Thoughts of a painter

If you think you are a great painter, it might not be true; and adversely, if you think you are a bad painter, it might not be true. So, just paint and don’t worry about it.

Paint for any reason except to try to paint a piece that will sell.

Have fun with the process: there is always gesso.

If you’re going to compare, be prepared to feel superior or discouraged. Why judge? There is space for all of our creations in this amazing universe. As the Nike commercial says: Just Do It. 

Relax, breathe, slow down. Cut back on the caffeine. Be aware. Look into your eyes in the mirror every morning and say ‘I love you’ and mean it.

Ask yourself: Why do I paint? See what happens.

Spousal comments etcetera only matter when they matter. Otherwise ignore them.

And most importantly, when working with phthalo blue, don’t pat your pet, especially the white ones. 

 

The black and white of color

As many painters do, I photograph the progress of a painting. Currently, I also create a grayscale copy on my camera of these progress photos. Looking at a black and white photo on the small  viewfinder is helpful as there is less detail, and the image is seen as a tonal map.

On my Canon Powershot, while in the viewfinder mode, I press the Menu button on the camera’s body. On the ensuing display, I choose ‘My colors’, where I tab over to the B/W icon.  From there, I press the menu button on the camera’s body. On the viewfinder there is the option of saving the new image, which I do. I press the menu button again, and there is the choice of showing or not showing the new grayscale image.

Learning to see the black and white of color has been a theme during this year’s art mentoring. It has definitely helped us to be better painters. Our next theme is to paint using color schemes for mood while being aware of the tonal mapping.

Beginning with A Creative Background, plus Using the Golden Mean Ratio

First Stages: background, black and some mid-greys and whites.

More shading and glazing.

Music Maker, acrylic, 24 x 12

Using a limited palette of colour and shades wins award for ‘Release’

I have discovered that using a limited palette of colours and shades works best for me, while concentrating on the underlying design. Somehow it helps the feeling of the piece to come through. ‘Released’ was entered to Arts on the Edge, Kimberley’s annual show, for which it won second prize for Established Artist Adjudicator’s Award.

Colours used: mars black, phthalo blue, pyrolle red light, hansa yellow light opaque, dioxazine purple and titanium white.

The joy of design

Walking alongside the Columbia River one snowy day, a trio of new moms with their bundled infants walked by. Their young ones were colourful, wearing cold winter gear that would rival Joseph’s coat of many colours. I couldn’t resist asking if I could take photos. The painting shown here was inspired by one of these. Besides the colours, I was excited by the composition of the image: the angles and patterns were irresistible. Also, the one available eye that had managed to escape the layers of cloth, looked outward with such openness. Had to be painted. And that cute little nose too! Oh yeah, and the soother. Gosh, it was all fun. My favorite part was adding a few snowflakes to the baby’s eyelashes – not in the photo – I’m so proud of my inventiveness. :).

I began with a Prussian Blue background. Why? Probably because I had Prussian Blue and it was similar to the colour of the eye. Besides which, I wanted to use up some of my neglected watercolour pigments, to which I added acrylic medium and, voila, I  turned watercolors into acrylics. Maybe not water into wine, but pretty nifty.

As I often do, I used a black and white print for reference, in addition to a colour one. The grayscale is great for seeing the tonal values. I love the challenge of seeing shades, plus the warms and cools. It’s interesting how much blue and other colours are in some parts of the skin.

I took a few photos of the process. Here you go…

PS I began by placing darks using black gesso. Other colours: naples yellow, cadmium yellow and orange, quinacridone magenta, phthalo blue green shade, titanium white. Naples yellow turned out to be a handy colour for mixing skin tones. Mixed with cad red and tiches of other pigments, I could create many warm and cools, connected by the naples yellow. Also used was dioxazine purple.

My top favourite art books

Like many artists, I devour art books. Out of the many I’ve sucked the life out of, here are my top faves (not in any particular order):

Confident Color by Nita Leland
Capturing Radiant Light & Color Using Oils and Soft Pastels by Susan Sarback
Paint Red Hot Landscapes that Sell by Mike Svob
Two Books in One Watercolor by Joe Francis Downden
Mastering Color by Vicki McMurry
The New Acrylics by Rheni Tauchid
The Painterly Approach by Bob Rohm
A Painter’s Guide to Design & Composition by Margot Schulzke
Becoming a Successful Artist by Lewis Lehrman
How to Discover your Personal Painting Style by David P Richards
Brushwork Essentials by Mark Christopher Weber
Painter’s Guide to Color by Stephen Quiller
Design & Composition Secrets of Professional Artists by International Artist
Life Drawing by Robert Barrett
Light, How to See It, How to Paint It, by Lucy Willis

Hope you have time to read them all!

More on Using Mother Colours

I’m enjoying using mother colours, including Quinacridone Magenta, Cobalt Turquoise and Yellow. The painting of Sunshine Cafe was painted with a base of Cobalt Turquoise and the secondary main colour was Phthalo Blue. This painting is overall cool. Even the red wall on the top left has a cool feel as it was tinted (white paint has a cooling effect).

Caffeine Required, acrylic painting on canvas by Mirja Vahala

'Prime' at it's half way point.

I used hansa yellow medium as a base. Phthalo blue glazes made the green, quinacridone red glazes made the red-orange, dioxazine purple made the neutral darks. I added white to phthalo blue for opaque tints to create the small blue flowers (the only places, besides a few white areas, that contain no yellow – a  bit of colour surprise.)

