Studio Notes

San Luis Obispo Plein Air - Days 6 & 7

Thu, 9 Oct 2008 14:25:22 -0700

On Saturday, we had the Quickdraw event, where we set up and paint something near the Mission Plaza in 2 hours or less. I didn’t get up till 8:15 or so and I had a bit of a drive to get to downtown, so I was almost late! I had just enough time to get my panel stamped and set up before the starting call.

I didn’t have a spot scoped out ahead of the time, and I didn’t have time to look around and do thumbnails and stuff, so I opted to do a one-point perspective street scene. Bryan Mark Taylor was there setting up, and I was curious to see how he would handle this. Bryan’s work recently began to show a lot more of the muted subtle colors (the pieces he did this week was really awesome) which has a huge appeal to me personally. My grays are different from his and I was eager to see how he managed the temperature shifts and value organizations.

Anyway, we set up almost next to each other and painted. The view wasn’t that hard to do, but as forecasted, it began to rain halfway through the painting, and I was obliged to put up my umbrella. Although I have an umbrella holder thingy that attaches to my easel, my umbrella wasn’t large enough and rainwater began to collect on my palette. I was able to work around this by holding the umbrella in one hand and my brush in the other, and putting the umbrella down each time I had to wipe my brush clean. This worked fine, but it was, as you can imagine, tedious and a big waste of time. While two hours is plenty of time for a small painting, I still had to go at a good pace so this was becoming a problem. I finally moved my umbrella under a big tree after I had most of the shapes blocked in.

Anyway, I finished up with time to spare. (sorry, I forgot to take a pic of the quickdraw piece) Popped it in a frame, and turned it in. Live auction followed, and I can see that the economy was affecting the market big time. I did much better than last year, but still well below market value. What can we do but shrug and move on.

Move on we did, to a pub nearby and had a lively discussion on the business of art. It ain’t easy, man.

The exhibition of our week’s efforts was held at the Art Center, and each artist had three pieces hung on the wall. It was a very good show - many very nice pieces. I think over all, it was a better show than last year. Too bad sales didn’t reflect that. Many artists, including myself didn’t sell any! (Quickdraw excepted) My prices may have been too high but I can’t lower them just because it’s a plein air event. I don’t think it would be fair to my galleries, and I just don’t want to complicate matters in that way. There were some beautiful pieces that didn’t sell despite reasonable prices, and we were all scratching our heads at those. I would have bought them if I could. I did get one low-ball offer on my Fremont Theater piece but I declined. One artist looked at me like I was an idiot for not taking the offer, (it was more than what I would get if a gallery sold it) but it’s the principle, you know?

On Sunday the show and sale continued, but I don’t have much to report. Spent the day around town just hanging out. At the end of the day I packed up all the paintings, said good bye to my friends and headed back home. The long drive gave me time to reflect on the week. Despite the fact that my efforts were not...remunerative, I had a great time painting all week. I painted better than last year, and that felt very satisfying. ‘Hopefully sales will pick up at some point, but with the way the economy is going, I’m not holding my breath. It’s a good time to just focus on improving my craft, I guess. As Niles said, time to build inventory!

San Luis Obispo Plein Air - Day 5

Wed, 8 Oct 2008 16:23:24 -0700

Friday. We have to turn in the paintings this afternoon, so that means the morning is spent touching up, signing, photographing and framing the paintings. I know from experience that this takes several hours, if not the entire morning, so I didn’t even plan to paint today.

I did have some time after lunch, and I saw that the clouds were rolling in from the coast, so I drove out to Montana de Oro State Park to see if I could get some photo references. Montana de Oro is a favorite destination for plein air painters, and there’s always some paintings from here at the festival. It’s really interesting to see how each artist’s interpretation differs from the others’. I hadn’t done one here this year, so I thought this would be a good time to just do a quick one. As I already had six paintings to turn in, this one was not going to be shown. In other words, completely no pressure. Came out looking like a Terry Miura. (Surprise!)

After we turned in the paintings, we had nothing more to do, so a bunch of us ended up at
a pub and discussed the week over beers. The weather forecast for Saturday called for rain, which would be very interesting, since our Quickdraw was scheduled for Saturday morning. Obviously not the ideal conditions for plein air painting, but I thought it would be fun to throw in a crooked wrench in there and see what people did. We talked about what we would do if it rained - most of us have enough experience so it’s wasn’t going to be a big deal. Just another obstacle.

We ended up at Firestone, a BBQ / beer joint popular with college students. Good times, but I ate too much. I’m really going to have to get back into exercising when I get home!

San Luis Obispo Plein Air - Day 4

Wed, 8 Oct 2008 15:06:13 -0700

Well I went back to the harbor to look at the boats again, and again I didn’t do a boat. I keep wanting to do a boat painting, but I don’t know why. I feel like I need to know why, in order to do one. Sometimes the challenge is reason enough, but not today.

So I drove into town, looking for something to paint. I drove up to the train station to see if I’d find something. I remembered that I did a wiper here last year. There was a Santa Fe engine sitting there in the morning sun, but the rest of the scene didn’t inspire me. I walked around all over the place looking for a vantage point but to no avail.

Conscious of the changing sun - if I didn’t hurry, I’d lose the morning light - I drove around town looking for something to catch my eye... and catch my eye something did. I set up right away and proceeded to paint the mannequins in the Victoria’s Secret window. As you can imagine, I got a lot of comments while painting this one. Most people thought it was great. At least funny. Some thought I was doing something perverse. I thought, cheap models! and they don’t move!” Anyway, I had fun painting this one.

I did find Vespas to paint afterall. While walking around town, I came across these two beauties in front of an Italian restaurant. I think they’re part of the decor or something. There was no direct sunlight illuminating the scooters, but at this point I didn’t care. I was happy to have found them. The only thing was that I could smell the delicious aroma of garlic cooking wafting from the restaurant. My stomach was growling and it was very distracting.

