Art = Life at R.L. Delight Fine Art

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Tipping Point

It has been stormy this week as front after front has moved through. Thankfully just wind and a lot of rain. I feel for all my East coast friends and family being buried in snow, so, no complaints here! However, it has been stormy enough to keep me in the studio instead of out on the beach. I am actually happy for the studio time. It gives me a chance to work a few things out. I decided to work on still life on stormy days. While I admire still life paintings with flowers and teacups, toys, and other household objects, I realized that I prefer to paint natural objects found on the beach, for now. I have a collection of interesting pieces of driftwood, rocks, and the occasional feather. I will be using these in a series of still lifes.

I have decided to make these still lifes fill in a few purposes. First, I wanted them to have a slight environmental narrative. I also wanted to use the painting process to work on my technique. Believe me, it needs practicing on every level! This still life is just about finished, in spite of the signature. When I took it into the daylight, I didn't like the yellow color in the lightest areas of the rocks. I am putting this aside to dry and then I will go back, take another look, and if need be alter the color in spots. When I got it to where I am mostly happy with it, I will put it up for sale. I am also changing the light over my easel to balance the color out a bit better.

Tipping Point was painted alla prima-ish. I painted it over 3 days (including set up time). I decided the next still life will also be alla prima but this time I am going to use my notes from the workshop I took with Kathleen Dunphy and follow the process she taught us. After exploring and experimenting a bit, I want to home in on a painting process. Kathleen's makes sense to me so I will start there.

As soon as I took this off the easel, I cleaned my palette and brushes and then set up the next still life. I like to play around with the set up and then leave it overnight or longer if possible to think about and look at. If the weather improves for tomorrow, I will be heading out to paint plein air otherwise I will be starting in on the next still life.

Here are a couple of pictures from the painting sessions. I will do better on getting work-in-progress pictures on the next one.

Stay warm and dry everyone!

-Renee

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Wave Study #82: Studying Hard!

If anyone is keeping count, it may look like I skipped a number in my wave studies. I did not post #81 for several reasons. I did keep it as there are many good parts to it but, it doesn't look like much as a whole.

I have been busy not only painting, but studying too, but first let me talk about this wave study. It takes me five minutes to walk from my front door to the beach. Our beach here is about 7 miles long. We are near the north end and it is about a mile walk up the beach before you come to the foot of Neahkahnie Mountain where I like to paint. Neahkahnie juts into the sea and bars the way to the next cove. I usually take a morning walk to the north end of the beach, about 2 miles round trip. This morning was cloudy with patches of fog. The waves were a decent size, around 4-6 ft and fairly calm. It was such a beautiful, moody kind of morning with very few people on the beach. I was planning on working in the studio as the weather forecast calls for rain all week but on my morning walk, I decided to paint a wave study. I did a brisk mile walk back home, gulped down a smoothie to stave off the hunger pangs around the noon hour, and grabbed my painting gear, which I keep ready to go.

I brought my squall battered, seldom used painting umbrella along in case it rained. The umbrella magic worked because the sun came out to mess with my moody scene for a while! I had a good morning of painting and listening to the nattering of a nesting pair of Bald Eagles behind me.

As I mentioned, I have been studying and working to improve my painting. Studies include drawing, paint handling, painting process, and composition and value studies, among other things. And people comment that painting must be relaxing! HA!

A few days ago I was going over my notes from my workshop last spring with Kathleen Dunphy. My workshop notes included a wonderful ten point list of which Kathleen posted about on her blog. She calls the list, "Plein Errors: The Top Ten Reasons Plein Air Paintings Fail." You can click here to read her post. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it.

I realized that I am generally guilty of three or four of them now and then. OK, maybe one or two a bit more than now and then! When I went out today, I worked hard to remedy that. I must say, I learned a lot and thinking about these tendencies worked, this time. My biggest error? I do plan my painting a bit when I go out, but I am realizing that I am not planning it enough. She has not having a clear plan listed as #1. I also tend to not use enough paint (#6).

After I made my painting plan today, I turned around and saw this:

Dang! I wavered for the tiniest of moments but then, stuck to my plan. Now one can see the challenge of deciding what to paint and how! There is a tiny person walking on the beach to give a bit of size perspective. They are the little dark line toward the right and center of the picture. You are looking south for about 10 miles or more.

