Paris

Yesterday we took a walking tour of Montmartre. It was really fun and we learned a lot about the area. I had not visited the area in my previous trips. The weather is amazing and the group is so special. This morning we met our tour guide Penny who just happened to be in Paris. She will be picking us up from the train station in Toulouse on Saturday to begin our two weeks of painting, dining and visiting the sights of the region. Today we head out to the Musee' De La'Orangere' and the a boat tour down the Seine River. Tomorrow we take another walking tour called "Hemingway Tour"  and then a private tour of the Louvre'. 

I'm already planning the workshop again next year. Heads up for 10 days the end of June!

The Plan

34th Street Corner  8 x 6"

Yesterday in my Tuesday class I did a demonstration en plein air. It was a beautiful day and I had scouted out a scene just outside the studio doors at Patris Studio and Gallery. I was rusty. I haven't been out there lately and well, I'm teaching a plein air workshop soon, so I needed to do it. My students thought I was doing it for them.. ha ha.
It was a perfect example of what happens when you pick a scene for the concept of painting the light and shadow, then the sun goes away and you are lost! Anyway, it was great practice for me and good for them too I hope..

I wrote an outline (that turned out to be kind of a book) for the people going to France with me and sent it out via email a couple of days ago. The thing is, it's seems it would be good for anybody not just the workshop. So I've decided to post it here.

Painting in the South of France 2013

Welcome. I wanted to provide you with an outline of some of the things we will be talking about these two weeks, as we trek out to paint the beautiful landscape of Southern France..I can’t imagine a better place to be while we immerse ourselves into the art of painting in plein air. Some of you have painted out of doors before, but for others, this will be a new experience.

Either way, I’m sure it will prove to be a life changing event. I believe the beauty of spending two whole weeks focused on painting this way will advance your skills in a huge way… For one thing, we don’t have the pressures of our home life, the kids, husbands, housework, grocery runs, work, etc., to take our attention away from our focus. And another thing, because we are working at this every day we are bound to grow in our appreciation of what we are observing while learning at the same time to really see it from a different point of view. 

Plan

While we have had our eyes to see from birth, we have become accustomed to taking for granted what we are looking at.. Our brains have a tendency to take over our eyes and our eyes get lazy. We have developed a habit of relying on what we “think” something looks like, and forgetting to just really look.

So, for the reasons I have stated above, I am going to ask you to try to learn to turn off what your brain may be telling you about what you are seeing. Instead, use your eyes to really observe..

To do this, it will take a commitment on your part  because it does not come naturally. Here are a few suggestions:

When we arrive at a location, don’t rush around thinking you will run out of time. Instead, leave your supplies while you take the time to walk around the area. Allow your breathing to slow down. Ask your heart to tell you where to stop and paint. If you think you may be in the right location, stay there for a few moments and breathe slowly. If you are not sure, just trust that it will be fine. As you get used to this it will come more naturally.

If I am doing a demonstration, just relax and put your set up out where you have decided to paint. Try not to talk too much. Just appreciate the beauty that surrounds you. 

Take your time getting started. Do a couple of notan sketches. Choose the best one to paint. Consider the format.

Decide what you like most about the scene. This will be your concept. Make a note of it. While painting, consider this to be what the painting is about. For example, the warm light on the distant trees, the light and shadow of the scene, the reflection of the water as it moves, the red poppies as they meander through the meadow, etc.

The above ideas are considered the plan. I believe that this stage, the planning stage, is the most important part of your painting experience. When you have a plan, the painting session is most likely to be successful. Don’t rush the plan.

Design

We will be getting down to the nuts and bolts of designing your work in a simplified manner to emphasize your idea and inspiration.   

Design is when you take your idea and put it into a composition. Composing, or Design, is the second most important part of painting and is part of the plan.

While here we will be doing a couple of exercises to help us learn to see better, to plan our painting and have a better design.

We will practice learning to see the values in our landscape by painting small black and white value studies. We can do this on paper or canvas, it is up to you and how you planned your supplies. Either way, these little studies will be tiny like our thumbnail pencil sketches. By using paint instead of the pencil, we will learn to stay out of the details, and just capture the initial idea or concept, and find the best design.

