Separating Light and Shadow

In sun conditions there are obvious shadows.  If your concept is to show them, then you need to show separation (light and shadow painting).  Every brush stroke must be in the light or in the shadow.  No in betweens.

Without a monotone value underpainting many people lose the separation as they struggle to tell the value of colour passages.

Upstream, In Process, Finishing to Follow

In order to emphasize the separation I sometimes resort to more than just painting the lights in a hi value and the shadows in a low value.

I might;

Paint lights in one base pigment and the shadows in another pigment of the same family.  (Here I used Naples Yellow Deep in the light and Yellow Orange in the shadow)

Paint the lights in semi neutral and the shadows in high chroma.  Or reverse this.

Paint the lights warm and the shadows cool.  Or reverse this.

Paint the lights opaque and the shadows transparent.  Or reverse this.

Paint hard edges in the light and soft in the shadows for a more vague look.

Paint lights with cool reflected light and shadows with hot reflect light.  Or reverse this.

Paint the lights with texture and the shadows without texture.  Or reverse this.

Paint gradations in the light and not in the shadow.  Or reverse this.

The most important thing is to be able to answer the question "Is this stroke in the light or in the shadow", and then "Is the value right?"

Algonquin Trip III

With the passage from snow to mud and stick and all the way past the delicate greens Algonquin is fading from memory.  But one last instalment.   On one morning we actually did paint inside the park.  After paying tribute to Tom Thomson at the Canoe lake put in we decided to move on.  That lead us quickly to Smoke lake.  Here the ice was rotting aroung the perimeter of the lake.

Smoke Lake - Distorted Water Colour.....

The sun actually appeared and tempted me to chase it from my setup.

Start Under Gray Sky

But no, it didn't last long.  I stayed with my double complements of Viridian + Alizarin and Yellow and Violet.  Beautiful Grays.  Then the problem is how to make the image interesting.  

Smoke Lake Breakup

Here she waits for an energized eye and some final paint, and a composition change.

All the paintings from the trip have been in the studio receiving attention and getting closer to finished.  Happens this way on a trip filled with painting.  The exception is the quick 8x10s.  They are immediate.  Can't take that from them.  The most difficult painting is based on the falls on Hollow River.  There is a lot of drawing involved and ditto for simplification.  I thought I was further along in the painting.  Now the memory is fading.

Algonquin Trip II

We had a special treat provided by Ron M. the owner of the local art shop.  He 4 wheeled us in to the Oxtongue River Rapids.  The morning was misty and heavy overcast.

AY Jackson site on the Oxtongue River Rapids

So, close values, no shadows, not much vibrant colour.  The birches and other trees had a certain Group of 7 mystique.

A bit of foreground colour

I set up here.  A lot of mist but changing fairly quickly.

A Start

I used a pair of complements, alizarin and viridian (cool greys), and Ultramarine and Orange.  The others were deep into it.

John's Perspective

The mist was rising so I had to paint from memory.  Keeping the values close with some foreground clarity, I took this back to the studio.

Wolf Tracks, 16x20, Oil on Canvas on Board

Notice how clear the subject looked in this photo.  The mist and light had changed considerably.  Less mystery.

Studio Touches, Studio Light

Back from Algonquin

We had a great trip to Algonquin.  Ground still snow covered, beginning to rot the ice around the shore of some lakes.  Spring melt in progress.  It was around 4C most days.  We got back before all the flooding and apparently we had better weather than at home in the south.

Oxtongue River Bend

We were told by local artists that this was the site of Tom Thomson's iconic Norther River.  So we had to paint it upon arrival our first day.

Grey Day Version

Here is my effort part way through the session.  John Presseault swears he stood in Tom's very tracks.  

Site Overgrown

Now most of our time in the area was under overcast skies.  Challenging to paint, values close, colours subdued.  How to make this interesting?  Chroma control, subtle greys, interesting composition.  That requires a lot of design and installation of elements.

From this site we hit the Oxtongue Rapids.

Putting Canvas on Board

Just a week left before our journey to Algonquin for early spring painting.  I enjoy taking boards and canvas on board on these ventures.  They are light, compact, and sturdy.  I make my own.  This trip will see 6x8, 8x10, 11x14, 12x16, and 16x20 along with a few stretched canvases in 12x20 etc.  I expect to work most on 12x16 and 16x20 with a few 8x10s in honour of Tom Thomson.  We will be along the Oxtongue River where he painted Northern River (sketch for).

Here is what I do to make my boards.  First, I cut hardboard or Baltic Birch to the sizes I wish.  Next, I cut canvas (primed from a roll)  or linen to the same sizes but about one half inch oversize on both dimensions.  Then I apply zero ph glue to the board.

Board, Glue, Roller, Plastic Trowel In Water

After you do some of these you figure out how much glue to use.  With the hardboard this application worked with the trowel.

Glue Spread Out

Canvas Rolled On

It is important to roll the canvas to eliminate air bubbles.  Primed side up.  This particular canvas is cotton from the local art source.  I prefer oil primed linen and use it on the larger boards.

Weighted Boards

I flip the boards canvas side down and then apply a heavy weight to keep them flat.  Here I used granite.