This post is getting a bit lengthy so I will post more on what I am doing in the studio later this week.

-Renee

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Sunshine, Whales, and Bald Eagles!

Not a bad day at the office! I have decided to add one day-long (8 hours or more) plein air painting day a week, weather permitting. Today was a beautiful sunny day on the northern Oregon coast, so I decided that today was the day for this week. Sunny days used to be rare but this winter we have seen quite a few. I talked my mate into spending the day with me as well. I didn't have to twist his arm on a day like today!

We drove a little further up the coast to Cannon Beach to paint at Ecola State Park. This is Indian Beach. It is rather stunning and there is another life time of painting to be had. Here are a few quick pictures of the area:

Of course, my cell phone doesn't exactly do it justice!

I painted a painting in the morning, ate a quick picnic lunch, and then painted another in the afternoon. While I was eating lunch there was a pod of whales passing through and we enjoyed watching them spout and breach. I was planning on moving to a new spot to paint but liked how different the rocks I was painting looked in the afternoon sun, so I decided to paint the same spot. Here is the morning painting and the afternoon painting.

We arrived at Indian Beach just after the high tide had turned. Low tide happened just as I was finishing up the second painting. The change in shadows and the change in tide made quite a difference in the scene. There were a lot more rocks exposed by the retreating tide for one. There was a bit of the lingering marine layer in the morning which made for a softer horizon in the distance.

We were visited by a pair of Bald Eagles as I was finishing up. Can you blame me for wanting to be outside painting?

What a lovely day! The light on the return drive home was incredibly beautiful. We had dinner and a quick evening walk to the library and post office while discussing art and music. Tonight we will both be practicing music and tomorrow I will head out again in the afternoon.

Life is good!

-Renee

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Study, Study, Study!

I am pushing myself and experimenting again. I haven't posted my efforts because I am mostly making messes. Sometimes even deliberately! I know I need to change a few things and that requires trying new ideas and techniques out. It is rather fun but also frustrating when I don't get the effect or concept I want. I don't mind painting failures in fact, I actually am excited about it. I may be "failing" to make a good painting but I can see that I am making progress. I just wish it was a faster process! I know, but I am human too!

In the meantime, I will post a rock sketch I did today. Sundays are my day of rest. I don't do well if I fail to get enough rest, wholesome food, and exercise. Good health means I get to paint for many more years.

I enjoyed sketching today. I walked from my house up to the north end of the beach. It is unusually sunny and warm here on the Northern Oregon Coast. Sketching was a very relaxing and almost meditative process. I had no expectations for this one. Here it is:

Keeping all my East coast friends and family in my thoughts. Stay Safe!

-Renee

Friday, January 16, 2015

A Golden Afternoon

I have been trying a few new approaches to plein air painting to see if I can get closer to what I am trying to express. I have been doing a lot of reading and a few painting studies to try things out. Today, I tried a different approach to painting rocks. It wasn't entirely successful but I can see where it is going. I believe it will be worth pursuing so I will be trying it out for a bit.

Here is a plein air study I painting this afternoon at Arcadia Beach on the northern Oregon coast:

We had a pretty good storm last night so the waves were large and the surf rough. I lucked out because another heavy rainstorm is expected to come in tonight.

Isn't it funny when one is ready to hear or understand something, you encounter that idea or concept everywhere you turn? That has been happening a lot for me recently. It seems like everything I have studied this week, whether it is from a book written in 1975 or even earlier, or a YouTube video, or blog, has given me the same message over and over again. I keep reading, seeing, hearing, "paint with your feelings!

To give you an example, I opened a book I own called, "How to Paint Successful Seascapes: Techniques in Oil" by Roger W. Curtis. The very first sentence in the very first paragraph reads:

"Painting isn't something you do with flat or bright brushes, or with certain colors, or on specially treated canvases.

It's not technique that makes a painting, or flawless draftsmanship. The important thing is that you paint with your feelings."

Everything art instructional related that I opened this week stated a variation of the above statement! I get the message! This book, by the way, is one of the best books I have found on painting seascapes, and I have several books on seascape painting. I got it used on Amazon.

