Comfort Zone II

Around 10 years ago John Hartman suggested that I narrow my scope.  Go deeper, understand more, see where it goes.  That was great advice at the time.  I had been hound dogging everything I encountered.  I needed focus and deep knowledge.  About two years ago I ventured out to townscapes.  I had done a few before, but the new version was much richer, more interesting.  I brought new insights from my days on a narrower path.

Now I am venturing out again.  Interiors with figures.  I have done some before but this is a fresh challenge.  I talked with a chef in his kitchen, gained permission, did some sketching.

One of Many Sketches

Hard to stop the motion, but that is part of what I am after - motion.  Have to be careful not to go rigid using photos.

Wash, A Few Darks, Wipe Away

Continuing to add darks to indicate structure.  Drawing errors float up.  Edge work critical.  memory strained.

Back to Back, 12x12, Oil on Canvas

There are currently 5 in the series.  I am off to Ottawa, Montebello, and Montreal for a few days.  Hopefully there will be gobs of interesting reference material to continue with.  These will show in early October.

Comfort Zone

Avoid becoming stale.  Get out of your comfort zone.  This helps you improve your art making and keeps you from being a one trick pony.

The dreaded green helped me avoid another greenie when painting on the Pine River meadow.  The wild flowers were out.  So I picked a good handful from a few feet away and threw them randomly as a bunch on the beach.  "You came all this way and you're doing a still life?"  Whatever, and what an environment to do it.  Standard palette and all.

On the Beach, 12x16, Oil on Canvas on Board

The caveat to this suggestion is that one should narrow their tendency to paint differently every time in search of the secret.  That is disabling as is painting a a seller over and over.

Flexible Travel Easel

My brother is a guitar maker.  So he has made a pochade box that I am finding very useful.  It is small for travel, but it is also durable, light, flexible, adjustable, and fast to set up.

Panel and Palette Holder Version

When I travel by air I pack very light.  I only take the box, no tripod.  Then I paint with the box on my lap, on a table, on a fence, or whatever.

Small Feet

The feet allow for setup on rocks and such.  The tripod mount is visible here as well.

Mounting a Small Panel

The box opens to any position you wish and there are no wing nuts and struts to frustrate you.  The top holder slides out so the board (or canvas) can be mounted.  Just seconds.

To Eye Height

In a few seconds you can move the bottom panel holder into position for your eye height.  I really like this feature because I like to paint from below the bottom of the panel to facilitate creative brush strokes.

A 12x16 Panel

This thing is very flexible.  Here is a larger panel.  But you can also mount it 16x12.  This allows for painting 16x20 or wider.  For me this covers most of my plein air needs regarding size.

16x12 or 16x20

So I have found this box satisfies my plein air needs unless I go to a larger painting than 16x 20 or 16x24.  I can use this arrangement pretty much every day.  For that I add the palette extension wing.

Ready to Paint

There you have it.  Since I am in the habit of carrying a compact back pack, I find carrying my paint, medium, cleaner, sketch book etc. in small light containers is not a problem.

My brother has been supplying these to other painters now.  So, if you are interested in obtaining one of these, you can email me at gperdue1@cogeco.ca and I will put you in contact.

Portable Easel Evaluation

Painting on site is an animal very different from the sterile studio experience.  Not that the studio is a bad place.  There is not much in the out of doors that is controllable including the weather, the light, the people, or the bugs.  But the rewards, infinite.  So, I have collected a number of easels for my development in the great out of doors.  If I could only have one easel for that purpose I would choose my old French Jullian Easel shown on the left below.

Some of My Easels

I have used this easel for twenty years.  I'm familiar with her to the point where it takes me about two minutes to set up.  Others seem never to master this type of easel.  She has been all over with me.  We have painted in storms, with large canvas, in the water, in the snow, and even in the studio.  She is versatile and I have never been blown down.  Everything in one package.  However, you can see I have quite a collection of other easels.

open and Ready

A few years back while hiking the Chickenishing Trail at 35C I came to realize that my French Easel was both heavy and awkward.  So began the hunt for something light.  The second from the left is an all in one pochade box.  Yup, lighter that the French, but it requires a tripod.  And that gets blown down.  She is a beautiful box, well thought out.  The next easel is a palette and board holder.  You bring everything else in a separate container. This is also a popular product, simple and rugged.  Needs a tripod.  I have found that I take all sorts of things in a back pack no matter which easel I use - pencil, view finder, paper towels, garbage bag, sketch book, camera and so forth.  So only having a palette and board holder is fine with me.  The box on the right is a home made super light piece.  Maybe a pound.  But doesn't do much.  For example I have to hold the painting surface in position.  It is held on the lap or a stone fence or whatever is handy.  Now I could spend some more time and make it more substantial, but I'd rather paint.  For you information, I have been blown down with each of these smaller boxes.  That incidence could be reduced by a tripod upgrade.  I have one in mind that is simple, light and rugged.

So my brother, a guitar maker, had a look at this collection and has made me a box to aid me in my light travels.  I'll show it next time.