It’s much nicer to be painting real Vespas as opposed to the scale models I have at home. I may just have to get me one of these...

San Luis Obispo Plein Air - Day 3

Tue, 7 Oct 2008 17:08:42 -0700

Wednesday. I headed into town in the morning. Another spot I saw last year but wasn’t able to do, was this Vespa dealership. Shiny cool Vespas lined up in the lot was a feast for the eyes. So this year, I don’t remember why I didn’t do it last year. may be the subject matter was too intimidating? I dunno. Anyway, I went out this morning eager to tackle the Vespas. As luck would have it, all the scooters were inside the showroom, and lighting did nothing for me. I’d have to block sidewalk traffic to paint one, too, so I abandoned the idea and found the next best thing; bicycles. Not as cool as Vespas, but there were plenty of them in town, so I just had to pick a street corner with good painting conditions. And you see the result above. I was pleased with the simplicity of the statement.

I drove out to Los Osos for lunch. I met Dennis at Sylvester’s, a hole in a wall burger joint. I have to say, when I’m on these painting trips, I don’t eat too healthy. If they had a beer, I’d have had one. Good thing they didn’t, or I may have been out of commission for the afternoon. Not that that would have stopped me but a good burger deserves a good beer, you know.

Afternoon; I finished up the Fremont Theater painting. Or I should say, I got tired of working on it so I called it done. I’d gone past the point where the painting stops improving and starts getting worse, so I just stopped myself, focused on undoing the damage, and put it away. I’ll post a image of it on a later post (for which I have no other pic to show).

In the evening, some of us got together to celebrate Carolyn Hesse-Low’s birthday. We went to a very nice restaurant called the Big Sky Cafe, and had a good time. In attendance were Carolyn, Michael Situ, Niles Nordquist, Darrell Hill, Greg LaRock, Scott Anderson, Mike Rada, Jill Carver, and myself. Here is a bunch of high caliber artists from whom I can learn a lot just sitting around at the same table. I truly feel fortunate to be able to call them my friends and peers.

After a great dinner, I headed back to the ranch exhausted. Tomorrow I plan to do two city scenes. Stay tuned.

San Luis Obispo Plein Air - Day 2

Tue, 7 Oct 2008 14:58:02 -0700

On Tuesday, I started out by doing this farmscape on Los Osos Valley Road, on which there are many picturesque barns and such. I scoped out this one last year, but couldn’t do it due to high winds. This morning was very calm, so I thought I’d give it a try. After a few thumbnails I decided on a low-horizon composition, emphasizing the height of the eucalyptus trees behind the barns. A high-horizon composition would have introduced a big foreground. Sometimes a more inviting picture develops that way because you’re essentially building a bridge between the viewer and the distant subject matter. Laurie Kersey did just that with this same farm scene. I didn’t see it till much later but it was a very interesting comparison. Hers was a beautifully executed piece with the sun lighting the barns from the other side, and the silo completely in shadow. Nice.

After this piece, I went back to the harbor to see if a boat or two would indpire me. I saw a bunch of cool old boats but they didn’t interest me enough. I guess it’s not enough that the subject matter is paintable. it has to resonate with the artist emotionally, or it’s just a pretty picture. (Or an ugly one, depending on the painting) If it doesn’t do anything for the artist, it’ll never do anything for the viewer. Ultimately, though it’s not about the boats. I think it has a lot more to do with moods that one sees in the subject, and that has more to do with light and atmosphere than the thing itself. Perhaps I’ll do a boat some other time when the light is more evocative.

I did however find something that interested me; fish and chips. I ordered some at one of the little restaurants at the harbor and while it filled me up, I wasn’t impressed. I’m no connoisseur of fish and chips, but it seemed to me all I tasted was the batter and the grease, and not the fish. I suppose you can’t expect much out of frozen cod. Jill Carver, who is from London (which qualifies her as an expert in my book) concurred.

With greasy lunch in my system, I went back to the Fremont and resumed working on my painting. It’s a busy area and I got a lot of onlookers and comments. Most were polite and encouraging, but some were a little annoying. This one guy lectured me on the history of the theater - which was interesting at first, but soon I began to doubt the accuracy of his knowledge. I think he was just talking to hear himself talk. Another guy listed all these movies that the theater played in the recent years - all of which he didn’t see. I just nodded and responded with “uh huh” and “oh... really?” and “i heard that was a good one...”

At the end of the day, the painting was still not looking good, but it looked like I had a path to follow, so I called it progress, and quit for the day.

In the evening, there was a party for the artists and the collectors at this fancy club house in a fancy development on a fancy golf course in Nipomo. We brought a painting to show during the party - some brought one from home, others propped up one he/she did today or yesterday. It was nice talking to everyone and see how they were getting on so far, but dang... Nipomo is quite a drive from SLO. As it was in the opposite direction of Cayucos where Greg and I were staying, going home was just mind-numbing.

But so far so good. hopefully I’ll be able to finish the Fremont piece tomorrow so I can move on to other things in the afternoon light.

San Luis Obispo Plein Air - Day 1

Tue, 7 Oct 2008 07:45:29 -0700

Well it’s that time of the year again. The weather is starting to cool down, the college students are back in town, and painters from all over the place gather in San Luis Obispo for their annual Plein Air Festival.

This is my second year of participating in this event, and as I really enjoyed it last year, I was very much looking forward to going down there to paint again this year. As I have a few of these events under my belt now, I didn’t feel nervous at all, and didn’t even feel like I had to perform. I like a challenge, but I like a nice distraction-free chunk of time to paint even more. Competition? Didn’t feel it this year. It just felt like painting with, and hanging out with a bunch of good friends for a week. That competition stuff is, really, all in your head. Well I should just speak for myself but I think it’s just how you look at a situation.

