Plein air outing (04/11/06)

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I woke up this morning to a perfect, cool spring day so I set out early to do a little plein air painting. I experimented with a very limited palette, which was definitely challenging for me, especially when painting outdoors. My colors were three versions of the primary colors, (yellow red and blue, appearing as cadmium yellow pale, alizarin crimson, and ultramarine blue on my palette) plus white. I also added a fourth paint color, pthalo green, which is a highly tinted transparent warm green that can be used to mix a variety of colors beyond just green. My aim is to do some smaller paintings (pochades) as often as I can this spring and summer. On a sunny day, I find that I can only work on one scene for about two hours a session because beyond that the light has changed too drastically. By staying small I can do studies and cover the canvas within a limited amount of time. Small paintings also require you to paint loosely, as they cannot take a lot of detail unless you use a tiny brush. The whole idea for me though is to paint loosely and sharpen my ability to capture accurate color notes and the light effects in nature, not to render everything in a precise manner.

Here is the resulting 8x10" painting I did:

This is a redbud tree sitting along the banks of a little pond at a park near my house. It is definitely loose, but I will need to practice more with the limited palette as I did not get the contrast in the values, nor the colors quite as vibrant as I would have liked. Even so I think it is worthwhile to experiment with the limited palette as a way of really learning more about color mixing. 

I think this is probably about 1 1/2 hrs. worth of work. It may have taken a little less time if some of the park attendants had not come by wanting to chat. It was probably around 10 a.m. by the time I really got into it, and the light moved very quickly. I started out with my easel in full shade and ended with up with my canvas sitting entirely in the glaring sun, which made it hard to see anything. For this reason I decided it was time to pack up. Many people erect an umbrella over their work space to deal with this problem of moving light and shadow. With both the canvas and the palette in the shade, it is easier to see your colors. Dappled light or direct sunlight on the canvas and/or palette makes it very difficult to see and mix anything. I do have an umbrella but I was too lazy to bother with it today. That'll teach me!

I haven't decided if I will do any more with this painting, or if I will just keep it as a reference and as a learning exercise. I don't want to do too much, but I may see if I can push the values (the lights and darks) a little more. In any event, even if some of my plein air paintings never reach the "finished" stage, they are worthwhile for the experience of honing my observation skills.

Tags: art painting landscape painting artist plein air

Cezanne exhibit at the National Gallery, D.C.

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Many have likely already known about the fabulous exhibit running through May 7th featuring the masterful paintings of Paul Cezanne. The show is entitled "Cezanne in Provence", and will focus on his paintings reflecting the love of the landscape surrounding his birthplace. I've known about this show for a while but exhibits like this never seem to emerge to the surface of my awareness until they are almost over.

I saw a fabulous Cezanne exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art some years back, and while it did have a number of landscapes, there were a lot of still life and figurative paintings in that show. I am very excited about this most recent exhibit because the focus seems to be on the landscape and local people surrounding the village of Aix. I did not get into Aix on my visits to Provence (though I do hope to do so at some point!) but I have been all around that gorgeous countryside and can certainly understand why Cezanne was so passionate about it.

I missed out on a terrific Alice Neel (one of my favorite modern figurative painters) show up in D.C. recently, so I am extra-determined not to miss the Cezanne show and miss out on another opportunity.

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New art greeting cards now available

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I am pleased to announce that I now have a new line of greeting cards available for purchase online. These cards are offered in packages of 6, with white envelopes included. They are printed in full color on heavy stock and have a blank inside, so they are perfect for including your own personal message. The cards are produced by a company called Cafe Press. I have ordered some samples for myself and was very impressed with the printing quality. Right now I have a small selection of images available, but I plan to offer more in the future. Please visit the greeting cards page on my website for more information.

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Watching the weather

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When Dave and I first married, I used to joke to him that he was a closet weather man. I'd come out to breakfast each morning and he'd be there with the newspaper at the ready, quoting the weather forecast for the day.

In those days I'd scoff at the idea of such preparedness, but once I started painting landscapes, I came to depend on those weather forecasts. There's nothing worse than setting up all of your painting gear and seeing those black clouds roll in when you've only just begun your work! This painting of the Georgia wetlands was created under such circumstances. It is actually named "The Clouds Roll In" and measures 12"x12". Additional details about the painting are available here. Since we were on the road, we weren't able to come back to this site on another day, so I had no choice but to finish it in the studio:

It has still really been either too cold or too rainy for me to paint outside yet, so I've been getting some new studio paintings under way. But my weather man informs me that there are some warm days ahead, so I'm getting my painting gear together in anticipation. I want to grab it and go out in the early morning at the first opportunity. 

Digital Cameras

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I had some inquiries at my recent workshop about the kind of digital camera I use, so I thought I would post that information here:

What I use is a Canon G5 Digital Camera . I am no expert on these kinds of things, but I did a lot of research before purchasing, and this is a good 5 mega-pixel camera. At the time of purchase it was NOT cheap, but it had the highest number of mega-pixels on the market in an attainable price range. This is no longer so. There are many other very good cameras on the market, but the G-5 is still very good, so I will have to stick with this one for a while longer.

It is not compact, but more like a traditional body single lens reflex camera. This is something I will need to reconsider in the future because I travel so much and now long for something more compact. It does have a good zoom and can shoot macros (for close up shots) which were the two criteria that were high on my list of priorities. But it is not good at all for action shots (something I don't really need for landscapes and city shots).

The only thing I really don't like about my camera is the lens cap. It would be much better if it had an automatic retractable lens, as the cap can sometimes fall off and you end up needing to clean the lens a lot. (I had a time when I was in Italy trying to figure out how to say, "do you have any lens paper?" in Italian. I think I ended up saying like "Do you have anything for to clean this?" pointing at my lens.) This problem may have been remedied in the next generation of this camera though. There is a newer version out now (the Canon G6  ) that has 7 megapixels. There are also other cameras that have 8 MP and more, so one has a lot of choices, depending on the budget of course. Basically the more MP's you have the higher resolution images you can shoot. The G5 has been discontinued, but is still sold through various outlets. Here is a VERY detailed review of the G5.

You can read more about newer Canon cameras, including the next release of my model (the G6) here.
If you have an opinion about a good digital camera with good zoom and macros, feel free to post a comment about it!