Evolution of a Painting

Day 1


Day 2


Day 3


Day 4


Painting outdoors is exhilarating and challenging. To work from life develops into a relationship between the artist and his/her subject. Empathy increases in proportion to the duration of the project. Colours shift as the sun arcs across the sky, various animals impose themselves into the piece and breezes (or should I say gales) create modulating reflections on grasses, leaves and water.

I'm posting a series of stages that one painting has taken throughout four sessions outdoors on four different days.
Day 1 Initial block-in with thin paint, lots of observation
Day 2 Starting with far hills developed trees, grasses and sky.
Day 3 Building on with thicker paint, making stronger decisions, what stays and what goes. Wild winds came close to picking up my umbrella and dragging my whole painting station over the cliff. For now I'm learning to paint one handed using the other to secure my gear. Shall come up with a better plan later.
Day 4 Worked in the studio to escape the hot, dry conditions in the bush. Need to get the painting back out once more but I think it would be irresponsible to drive my truck out in the present high hazard conditions.

After investing so much concentration on this place I know that if ever I see this painting in the future I will clearly recall the heat, wind, bugs, scents and visual impressions of this particular time. Painting from photos in my studio never treats me to these re-collective bonus' .

Natures Tapestry

Worked in the Okanagan back country today. What an amazing world we live in. All these various flowers are growing just steps from each other and in abundance across the hillsides. The challenge of painting a landscape in this environment is deciding how to simplify this beautiful chaos of color into a pleasing composition that captures the spirit of the time and place without overloading our senses.
Hills that appear generally green when viewed casually transform into an explosion of color as your eyes adjust to the different values. You will observe artists squinting frequently as they try to reduce the visual noise down into a melody or ballad.
Squinting is a good way to simplify values too. Try it sometime, close down your eyes until your lashes create a veil that reduces a very busy scene into several simple shapes. This little excercise helps you to establish the framework or bones of your painting.
My buddy Cal worked on several small watercolours of trees that he's going to base an oil painting on. I started a 24X24 oil that I was able to block in today and will return to continue working on asap. I've posted this initial layin and will share this painting when its completed.

Enthusiasm and Despair

Creating art, like any other discipline, alternates between periods of happy labour and times of total discouragement. Sometimes my paintings mock me and with no little drama I am compelled to rip them off their stretcher bars and turf them in the garbage. I've leaned that it's during these psychological "root canals" that opportunity will usually present itself. It may be that when all I can paint is crap I am more willing to take risks or perhaps just persisting through the despair allows me to benefit from the creative cycle's natural rhythm.
I am currently reading "Faith &Doubt " by John Ortberg. He makes a great point when he says to allow doubt to sharpen your faith. Whatever your calling or passion is, when failure and despair rear their heads and threaten you with lies of futility keep pressing on and your vision will eventually clear.
I've posted one image of where my failures go and a couple of happier ones that were conceived in doubtful but tenacious persistence.

NOTE: I will be leading ten people through a two day plein air workshop September 18-19 . If you are interested in participating drop me an e-mail and I'll fill you in on particulars.

HandWorks Show

Friday the sun broke through, allowing Mike Jorden to demonstrate some live oil painting to the delight of many people passing by on the streets of Oliver. His painting of the Oliver Hotel did not seem to be jeopardized just because the subject burned to the ground a couple of weeks ago. He had started the piece prior to the disaster, and when I saw it, he was morphing it into a contrast between the old days and today. He is an accomodating man is Mike.
Inside the Handworks Gallery, Thea Haubrich introduced encaustic artmaking (melted beeswax and paint) to some very enthusiastic people. You can see Theas' work at www.encaustic.ca .
My painting "Orchard Rhythm" was selected for second place by the FCA jury, which was a treat. If you are in Oliver anytime over the next month, drop into Handworks Gallery to see the show. The Leir House show in Penticton runs for a month as well, and I think it has some excellent work in it well worth the visit.