Anyway, I drove down on Sunday. Took me five and a half hours to get there. I knew that the stretch of the interstate down the middle of California is, to put it bluntly, boring, and there’s nothing I like on the radio, so I downloaded a bunch of podcasts - This American Life, A Prairie Home Companion, PRI Selected Shorts - which made the time fly and I got there without falling asleep at the wheel.

Upon checking in at the SLO Art Center, I was greeted with warm welcome by the staff who efficiently stamped my panels and told me where the welcome party was. I was in no hurry, but I did have an idea about a painting I wanted to do during the week, so I took a detour and went to see the late afternoon light situation at the Fremont Theater, an old art deco building in downtown. I knew the building faced North, so I was uncertain as to whether the facade received any light at all. As luck would have it, it was lit beautifully at around 5:30 pm. Not much time for a plein air painting, but I could get around that by doing multiple sessions.

At the party, I caught up with many familiar faces. Some I haven’t seen in a year, while others I bumped into at just about every event this year. Nice to see everyone~

Also at the party I met my host for the week. I was to stay at her ranch in Cayucos, way up in the hills. Greg LaRock was also staying at the ranch, so I followed him to our base camp after dinner. Good thing, too, because it was so far out in the middle of nowhere that I doubt I would have found it in the pitch dark of the night!

The next morning, I was able to see the ranch in the glorious morning light. There were barns, farm equipment, eucalyptus and sycamore, cattle... lots of great stuff all around us and I thought, hey, I won’t even have to leave the place all week! I did get started with a painting of this old truck (1950 Ford with a USMC backside) as my first piece. Trucks and cars are challenging, but fun to do. I thought I’d get some of this drawing kinks out of my system, so that the rest of the week feels easier. They’re not easier, just feels that way.

The truck came out good, so with that out of the way, I headed down the hill. I wasn’t sure if I’d tackle boats this week, but I went to check them out anyway at the harbor at Morro Bay. There are some really nice looking old boats there. Saw some artists working on them, too.

In the afternoon, I went over to the Fremont to get my painting started. I decided to use my big panel, 18 x 27, since this was a complicated piece that was going to require several sessions. If I over-contemplated the complexity of this thing, I knew I’d probably talk myself out of it, so before I had a chance to do that I dove in.

Sure enough, after four hours it looked horrible. The light and shadow pattern I was looking for wasn’t going to happen till 5:30pm and I knew that, so I got all my drawing in and started painting it all in shadow, with the understanding that my lights will go on top later.Turns out, I got the shadows in way too high key - which I should have foreseen but didn’t, (didn’t over-contemplate the complexity of this thing...) so I had my work cut out for me for the next few afternoons.

So I ended the day with the Fremont painting started, nowhere near where I wanted it to be after one afternoon. But it’s still Monday and I had a lot of time, so no need to panic. I have time to do a bunch of other paintings should I decide to scrap this one.

Painting the city

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 21:58:36 -0700

I just sent off this, and another cityscape painting to Anne Irwin Gallery in Atlanta for their annual Erika Reade Show. At 18 x 24, it’s a pretty good size. I almost didn’t make the deadline, even though I had all summer to do these. Stuff gets in the way, youknowwhati’msayin?

Anyway, I’m off to San Luis Obispo in a ocuple of days for the big plein air event. I love the area so I am looking forward to spending a week there painting and hanging out with friends.

I do feel a little bit ill-prepared, not because I’m nervous about competition or anything of that nature - I’m kind of over that. I don’t know whether I’ll be in top form (doubt it) but even if I weren’t, I know I’ll have a good time. I think my slight unease is due to the fact that I don’t feel like I have a focus this time. Usually, when I go to a plein air event, I have some idea of what I want concentrate on. It might be the eucalyptus trees, or it might be the cliffs by the sea -- plenty of both in SLO -- but I just don’t have a single thing that I want to really focus my energy on. I might end up doing a variety of things as a result. Not that that’s a bad thing or anything, but I’d feel more comfortable with predefined challenges. I’ve got all week to paint so I’m sure I’ll hit upon something.

Just in case, I am bringing, along with smaller panels (9 x 12’s, 11 x 14’s), an 18 x 27. I couldn’t do that size in one sitting en plein air, but I could potentially return to the same spot several times, so I might just try something complicated. Take myself out of my comfort zone, as it were.

Not sure whether I’ll be able to post during the event, but if not, I’ll be taking notes and give you a full report upon my return~

Old Truck

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:48:03 -0700

There are a bunch of little one and two-block towns in the Sacramento Delta area which are historically significant. One such town is Locke, which is an old Chinese settlement and the street is narrow and lined with buildings from the 19th century, looking like they could fall over any minute. It looks like a movie set of an Old West Chinatown, but it is the real thing. Surprisingly, people actually live here in this piece of history, and operate businesses in the rickety old buildings.

Another such town is Walnut Grove, which is just a few minutes down the river from Locke. This was a Japanese settlement, and driving through it you feel like you’ve just taken a ride on a time machine. This old GM truck I found in Walnut Grove, just sitting there and looking operational. I’m not a car guy like Randy or Tim, but how can I resist this? I even had a perfectly shady spot across the street to set up my easel!

As I was painting, residents walked by going to the market to buy groceries or whatever, and majority of them were of Japanese descent. Some were even speaking Japanese (in which I am perfectly fluent). Have their families lived in Walnut Grove for generations? I’d be interested to find out more of their history.

Anyway, a fun subject to paint. The ellipses gave me a hell of a lot of trouble, but I think it came out ok. The white building was reflecting so much light into the shadow side of the truck that it’s almost as bright as the side that’s being lit directly by the sun. I thought that was challenging, and painted the values more or less literally. On another day, I’d probably have separated the values much more, depending on what I was trying to get across.

