Fun with Pumice

Some fun products have been arriving on my doorstep this week.  I'm about to embark on a little research for an article I'm writing for The Artist's Magazine.  The article is on surfaces for pastel.  One of the products that arrived is a 2 lb bag of finely ground pumice.  This is FFFF (4F), which is about as fine as you can get it.  

Pumice is a product of vulcanism.  The rock is full of gas, and it can float on water.  When ground up, it makes an excellent abrasive for sanding.  It's been used for polishing furniture and, if I'm not mistaken, teeth.  (Your dentist may have a problem with that.)  But it's also great for making pastel surfaces.  When mixed with gesso and applied to a substrate, it becomes the "grit" that holds the pastel.

I wonder how far my 2 lb bag will go?  It looks like an awful lot of pumice to me.  And it would be easy to confuse it with stone-ground wheat flour.

Teaching a Workshop - Artists Network University

As some of you may know, I've been doing critiques through Artists Network University.  Not long ago, ANU decided to add a curriculum and invited me to teach a workshop.  The workshop development is now complete, and you can register online for my Getting Started in Plein Air workshop.  The workshop starts June 26th and runs four weeks.  Participation is limited to 20 students.

One might very well ask, "How can I learn plein air painting through an online workshop?"  Good question!  Well, you'll have a book download - my friend Bob Rohm's The Painterly Approach - as part of the course, plus a series of videos to watch.  Each week you'll have an assignment plus homework to do out in the field.  You'll upload your completed assignments through our Blackboard interface.  I'll critique your work, and you can ask me questions and get answers.  I've never done this before, but I think it'll be lots of fun!

If you're new to plein air, or would like to get into it but have been afraid to, this is the course for you.  I'll cover the fundamentals and lead you through my process for painting outdoors.  Please join us!

Picking a Subject

I've started writing a few guest articles for plein air painting-related blogs.  Here's one for Plein Air BC, the British Columbia plein air group.  (Their website is www.pleinairbc.com.)  It's about picking a subject.  I'll just post the first paragraph, and you can click the link to read the rest of it.

Picking a subject is like taking the first step on a journey; you always want to start out in the right direction. One problem I run into when teaching workshops is that many students don’t know how to pick a subject suitable for a plein air painting. [read more]

Some New Plein Air Painting Products

Spring Greens at the Seaside Barn, 6x8, oil

Now that we've settled in after our long, cross-country drive, I thought I'd go out painting with a few new items I've come across.  We've had absolutely gorgeous weather these last few days, and I didn't want to miss the opportunity to play before getting back to work.  Of course, painting is work, but I call it playing when I introduce a few new items to my materials or equipment.  (Actually, I have been working; this week, I created the syllabus and materials for my online course through Artists Network University, started an article for The Artist's Magazine, and promoted my Paint Campobello plein air painting workshops.)

Although blackflies aren't a problem when I start teaching my workshops at the end of June, we always have a run of them in late May.  I came across "Bye Bye Blackfly," a DEET-free ointment that comes in a nifty can.  We do have blackflies now, and I can swear that this product works.

I've always used those free plastic bags from Wal-Mart for disposing of my soiled papertowels.  I hang one from the side of my pochade box.  But one problem with these bags, in addition to their being bad for the environment, is that a windy day will often send it whipping around, often right into my palette.  Paint gets everywhere.  I now have the Bajer Pop Open Caddy, thanks to a student of mine from Ohio.  Originally designed as a shower caddy, it's perfect for trash.  I have to admit I do line it with a plastic bag.

Besides the Pop Open Caddy, you'll note the Art Cocoon, which I
have written about before.

Finally, when I was at the Plein  Air Expo in Las Vegas, I was given a set of Cobra paints, a new brand of water-miscible oil paint from Royal Talens, the people who make Rembrandt paints and pastels.  They're better that the Grumbacher Max brand which seems to "clump" when thinned with too much water.  Yes, I know you can buy a medium that will thin without clumping, but for me the point of these paints is to minimize what I have to carry.  Cobra paints thin well with just water.  I like the consistency of them, too.

At the top of this post is the little piece I did this morning.  With all these new toys, you can bet I had fun painting it!

