Mini taboret, palette and art caddy

I made mention the other day about my home made mini taboret that I devised (with the help of my husband's handiwork!)  Here it is:

I use this as my color mixing palette and as a holder for a few of my essentials- my oil paints, any medium, paint thinner and paper towels, etc. The main structure is actually this laundry caddy, that is meant to slide in between a washing machine and drier.

The goal in my search for the perfect cart was to find something ready made that I could use directly in front of my easel as a palette area to mix my paints.

I figured if I didn't want to bend over or reach out too far to get to my canvas, I'd like something no more than 12 inches deep, and at the right height so that I could comfortably mix my paints without having to stoop.  I also wanted something on wheels, so that I could roll the cart to the side if I were painting a very large painting.

What I came up with was this art caddy. The caddy required minimal assembly and was only around 8 or 9 inches deep. I'm not a tall person, but still the cart wasn't quite tall enough for me. This is where the handiwork came in. My husband told me to determine how much higher I'd need the top to be in order to comfortably mix my paints. Once this was determined, he built up the height by engineering a little insert cut from two by fours. Then he attached a 12"deep x 36" long board (a shelf left over from an old IKEA bookcase) on top of his insert. Sitting atop this board, I have3 12x12" ceramic tiles. This is my paint mixing area. The tiles are backed with velcro so that if I get very vigorous with my mixing they won't slide around.  I'm not great with cleaning my palette thoroughly, but the great thing is these tiles are cheap and easily found at any Lowe's or Home Depot. If they get too dirty then it is easy enough and inexpensive enough to change them out.  A very handy person could probably easily construct the whole caddy from scratch, but being short on time and patience, this cart works for me! And was far cheaper than anything I had looked at that was comercially produced.

Care needs to be taken when moving the cart. In other words, you can't whip it around very quickly as it is slightly top heavy. This is mostly remedied by putting heavy things (like cans of thinner) on the bottom shelf.  I used a simple bungee cord strung from one side handle to the other to hold my paper towels, and the baskets are ones I found at the dollar store. 

A taller person might require a taller cart (I'm 5'4 1/2" tall) so you'd really need to measure everything to make sure this is the solution for you. There are also expensive easels that actually have tiles along the front part of the easel, and this is another option if you want a complete system. However, I rather like having the cart/palette separate as it is a little more flexible for me to have something that is freestanding.

Art Books; Landscape Painting Inside & Out

In my last post I mentioned Kevin Macpherson's latest book, Landscape Painting Inside & Out. This is a nice companion to his first wonderful book Fill Your Oil Paintings With Light and Color. The latter focuses primarily on plein air painting, while the former encompasses both plein air and studio work. In his newest book, the author does a pretty thorough job of describing his supplies and tools of the trade for both his permanent studio and his portable one. Personally I really enjoyed the photos he's included of his indoor studio, (which is dreamy!) as it gives the artist (who likes to dream) some good ideas about how to plan a good setup. It was interesting for me to see that he puts his taboret in front of his easel, so that his color mixing palette is directly in front of him rather than off to the side, mimicking the setup one would have on a smaller scale outdoors. I work in the exact same way, with a mini-taboret on wheels my husband rigged up for me using a small laundry cart.

Subsequent sections touch on the different qualities of light and their effect on your subject, as well as value relationships and shape relationships. He has an interesting way of explaining the importance of describing elements in the landscape in terms of shape rather than rendering every minute detail. Here the book shows various black and white silhouettes to explain that an accurate contour is what describes an object. For example, one should be more concerned with the shape of a tree and largely indicate this  as one mass, using details such as individual leaves sparingly and just to accent and better define the subject.

This book touches on a lot of different concerns for the landscape painter. Aside from the ones I mentioned above, the author addresses edges, color temperature, and includes a very interesting section on planning and designing the painting. Several of these subjects are covered in just one or two pages, but they are well articulated and will give the serious landscape painter a starting point for further investigation.

After this overview comes what I consider the "meat" of the book--a large section on painting outside on location and another substantial one on translating your outdoor studies into larger studio works. In these sections, as in his previous book, Macpherson provides several very well described demonstrations of his processes. These sections appeal to me very much. I personally love demos, as it is easier for me to understand visually than it is having it explained.

What is particularly interesting to me about this part is the way the author encourages experimentation. He includes a few demos using different limited palettes that give the reader some ideas-- experimenting with an earth primary palette, using a strong color palette, or using a set palette with a monochrome (grey) underpainting.