Color Mixing

We are using a double complementary palette while here. That means on our palettes we have a warmer and cooler version of the three primary colors on the color wheel.

Lay out your palette the same every day. Start with white at the lower left corner. Up the left side from there is yellow ochre, cad yellow medium, leave a space for orange, cad red light, rose, alizarin crimson, leave a space for violet in the corner at the top (approximately). From there move to the right across the top: ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, Pthalo blue, room for greens. At the top right start with transparent oxide red, then down the right with payne’s gray or black, and then your mixed grays.

Before you begin, mix your secondary colors in between the primaries.

Mix orange by starting with Cadmium Yellow, then add small amounts of warm red (Cad Red Light), until you reach a rich orange tone.

Mix a violet by using Alizarin Crimson and Ultramarine blue for a striking and powerful violet. Add a little tiny bit of white so you can judge the mixture, checking to see that it is a violet and not too red or blue. While outdoors I most often will mix a more subtle violet if I am painting the mountain ranges. Start with Cobalt Blue, then add Cad Red Light to the mix a little at a time until you get a warm violet tone. Add a little white to it. Add ultramarine if it is too dull and needs more blue.

For your greens, I suggest you mix a warm and a cool and maybe a gray green. Start with Ultramarine Blue and add Cad Yellow for the warm green. Go cooler for the next one by starting with Ultramarine again and this time add a small (tiny) amount of Pthalo blue. For a grayish green mix Cobalt Blue with Yellow Ochre. You can adjust these with more yellow or more blue to get what you want. You may just want to stick with one or two greens at a time, unless your scene has many greens.

For wonderful harmonious results in your painting, mix these secondary piles with each other to get wonderful grays. My favorite mix for painting the distance in a landscape is to mix the dull or subtle violet with one of the greens… Add primary color to get more colorful grayed out mixes.

Then mix your gray values. You will want at least two, but three is better. A middle gray, light grey and dark gray. Begin mixing your middle by starting with a large pile of white, add black a little at a time until you reach the correct value. Check with me at this point. From here, use some of your middle gray and add more black to get the dark gray. For the light gray start again with white, ad a tiny amount of black. You may also use your gray piles of light, middle and dark paint to adjust values of your paint piles.

Light

Check the lighting conditions. Where is the sun coming from? Where is it headed? Place your umbrella directly at the sun. Try to get your panel and palette in the same light if possible. If you have the opportunity to paint in a shaded area, make sure it is not dappled light or that it is creating a silhouette condition.

In your painting, same thing goes. Where is the direction of the light? Look for light and shadow.. Consider that in the outdoors the shadows aren’t as dark as you think. They are usually colorful with a combination of warm and cool, but with cool dominating. The cool of the shadow will contrast with the warm of the sun.

In the light areas look for brilliant color, using warm against cool, but with warm dominating. The warm light comes from the sun and the cool tones come from the blue of the sky.

Seeing Values

I spend a lot of time in my classes talking about value. If you don’t learn to see and identify the values in your scene you will struggle with color and the painting will not hold a strong design.

When we pre-mix our palette, I will ask you to make three piles of gray using black (Payne’s Gray) and White. We will name them – LIGHT – MIDDLE – DARK. We will most often paint our scene in value first, then color. Please believe me, this will make for more success.

Notan

Why do certain paintings gain acclaim? The answer is most likely the harmonious arrangement of dark and light that creates an impression of beauty, regardless of the colors used or the subject matter. This is called “notan” from the Japanese word that means “dark/light harmony”.

Use no more than three values of gray plus black and white for your NOTAN painting. Your notan painting is what you do to learn how to create a solid design for your painting. When you paint the scene again , the color study, you will use the values that you designed while creating your notan study.

After you do it a few times, it will become a good habit to use with all of your paintings. Again, planning a strong design is the only way to start each one.

Color Study

I have asked you to bring small canvas panels because I want to concentrate our efforts on painting studies. A study is just that, a practice piece to use as reference for larger paintings. When you paint a lot of studies, you learn a lot!