Managing Your Greens

"Head Harbour Shadows" 9x12, oil - available
One way of managing greens is to avoid them!  Although there was a great deal of green in this scene
of the Head Harbour Light house, I chose to minimize their coverage.

The vigorous, vegetive greens of summertime overwhelm the landscape - and often the painting student, too.  I'm not talking about fast-moving kudzu that can swallow up a whole town overnight, but about greens that are so dominant that they swallow up all other color.  In much of the eastern U.S. and Canada, it's hard to see anything but green in summer.

Students often cower and retreat before the onslaught, uttering one of two statements.  Either "there's too much green out there" or "I just can't find the right green."

Even as an experienced outdoor painter, I have to admit that I, too, sometimes wish for something other than green.  But if you want to paint outdoors in the summertime, you may have no alternative than to engage the enemy.

First, let's look at the problem of too much green.  Green is supposed to be a restful color - that's why hospital corridors are often painted that color - but in the landscape, too much can be claustrophobic.  One trick painters use to mitigate green is to tone the canvas red.  The theory is that little bits of red will pop through the overpainting and make for a more vibrant finished piece.  I don't find this very helpful, though; green strokes over red vibrate like bad op art and give me a headache.  Instead, I like to use a near-complement.  If the green is, say, a pure secondary green, I prefer to tone with red-violet or red-orange.  The vibration is a lot less but still makes for an exciting painting.

Now, let's look at not being able to mix (or, in pastel, find) the right green.  The "right green" that you see in the landscape isn't necessarily the "right green" you want in your painting.  Don't try the trick of mixing up a batch of green with your knife and then holding up a sample against what you see in the field; that mixture will look different - and wrong - once you apply it to your canvas and it's in the context of all your other slightly-off mixtures.  Instead, consider the mood you are trying to create, and then get the colors in your painting to work well together.  Also, you may consider using the concept of simultaneous contrast to get the green you want.  Green surrounded by red will seem more intense; surrounded by blue, it will seem tinged with orange and warmer.

I'm ready to confront greens this summer.  Are you?

Ohio Plein Air Painting Workshop

Ruth Ann's Garden, 9x12, oil

I just finished up a two-day, oil-only plein air painting workshop in Lima, Ohio.  It's hard to believe, but in this meteorologically-busy spring season, we had two days of really excellent weather.   Comfortable temperature and humidity, plenty of sun, and no bugs.  We all remarked that plein air painting doesn't get any better than this!

Last year we painted barns; this year, we focused on one of Lima's beautiful city parks.  This one had trees, water, flowers - everything you could ask for.   (We were even interviewed and taped by the local paparazzi, the local newspaper and TV station.)  I did a garden painting plus a tree painting demonstration of a shagbark hickory.  Here are some photos to show you a bit of the workshop.

Now we are on our way home.  We still have about 2000 miles to go, and we'll include one family visit in Vermont.  Most likely, my next post will be from Campobello Island.  We can't wait to get there!

We stopped at Kewpee's for dinner

Painting at Faurot Park

Shagbark Hickory, 12x9, oil

Indiana Plein Air Painting Workshop

Art Barn Shadows, 5x7 pastel

I just finished teaching a three-day, oil and pastel plein air painting workshop at the Art Barn in Valparaiso, Indiana.  Indiana has become one of my favorite places to teach over the last couple of years.  At the Art Barn, we have it all - ponds, meadows, woods, barns, burros and yes, even chickens - and 69 beautiful acres to wander in.  This year, because of the early warm weather, we missed the dogwoods blooming, but we got the locust trees and some very pretty late spring greens.  I'm already looking forward to next year!

To whet your appetite, I've included a few photos plus a couple of demonstrations from the workshop.

Now, we are on our way to Lima, Ohio, to teach a two-day, oil-only plein air painting workshop.  I'll report on that soon.

Janet Sullivan, Art Barn Founder and Guest Chicken Wrangler

Demonstrating in the Field

Painting by the Pond

Barn Tree, 12x9, oil

Spring Chickens, 12x9 pastel

Illinois Plein Air Painting Workshop

The Old Mill, 9x12, pastel

I just finished teaching a two-day plein air painting workshop at Water Street Studios in Batavia, Illinois.   Batavia is one of my favorite small towns for a workshop.  Called "The Windmill City" because it was once the country's largest producer of windmills, it boasts many cultural amenities and beautiful parks.  We painted in two of the parks and enjoyed views of old mill buildings, waterfalls, graceful oak trees and lots and lots of Canada geese.  Above is one of my demos from the workshop plus some photos.