Habits and Changing Them

It is always interesting when I teach.  I get to observe others painting.  I learn a lot.  And I see numerous bad habits brought along from previous experiences.  I have found that these are hard to change.  My teacher was very truthful and forceful regarding habits that lead to better painting.  Today everything is deemed beautiful, great, wonderful.

A Guest Student

Here is a short list of my observations.  These pertain to objective painting.

Drawing versus painting.

A dive in start without ability to draw.

Ditto without perspective.

Ditto without regard to concept including design.

Ditto with regard to value.

Formulaic approach.

Trial and error approach.

Inability to mix colours.

Inability to mix grey.

Painting what one thinks, not what one sees.

Incessant dabbing without even looking at the subject.

Licking the canvas while trying to determine what to do next.

Changing direction in mid course.

Aversion to some pigments on hearsay.

Inability to manoeuvre the brush, knife etc.

The list goes on.

Yesterday I heard the excuse "I haven't got time to learn to draw (do perspective, mix colours etc.)  Of course that same person has the time to use trial and error over and over again in search of a better painting.  Slow way to make progress.

Mulmur Red, Making Oil Paint

We recently visited a spot in the Mulmur Hills.  It was down a "No Exit" road on the southern brim of the Pine River Valley.  Sunny.  Cool.  Quiet.  We arrived early.  The road disappeared over the valley brim in and interesting setting.  It was clearly the opportunity to paint a red - green painting.

Painting in Process

Some friends said "I don't get it, where was the red?"  I had anticipated this question and gathered some of the mud from alongside the road.  It was showing through all over the place.

Mud Dried Out

Then I thought, "why not make some paint from it?"  So I ground up the dry mud on a tile using a flat stone.  Now I wasn't going to get serious enough to get the particle size into the microns.  Just an experiment.

Ground, then Sifted Through wire Strainer

This is finer than sand but pretty course.  So I went to my only in house resource and begged an old stocking from my wife.  She frowned as usual.  What the hell....

Sifting Sand #2

A black stocking yet!  It cut about half of the product out.  You can see the colour intensity increase as the particle size decreased.

Red vs Gray

I turned to the Kama Pigments web site to look at their paint making demo.  Here is how I proceeded.

Linseed into the "Pigment"

You are right in thinking that this is a poor substitute for production pigment.  But my raw material is from the target painting spot.  And I'm not about to go and buy grinders and rollers.

Before Tubing

This stuff is about like putty.  You add oil and or extenders etc.  (a whole new world of paint chemistry) to get the consistency you think you want.  You should grind with a muller here.  Then tube away.

Back End Tube Filling

Not a difficult task, but it can be messy until you get the feel for it.  Fill a bit, tap a bit.

So I did a few 8x10s primed with oil.  Just to see how it felt as a ground.

Two Mulmur Red Coloured Grounds

The colour is warm somewhere between a burnt sienna (Italian mud) and a transparent red oxide.  Makes marks, drips and sags.  I painted on one of these today.  The larger particles felt like scratchy pebbles.  However, where the fines were deposited and dry, the board felt OK to paint on.  I wiped off the rough spots and painted without incident.

Next time I make my own, I'll use proper pigment.  Pretty easy to do.  High quality low cost paint.  Then again, I'd rather paint.

Brush Review

During my last painting course many students expressed the need for some good brushes.  Most in the class were painting in oil so I set up an order from Rosemary Brushes in the UK.  I found one student who was ordering some brushes for some reason I didn't understand.  She assured me she had thought her order through.  Still I couldn't find the"Classic" type brushes in my catalogue.  So I went on line.  Sure enough they were in the electronic catalogue.  They are a blend of hogs bristle and synthetic.  They were said to hold their shape longer than the Chungking bristle and to wear longer.  So I added a few #6 and #8 to my order ( I don't often use a size less than a #6).  The other type of brush in that mixed order was Masters Choice, a soft mongoose used for precision drawing by many.

The Classics and Chunkings arrived and I couldn't tell them apart.  Both have long black handles.  So I added a dab of red acrylic to the Classics.

  Top to Bottom, Chungking flat, Classic flat, Masters Choice Flat, Chungking filbert

No, the handles are not curved!  That's just my clumsy wide angle camera work.

The next step was to paint with them and make observations.  After a few hours on the easel I found the claims to seem true regarding the shape of the brushes.

Left to Right, Masters, Chungking, Classic.  All #6

The image shows the brushes after drying in their clean state, after a painting session.

The Classic feels "tighter" than the Chungkings.  More stiff.  They make sharper marks, at least when new.  The Chungking holds more paint and seems to help when applying a "loose" passage.  The classics tend to leave a more hard-edged look.  I worked the Classics a second time and found basically the same things held true.  However I was able to obtain a bigger paint load as the brushes were broken in.  So now I don't find myself reaching for either type.  I may or may not find myself with a red blobbed brush in my hand.  I do look for one if I need more precision - not often.  It will take more time to judge the wear rate.

On this same order I took possession of a #16 Chungking.  A beautiful brush.  It was my third order from Rosemary.  So you can tell I like her brushes.  The company is a pleasure to deal with and the response is amazingly fast.  5 days to my doorstep all the way from England. Great brushes at a reasonable price.