Back to the City

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:14:54 -0700

This is a studio painting based on an earlier piece I did on location in Monterey, Ca. The colors are a little different - a little higher keyed in some areas. I have been experimenting with relative values lately. More specifically, how I can have very dark areas AND very light-filled shadows. It seems like a conflict, but I think there must be a way to marry the very high contrast juxtaposition with a light filled shadows, which are necessarily higher in key and closer in value to the light side of the same surface.

One of the ways I can achieve this is to find areas within the shadows which can go darker, being careful not to allow these darker areas to touch a well-lit area. And also I’ve discovered that certain cast shadows which have such an obvious identity - either by having a strong, identifiable shape, or by having an unmistakable simplicity - can afford to deviate from the general, predictable value structure and still make sense.

I’m just spewing this stuff off the top of my head while the thought is still fresh. This probably isn’t making any sense to you, because I haven’t given you context or examples to illustrate my point. And it’s nearly hopeless to try and describe this stuff in the abstract. Well, that’s what Sargent said, and if he couldn’t do it...

May be I will do a better job of articulating this when I have a better grasp of it myself~

Donner Summit Plein Air Workshop

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:15:13 -0700

This weekend was the two-day plein air painting workshop at the beautiful Lake Serena.
The weather was propitious, the scenery beautiful, and the people fun and nice. We had all the ingredients for a great workshop weekend, and we had a blast!

I drove up the mountain on Friday afternoon, and arrived at K’s beautiful house just steps away from the lake. This was our base camp where we gathered in the mornings before we headed out to the painting locations, where we had lunches, and apres-painting wines. This is also where I slept, in the lap of luxury. Thanks K!

After settling in and having a cup of strong coffee, we headed out to do a little painting. The workshop hadn’t started yet, so this was just for fun, and for me, practice. As we were painting at the lodge where many of the students were staying, (a very nice lodge, if you ever get up there) some of them found us and joined us for the afternoon. I painted the canoes sitting on the beach. A simple enough painting, but I really liked it. And I liked the fact that it more or less painted itself, boosting my confidence for the demos that I would be doing on the following days.

Afterwards, we cracked open a bottle of wine back at the house; besides K and myself, Debbie and Mike were also staying there so we had an instant party. I’ve known these guys for a long time now, so nothing was sacred, so to speak. Not that it got outta hand or anything. Just a fun bunch.

After dinner at the lodge, Jane arrived to join us, and we had more wine. The workshop promised to be a lot of fun already.

On Saturday morning, everyone gathered at the house and we did a little intro. I knew everyone already and many knew each other well, so the mood was very casual and enthusiastic. I gave everyone the printed handouts - lots of basic and not so basic information about painting en plein air. And also, this really nifty little wire-bound book that I made just before the workshop;

It’s a twenty page full colored book (6 x8) containing images of all the paintings and sketches that I did in Ediza Lake just a few weeks ago, plus some bits of plein air wisdom that I picked up along the way. I was really excited to have this for myself, and I thought it would be the perfect thing to give to all the students for this workshop. As we painted the lake, and pine trees and such, the images were very relevant, and still very fresh because they were done just recently. I hope everyone liked it~

This is my first demo. Done on location, I took it from thumbnail to finish in one sitting, talking the entire time about what I was doing and why. What I really tried to focus on was the importance of having a strong focal point, and what you can do to emphasize it, and de-emphasize the none focal elements. Establishing and maintaining the hierarchy of relative importance is, in essence how I manage my compositions, so this is what I stressed in this demo. Of course, I talked about everything else too, so it was a lot of information in a few hours. If people got one thing out of all the stuff I gave them, then it was worthwhile. After all, you can only digest a little bit at a time!

After lunch, we went back out and this time, situated ourselves on the beach at the Lodge. The people at the lodge were very friendly and generous, and allowed us bunch of unruly artists to frolic wielding brushes loaded with wet oil paint on their private beach. We gave them a lot of business, but I’m sure that’s beside the point.

The paddle boat painting is just something I did in between advising students individually. Just a quick 20 minute sketch. I think everyone had a productive afternoon, and by the time we were done, we were pretty tired. We ended with a group crit at the site, and called it a day. The fun didn’t end there, however. There was wine to be had, and later on, we had a long table at the lodge where we had a very nice dinner.

On the second day, we moved to a different location to paint. Jane offered to pose for us, so we had a model for those who wanted the challenge. The view was pretty and the temperature couldn’t be nicer.

Toward the end of the morning, I set up to do another demo. This time, I did a vertical piece, and painted a sailboat which wasn’t there when I painted, but did appear earlier and everyone went oooh look at that~. So I decided to do a demo on improvisation.

The idea was to paint something that wouldn’t sit still, like a moving sail boat or clouds. It’s not the same thing as making stuff up as you paint, but deciding on how you’re going to tackle the painting, and sticking to the plan. So that I wouldn’t be able to cheat, I explained exactly what I was going to do before I started, and set up the background with the invisible sail boat in mind.

Along the way I talked about atmospheric perspective, and I used the improvised background (added more layers of hills) and the clouds to illustrate my point. This was a much quicker demo than the previous days, simply because I didn’t want to be too redundant, and so I went pretty much full speed. Consequently, it’s a little sloppy.

In the afternoon we went back to the same spot and did another round. Everyone was starting to get the hang of massing, and worked with a more confident brush.

At the end of the day, we had a critique, and as I had hoped, everyone enthusiastically participated. Much more precise and in depth than yesterday’s group critique, which is an indication of increased awareness and confidence. I didn’t have to add too much to everyone else’s constructive crits, which is great because it means people are catching all the problems themselves. With much practice, everyone will be able to do this before and during the painting process, and not just afterwards.

All in all, I think it was a very successful workshop, and it looked to me like everyone got a lot out of it, and had fun doing it. What more can I ask? Next time, I will build on this experience and hopefully continue to do get better at teaching workshops!