I hope to teach another workshop here next May.  If you're in the Chicago area, it's not far - less than an hour.  Watch my newsletter for announcements or, if you're not on my mailing list, sign up here.

Now we are on our way to the Art Barn at Valparaiso, Indiana.  We'll be painting on the Art Barn's property - 70 acres of woods, meadows and ponds, with chickens and cows and yes, an old barn!  We'll even have the Chicken Whisperer in attendance; he'll make sure the chickens hold still long enough for us to paint them.

A Visit to Santa Fe

Spring in Santa Fe!

As we planned our cross-country trip, we decided to stop in Santa Fe for a day.  Santa Fe, if you have the time and energy, is always worth the visit - especially if you're a painter and you want to see what's happening in the galleries.  It's been about a year since we were here last, and I'm glad to say the City Different hasn't changed much.   Our visit this year was timed particularly well, since everything was in bloom - roses, lilacs, ornamentals we don't know the name of, and all of it at once.

We did note some gallery closures and changes.  Our old favorites are still there - Ventana, Meyer, McLarry - but we were pleased to find a few new ones.  Also, Sage Creek Gallery, which I always found hard to get to at its old location, is now conveniently located on Canyon Road.   Here are some notes from the road.

At Hunter Kirkland Contemporary, we ran into the beautiful color harmonies of Gregory Frank Harris:

Gregory Frank Harris, "Pecos River" 38x40 oil

At S.R. Brennan Gallery, I finally got to see some of Adrian Gottleib's fantastic figure work:

Adrian Gottleib, "Truth Corrupted by Vanity"

At McLarry Fine Art, I encountered the work of David Ballew:

David Ballew, "Spring Afternoon in Santa Fe"

And finally, Ventana Fine Art had some nice new work by my perennial favorites, Doug Dawson and Albert Handell:

Doug Dawson, "Fountain of Light" 34x38 oil

Albert Handell, "Very Early Spring (Dogwood)", 12x18, pastel

We'll get back to Santa Fe again.  It's always inspiring to stop.

Heading East

"Thunder Mountain Colors" 9x12, pastel

The time has come to say goodbye to Arizona and head east.  East for us is a 3500-mile trip with a final destination of Campobello Island, New Brunswick.  Along the way, I'll be teaching workshops in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.  As always, though we have enjoyed our winter here in Arizona, we're looking forward to hitting the road and finally being back at our quiet island home again.

Spring is already moving into summer here in Arizona, and the roses are beautiful in our community.  But by the time we get the Campobello, it will be barely spring, and our lilacs there will be just starting.  The apple trees will be another month before they strike their floral crescendo.  May is always a slow start for the Maritimes, and we'll have some fog, some rain and some cool weather.  But it won't be long before the sun rolls back the fog and hammers the sea into a broad blue shield.

By the way, in case you aren't on my newsletter mailing list, here is a link to my latest newslettter.

I'll write again from the road.

Painting in Zion National Park - Part 6

Update!  We liked the retreat so much, we're going to do it again in April 2014.  Visit www.pleinairzion.com for details as they develop.

The final day of our plein air painting retreat dawned clear and warm.  After a quick breakfast, we hustled out to Court of the Patriarchs to finish up the paintings we'd started yesterday.  The great thing about splitting the painting over a couple of days is that on the second day, there is no messing around.  You know where you're going to set up, you're familiar with the scene, and you've already figured out most of the problems.  Basically, you set up your tripod and go.  I finished up a couple of pieces.  Here's one of them, a 12x9 oil of Mount Moroni.

"Mt Moroni Shadows" 12x9, oil - SOLD

Afterward, we went back to the house for lunch and said goodbye to a couple of participants who had to drive to Las Vegas for flights.  Once lunch was done and the goodbyes were said, some of us headed for the shaded deck to tweak the week's paintings.  It was hot - over 90 - but the shade was cool enough, and we got some good work done.