We can capture the essence of a scene with more than enough information by painting small. This way we will have time to paint more than one painting in any location. You will learn to paint faster. You will learn to stay out of the details.

When you walk into a gallery or museum, and you spot a painting from across the room and you are drawn to it, it is because the artist captured the essence of a scene in a masterful way. The science behind this is that our eyes are drawn to the dark and light patterns of the painting that create the design. A strong design is created by using a dark pattern in your painting, in a lyrical way that is put together or composed in a way that is beautiful. A strong design will attract our eye from across the room.

We will be practicing this design concept with our black and white notan paintings and then we will incorporate that design into our color studies. 

Shapes

Begin your color study by toning the canvas. I like to use a very transparent warm color. After this you will lightly sketch the basic design of your painting using the notan as reference to find the no more than seven to ten shapes.

Shapes are what divide the painting when you squint. You must squint in order to “see” what to paint. Every artist paints shapes. What makes this difficult for the beginner again is that our eyes don’t naturally see this. We see the whole of what is in front of us, but we must squint in order to divide the value shapes.

Mixing “Mother Colors”

After the design process we will be ready to pre-mix our paint colors for our painting. We will be mixing approximately 5 of the general or “mother” colors and values for the design we’ve created already.

Start with the darkest value shape. Squint at the whole of the shape. This will bring the variations of color and value within that shape into one value color. This is what you are aiming for when you mix.

Start with the color on your palette that is closest to what you want. Take time here to get what you want. If the value is wrong, the painting won’t read correctly. You need to match the value as best you can. But also consider that we are outside you will have to just get as close as you can while remembering that everything will look lighter out there. So lean on the idea of going darker than what you might think. “When in doubt, go slightly darker”, is my motto.

Moving on from the darkest shape, mix your middle values. Compare the value to the darker pile you have already mixed. The middle key colors will have more color or chroma. Then mix your lights. Consider that the lights that we call our “mother colors”, are not the lightest light in the painting. The darks are not the darkest darks. We call them our “mother colors”, because it is a starting point for your painting, a general or overall value and color for the “shape” you have designed..

Now paint your shapes, using just paint, no medium and a dry brush. Keep the paint thin and vary your brushstrokes, leaving some of the tone underneath. This is called the “block in”.

Apply the Paint!

Now that you have covered the canvas, take a break and observe your painting as a whole. Step back and use your mirror. Are your shapes and values working? Make adjustments.

Now you will really lay it on thick. Go for bold. Use the piles you have mixed, but mix your variations next to them, using the pile as a base for your mixes.  Use the correct value, but make it more colorful. Adjust values and temperature.

Finally, the Highlights and Accents

This is the finish. Think about the concept of your painting and paint the final lights and darks. Say what you want to say here with the focal point. Use plenty of paint.

Remember, the light strokes will guide the viewer’s eye through the painting so look for a pattern of light. Also remember that the dark shape is the foundation of your painting that will say “beautiful” if the design of the shape is lyrical and flows nicely. 

New Workshop "Small to Large"

Next month, my class will be painting many small studies of the beautiful flower fields and castle topped hills of the Languedoc Region in the South of France. When we return, I've decided to teach a workshop about how to take those small studies and paint them large.

Of course, this course is not just for those who are going to France, but for anybody who wants to learn how to take a smaller painting and paint it big. If you don't have a small study that you want to use, go out and paint one. You have two months!

Send me an e-mail or post with your questions, but contact Patris for registration and more information.

Oil Painting Workshop

Small to Large

Sat. & Sun August 3^rd & 4^th

10-4:30

Patris Studio and Gallery

3460 2^nd Avenue

Sacramento

916-397-8958

artist_patris@yahoo.com

$125.00

(e-mail or call Patris to register)

Bring your small studies  and learn how to take them large. Use one or two  of your favorite plein air pieces (depending on your level of skill), and learn how to develop a plan for your larger piece. You may choose to paint the exact same scene if it was very successful  the first time, or re-design a stronger statement. From this design we will paint a new painting using our studies as a reference guide along with our newly developed design plan.

($50 deposit is required at registration - materials list will be provided after registration - class size is limited.)