Roller Coaster Redux

Tue, 9 Sep 2008 20:37:26 -0700

I’ve been working on this one for a long time. It’s the next evolution of the roller coaster painting which I painted for the Crocker Museum Auction this past May. As that one was a hell of a lot of fun to do, and presented itself with all kinds of different possibilities, I decided to try out some of these ideas in a new painting. First thing is the format. The last one was a 24 x 24 inch square. This one is much bigger at 30 x 40. I think I would love to see this even bigger, like 48 x 60. I may get to it once I catch up with all the other stuff I have to do between now and next spring.

Another, more important difference between the Crocker one and this, is the level of involvement in the process. By “process” I mean surface manipulation and non-sequential way of working, pushing and pulling, searching, all those things which tend to create interesting accidents but kind of goes against the alla prima painting I’ve been doing en plein air. Because the time is limited in a plein air painting, speed and efficiency become very important. Consequently, I tend to go from point A to point B in a near straight line - well not really, but my intention usually is to go in a straight line. That means knowing before I start what I’m going to do and where I’m going to end up.

In a studio “process” painting, there’s a lot more of what I call playing with paint. I let surfaces dry, try a little glazing, staining, wiping off, scraping, drawing on top, mushing thick paint around, obliterating perfectly good areas just to free myself from feeling too precious with one area... you get the idea.

So going back to the difference between this painting and the previous roller coaster painting. In the earlier one, I did a significant amount of process painting, but it had a lot of alla prima influence. I kept to a plan and didn’t do any intentional obliteration or anything that would deliberately set me back a step or two. In this one, I gave myself more freedom to push paint around. The result is a more intuitive abstraction in some areas, and more interesting and unexpected interaction between and among strokes.

The next painting will be even more liberating and liberated. I hope. It’s a lot of fun to do but can’t do it with a deadline because obviously, I don’t know when I’m moving forward and when I’m going backwards. There are some design ideas that I’d like to try, too. But what I’m most itching to do is to do another one, HUGE. Changing one thing (like format) only from one piece to the next in a series is, I find, extremely instructive because you essentially are comparing apples to apples.

But, it’ll have to wait till I finish my current set of obligations. I’ll get to it, don’t worry.

In the meantime, if you are interested in this painting, you will be able to view and purchase it from Sekula’s in Sacramento. Please contact them directly.

Ediza Lake Pack Trip - Day 6

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 21:53:42 -0700

Thursday. Before breakfast, I decided to paint Bill and his tent. Looking into the sun, I used an umbrella to shade my palette and my eyes. The areas which are lit by the sunlight are pretty much washed out (excepting the foreground, where there’s no rim light). This is the case where, in order to see anything in the shadows (most of the tent, for example) I had bring it up in value. Consequently, the lit areas must be even lighter in value. It’s exactly like taking a photo with the exposure set to the shadow areas. By not painting the shadow areas dark, you get a sense of a lot of ambient light, which is often the case when you’re outdoors.

After breakfast, (biscuits and sausages with gravy) Kevin and I headed back up to the upper meadow area. It looked like it was going to be quite warm, so I searched around for a shady spot to set up. In doing so, I back tracked a little bit and found a view looking up at some boulders. Kevin I think kept going up the hill.

The dynamic angle is a pretty unusual choice for me, and so is the blue blue sky. I knew I’d get some comments from my friends, and I did. (“Oh my god, what did you do? run out of grey paint?”) Believe it or not, I actually had it even more saturated at first. A trip like this - where you’re in an unfamiliar and unusual environment and with inspiring colleagues, and you’re not expected to perform or sell - really frees you up to try new things and expand your horizons. I’m very happy with this sketch.

One thing that always gets me is that because I’m focused on the task at hand, I forget to drink water. And when you’re up in the high country, hiking around in the sun, hydration, or lack thereof, is can be bad news. Half way through this painting I started to get a headache, which soon grew in intensity and I had to quit. Trekked back to base camp, drank more water and took some ibuprofen. I was good as new in about half an hour - just in time for lunch.
Throughout the week, we had perfect weather. The guys said they got rained on a lot last year, so I came prepared for wet weather but pretty much we had clear blue skies the whole time, until this afternoon. We still didn’t get any rain (not complaining) but we had some nice clouds building up which cooled us down and of course, offered yet another painting opportunity;

I wasn’t decisive enough with my design and I kept fussing over the cloud masses. In the end, I scraped much of it and repainted the sky in about 10 minutes. In hindsight, I can see that the problem is not with the clouds but with the overall composition; because the sky is full of activity, and so is the land, and because the land and sky is 50/50, it’s uninteresting. The water offers some reprieve, but again, it’s too similar in size, shape, weight and even color to the distant mountains. In other words, you can’t fix a bad design with pretty clouds.

After dinner (steak!) we still had light so everyone brought out several of their paintings and we spread them out on a boulder and had a little exhibition for ourselves. It was really interesting to see how everyone handled different challenges. Some very nice work, and each one oozed the artist’s identity. Very inspiring.

So this is my last painting of the trip. The next day, (friday) we had some time in the morning if anyone wanted to paint, but I wasn’t set up to carry wet paintings. (most of my pieces were dry or near dry thanks to liberal amounts of Liquin) And besides, I wanted to hike down the mountain before it got really hot.

The hike down was definitely easier and faster than going up. We got down long before the mules did (we left before the mules arrived to pick up our things) so we spent the afternoon at Reds Meadow accompanied by burgers and beer. After we said good bye, Clark, Tim, and I took off and drove back. It was 11pm by the time we reached Sacramento. Exhausted, but feeling really good.

I’ve had time to reflect on the trip since coming home, and I must say, this was the best painting trip I’ve ever taken. I had a incredible time, and learned a ton, and best of all, came away inspired. And really, what more could I ask for?