Different from his last book, Macpherson includes a final section on "The Path to Success". This is really a topic worthy of an entire book (or a series of books). Macpherson goes into no detail at all about how to manage one's art career, but merely touches on some things to think about. Largely he writes about things like being inspired, doing what you love, setting goals, blah blah blah. Sure, all of this is important, but it's dealt with in a pretty vague manner and personally this is the least informative section of the book which covers about the last 15 pages. I suppose it is really just meant to be inspiring, so as long as you don't expect more, you may really enjoy this part.

Overall, this is a very interesting book with some very beautiful color reproductions of the artist's lush, impressionistic paintings. The demos are good, and I like that the breakout topics are geared more towards experienced painters who might be looking to experiment or deepen their understanding of landscape painting.  Macpherson does do a  good bit of selling of his other products, such as his other book, video and his "Kevin Macpherson Plein Air Palette" and "Kevin Macpherson Prochade Kit".  But this to me is only mildly annoying because I'd probably do the same thing if I offered these kinds of products. ;-) And heck! It must have worked...I've ordered his Prochade Kit for myself and will probably blog about it once I've had a chance to try it out.

Morning Meadow; Blue Ridge Mountain landscape painting

I have been spending so much time doing small studies lately that it really felt good to do a big-honkin' painting in the studio of the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains. Ahhhh! Big canvas, big brushes, and lots of paint.

Okay, so this painting is 30x40"--not massive but respectably large for me. I've painted other variations of this scene before but they sold before I could get a high quality photograph taken of them. This snapshot is off somewhat and caught a bit of glare but I will post a better image once I've finished the painting (a bit more minor tweaking to do.) 

I decided to try this with a limited palette of five colors (ultramarine blue, cadmium red light, alizarin crimson permanent, cadmium yellow light, pthalo green and white.)

Basically this is the palette Kevin Macpherson often cites in his very good book: Landscape Painting Inside & Out, (which I will write about more extensively in my next post.)

This pallette differs from the one that Kenn Backhaus uses that I had been experimenting with a couple of weeks ago painting on location in Easton Md. I rather find myself gravitating more towards the Macpherson palette, which varies the colors and omits the black. The jury is still out though and I will continue to experiment with both, as I do think I am learning a lot about color.

Plein air painting; View Across the Harbor, Oxford, Maryland

I don't normally paint views of such great distance, but this was a lively little harbor scene and so representative of the little town of Oxford on Maryland's Eastern Shore; charming, quaint, small and picturesque. This was painted mid morning (started around 9:30) on location. I found one tree to shade me, while I used my umbrella to shade my painting and my palette. Of course I still managed to get sunburn!  This painting is 9x12" and is oil on canvas.

Here I am using the same limited palette of 6 colors plus white that I have used all week, which is incidentally the same palette that the talented plein air painter and instructor Kenn Backhaus recommends. How he manages to get such seductive color with so few pigments still eludes me, but I am determined to figure it out!

Plein air painting; Top 10 things that are a pain in the tuccus

Since I've been doing quite a bit of painting on location this summer, I thought I'd share some of my thoughts about the experience of plein air painting. I'll deal with the less desirable aspects first, and then follow up with what I love: 

1. Bugs of all kinds (ticks, mosquitoes, bees, etc.). I'm not the world's bravest outdoorsy type and I hate the creepy crawlies.
2. Sunburn! There is no way to avoid the sun. Be prepared and deal with it.
3. Being covered in goo (otherwise known as bug spray and sunscreen) due to list items 1 and 2.
4. Finding a location with lots of lovely shady spots, but the amazing scene that you are passionately in love with is only visible when standing in the blazing sun.
5. Forgetting to pack one essential thing (and I ALWAYS seem to forget to pack one essential thing!)
6. Having to lug around a bunch of heavy art supplies and equipment (no matter how much I try to pare down, it is still too much stuff!)
7. Getting out before breakfast time and staying out beyond dinner time because that's when the best light is. (Okay, my days revolve around my meals. Note; those are TWO meals I'm missing! )
8. Getting in the groove while the light is excellent, only to encounter a passer-by who feels like a nice, long chat.
9. Enduring the elements (sun, wind, rain, heat, cold, ever-changing light, etc.), all the while hoping to create something brilliant.
10.  Spending 2 to 3 hours painting and ending up with something that's nowhere near "brilliant"!

Lest you are thinking, "Stop your complaining. If you don't like it, stay inside!", stay tuned for the top 10 things to love about plein air painting and see why I put up with it and am becoming more and more obsessed with it. You may be surprised to find some overlap ;-)