining room and paint it!
I painted it a couple of years ago as a 20x24 and hung it in my studio for consideration because I wasn't completely happy with it. Today I cropped it on the right and bottom to change it from a 20x24 painting to a 12x16 painting. It is MUCH better at the cropped size. It's always fun to see what cropping will do to a painting you aren't totally happy with!
Available unframed here, so you may frame it to suit yourself.
These are one of my favorite bunches of cows! You may recognize them from previous paintings. They're pretty hard to beat for expressiveness!
This painting is on 1/4" panel and comes unframed so you can frame it as you'd like.
Sunny Morning, 6x6, oil on panel, plein air
Private Collection
What do you look for when you go out to paint? Do you look for particular items or subject, like old buildings? Old cars? Mountains? Do you scope things out ahead of time so that when the time comes, you already know where you're going and why you're going there, as in what you're going to paint.
I usually have a destination in mind and at least a couple of ideas of what I'm going to paint when I get there. But even with that in mind I still have to make decisions about how I'm going to go about it.
A plein air, or outdoor scene usually is very full of all sorts of information. You will likely want to put it ALL in, but that's not always a good idea. You have to edit. This is where you, the artist, gets to choose what to include in your painting. You may want to include a particular tree because you like the shape. Is it your main subject? If not, will it support your main subject, or will it compete with it? Can you put it in and tone it down so as to support your main subject? Or perhaps there's a lot of really cool junk laying around the scene. You love it all, but you're subject is an old barn, which happens to be surrounded by all that really cool junk. If you put it all in, it will smother the barn. Maybe you can put it in very suggestively by grouping it all together in an interesting, supportive shape with only a few details to give the impression of junk. Or pick and choose just a few items to include, giving the impression of there being more that's around, but not shown.
Or you're looking at a pristine mountain scene with lots of trees and rocks scattered in the foreground. Often they'll be scattered in a not very beautiful way. You can possibly include them, but it would be a good idea to group them together or change the size of them or whatever will make them add to the composition.
You get the idea. There are TONS of options to choose from. And how cool is it that you, the Artist, get to make all these decisions in order to make a painting! So, before you start, STOP! Take a deep breath, make some choices and don't forget to have fun!
Grant's White House, 8x10, oil on panel
I'll be teaching a workshop on outdoor painting in September, through the Casper Artists Guild. You can sign up here. If you can't come here, I'd love to teach one in your neck of the woods. Contact me for more info.
Last of the Snow, 6x6 oil on panel
Have you ever been seized with a sudden desire to go outside and paint, only to spend an hour or more finding your supplies? Or have you gone out to paint, only to find you don't have what you thought you had? Like no turp? Or no white?
It's a good idea, a really good idea, to put together some sort of grab and go paint kit. You may not be able to keep everything you need in it, but if you keep most of it, there's a good chance you will remember and be able to find the rest.
I am currently using a largish basket/bag/purse to hold my minimal gear. In it I have a Strada Micro easel and box, a PVC homemade "palette garage", a cardboard tube brush holder, a small compact mirror, a jar of Gamsol, a quick release tripod attachment, a pencil, small sketchbook, some business cards, paper towels and a trash bag. That's what I have as I head out the door.
I keep the "palette garage" in the freezer when not in use. I usually reload it when I get home from painting and stick it back in the freezer. I keep a tripod in my car. I don't always use it, but it's there when I need it. Like last week when I decided it was nice enough to be outside the car painting instead of inside the car painting.
You can see the paint on my mini palette and the brush holder clipped to the side of the easel.
Do you keep a "paint kit" ready to go? Do you have favorite tools you use for it? Now that it's getting nicer out, it's a great time to think about getting out there to paint!
I am teaching a workshop for people who want to paint outdoors, in September. For more info click here.
Happy painting!