One other thing I decided to change up a bit is the color palette I use. I have been keeping it pretty minimal for several months now. I have been using Permanent Red Medium and Naples Yellow Light, both from Rembrandt, Cad. Yellow Lemon from Utrecht, Veridian from Gamblin, Green Earth from Rembrandt, and Ultramarine Blue along with Warm Titanium White from Gamblin. I have been pretty happy with these but I wanted to try something a little different. I added back Alizarin Crimson Permanent from Gamblin. I am going to switch out the Cad. Yellow Lemon for Hansa Yellow Medium, and perhaps Hansa Yellow Light, from Gamblin. I am going to try Asphaltum from Rembrandt just for fun.

I really like using the Permanent Red Medium and Naples Yellow from Rembrandt. I got these colors for the workshop I took from Kathleen Dunphy and they work well for me. Well, we shall see how the changes work out.

I will stop here and leave you with a couple of pictures from this afternoon. There were a few times when I was the only person on the beach for miles. It was lovely.

-Renee

Friday, January 9, 2015

Wave Study #80!

Photo taken as light was fading

I am excited to have completed wave study #80! That means I have just 20 studies to go until I meet my goal of 100. I have taken my time painting the studies but I don't mind. Not every day is a good day to paint a wave study. Some days are better than most. I found I like to paint wave studies as the tide is coming in. This way the waves are getting closer to me. At Neahkahnie beach, the waves are just plain more interesting around the highest part of the tide.

Today I decided to focus a bit more on getting the color and values correct. Getting that green to be just right is very tricky. Not only that, it changes from moment to moment when there are clouds in the sky. Speaking of skies, I could have just as happily painted a few cloudscapes today. That is something I haven't really done and it is time I did. I determined from today that I really need to just spend a bit of extra time when I am out painting just working on color swatches. That way I don't get distracted by trying to get all the other stuff right too.

I am happy with the colors I got in today's painting for the most part. I only had an hour and a half due to the timing of the tides and a few other factors. The waves in the painting are not as fully formed as I would have liked. They still look a bit too blocked-in and even, and the waves and water in the foreground are even more unfinished. I was running out of light to take a finished picture so the best picture of today's painting came from my cell phone, on site. The light made the picture a bit pinker than it should be but I kind of liked the effect. I will retake the photo tomorrow.

The beach as the sun was going down was incredibly beautiful. Since I am on the West Coast of the U.S., the sun sets into the sea and backlights the waves. There were the most unbelievable acid greens in the water as I was packing up.

No eagle sighting today but I did hear their musical calls behind me. They must have been behind the trees. Here is a parting shot as I was hiking down the beach:

The next few days will be spent working other jobs with a day of rest in between. I will catch whatever time I can in the studio working on drawing skills. Painting will resume next week!

-Renee

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Wave Study #79

Try, try again. And again...and again... Then try again! Here is Wave Study #79, painted on Neahkahnie beach today. I gained a little understanding from yesterday's wave study and applied it today and gained a tiny inch more in understanding. If the weather is decent tomorrow, I will have to go paint #80 just to round everything out. After tomorrow, the tides will start to be favorable for painting on the other beaches. I would like to get back to Hug Point, Ecola State Park, and of course, Short Sands beach, my all time favorite. I have a couple of new spots in mind too.

Our part of the Pacific Ocean is such a green sea. Probably because we don't have the harsh bright sun, except for a bit in the summer. Even when the ocean looks blue the swells are a deep and amazing green. I am pretty close to getting the green right but I would like to get it even closer. It was a beautiful day to paint although the sun was out only for a few minutes.

As I was finishing up I kept hearing a crow cawing behind me. Usually I am attuned to what they are expressing and pay more attention but I was a bit preoccupied with painting. When the cawing finally seeped into my painting consciousness I turned around and looked up. I spotted the reason for the crow's scolding. There was one of our resident Bald Eagles perched at the top of the tree looking down on me painting. The eagle ignored the crow and sat and watched for a while before flying off down the beach to look for goodies. I took a picture with my phone. The eagles white head is hard to see against the light sky so I put a circle around it.

Today the Bald Eagle was my only watcher, much to my relief. I don't mind people coming up to look but it is nice to have a bit of a break from that.

A final picture at the finish:

The sun came out as I was cleaning up. Ah well, it all works!

-Renee