Magical Box of Color

"Sixty Four" Mixed Media Watercolor and Crayon 15 x 22

I hope everyone is enjoying a happy and creative holiday season. As the year winds down, I want to thank my many loyal students, several who have painted with me for over a year now, for sharing their art time with me. I’m looking forward to an amazing 2012 and can’t wait to see what you all paint! And I look forward to meeting many new artists in the upcoming year as I teach and venture out to more workshops.

Over the holidays I received many great art and thoughtful owl gifts (thanks everyone!) including a lovely little art book called Water, Paper, and Paint by artist Heather Jones Smith. Ms. Smith includes several interesting watermedia exercises including the one I painted today which stresses watercolor color mixing and color harmony. I call these abstract paintings “color quilts.” FYI, my paper here is a Quiller 140lb Cold Press block. 

In this painting, I used Daniel Smith Quin Gold as my “mother color” meaning every color mixed included some Quin Gold. My other colors included a range of warms and cools such as lemon yellow, permanent rose, cobalt blue, crimson, thalo blue, indigo, winsor violet, etc.

The 64 Crayola box--An artist favorite since 1958.

In addition to many wonderful art books, I also received a classic 64 Crayola crayon box. Arguably one of the one of the best art bargains ever--Less than $3 at Super Target. As you may know some of the Crayola colors have changed since we were young artists in the um seventies but it’s still a magical box of waxy color. I decided to add all 64 colors to today’s exercise painting. (I particularly liked the lighter crayon on the darker watercolor washes.)

Over the holiday break I also watched a Nita Leland video where she talks about exploring the various levels of creativity—from intuitive (pure fun and child like) to genius. On a sunny but still cold winter day like today it was my goal to keep my art brain warm and fuzzy. Mission accomplished. This type of exercise, at least for me, works well as a stepping stone before I return tomorrow into some “more serious” representational oil painting. Stay tuned for that. In the meantime, have a colorful week!  

All That Glitters

Vienna Holiday-36x36-Oil on Canvas SOLD

Last week’s Daily Paintworks’ challenge was deceptively straightforward: Paint something in the style of a painter you admire. Several of my favorite painters came to mind immediately: Van Gogh, Matisse, Hopper, O’Keeffe, Dixon, Bonnard, Cezanne…

Then I was thinking about all the visual inspiration of the holiday season--jewel tones, golds, silvers, nature based imagery, as well as cultural symbols. That train of thought led me to Austrian art nouveau painter Gustav Klimt. Thank you to a new collector from Colorado Springs for the purchase of this!

His vibrant colors, use of flat, dazzling patterns, unique (and sometimes controversial) figural compositions are so contemporary that I have to remind myself that Klimt died before 1920.  Here’s a wonderful example of one of his gilt figures, Hope II.

For the challenge, I choose to paint an abstract and initially planned to add gold leaf which I’ve done previously in some of my abstract paintings. Instead I chose a short cut using Golden brand (I love their metallic paints) acrylic gold paint as the undertone. Not the same effect, but interesting and given gold prices, much less expensive. Then switched to oil paint for all the overall painting.

This painting is also the largest painting I’ve done for a DPW challenge, but I prefer a larger scale (this is 36x36) when I paint abstractly.  In fact, on Cybermonday I bought a new Sorg easel just for larger works. It’s due on Wednesday and I can’t wait to try it! Pics and a review to come. In the meantime, I hope the holiday season brings you much creative joy and inspiration!

P.S. Quick congrats to artist Ms. Dawn Hartigan for winning my November free fine art print contest! Be looking for another contest after the holidays.

Glazing a Rose

This intimate study of a rose this morning was inspired by one of my students, who is working with the  indirect oil painting method. In other words first painting a value study underpainting or grisaille (for this 8 x 10 rose on canvas panel I used Mars Black and Titanium White acrylics) then adding transparent glazes of color.  I have to admit while I've glazed before, it's not a technique I use everyday. I tend to be a more direct oil painter so I was excited to try this method again. 

While the oil painting glazing technique calls for some extra patience, the fascinating results are well worth it.  You can see why the master European painters were so entranced by this method. I love how focusing on the first step of strong values immediately gives you instant light and drama.

In the next step or layer, I decided to try glazing using Gamblin Galkyd Lite medium (in the past I've used Winsor and Newton Liquin) since I've noticed so many painters recommending this medium lately. While I thought the Liquin worked quite well for glazing, I've been looking for less harsh medium for my growing chemical sensitivity in the studio.  

For my transparent oil pigments I chose a simple palette of: Perm Rose, Thalo Blue, Indian Yellow, and Burnt Sienna (mixed with Thalo to help warm up the cool background). I'm eager to keep layering on the yellow and red on the rose, but I'll try to be patient and let it dry overnight. I also found it easier to glaze laying the painting flat on the table (rather than on an easel) and I used a No. 6 nylon filbert rather than a stiffer oil brush.

Since I glaze quite a bit in watercolor, I think that helps me here because I'm needing to adjust my approach  from opaque direct oil painting to transparent layers here. At the end, however, I'll likely add some opaque in my lightest or whitest areas for more pop.  As always, thanks for stopping by and happy painting!

P.S. If you are looking for more information about painting florals using this glazing method be sure to visit Jane Jones website she's a master of the technique.

Year of the Artist

Happy New Year from the studio everyone. First, thanks again to all you who helped make 2009 one of my best art years ever, I know 2010 will be even better. So many ideas, so little time...