Trim Operation

Next day after a walk but before I squeeze out I trim the canvas to size.  If there happens to be an unglued corner etc. I apply some glue and put a clothes peg on the repair.  To this stage the cost of a 12x16 canvas on board is about $0.75 whereas linen would be more than double or triple that.

After this I apply an oil ground to my preferred smoothness.  I have tried quite a number of oil grounds.  My favourite is lead white but I also enjoy, Gamblin Oil ground and flake white replacement.  For me this final stage is quite messy so I go at these in batches.  Then I wait before going out to paint.  At least a week.  More is better.

Split Complements, Structured Colour

Most of the time I paint with a regular palette based on the primaries and secondaries.  Once in a while I like to revisit colour schemes that are more simple.  Recently I decided to paint in a split complement.  I was outside in strong sun, facing into it.  I chose Cad Yellow Light, Cad Orange, and Cad Red Light along with Ultramarine Blue Deep.  Titanium white to lighten.

Outdoor Palette

You can see where my regular palette pigments usually go.  The clear space is my mixing area.  I try to keep it clean.  Without the other colours on the palette I was restricted to what you see.  This forces you to determine what basic hues will go where as opposed to what you see.  Hence a structured approach.  Forces design decisions.

Split Complement on the Pigment Wheel

Here you can see the colour gamut available.  Along the side of the wheel is the value scale.  So with this choice of pigments I can get a dark and I have white to lighten (and the canvas if I choose).  If I happen to choose a split complement scheme that does not allow me to get a dark value I can darken with Black or I can mix a black and use that to darken.  Interesting options.  Try them.  I can mix the true complements Ultramarine Blue and Cad Orange and get colours both warm and cool.  A great array of warm and cool greys are also available.  In this case I chose not to show the red and yellow tilted towards blue.  Here is what I mean.

Analogous colours plus a Discord - Another Name

The application gets interesting.  On my shape and value thumbnail I made a note of what colour and value goes where, making sure to vary the amounts.  Here is the painting that came into the studio from the morning painting session.

Over My Head, 12x16, Oil on Canvas on Board

This image is very red on my screen.  The camera had a hard time with this one!  The value intensity scale is off what is really there.  In any event the question I am now facing is how far to take this one, and how to proceed.  This is good training.  Another option is complementary painting and yet another is monochromatic.

Style, Development and Being You

I was reading some interesting articles on art.  My memory flood gates opened wide.  I remember the likes of "so you want to be and artist?  Are you sure? Or do you want to paint Mickey Mouse?"  Then when I was thinking of showing a painting "are you ready?"  But after a long period of reflection, perhaps my favourite was "people will buy any kind of ...  crap."  The truth is both tough to take and hard to find from someone who actually knows.  But it is invaluable if you are truly interested in developing your art.

The article I was reading referred to Monet being rejected from the Salon for being "too Monet".  That is what Monet strived for his whole life.  When he painted for another purpose he went off the tracks, but was still too Monet.  Here are two paintings.  One for the Salon, one painted in his "own manner".

The Seine at Lavacourt

The Seine at Lavacourt - Monet Mode

Monet was not alone. Mary Cassatt, refusing an award said words to the effect "I must stick to my principle - no jury, no medals, no awards - no profession is so enslaved as ours."

Robert Henri of Art Spirit fame taught that growth is the entire payoff.  "Making pictures is what we do when submitting to juries."  There should be no emphasis on production.  Painting marks are a by product of seeking to be who you already are.  This theme runs through from Corot to the Impressionists to Cezanne, Matisse, and Picasso.  Picasso famously said "it took me 4 years to learn to paint like the masters and the rest of my life to paint like a child."

My mentor explains "distractions like that rob you of development"  - from becoming who you are.

The living masters have their version as well.

David Leffel; "Painting pictures is confining.  Learning to paint is limitless."

"So many paintings, so little art."

Richard Schmid;  "You and your mind are ultimately the real subject of your art regardless of what you paint."

"Do not ask yourself, What do I see?  Rather ask, What do I see?"

It takes time to internalize these words.  Some of them I have struggled with for years.

Here are a few ways to develop as an artist.

1.  Avoid the goal of making a successful painting.  Think of periods, such as childhood, when your self understanding grew and you became more of who you are.  With such a freedom we realized the payoff was growth.  Making art should be this way.  Paintings are just a series of events that happen along the way.  Let them go.  Keep moving.

2.  Make many starts.   As soon as the freshness evaporates, stop.  Picasso lectured eloquently on this.  "Finish is the death of our work because it means we are painting an expectation and that puts the brakes on painting to see and feel more deeply.  Every beginning is a new prompt.  Begin everything, finish nothing.  Also stated by Cezanne.  Paint some everywhere, don't finish anywhere.

3.  Ignore non artist authorities (many painters few artists).  Juries, grantors, facebook likes, the gallery, the direction from "them" are just so many fingers in our pie.  These measures push us to performing and not creating.  Their sense of worth takes over our own.  This is precisely what Parisian artists fought against (think Salon).

4.  Let the world see who YOU are.  It is so easy to hide behind others expectations, seek sources of praise that we can count on by pleasing our audience.  We cannot be free to be who we are if we are not risking who we are in front of others.

A "career?"  The painters of Paris made their big career move, as it turned out, by biting the very hand that fed them.  The assembly line to the great gallery opening is the painter's kiss of death.