The top image is a quick acrylic value study of a farmhouse landscape I’ve done in watercolor many times. I thought I’d try it in oil and this burnt sienna sketch is layer one. I haven’t tried this before (an acrylic value study as a begining,) but it should work fine. The second image is the beginning of a small still life. I drew the sketch on a gessoed masonite board. I’ll cover this with a light toned warm wash in acrylic, and when it’s dry I’ll begin the with oil.

The top image is a close up of the “putty” made from boiled linseed oil and marble dust. It is dripping slowly off the spatula as I took the photo. The second image shows the Allback boiled linseed oil and a bag of marble dust (with the orange clip) that are mixed in the small plastic container. With a screwcap on it, it lasts about a week before the surface films over. It is a polymerization of the oil, not really drying. I mix equal volumes of the putty with paint and it dries well enough overnight on the canvas to paint another layer.

The bottom image is the second pass over the pitchers of yesterday. They are straightened out, though the photos is a bit tipped. I added manganese blue to intensify the color of the glass, and added an orange made from indian yellow and permanent rose in the background. I ‘ll continue to play with this to see where it takes me. Right now it is dayglo. I may bring it back down. Definately NOT 18th century color.

A quick block in of the three pitchers shown in yesterday’s post. I started with an acrylic wash of burnt sienna with a touch of cadmium red to cover the whole canvas and have it dry in 5 minutes. That gives a warm complementary undertone to back up the cool blue glass. This was followed by a quick pencil sketch right on the dried wash, followed by a fast block in using ultramarine blue and zinc white, along with the marble dust/linseed oil putty. I added a little Damar medium to thin the paint in order to have more fluidity of application in spots. It is VERY loose and was done very fast. In the next layer I’ll straighten out the left hand pitcher and the unevenly shaped large pitcher in back, which now bulges a bit on the lower right behind the right front pitcher. I’m following Tad’s rubric:

Paint from thin to thick, from loose to tight, from dark to light, using the largest brushes possible.

In yesteryear I would have thrown this out in frustration. Shapes in the drawing WERE correct and my speed painting got em outa whack! Now my brain can see the next layer and how it will adjust and take care of the problems in this first, fast block in. Knowing that speeds me up. Of course I would prefer to have gotten all the shapes perfect in the first layer. But I’m an old codger. I get to revise. Painting to Learn! If you want to see some real mistakes that never got corrected, as well as having a chuckle or two, visit MOBA, the Museum of Bad Art here. If I left my first layer alone it might be a candidate for the MOBA. As they say on their site: “Art too bad to be ignored”. Stay tuned and watch the pitchers morph into shape and the light get refined.

Saw these pitchers in a shop in Shelburne a few years ago.  Took a picture and have been playing around with the background in photoshop.  I don’t think it’ll be pink in the final oil painting!

We had a great morning drawing/painting at Joyce’s in her beautiful garden and gazebo. The weather was changing by the second, from giant rain drops to bright sun and humidity, along with great sound effects – humming bees, booming thunder, etc., etc.. Racing out to work in the sun, and dashing back in to the gazebo when the rain came, produced very lively work. The setting was superb. Thanks Joyce. Now… for those in the picts who might have blinked or glanced the wrong way, keep in mind that I THINK you are all movie stars! (In the group the artists are, NOT IN ORDER: Joyce Picasso, Sally Monet, Katya Degas, Sandra Warhol, Linda Van Gogh, Colleen Matisse and JoAnn Da Vinci). WHAT A CAST! I took many more pictures than I have time to upload, so my apologies to those who expected more. I’ve got lots more on today’s agenda before it’s over. For those who want to do this again, please be in touch by email and we’ll design another creative day.

Did another version of this composition which was originally done once in watercolor and once in acrylic. This one was done in oil using the marble dust/boiled linseed oil putty. The glare on the upper right isn’t really there (it is an artifact of the light used to take the picture). I like this bright painting, and may try several more versions with different combinations of shapes and colors.

Above is my lair up in the Physics department at UVM. A last haven. Enrollment in the TAP course, Drawing as a Way of Knowing, is going as expected during orientation, and it will be full by June 30. On the other hand, enrollment in EDCI 200, (a one credit class on July 7 and 9) Drawing and Writing to Learn Across the Curriculum, is only at four students. We need five for this course to go, and if we don’t get them by June 30, it will be cancelled. So if you are a teacher and want to wait until the last minute to enroll, that may not be possible. If you want to join us, enroll next week or the course will not be offered.

Here is a critique of my painting (top image,) by a master portrait painter, done by looking at the photo (below the painting). Very humbling to see how much I do not see, and how far I have yet to go. But it’s a good learning experience. And I’m painting from a photo. Imagine how difficult it would be for me if I was working from life. It’s all about painting/drawing what you see. The comments came from Cynthia Debenedetti by email this afternoon:

Drawing in the painting can be improved in following areas:

head size: measure carefully the width to height and notice that yours is 1.5 the width into the height and the photo is 1.3.
highlights on top of head: notice the SHAPE of the highlights on the photo, yours make the head look even more elongated.
value areas of face: in photo the chin is darkest, it is most “tucked” from the light source. Yours is same value as the cheeks which are more up-planes than chin area.
child’s mouth in photo is wider than you show, upper side of left lip is more turned up also.
nose: nose in photo looks a little larger than in your ptg- may not be tho.
overall focal area: this could be a little stronger depicted. Possible by accentuating the tips of her fingers holding the flower and making her hand the MOST
carefully drawn thing in the whole ptg so your eye goes there!
possibly smaller brushstrokes in the field behind her to make it lie down more and go back into deeper picture space.

One day I hope to be able to see all this on my own. So… to drawing students in North Hero. Consider how carefully you need to LOOK at the subject in terms of shape, value and color, and to paint/draw what you SEE!!! For those readers who are painters and want such feedback, I think Cynthia may do such critiques for a fee. See her web site here. It has a contact email address.

Had coffee today with my friend and colleague Willem (see his site here) today. He is busy doing administrative and organizational work for the upcoming regional American Chemical Society meeting here in Burlington.

Willem Leenstra

In a short while we will again make a journey West to California.  The image is of a field of artichokes, which grow abundantly in large fields near Monterey where I used to spend time at the ocean as a teenager.   Though Vermont has an abundance of produce in the summer, there are no fields of artichokes.  The closest I get to really large ones is in COSTCO, where I shop only occasionally.  The packages of produce (actually the packages of EVERYTHING) are too large for me ever to finish before they begin to rot.  So I shop there only for things that can be frozen.  I am often amazed being there. Sometimes it seems that customers, and the piles of food in their carts, are as big as the sizes of the individual items.  In no place  is the obesity epidemic more apparent than in the food section of COSTCO.  And the items of clothing match.  Small sizes have disappeared and XL, XXL, and XXXL have taken their place.

Visited Tad the day before yesterday, and he is on the mend.  The weather finally cooled off.  I will try and revisit this post later today, to add a few more interesting items.

I took a walk downtown the day before yesterday, looking for light, color and subjects for painting. The three images here are from a collection of about 100. The first is a view down Main street walking towards the lake (about 1/2 mile down the sidewalk). The second (for you out of state readers) is our main drag – Church Street, in front of the Church Street Tavern at about 4 p.m. The last is of Gabriel Boray, a talented painter who has a gallery downtown as well as a niche on Church street where he sells his work. Nice paintings Gabriel!!