I'm just about finished watching my fantastic new Quang Ho Nuts & Bolts DVD and getting much inspiration and ideas from him. I already can't wait to order one of the demo DVDs. In the meatime, his review of the visual basics (shape, value, edges, line, color, texture) inspireed me to rush into the studio and get started a local tone abstracted equine painting yesterday which I hope to post in a day or two. I even added some Burnt Sienna to my typically primary color palette and was reminded just how versatile and rich this color is...

In weeks to come I'll be posting some of my 2010 Art BHAGs (aka Big Hairy Audacious Goals for all you Jim Collins fans) and hope you'll be working on yours as well.

Like many artists, I listen to a variety music while working. Often our local public radio Jazz/Latin station KUVO, but favorite CDs as well. Yesterday I listened to my new Eric Hutchinson CD which I've seen on several other artist blogs as a studio favorite and I have to agree it's upbeat, funky, and has some great painting energy.

Here's to a great year of art, learning, color, and creativity! Cheers!

Alla Prima Red

Hope everyone is enjoying thier holiday weekend! I was lucky that Santa generously brought some fantastic art gifts that I look forward to chatting about in weeks to come including Richard Schmid's classic oil painting book, Alla Prima (which I've read many times from the library) but never owned as well as Quang Ho's Nuts & Bolts DVD. I can't wait to set aside 6 hours, a nice cup of tea, and get my notebook out for this!

Speaking of Alla Prima (meaning simply "at once" in Italian) it's a great technique to try if you normally do a lot of careful planning for your paintings. In other words, complete a painting "wet in wet" all in one sitting. Do you typically sketch out your subject first on your paper or canvas? Try just going for it next time and see what happens.

While it's not always appropriate for more complex or highly detailed subject matter, painting alla prima will both help you focus and free you from overthinking.

I also received a great book called Inside the Painter's Studio by artist Joe Fig. As many of you know, art can often be a singular and lonesome pursuit, so there's something extremely comforting about seeing other artist's work spaces.

Thanks to all of you who are planning to start class in January--Winter the perfect time to start studio painting. And for those of you continuing your studies I'm using this holiday break to research and create some exciting exercises for you. From landscapes to abstracts, I plan to keep you on your toes, so get those brushes ready and see you soon!

Friday Snowy Stream

When I woke up to fresh snow last weekend, I was inspired to paint another snowy, but colorful winter landscape oil painting. I particularly love using the painting knife for snow because it's like frosting your landscape as if it were a giant cupcake.

To help keep the snow scene from getting too cool, I first tinted the canvas with warm orange red hue and let some of that peak through as you can probably see. Painting on a tinted canvas or surface is one of my favorite painting techniques.

A landscape painting book that has a somewhat similar technique that I really enjoy is Paint Red Hot Landscapes That Sell by artist Canadian painter Mike Svob. I absolutely love his landscapes.

Also, speaking of cupcakes (and now thinking about them too now...) I came across a fun art blog called Artist Food Network that combines art with a recipe, which I thought was a great idea.)

For more information about my art or classes, please write to me at ScarletOwl@hotmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

White of Way Painting

I'm primarily known as a colorist. But I tell my students one of my favorite value painting exercises is to paint white objects, whether in oil or watercolor.

For example, this is a quick 8 x 10 oil painting study of a white art smock that was hanging against a blackboard. Painting white objects on a white background is even more interesting, but here I couldn't resist painting the dark blackboard.

I will always be drawn to colorful, high chroma paintings but there's something very soothing about white subject matter. For some more of muted "white" still life paintings look at the work of Italian painter Giorgio Morandi. And here's another interesting blog post about painting white objects.

Let's Get Creative

I can't imagine not living a creative life, but it can also be a lifelong challenge. Pure joy and high energy one day, and, depending on how much you "put out there" exhausting the next. One of the great rewards from writing a daily painting or creative-based blog is that it really does help you focus and stay motivated.

Along those lines, the other day I came across this posting celebrating November as "Art Ever Day Month" (or AEDM)--inspired by National Novel Writing Month (aka Nanowrimo!) There's some great creative artwork by the participants so be sure to check it out or join yourself.

When it comes to creating art everyday, I'm reminded of what our novel writing teacher at Lighthouse Workshop coaches which is that essential "just do it" mantra. More specifically he encourages us to be OK with our SFD. Or "So-So" (fill in your own "S" word here as neeeded) First Draft.

For creating art, you need to free yourself in the same way. Details, minor adjustments, etc. should be left to the end.

I tell me students be OK with the "ugly stage"--embrace it! Why, because it means you are creating and learning. Quite frankly, I often learn more from an unsuccessful painting so I try to keep that in mind as well. Here's a quick "demo" I did for my watercolor students regarding negative painting, glazing, and line as a design element. A perfect painting? No. But did I enjoy the creative process, absolutely.

Castle From the Past

Nesting today and under the weather, so am posting a rather nostalgic painting. This is one of my earliest watercolors at least that I still own. According to the signed date, I was just 15 years old...

Anyway, like many artists who look back at their earliest works, I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, it's fun to see your budding origins as an artist, isn't it? And on the other, the mature artist finds fault or at least discord with their current art "persona."

For example, why use such a somber Payne's Gray? A pigment that wouldn't be near my palette today. And what's going on with that heavy handed white gouache and low quality paper?

I've no idea where the original image source came from (pre Internet!) other than I was completely obsessed with France. A postcard from one of my many European pen pals (again, pre Internet) perhaps?

In the end though, what's important is that I must have enjoyed painting it, because more than 25 years later (yikes!) I'm still p
ainting. And I can't imagine my life today sans art.