A Word About Workshops

Painting In Process from Today

14 x11 

Yvette's Kitchen in larger format

I'll continue on this piece, it doesn't have the feel that I want yet.. but had some fun with it today.

A WORD ABOUT WORKSHOPS

This coming June, um, I mean in a couple of weeks, I'll be teaching my first Plein Air Workshop overseas..
I've been working on my lesson plans for the group, and it's a great group! This has me thinking about what it  
takes to get the most from a workshop..
I should know, I've taught a few and taken a few! I've never had a bad experience, but I've learned a few things about what not to do.
Let's take the student's attitude for instance..
I've seen the most success from students who come to the workshop well prepared..
This means physically, but more important I think is the mental attitude. You need to know how to have the attitude of a student. Show up like you are going to step out of your comfort zone and really try something new. Allow yourself to fully immerse into the workshop and to trust the process. Don't worry about outcome! Do concern yourself with having fun, playing with paint and letting go of fear. Trust me, this will allow for an amazing transition and lots of growth....

Do NOT:

• compare yourself with the other students
• try to paint for anyone but yourself
• stress about the outcome
• hold your breath
• rush the process
• fall into old habits
• expect to take home a masterpiece

DO:

• allow yourself to fail (the fastest way to learn)
• take the risk and load the brush
• relax into the process and stay in the moment
• look at the beauty in front of you, and be grateful
• experiment with the technique the instructor has laid out for you
• slow down and breath!
• trust the process
• consider your biggest obstacle and make it a goal to focus on overcoming it

Trying to Get Back in the Studio...

This painting has been sitting around for a while. I need to get back in the studio! I have just a couple of adjustments to make, but didn't want to wait any longer to post...
Been busy with a local show and the reception was last night. Now that is over and I am faced with getting ready for my trip beginning on June 3rd to France to teach a two week workshop at Montfaucon.
More on this later in the week, but I wanted to get this up on the blog..
I'd love your feedback on this one.

Time for a Redo!

"Time for a Redo"

by Randy Blasquez

Today I didn't quite know where to start. I just finished up a large piece for a show, after working on a few others for a different show and meeting a deadline before that.. It has been that way lately. So, today when I was thinking about where to start with a new series for one of the galleries I ended up in the storage area (my second bedroom that has been taken over by old paintings), and as I went through some old forgotten starts and unhappy endings, I decided it might be a good idea to just start painting and playing around to get the creative juices flowing as they say.
This was a demo from class about 3 years ago. We painted out on the sidewalk in Plein Air. I had it framed for a while and then put it away, thinking it wasn't going anywhere and I had lost any interest in doing something with it. So, I had some fun with it, darkened the shadow side and adding more light to the light side. The pears I didn't really touch. Ah! I don't know, it might get some more outta me but maybe not. The pears are a little too defined against the lost flowers, and I haven't decided if that's okay or not.
If I do make any changes, I'll add it to the post later today.....
If you just need to get going, start with an old piece that got left behind. See what you can do. It might spark some new ideas or it might turn out to be a masterpiece!

Harbor Glow at the Wharf

"Harbor Glow at the Wharf"

Oil on Linen   9 x 12"

$875

I painted this little piece when I got back form the conference. I just loved walking along the Wharf in the evening in Monterrey where the lights just glowed with the boats all lit up. 

Ronna and I enjoyed dinner on the Pier a couple of times and neither one of us ever get tired of seafood. Let's just say, we ate very well. Yum! The sun would set late, about 7:30 and this was the magic hour when you could observe the beautiful lights at sea. I loved the way the distant shore lit up in a soft glow. 

I think I am in love with this part of California!

More From the Plein Air Convention

It has taken me some time to get back to this but I really want to share some of the thoughts that a couple of my favorite speakers talked about.

Joseph Paquet spoke on Creativity and Authenticity

This was painted at Catalina Island. His work is inspiring to say the least. He was the opening speaker and this is what I can share from my broken and scattered notes:

*Paint with a heart coming from Humility and Gratitude.

*Work on your skills. A true master is a perpetual student. Consider your weakest skill set and your strongest skill set and bring them together.

