Three Birds. Many Lessons.

Snowy Junco 8x10 oil on cotton canvas panel

One of my goals in early Jan was to start the year off by participating in Leslie Saeta’s painting challenge. But due to travel and other conflicts this month it was not to be. A big kudos though to all of you who did participate—I greatly missed the camaraderie and look forward to the next one. 

My return to the easel was challenging--For most of the month I had “polar vortex” bronchitis that just wouldn’t budge. The reality of being a “dedicated” artist is that you may sometimes paint in less than ideal conditions. When this happens, or you have limited time, I recommend keeping everything as simple as possible. 

Cheery Chickadee 8x8 oil on Raymar linen panel

Bird no. 1: Cheerful Chickadee

For me this meant a small (8x8 square), limited palette, and enjoyable subject matter. This cheerful chickadee is not bad for a quick study but I can tell I’m not 100%. (That’s a nice way of saying I was coughing so violently that the brush was hard to hold on to at times.) That being said I believe every painting provides us with valuable self-instruction.

Rosy Robin 8x10 oil on Ampersand Gesso panel

Bird no 2: High Key Robin

Moving on the next day for my robin painting, I chose a slightly larger (8x10 Ampersand gesso board) and somewhat more complicated high key value structure. You just don’t have the bold value contrast that can hold a painting together. So again with my robin painting a perfectly respectable study but I think I can improve on the composition, shape interest, edgework, etc.

Bird no. 3: Snowy Junco

In today's post you can see the junco has (in my opinion) more interesting shapes and paint quality ans well as better color harmony. It’s not a perfect bird painting by any means but I think it’s going in the right direction.  Best of all, I feel much better and am not starting February cold--no pun intended. Happy winter painting everyone!

P.S. I'm usually painting during foot ball season but but this Sunday as a proud Denverite I have to say Go Broncos!

Challenge Day 12: Visiting an Old Friend...

"YUPO Chickadee" Transparent WC on YUPO 9x12 (collection artist)

Hmm..You may notice a gap between um Challenge Day 5 and today. OK. About a week. The good news is that one reason I got a little behind in the challenge (in addition to out of town guests) is that I've been planning my new November workshop which will be bird themed and feature painting on YUPO--one of my all time favorite painting surfaces. (Sorry for the all caps that's just how YUPO is.)

Briefly, YUPO is a synthetic waterproof "paper." It's super smooth, clean bright white, and you can much more easily make value corrections such as lifting out your lights. It can feel a little strange at first and like any other new art technique take some adjustment, but now I just love it.

A few years ago when I became more of a "daily painter" I moved away from watermedia to oils. But I've always had a special place in my heart for watercolor and fluid acrylics. So you can imagine my delight when I was asked to teach a workshop that featured watercolors and YUPO and birds. Honestly, I can't think of a more exciting combination.

There was only one tiny problem. I had to confess I hadn't painted with YUPO recently but even as I was saying this I was heading toward the garage so I could run up to the Guiry's art store by my studio and buy a pad. (YUPO comes in pads and large sheets--online at Dick Blick.)

So today's painting is a watercolor and YUPO study of a chickadee in my backyard aspen trees. One quick YUPO tip: Use just 3 primaries (red,yellow, blue) because this takes a while to dry and it will run around on you. The 3 primaries will create wonderful harmonious mixes on their own.

If you have any questions about my SAT., November 16 YUPO workshop please email me. I'll have a link for it soon as well. Happy Challenge Painting everyone--we're almost half way there!