Save Your Holiday Cookie Cans!

Holiday cookie cans make THE perfect airtight storage cans for the rags used in oil painting! I put a fresh plastic bag in before each painting session to make it easy to clean up and seal the can up tight when I'm done painting. Each week right before trash pick-up, out the bagged up rags go. So, eat up the cookies (save a few for Santa, of course!) and hijack that can straight to your studio!

New Video - The Painter's Palette & How to Set-up a Glass Palette

The palettes of several famous artists including a range from Degas to Van Gogh are shown in the video I just uploaded. I've always found painter's palettes to be fascinating. For me, the highlight of an afternoon I spent in Delacroix's studio in Paris was seeing his palette (and the secret garden his studio opened out on!)

When visiting N.C. Wyeth's studio (read blog post), you can walk right up to his easel and see his palette as he left it. To think of the masterpieces that emerged from this very palette!

Click here if you would like to watch the video. In it I also show how to set up and use a glass palette. I hope you enjoy it!

N.C. Wyeth's Painting Supplies

The studio of the great illustrator N. C. Wyeth, in the Brandywine Valley of Pennsylvania, is fascinating to visit because everything has been maintained pretty much as it was during his lifetime.  You can walk right up to his easel with his last work in progress and see exactly what painting supplies he used to create his masterpieces. Here is the table to the left of his easel. The tin boxes in the back contain (or contained??--I did not get see inside these!) his paint tubes. Thanks goes to his children who had the foresight to preserve this wonderland for generations of future artists!

Painting Color Spots Helps Me Mix Colors!

A couple of years ago, after a spate of moving, selling, renting, and buying houses, I ended up with a fistful of decorator's paint color samples from the hardware store. I starting using them to help me figure out the elusive colors needed in portraits and for unlit atmospheric passages in still lifes. Once I found what looked like a match, I would paint color spots directly on the paint chips to see which pigments I would need to get the colors in the subjects. Since then I have painted many such color spot sequences as I enjoy the challenge and pick chips that look hard to mix. Although it's a self-explanatory process, you might enjoy watching this video I made about painting color spots. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AqvgPoPm2w.

 

Finally--An Extra-Tall Lightweight Easel!

I must confess to preferring lightweight aluminum easels over heavier wood ones for my plein air work and travel. Admittedly they break fairly quickly as the pile of easel body parts in my studio would attest to. Still I find their ease of use and portability worth the periodic need for replacement. Much to my delight, I just discovered one such easel that comes in sizes! This gives the option to get an "X-Large" 80-inch tall easel (compare this easel to the height of the front door!) that easily allows taller people to stand tall while painting. Look how tall this easel is compared to the height of the front door!

Here's the exact one I ordered: US Art Supply® Big Sur Aluminum Tripod Field & Display Easel (X-Large) 80 Inches Tall (1-EASEL)

A Tribute to Great Artists: CCAA Juried Show

‘A Tribute to Great Artists’ is the interesting concept behind the current art show (Nov. 6 – Dec. 4, 2014) at the Chester County Art Association (CCAA).  I valued this opportunity to pay homage to one of many artists who has helped me develop my own vision as a painter. Because the Pennsylvania still life tradition has always attracted me and influenced my style, for this show I chose to pay tribute to Martin Johnson Heade. Perhaps Heade is best known for his lovely paintings featuring orchids growing in the wild; however, he also painted southern magnolias resting on a table. It is these paintings in particular to which my show entries relate. 

What most comes to mind regarding the process of these two paintings is the sight I observed as I gathered the magnolias in early June. In the bowl formed by each gigantic magnolia petal was a mardi gras of tiny bees and wasps rolling and buzzing around in a golden powdery fluff of pollen and flower parts. I would love to ask Heade if he too witnessed this amazing sunny celebration in the petal bowls of the magnolias. He must have!

 

The theme of the CCAA show reminds me of the invaluable legacy of past masters and great artists of present day. Their work inspires and challenges us, it answers our questions and poses new ones for us to puzzle over. Perhaps our greatest tribute to these masters is to strive to be the best artists we possibly can be, keeping their legacy alive as we forge our way.

Color Sketches: A Handy Tool for Designing a Painting

In this example I first experimented with different value patterns.
Each sketch built on the previous one culminating in a full color sketch.

When painting short-lived flowers or fleeting landscapes, I am tempted to forego planning the composition of a painting. Yet the time spent designing a painting often saves me time overall and improves the odds of the painting being a success.  I find color sketches to be a handy way to test out and capture the concept of the painting. During the process, opportunities to play up edges become clear. I can also spot needed changes in the setup or view.  A color sketch guides me throughout the development of the painting, resulting in fewer missteps and purer color.

Color sketches are the first topic featured in my new Old Garden Arts free painting video series--short YouTube videos demonstrating painting techniques and tips--published every other Wednesday. Click here to view the Color Sketches video.

 I look forward to painting with you!

Flower Harvest Before Frost

Here are the flowers and fruit gathered from the garden the evening before the first frost here in southeastern Pennsylvania. I had hoped to spare them from frost damage so that I could paint them. Surprisingly despite temperatures in the low 30s, the blooms left behind in the garden all made it through the frost just fine, including roses, petunias, cosmos, sage, and irises. No second frost yet and all of these continue to happily bloom outside!

The Season's Last Roses



Painting a color sketch featuring David Austin roses.

The profusion of roses and their looming absence from the garden over winter has had me focusing on a series of studies featuring roses. Focusing on David Austin roses and tea hybrid roses, I've been analyzing roses' colors and form, drawing charcoal studies, painting full-size value studies, and capturing quick color sketches.



Painting a value study featuring hybrid tea roses.

George Cochran Lambdin (1830-1896), was a Philadelphia area painter famous for his roses. He began painting roses as a means to explore the subtleties of flesh tones for his portraiture work.  He painted roses in natural settings and in the greenhouse; one painting even includes a wheelbarrow full of roses. Happy will be the day when my garden yields such a profusion! In the time being, I treasure the small handfuls offered up daily.

Another Lovely Day Painting at Kuerner Farm

At Kuerner farm, the painting gods were smiling this day by providing a gorgeous morning and holding off a torrential downpour until a half hour later. 

Painting setup in front of Kuerner barn.

Painting almost finished. 

Painting Studies at Kuerner Farm

Painting studies at Kuerner Farm

Located in the Brandywine Valley, the historic Kuerner Farm is the setting for many of Andrew Wyeth's paintings and sketches. Karl Kuerner III, whose family members are featured in Wyeth's paintings, is an accomplished painter himself. Through the Brandywine Conservancy and Brandywine River Museum, he offers plein air classes at the farm. I am thrilled to be taking part in this opportunity to explore this historic setting. 

No sooner had I blocked in this first study and it began to rain. Though discombobulating, rain does lend authenticity to plein air painting!

Henry Lea Tatnall's Studio - Wilmington, Delaware

How I would love to spend some time in my great grandfather Henry Lea Tatnall's studio! And to think that his easel was later used as firewood. Ahhhh!