'Prime', acrylic, 24 x 18

Creating Harmony with a Mother Colour

There are many questions I ask before starting a painting, such as why I want to paint it in the first place. It’s great when a painting has a surface story along with an underlying metaphor or message. This cat represents love of life, the plants obviously represent growth, and the lamp represents light: all ingredients necessary for fulfillment. This creature is obviously fulfilled in the simple pleasure of lying sleepily in the sun.

To begin this painting, I chose a fairly simple palette of Golden acrylic pigments. Beginning with a ground of Quinacridone magenta, I then mixed magenta into all the other colours seen within this image. Because dioxazine purple contains magenta, I used it for making darker tonal values, along with some burnt sienna. (Burnt sienna and dioxazine purple are a lovely neutral mixture!) Using purple for my dark is not my usual process of mixing complements to make a range of warm and cool darks. I do try to keep my darks thin regardless.

When the ground was dry, I used white chalk for drawing as it’s easy to wipe off and correct.

Other pigments used: pyrrole red light, cadmium yellow medium, phthalo blue green shade and white gesso. I usually use titanium white, but had run out. I discovered that my painting was less shiny as a result (gesso is more matte than titanium white) and it was easier to take a photo.

In terms of the tonal map, the shades in the flower pot are close in range. The most dramatic changes are in the cat’s head as well as the top and bottom of the lamp, which creates an implied triangle.

I love to negative space paint and the flowers were created that way. Otherwise I moved around the canvas, finding it easier to keep track of tones and colour harmony. It was fun to paint the glass of the lamp, leaving much of the original magenta ground. All I had to do was add some purple and lighter shades of magenta, plus some red-orange (pyrrole red light). The cap and base of the lamp ended up too cold at first, so I adjusted the temperature.

The fur was fun to paint too. I built up the darks with glazes of purple and burnt sienna and placed some lighter marks on top, challenging myself to see how little I could do to finish the cat. In the end the painting process took about 11 hours, plus an hour or so to do the original design in photoshop and to do the final varnishes.

The final painting, ‘Love, Light & Growth’

The final painting, 'Love, Light & Growth'

Artist in Antarctica

After traveling to Porta Arenas, Chacabuca and Ushuaia, we head south through the Drake Passage towards Antartica. The seas are almost calm and a welcome relief after the first 12 days of rough water.

The captain sets a new record for Holland America for reaching the most southerly area in the Antarctic and for navigating new territory, including Lemaire Channel. The narrow and shallow channel (for an ocean liner) is filled with ice chunks and bergs. Snowy and rocky mountains tower 1000s of feet above. Sighting areas of dirty snow at the water’s edge and on one of the islands, we see Gentou penguins. The penguins choose nesting areas 100s of feet up snowy, steep slopes. Brown trails are drawn with their repeated treks up and down from the sea.

Watching the water as we slide between ice chunks we see penguins porpoising. On land they waddle awkwardly, in the sea they porpoise at over 25 mph. They fly out of the water and land on ice sheets. They play on the sloped ice by walking up to peaks and sliding down. Two penguins land on ice to see a leopard seal sharing the space.

The next day we are in more open water. The icebergs are a myriad of sizes and shapes. Some are small and sculptured, ringed by bright turquoise water. Others are the size of large buildings. Using our imaginations, we see sculptures of ducks and animals. During parts of the day, there is fog with visibility of about 2 miles. A surreal mood is created by the misty shapes of distant icebergs and towering mountain scapes.

There really are no words to describe the experience of the landscape in Antarctica. It is beyond awesome. If one can’t be in the now while being merged with the rawness of this place, one never will be. For myself, I feel incredibly thankful and humble to be here and wish that every one could have this type of experience at least once.

Artist Meets Penguins

So far I’ve had the pleasure to see close-hand both Gentoo and Magellan penguins – and a lone King. The Gento0 penguins we visited via a jeep ride with our guide Lachie while visiting the Falklands. We drove a graveled road from Port Stanley, turned onto a dirt road and then through private farm fields until we reached the ocean.

Upon arrival, winds were gusting between 40 and 60 mph. It was cold. I was lucky as there were only three of us, so the gentous were comfortable with us. A male penguin carried rocks one by one to a nest as another would later steal for its nest. The penguins and their nests are atop of a noll near the beach. The nests are more rock than twigs. A penguin would either be standing on its chicks or would be lying down looking like black torpedos.

We had the pleasure of seeing new chicks and some more mature young birds. Some young ones gave us the butt view and burrowed their heads under the parent. A lone king penguin waddled about and occasionally stretched himself full length, pointing his beak to the sky to yodel. There were two groups of penguins, about 50 birds or more in each group.

The Otway Bay (Porta Arenas) Magellan penguins dig holes in the ocean-side fields where they nest. They walk about 400m from their nest, along trails they have worn into the undulating fields, until they reach the ocean. They dive into the waves, frolic and then return to the beach to preen. Then they waddle back to the nest. It’s a pleasure to watch the walk as they appear and disappear into folds of earth. First a head will appear, then more body until another dip in the earth or underground tunnel hides them from view. When a penguin leaves a nest, it pops out like it has springs for feet. The penguins will often stop and check out the humans, seemingly curious and without fear.