Ediza Lake Pack Trip - Day 5

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 12:02:53 -0700

Wednesday. I woke up feeling sluggish. The light was, once again, beautiful at this hour, but it looked like most everyone was having a slow start. I can’t speak for others but I think the hike up was finally catching up to me. You know what they say about fatigue showing up later and later as you get older? Anyway, with coffee cup in my left hand, I just made chicken scratches in my sketchbook till breakfast.

Felt much better after filling up with corn pancakes, sausages, bacon, and melon slices, and made a big hike down the hill about 20 yards and set up my easel, facing the rocks across the lake. (the painting at the top of the post) As typical of an early morning painting, the light moved fast and changed everything from moment to moment. So the strategy was to block in the shadow shapes early, and stick to it no matter how it changed afterwards.

The lit trees (lower right) were not there, exactly. They were out of the picture plane, but I moved them to take advantage of the big dark shadow of the rocks as a backdrop against the trees in light. They also gave me a good reason to add a few different strokes in the water (suggested reflections), to break up the horizontal stripe effect.

My afternoon painting is a repeat of the same rocks I painted a few days ago, only from a closer vantage point. I introduced some foreground elements, and gave them a visual focal point (sharp highlights on the branches). The foreground elements aren’t the point of interest, however. The afternoon light hitting the rocks are. Deliberately focusing on the subordinate player rather than the star, is an interesting and very effective way to step away from the obvious. I think, if done right, it helps to make the painting less about an obvious “thing” and more about the overall view, and / or the mood it creates. As with anything else, though, if it is not done thoughtfully, it becomes a cheap gimmick. I think I did OK on this one.

Before dinner, we usually gathered around and had happy hour, relaxing after an exhausting day of painting and talking shop. Today’s topic was workshops. Everyone in our group is a seasoned pro, and did workshops more or less regularly. It was really great to compare notes on what to do, what not to do, good ideas about teaching methods and exercises, hand outs and prep. It was a very insightful and instructive discussion. I just love this kind of free give and take of information. Everyone was very generous about sharing knowledge, and everyone benefited. In my experience, not all groups have this kind of dynamic. I’m extremely glad that I get to be a part of this experience.

So we drank to art, and shared experiences, to Edgar and Camille, and to Tim’s health, because as it turned out, it was his birthday.

Ediza Lake Pack Trip - Day 4

Tue, 2 Sep 2008 17:16:14 -0700

When I awoke, the sun was already up. Cradling the morning cup o’ joe, I thought about what to do. The others were setting up around the base camp, picking out this view or that. The back lit morning light toward the east was very pretty; may be too pretty for me. I’d never do it justice. Tim started to paint near where I was sipping coffee, and he had a very nice hat on. (Tim is known for his taste in hats) There was my sbject. I really like this little sketch for its suggestive quality. I got Tim’s gesture right, but not the gesture of his likeness. I think I got his neck too thick and the jawline too strong. The hat looks good though, so who cares?

Breakfast: Breakfast Burrito with scrambled eggs and chorizo, home fries, fruit and OJ.

Afterwards, we headed out toward the upper meadow area which Clark had scouted out the day before. We had to wade through water (with all our gear on our backs), scale rocks, hop across boulders to get across creeks, and hike up a steep incline over wobbly rocks to get there. (And people think our job is EASY. pshhhhh)

Walking around at 9300 ft is not as bad as I thought. In fact, I hardly felt the altitude. That is, until I started to climb. A few steps of climbing and I was breathing like I just ran a mile. Not that I can run a mile at sea level, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, Kim, Clark, Tim, and I climbed up this steep hill to the upper meadow area, and when we got there, we were rewarded for our efforts with a view which looked like it came right out of The Sound of Music or something. It was stunning. There was a stream running through it, making small waterfalls and inviting pools.

The sun was beating down pretty strong, so I walked around looking for a shady spot. I found one with the little waterfall right in front of me. I don’t do this kind of subject matter normally, but then again, I don’t paint mountains normally. As long as I have the opportunity, why not try it?

I did struggle with simplifying the many thousand little rock shapes. The big rocks were variegated, too, which made things difficult. I think it was a very good exercise. Now I really wonder how Sargent did it. (he did a lot of rocks and boulders in his later years)

My afternoon painting was another sort of exercise in simplification. See, the granite boulders around the lake have a whole lot of cracks and small shapes, and they’re all over the place. One might say that all you see is the texture of these rocks. One problem with this presents, is the lack of obvious focal points. If the sun is hitting the rock just so, yes, there might be a composition that pops out at you, but often, that is not the case.

What I wanted to do, then, was to take an almost abstract texture of a landscape, and force upon it a focal point by picking an (almost) arbitrary focal point. By manipulating value contrasts, saturation relationships, edge work, and judicious editing of detail in the surrounding areas, you can come away with a workable organization. In theory, anyway.

So that’s what I set out to do. I think that I could have spent another 3 hours fine tuning this thing, but of course, the sun doesn’t wait that long, and it was soon dinner time. We had grilled chicken, corn on the cob, and rice with broccoli and cheese. There was wine, there was vodka. Greg even busted out a bottle of Scotch which noone but he could pronounce. Needless to say, our conversation became well lubricated. Much talk surrounded Camille, our friend who joined us at the camp. Despite accusations of plastic personality and stiff demeanor, (all in good fun) she enlivened our evenings to no end.

No bears tonight.

Ediza Lake Pack Trip - Day 3

Tue, 2 Sep 2008 13:50:54 -0700

I woke up around 6am, still but not too sore. Although I didn’t sleep too well because my sleeping bag, while keeping me nice and warm, was a bit too restrictive - sort of like sleeping with my feet tied together - I did wake up feeling well rested. A little stiff all over, but not too bad.

