Day 31: Arcadia Beach Study

 "Arcadia Beach Study", 8"x10" oil on canvas panel, plein air, ©2017 R.L. Delight

Here is the final painting of the month! This one was a struggle. The light was beautiful but the breeze was a lot colder and a lot more mischievous than I had anticipated. I had to cut this one short for the sake of my health and sanity! I really loved the colors coming out in the rock. The painting shows a lot of the subtle color in real life that doesn't show up so much here.

Thirty one days hath January so 31 paintings. Here is a collage of them all:

A big thank you to all of you who have stopped by to take a look!

-Renee

Study Time

A few posts back I promised to post about how I study. First I have to mention that I absolutely love to study. Not only art, but a wide variety of topics from A to Z. There are so many fascinating things to learn about. I have always thought that it would be wonderful to be paid a salary to just be a student for the rest of my life. I suppose in a way I am paid a salary, it just isn't in the traditional form of pay. The upside to that is that it isn't taxed!

So, like so many studious folks I take a multimedia approach to studying. Most of it comes in the form of books. Even though I try to cull my books now and then, I still have a lot and they all over the house! Here a bookshelf that is next to my spot by the wood stove in our living room:

I love this shelf that my mate made for me as I can reach any book I need without getting up. As you can see, there is a number of art books on the left. Just a small selection from the total. There are also books on sewing, herbs, music, and cello playing. These are what I am currently referring to. There are also a few Plein Air Magazines tucked in there. I learn something from each and everyone. I always pick up new information whenever I re-read them too.

I also have several videos. I like videos but, by necessity, they tend to be a bit more limited in scope than books.

Of course, if you have read my previous posts, you probably realize that I do a lot of practical studies. About 99% of them are plein air. I have painted close to 300 in the past two years with 82 of them being wave studies. When I first started painting en plein air, I realized I was going to have to paint a lot and that many of them wouldn't be that great. I don't have a lot of extra funds so I tried to find ways to save money and still accomplish my goals. After a bit of research and crunching some numbers I decided to use canvas pads. The one on the right is mostly what I have used. The 12"x16" has been perfect. I can get 4-6"x8" canvas per sheet, or 40 per pad. I think it came to about $1.60 a painting. I didn't feel so bad if I messed up. Plus, I wasn't going to be tempted to sell my study if I got a good one. Since I don't use reference photos, these are the only reference material I have, along with any sketches.

After I cut the canvas to the size I want, I tape it with white artist's tape to hardboard panels I cut for that purpose. When I am finished, I remove the tape and pin it up on my bulletin board. When I fill the board up, I take them down and it is ready for a new batch. I am down to my last 6 or so cut and taped canvases to use. After the cotton ones are gone I have the Centurion linen canvas pad to use. The canvas is a lot nicer and I am thinking I want to mount the sheets to panels first so they will be more permanent. I am still thinking on that one.

I decided that when all of this is used up, which will be fairly soon, I will graduate to Centurion pre-mounted linen panels. They are fairly reasonable in price and I want to start painting more with an occasional finished plein air painting in mind vs. a study. I will continue to upgrade my panels as I can afford to. Here is my bulletin board just recently, before clearing it. It is on its way to being filled up again.

All of this is materials and resources so far. I also do practical studies with paint, pencil, and other mediums. These are value scales I put together to help me with paint values. I used Color-Aid paper, glued them to cardboard and coated them with acrylic gloss medium. I have been working on my values lately and am starting to see progress.

Here are a few samples I painted using an artist's painting that I admire as value reference. I worked to match the range of values in the painting and gained quite a bit of understanding from the exercise.

Finally, I have a couple of online classes that help keep me accountable yet give me time to go at my own pace. The biggest and best by far is Sadie Valerie's Online Atelier. This gets me back to my roots of highly disciplined and structured academic art study. I have only done the introductory exercise and had it critiqued. Sunny days to paint and life's concerns have slowed me down but I am determined to continue. Michelangelo is reputed to have spent an hour a day drawing. If it is good enough for Michelangelo, it is even more so for me! Here is my first submission. It took 5 hours and is graphite on paper.

I know, not terribly exciting is it? It was done without a model, just in imagination. My next assignment is to draw ellipses (done), an outlines exercise (nearly done), and another value sphere like above. The point is to see improvement. Once it is critiqued and Sadie gives the green light, you move to the next exercise. It is progressive with one skill building on the previous skills. I will post these in their own posts in the future.

This is a long post. It covers a lot but not quite everything I do. So now, when you graciously notice the improvement in my work, you will know that it really has nothing to do with "talent" but just determination, hard work, willingness to fail, the wonderful artist people who surround me, and a pinch of good fortune thrown in.

I would love to hear what other people do to study, no matter what the medium or skill. Please feel free to post a comment!

-Renee

Ecola State Park and Sunshine

Ecola State Park

We have sunshine! We also have mid to upper 70 degree weather! I melt in anything over 75 so it is quite warm for me. We went to Ecola State Park yesterday. Unfortunately the sunshine brings the strong winds. I spent about an hour trying to find a sheltered spot to paint on Indian Beach. Alas, the wind was blowing me and the sand around. It felt a bit like being in a sandblaster. I never even took my painting pack off. We decided to call it off and head home. On the way out of the park I spotted another road and we turned off to explore. I was determined to find a sheltered spot to paint. I found the spot above which is more sheltered from the wind. It was getting late so we decided to go back this morning. We packed up a lunch and Twill and drove up the coast. Cannon Beach is about 14 miles or so from our town.

