Saturday, March 27, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
In Like a Lamb...
And hopefully not, "out like a lion."
March has been a great month, several days of above freezing temperatures.
16"x20". The farmers have one hell of a mess right now. Lots of mud.
18"x24" Richland county farm. When I began painting this, the ground was spongy, by the end I was in a swimming pool.
6"x8" Clouds, I'll take 'em!
Things out of doors are very much of a silhouette-silhouettes and patterns are always vital whatever the conditions of light so long as we can see at all. On a gray day the light has a way of being a rim around things. You see the masses of light and dark and sometimes forget the tree as a whole spot in its relation to other things- after all, we must see the large spot of the tree against the sky. - Charles Hawthorne.
March has been a great month, several days of above freezing temperatures.
16"x20". The farmers have one hell of a mess right now. Lots of mud.
18"x24" Richland county farm. When I began painting this, the ground was spongy, by the end I was in a swimming pool.
6"x8" Clouds, I'll take 'em!
Things out of doors are very much of a silhouette-silhouettes and patterns are always vital whatever the conditions of light so long as we can see at all. On a gray day the light has a way of being a rim around things. You see the masses of light and dark and sometimes forget the tree as a whole spot in its relation to other things- after all, we must see the large spot of the tree against the sky. - Charles Hawthorne.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Baraboo
There are many opportunities for enjoyable painting sessions in Baraboo, Wisconsin. This certain scene is one of my favorites. The stacking of buildings creates an interesting layout, one that culminates with the silhouette of St. Joes church against the sky.
Golden hour, on my 29th birthday.
9"x12"
A few days later, mid morning.
9"x12" picture a bit crooked.
The next evening, from a different view.
9"x12"
It has been a long interval since my last post. I have been doing a lot of painting and observing, trying to grow while being in the middle of a demanding semester. Any time that I get to unload the french easel from the trunk feels great, a needed release. At the same time, and this is something that many can respect, is that growth does not mean finished ideas. Often times it is just the opposite, fragments that may lead in the future. At any rate, the life of an artist is a good one!
"Those things are too beautiful for use. The subject may be very beautiful, but it will only be beautiful with a veneer of the thing I was talking about-that is, it will be purely literary painting. The reason is that you have thought about it in that way-that it was a landscape. You painted it because it was beautiful, but you did not have a sense of how beautiful those shadows were, coming against the sky. True you have made the house of the correct and conventional shape, but it couldn't possibly have meant anything to you; you did not specially settle yourself to paint that scene with the conviction that it was beautiful, that it was a beautiful subject. That was yellow sunlight, these widows would be purple-true, these windows of yours are the accepted shape, but see how in Sargent's water colors you have a conviction of shadow before you notice his purple. I want you to see things from the realization that your drawing does not need to be a house. The view that you mst take is that this is a piece of God's outdoors, that this is shadow and this is light. You ought to tremble before it, and not sit down like a magician and try to make windows" - Charles Hawthorne.
Golden hour, on my 29th birthday.
9"x12"
A few days later, mid morning.
9"x12" picture a bit crooked.
The next evening, from a different view.
9"x12"
It has been a long interval since my last post. I have been doing a lot of painting and observing, trying to grow while being in the middle of a demanding semester. Any time that I get to unload the french easel from the trunk feels great, a needed release. At the same time, and this is something that many can respect, is that growth does not mean finished ideas. Often times it is just the opposite, fragments that may lead in the future. At any rate, the life of an artist is a good one!
"Those things are too beautiful for use. The subject may be very beautiful, but it will only be beautiful with a veneer of the thing I was talking about-that is, it will be purely literary painting. The reason is that you have thought about it in that way-that it was a landscape. You painted it because it was beautiful, but you did not have a sense of how beautiful those shadows were, coming against the sky. True you have made the house of the correct and conventional shape, but it couldn't possibly have meant anything to you; you did not specially settle yourself to paint that scene with the conviction that it was beautiful, that it was a beautiful subject. That was yellow sunlight, these widows would be purple-true, these windows of yours are the accepted shape, but see how in Sargent's water colors you have a conviction of shadow before you notice his purple. I want you to see things from the realization that your drawing does not need to be a house. The view that you mst take is that this is a piece of God's outdoors, that this is shadow and this is light. You ought to tremble before it, and not sit down like a magician and try to make windows" - Charles Hawthorne.
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