First thing is first. I got myself a cup of hot coffee. And boy did it taste good. The sun was just peeking over the eastern peaks, and giving us a dramatic first light on the Minarets. Paul and a few others were already set up and painting. I quickly finished my painting and got set up near the camp. It’s beautiful everywhere so there was really no need to go walking in search of “a good spot”.

I did my first on a 6 x 8 piece of loose linen taped onto a masonite board. This is how I did all my paintings during the trip. I used liberal amounts of liquin to help the drying, and as I finished each painting, I hung them on a nylon cord to dry, just like a line of laundry stretched across two pine trees.

After the first painting, it was time for breakfast. Penny made some cowboy quiche, toasted bagels with cream cheese, some sliced melons, and OJ. And of course hot coffee. I don’t usually eat breakfast, but I wasn’t going to resist this. I ate heartily, and felt energized to start my next painting.

I decided to try and walk over to the inlet area, not too far from camp. Kevin, Kim, and Sharon were headed that way, so I joined them. My backpack held the Soltek easel, paints, brushes, turp can, umbrella, paper towels and other small stuff, and I hand-carried my palette and the masonite board on which I taped another sheet of linen. In all, I had to carry about thirty five pounds worth of art gear, and I must say, it was quite a lot to carry up and down the trail.

Near the inlet I found this view. I liked the layers of boulder masses. In reality, there was very little atmospheric perspective. The air was so clear that the masses in the background had as much contrast and color as the ones in the foreground. Had I painted them as I saw them, I would have had trouble describing depth. Sure, overlap, changing scales, edge work, and other devices help to create convincing depth, but atmospheric perspective is my favorite, so I routinely manipulate the visual elements in this department to create depth in my paintings.

After lunch, many of us had some downtime. Taking advantage of the not-so-inspiring mid day light, I took a little nap in my tent, and did some scribbling in my sketchbook.

At around 3pm, as the sun started move to the west, I set up to do another painting.
Kevin and I stood side by side and painted almost identical compositions. It was really interesting to see how we saw color differently. I’ve long known that I don’t see blues and violets as intensely as many of the artists I know, and this afternoon was a good illustration of that. I used to fret about the fact that my colors weren’t bright, but now I’ve embraced it as part of my visual identity. I rather like muted colors, so why try to be someone else?

Dinner was pasta with sausages in tomato sauce, caeser salad, and garlic bread. And as you can see, it was accompanied by some very nice wines and beers. I think Bill brought these particular wines. The Malbec is an Argentine wine. I know that the grape is originally from europe (Spain?) but all the Malbecs I’ve ever had are from Argentina. Not that it matters. I just wondered where I could score a Spanish Malbec.

The dessert was a fresh carrot cake baked perfectly in the dutch oven. Amazing what Penny can do in that primitive looking thing.

The wind started to kick up and it became quite chilly. Inside the tent and the sleeping bag was nice and cozy, and I went to sleep listening to the wind pushing and shoving the trees above.

In the middle of the night, I was suddenly awakened by a loud crashing noise, followed by fierce barking. It could only mean one thing; there was a bear in the camp, and Nowena was chasing it around. I heard the barking move to and fro, and actually felt the bear thundering by my tent as it tried to run away from Nowena. Very exciting indeed. I unzipped my tent and poked my head out. But I couldn’t see anything except other people’s flash lights searching for it.

The bear came back a little later and Nowena chased him out again. This time, I didn’t even open my eyes. One episode was enough for me. I needed to sleep so I tuned out the barking and thoughts of bear attacks, and had a more-or-less peaceful rest of the night.

Ediza Lake Pack Trip - Day 2

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 20:05:26 -0700

The Hike In. We assembled at the hotel parking lot at 7 am and headed for the bagel joint for some carb and protein. Then drove down to the pack station where gruff looking wranglers waited to load our stuff onto pack mules.

We truly had a lot of stuff. Even the wranglers were commenting, “Look at all this crap!”. But hey, if we’re not the ones carrying this stuff...

There were ten of us, and it took eleven mules to carry all our junk. Plus, the kitchen stuff, which went ahead of us the day before, accounting for six more mules. Quite a party, indeed!

After we dropped off our gear at the pack station, we proceeded to hike toward Ediza Lake, which was approximately seven and a half miles away, including maximum ascent of about 1500 ft. That wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t taking place at an already high elevation of 9000 ft. As it were, we huffed and puffed and labored our way up the mountain. It wasn’t all tough climbing, though. Parts were flat or down hill, which were a welcome reprieve. All parts of the hike were beautiful as far as views go.

On the way up on our trek, we passed Shadow Lake, which was just so pretty and inviting. I suppose we could have stopped for a dip, (some of us did on the way back) but we were all

eager to get to Ediza, so we pressed on. We started as a group of ten, but soon broke up into smaller groups due to the fact that we each had our own pace. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not in shape, but perhaps pushing the stroller along the American River Trail the last few months has helped; I didn’t suffer too much. It was a hard hike, but not to the point where I was crawling on my hands and knees (as I envisioned). In fact we made it up in about three and a half hours. Not too bad at all.

Once we got there,we sat around marveling at the surrounding scenery and taking photos of the Minarets and the Ritter and Banner Peaks, of the meadows and the rugged rocks surrounding the deep blue of Ediza Lake. What an amazing, awe-inspiring landscape, to put it mildly. Penny, our cook, and her bear dog Nowena (so named because she’s a girl. Get it?) greeted us, and while we waited for the rest of our party and the mules to arrive, told us about the bear that came into camp the night before and wouldn’t go away. Oh boy...

Within a few hours the mules arrived and the camp was set up. We were too exhausted to paint that afternoon (except may be Bill) so we just relaxed ant took in the beautiful environment, and settled in.

As the sun descended behind the Western Peaks, we enjoyed beer, wine, and I don’t know what else, until Penny called us to dinner and we lined up at the kitchen for our first camp dinner. Though the guys told us that the food would be good, I really didn’t know just how good. As it turns out, Penny’s cowboy cooking exceeded all expectations.