As evening drew on, we decided to head out for one last field trip.  Destination:  Grafton.  Grafton is a ghost town, and perhaps best known these days for having had a small part in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.   (It was the scene where, if I recall correctly, Paul Newman rides a bicycle to the tune of "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head.")  Grafton and the road leading to it have some of the best scenery I've seen all week.  For the next retreat we do in Zion, we'll definitely plan two days around Grafton.  Below are some photos to whet your appetite.

This is my final post about Zion.  Tomorrow morning the rest of the participants head out.  It's always a sad time, since it has been an intense week of painting and living together.   I say goodbye to them, knowing that because we've all learned a lot from each other, we are now well-prepared to move on in our lives as painters.  And it cheers me to think that I'll see many of them again someday.

Painting in Zion National Park - Part 5

The excellent weather continues in Zion National Park, and so we were up early again for breakfast and to make sandwiches for lunch.  Here, Trina mans the lunch counter while some of the others finish off breakfast.

We headed back to Court of the Patriarchs again.   (Did I mention this is one of my favorite places?)  When we went there the other afternoon, we found it rather warm with little shade; the cottonwoods still hadn't filled out enough to provide anything other than a diffuse shadow.  So, we decided to try it this morning.  We got there when the "court" was still in shadow, and sunlight was gradually creeping down the sides of the three Patriarchs.  We did some good painting, and Trina caught a turkey in full regalia with her camera.

Trina's Turkey

 Because the shadows do change so quickly on the cliffs, we decided to return to the "court" tomorrow morning to finish our first paintings of the day.  I like to sometimes split the painting (as well as my infinitives) over a couple of days; if the scene changes so much that you find you're working from memory, this is a good way to handle it.  The weather in the southwest is usually reliable enough that you can count on the same light at the same time of day.

Here's one I did finish:

Court of the Patriarchs, 9x12, oil - SOLD

We did our round of "show-and-tell" in the afternoon.  Here's my setup for showing both one of today's oil paintings plus yesterday's pastel (both are sold!)

This evening, we had our final group dinner at the Flying Monkey.  Although we have one more day of painting together, a couple of our friends will be leaving tomorrow.

Painting in Zion National Park - Demo

My readers are lucky enough to have had one of my paintings photographed, step-by-step, by one of our painting retreat participants.  I thought I'd post Nancy Vance's photos here.  Nancy has also been documenting the trip in her blog.

This is the painting I did yesterday down by the Virgin River in pastel.   The light was changing fast, and since what stirred my soul was the effect of shadow on water, that's what I started with.  Once I got the foundation of that down, I was able to move to the trees and the mountains in the distance.

The painting was done on a 9x12 sheet of white Wallis sanded paper with a mix of Polychromos and Mount Vision pastels.  The actual painting time in the field was maybe 90 minutes (plus 30 years, as they say) plus another half-hour back at the house.

Adjusting back at the house

The finished painting - SOLD

Painting in Zion National Park - Part 4

Jim and Ed Painting by the River

After breakfast and an early round of "show-and-tell" in which we shared yesterday's paintings, we boarded the shuttle for Canyon Junction.  This is another of my favorite spots because you can get right down to the water among the cottonwoods and get fantastic views down the canyon toward the Watchman.  Today, the water was rushing fast, thanks to some snow Zion had a few days before we arrived, and it was a beautiful blue-green with coppery accents.  The weather has warmed up some, and the morning winds have disappeared, so it was delightful down by the water.

I did a 9x12 pastel of the view.  I was itching to capture the cool cast shadows on the water and its juxtaposition to the warmer, sunlit water.  The view was, really, just secondary.

Cool Waters, 9x12, pastel - SOLD

Afterward, I wandered along the river for awhile, taking pictures, before heading to the Museum for lunch in the shade and a quick afternoon piece of a closeup of West Temple.  But rather than show you that one, here's an oil painting I did the first day of the Watchman.

The Watchman, 12x9, oil

Later, some of us headed back to the house to touch up our pastel pieces.  One or two took naps - it's hard work, being out there all day - and they went out to do a little more painting.

Nancy and Lyn Touch Up their Pastels

Dinner tonight at Cafe Soleil.  Then tomorrow, I think we'll head back to another of my favorite spots,which I'll reveal in the next blog post.