*When coming from a place of discipline - it is an external motivation. Internal motivation comes from the desire to SAY SOMETHING. Another thing entirely.

*Go into the deepest places of your heart. "Test the deeps".

*Avoid general themes. Instead paint with a loving, quite, humble sincerity.

*Find the Grand Canyon in your own backyard. Don't constantly look "outside", it requires LOVE and DESIRE. Why doesn't that love come across when you look at a painting? Because it wasn't put into the painting! The artist was pleasing the gallery or trying to sell a painting. *** When you witness a piece of art you feel what was put into it. You can make art or make a product! The two are very different....

*If you don't trust yourself you will continually doubt yourself. It will take a bite out of your soul.

*Do something that's meaningful to you - and don't sway from that. Otherwise something is wrong.

*Tell the world what you LOVE. Express YOUR OPINION. Be courageous!

Good Stuff!

Scott Christensen painted a demo and talked about Establishing Your Ideas:

Scott was equally inspiring, although he didn't talk as much. He started a painting from a study. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of it.

*Be unsympathetic, demanding and critical with what you produce.

*Develop your own eye.

*Ask yourself "what do you like?"

*Values, spacing, variety, line and shape. Spacing is everything.

*Look at other paintings and ask yourself, "why is this good?"

*Study paintings that are good in both color and black and white.

*Establish the key, don't try to finish everything, but manage the whole.

*Ask yourself, "what is the value and then the chroma?"

Here are a few more photos from the area..

May I Share With You...

Some photos from yesterday's paint out:

 This is Alexey Steele. An amazing artist from Russia who studied in the Russian Tradition.

 On the left is Kathleen Dunphy.

 Alexey again.....

 Peggy Kroll Roberts was tucked in between some cars along the highway to keep out of the wind.

A new favorite artist, Lori Putman from the Midwest....

After the paint out Ronna and I stopped on our way back to Monterey from Pacific Grove to admire and take some photos of the iceplant that blooms every April... I'm thinking workshop in April next year?

Day Four at the Plein Air Convention

The week has been incredible here in Monterey at the Plein Air Convention. This morning I'm watching two wonderful painters. Timothy Tien is painting boats while Zhaoming Wu is painting a beautiful figure. This afternoon I'll be out on the Pier painting boats. Hoping to post it later.

I've added Tim's boat painting in progress and Zhaoming's figure painting in the middle process. They only have an hour and a half to paint. Tim is talking about how he uses "opposites" to create interest.

Plein Air Convention in Monterey this week...

Vines and Roses
Oil on Linen   24 x 24"

Finished a new one this weekend. Taking it to Gallerie Amsterdam in Carmel. This is painted from of photo of the Languedoc Region in Southern France where I will be taking 9 students this coming June for two weeks of painting...

But back to Monterey. I am going with my friend Ronna to the Plein Air Convention from Wednesday through Sunday. It should be really amazing. Read up below. Hopefully I will be able to send some photos and a post your way sometime this week or soon upon my return..

CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT THE PLEIN AIR CONVENTION

Edgar Payne Exercise

I studied with Jim Smyth and Brigitte Curt at the California Academy of Painters in Palo Alto California for a number of years. These are two wonderful teachers who changed my life.
Go to their website for the school to see their work and class schedule. http://www.classart.org/classes.html
They also offer a workshop in Provence every year.
Brigitte suggests this wonderful exercise for learning to see and compose the landscape using the Edgar Payne "Composition of Outdoor Painting" book. Click here for the exercise details.
It will be worth your while. If you want to learn to paint in "plein air", or study to figure, it's worth the trip to the Bay Area to paint with them.

This was a nice surprise.....

"Yvette's Kitchen", was selected as part of the FAV15% (jury's favorite 15% of the entries) in the February 2013 BoldBrush Painting competition.  (sold)

 "Waiting For You", was selected as part of the FAV15% (jury's favorite 15% of the entries) in the January 2013 BoldBrush Painting competition. (available)

Finally Done, Texting at the Grove

Texting at the Grove
Oil on Linen
28 x 24 x 1.5