On the menu were barbequed ribs with baked potatoes, corn bread and cole slaw, and strawberry short cake for dessert. How’s that for eating well in the wilderness?! Amazingly, all this stuff is done on site with a charcoal grill, propane stoves, and dutch ovens. And everything tasted delicious. So good that I almost felt guilty.
Add to that the spectacular last light on the Minarets, and our dinner was fit for Kings, I tell you. The only thing missing was the camp fire. Unfortunately, no fires are allowed at Ediza. ( fragile ecosystem. can’t have campers collecting and burning fallen logs and mulch) But the great food and the breathtaking view and most of all this good company more than made up for it.

Speaking of spectacular, the night sky was nothing short of magical. But I’ll talk about that in a later post. We hit the sack around 9pm, with great anticipation for an early morning painting the next day.

Ediza Lake Pack Trip - Day 1

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 11:48:48 -0700

If ever there was a memorable plein air trip, this was it. This summer I went with a bunch of artist friends to Ediza Lake in the Eastern Sierras to paint the spectacular views which Edgar Payne painted in his day.

At the invitation of my friend Paul Kratter, I gathered my camping stuff and art gear, and joined the trek. We were to spend five nights up in the high country and just paint without the distractions associated with a more...civilized...world (mowing the lawn comes to mind).

So the week-long adventure started on Saturday last, when Tim Horn and Clark Mitchell showed up at my door to pick me up on their way up. We loaded all my junk on top of an already substantial pile in Clark’s van, and off we went.

After a quick lunch in Placerville, we drove up highway 50 towards Lake Tahoe. Just before the lake, we took a right turn and drove through Hope Valley (a beautiful place to paint in the fall, with blazing aspens) and over the pass and found ourselves on highway 395, which is a very road-trippy kind of open road. I love the 395 for its expansive vistas and the little towns with old buildings and funky motel signs.

A couple of hours later, we reached our destination for the day: the town of Mammoth Lakes. I used to come here in my early college days to ski, but that was *coughtwentyfivecough* years ago and try as I might, I did not recognize the town at all.

The plan was for everyone to meet at the hotel, have a few beers and go out to a nice restaurant, get acclimated a bit to the altitude, spend the night at the hotel, and hike up the mountain the next day with fresh feet. And that’s exactly what we did. As we drove up to the parking lot of the hotel we saw Greg LaRock tooling around his mountain of stuff. I think the last time we saw one another was during the Napa Valley event in... May? Something like that. After a hearty round of hellos we got our rooms and stretched our legs. I was sharing a room with Kevin Courter, and found him next door watching the Olympics with Paul (Kratter) and Bob (sorry Bob I didn’t get your last name. Someone tell me).

Seeing that the U.S. vs China volleyball match was looking like it was going to drag on, we headed out for some beers. Bill Cone, Kim Lordier, and Sharon Calahan caught up with us and had a merry ol’ time.

After a few rounds we headed over to Nevados restaurant where we had our last civilized dinner for a while. Great wines to go with even better company. Our anticipation levels of the upcoming week increased with each sip, until we finally had to head back to the hotel and get a good night’s rest.

Back to the figure

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:00:27 -0700

I went last night to do a little figure painting at my old studio downton, now called (I think) S12. It felt a little strange walking in there, as it is no longer my space, but still has my easels and walls and lights and other stuff in there. Sort of sensory disconnect.
Much has changed, yet not much has changed, you know what I mean?

It was nice to see everyone there, though. and I appreciated the warm welcome. Setting up I felt like I should take as little space as possible, out of everyone’s way. Funny, I never really had thoughts like that there when it was mine. The coffee was still good, which made me feel right at home.

As for my painting, I was out of practice and it showed. What a dreadful mess I made of Steve. The lighting wasn’t what I was used to - I always had the flourescents on to paint under, (the cool flourescents are closer to white light than incandescents or halogens which have a lot of color in them) but now they were off, and the halogens were on. The lighting on the model was the same, but how we see the colors on our canvases and on palettes is altered significantly. Under the halogen lights, everything leans toward warm so we tend to compensate by painting in cooler tones. When the flourescents were turned back on at the end of the session, I (and others too) saw my painting and said “yikes”.

I can’t blame it all on the lights, though. I was really out of practice and struggled with drawing, values.... everything. But it was good to get back into it again, however clumsily I painted.

Tomorrow, I am taking off for a week to go paint in the Eastern Sierras, to Lake Ediza. I’m going with a bunch of artists to paint Edgar Payne Country! We will get help carrying all our stuff from a team of 10 mules, plus a cook is coming with us to keep us fed and do the dishes. All we have to do is to paint. (that is, after hiking for 7 miles or so at some 9500 ft elevation) Most of the artists on this trip are friends of mine, and fantastic painters all. With no pressure to perform or sell (as we do at various plein air events), I am really looking forward to just paint for the fun of it. I’ll be taking my Soltek easel along, and in the interest of packing less, I am bringing a stack of loose precut canvases rather than mounted panels. Because they don’t need to be frame-ready on the spot, I figured this would make it easier. I will have just one masonite board, on which I’ll tape each piece of canvas as I need it. How will I carry them all back? I am counting on Liquin to do its job and dry quick enough to stack them all at the end of the week. I’m sure it won’t all be dry, but I can live with “mostly dry” .

It’s a very remote and wild area, so I won’t be posting here during the trip, but I’ll take notes and report back with lots of pictures as soon as I get back. So stay tuned!

Oh by the way, the Donner Summit Plein Air Workshop that I’m doing on September 13-14 is almost full. There’s only one or two spots left (as of last night) so if you’re interested but haven’t signed up, please contact K. Chesebro at krchesebro@rcsis.com . Or call K directly at (916) 801-7010.

See you in a week or so!