I got set up and got to work.

Ecola State Park, Cannon Beach Oregon

Here I am painting with my brand new Coulter Plein air set up. Today was the first time I used it and I have to say, I really like it. It is lightweight and easy to pack as well as super easy to set up.
Twill insists on staying close by me. There was shade a few feet away under the trees but she made herself comfy in the shade from my easel. She had a big bowl of water to drink as it was quite warm. There was a bit of a breeze which kept me from getting too hot.
I decided to paint a larger study. I have been painting very small for several months now and I thought it would be good to mix it up a bit and paint larger. I am still pretty new to the whole plein air thing and have yet to take a class or workshop. I must admit, after today, I think it would be nice to take a workshop. I won't be able to do that this year but maybe next.
Here is the finished study. I would like to paint a studio painting from it and post it on the Paint the Parks website.

© 2013 R.L. Delight, Ecola State Park study, 11"x14", oil on gessobord.

I haven't painted in the sunshine much, maybe three or four times so I am not used to the effects of sunlight. I had the umbrella on my easel as the sun was pretty bright. The colors of the rocks were not quite right. Also I put the trees in the foreground very quickly as I wanted to focus on the water and the rocks.
It is a start and I will improve little by little. I will be painting more like the above this summer as the waves tend to be quite small and the sea fairly calm. I hope to get down the coast in July.
We are supposed to hit 80 degrees this weekend. That is very hot for us. I know others would find that temperature a relief! I will be getting the chores done and everything set for another week of painting.

Spring Storms

Hug Point on a misty Easter day

The wind is moaning around the house and the rain is pounding down while the ocean roars. The spring storms have arrived. The weather is definitely not suitable for plein air painting. We are currently having back to back storms with maybe a couple hours in between when the rain is merely pouring instead of torrential. Tomorrow the wind gusts on the beach are expected to hit between 50 and 60 mph. The rain will be pelting sideways. Too dangerous to paint.
We had warning that these storms were approaching so I took the opportunity to get stocked up and catch up on outdoor chores before it hit. I have been working on a large (36"x24") painting in the studio while the storm shakes the house. I am not quite ready to share pictures of it yet.
All this time indoors has given me a chance to think and reflect on where I am going with my art. It seems like the thinking and reflecting are an ongoing process. Perhaps it is because I am in the early stages of my art career, or perhaps it will always be this way.
When I started out, I thought I would be painting portraits of women over 50 and telling their stories. I still love this concept and plan to do that one day. I had no idea when I took up plein air painting that I would fall so completely in love with it. Looking back now I have to wonder why it didn't occur to me sooner. I love the outdoors and love being outdoors, even when the weather is stormy. Combining that love with my love of painting seems such a no-brainer now!
I am going to make a few changes in the way I am approaching marketing my art. I have been posting my small studio paintings on DailyPaintworks and I also have them listed on my website. I have been working at the online marketing aspect and even volunteer to man a co-op style (but not a true co-op) gallery in Cannon Beach.
I have decided to discontinue DailyPaintworks and keep the paintings for sale on my website. I have also decided after much thought and consideration to no longer volunteer at the gallery. Volunteers get to have a small wall in the gallery to display some of their work for a month. I was given the month of December of this year. I will be giving that up for several reasons which I won't bore you all with here. All this is challenging and a bit nerve-wracking. It takes thinking in the long-term. I just have to take a deep breath and have courage...and faith.
Here is what I plan to do instead: paint my rear end off. After much consideration I realized I just need to hunker down and paint. After I get a good solid footing and base, then I will integrate all the marketing, plein air events, and contests.
I sat down with my mate to try to express the confusion I was feeling. The confusion was starting to interfere with my painting. My gut feeling was saying that I needed to let go of a few things and just paint and not worry about trying to sell much at this point. My wonderful mate said the exact same thing before I told him what I was thinking the solution might be.
So, that is exactly what I am going to do. I will still put small paintings up for sale both here on the blog and on my website. I might enter a competition or two if it works out but I will not be painting with that in mind. The selling will come, maybe sooner than I realize. I just feel I  need to sell from a sense of abundance rather than scarcity.
My thoughts on the purpose of this blog was not only to share my work and the progress but to share the joys and challenges of becoming an artist too. Hopefully I don't whinge too much!
The other day I got the "this must be so relaxing for you" statement. I stared at the woman making the comment for a minute and choked back a hysterical laugh. Relaxing? Not even. Every painting attempt takes intense focus, determination and the willingness to fail. Like all worthwhile endeavors, it is hard work. I wouldn't have it any other way.
Well, this post has gone on long enough. I will be getting out to paint waves as soon as I can stand in one place without being blown over by the wind. They are so lovely and wild at the moment. I do get out with my dog Twill. several times a day. We go to see what the waves are doing first thing in the morning no matter what the weather. The studio is busy and cozy now but I thought I would check in to let everyone know that I am still here and still working!

Sea star at low tide. Hug Point ,OR.