S.I.P #38 Saturday 19th - Supermoon

"SWIMMING-IN-PAINT"

 Moody Landscapes

 "Supermoon"

10:00 am to 2:30pm  (Lunch break at 12:15)

team LIMITED TO 10
"SUNDAYS CLASS IS CANCELED"

The team will meet in CLASSROOM #1

 Contact Crossroads Art Center for details 804.278.8950 

"Swimming in Paint" is always about following the light, painting shapes with colour and energy!

J. M. W. Turner

Painter 1775-1851

 MOONLIGHT, a study at Millbank (1797)

  I wonder if this was Turner's SUPERMOON moment?

Joseph Mallord William Turner, RA was an English Romanticist landscape painter. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting.

In honor of our first Supermoon since 1948, the team will capture it and all it's glory in paint.

Saturday will be the last class this year. Swimming-in-Paint will take a Christmas break and start out fresh in January...... always nice to have a fresh start.

SUPER MOON'S!!

There will be the usual "volume" of references available (or bring your own). Add a MOON, make it your own and enjoy the day.....:=)

The ultimate goal of "Swimming-in-Paint" is to discover that "Signature Look"  in a team member!

While we could end up with a masterpiece, this exercise is not about making a masterpiece. If it doesn't work, wipe it off, jump in again - always with energy!

For those who can't make the class or live in distant lands, download the references and try this at home. Email me at Chuck@Larivey.com with your results - I would love to see them:=)

BASIC PROJECT INFORMATION 

5X7 References will be available

Brown bag or order lunch from Gretchen's before class. The lunch table is a wonderful time to chat and study our progress.

Canvas, preferably Centurion double primed oil linen. An ample supply of smooth stretched oil primed linen canvas in various sizes will always be available.

24x24 - $20.00 each
30x30 - Out of stock

There will also be a supply of Royal soft grip brushes (SG4500 Series) available at $2.50 each.

I do encourage using a glass palette - old picture frame glass works with a white sheet of paper and a cardboard backing or foam core with blue taped edges to hold it all together. 

Please try to have (1) Flexible palette knife. Preferably similar to the two on the left.

(16x20 shown)

SUPPLY LIST

(1) 24x24, 30x30 or larger canvas - Centurion oil primed linen or equal

(1) #10 Royal soft grip SG4520 Filbert (rounded flat)

(1) #12 or #10 Royal soft grip SG4510 Bright (flat)

A few palette knives (flexible)
Glass palette with a small paint scraper
3 or 4 sheets of paper towels (folded into quarters)

Neo Megilp oil painting medium

Clean cotton rags - (cut up old cotton Tee shirts and white socks work well)

Small amount of odorless mineral spirits - at least 8 oz.

Basic palette: I added a few of the specialty colours I often use - either way I always share those colours.

Titanium White or a fast drying Griffin alkyd by Winsor & Newton

Naples yellow

Lemon yellow

Cadmium Yellow medium
Alizarin Orange (Williamsburg)
Permanent green light

Sap green
Chromium Oxide or green oxide

Cerulean Blue
Sevres Blue (Williamsburg)

French Ultramarine Blue
Ultramarine Blue French (Williamsburg)

Dioxazine Purple
Provence Violet Bluish (Williamsburg)

Alizarin Crimson
Permanent Rose
Persian Rose (Williamsburg)

Cadmium Vermilion (Williamsburg)

NOTE: PAINTING SURFACE

Jerry's has Centurion oil linen well priced already stretched by the box (6)......check it out.

  ALWAYS WAIT FOR A SALE

http://www.jerrysartarama.com/canvas-surfaces/stretched-canvas/centurion

Royal SG4500 series long handle soft grip brushes (LINK)
or
Direct link to brushes - scroll down to the SG4500 series

Painting the Crowed, Chesterfield Center for the Arts

Last Friday night, Guy Crittenden and I were invited to showoff our painting skills before a very large dinner audience celebrating Baxter & Elaine Perkinson wonderful gift to the Chesterfield Center for the Arts.....

Both our paintings were successfully auctioned off later to benefit Chesterfields new "Baxter Perkinson Center for the Arts" building program.

 Painting the room in black tie and a black frame

Nationally known wildlife artist Guy Crittenden  making his painting glow

 WHEN DREAMS COME TRUE

Baxter Perkinson, Jenni Kirby and Elaine Perkinson

Congratulation to Hugh Cline, Chairman of the foundation  and the many, many others who worked none stop to made it a very successful night. A fascinating end to an already WOW day:=)

Team Chat - Subject Rotation, staying fresh

The last team chat post was about "Painting to a Conclusion". Part of a process I used over and over to develop "Paintable Subjects". I added it below to my learning process.

MY ORGANIZATIONAL BULLETS

• Observational skill - painting what you see - as in painting shapes, light and shadows with colours you see.
• Developing paint quality, as in juicier brushwork - lost and found edges - the painterly aspect.
• Painting to a conclusion - developing paintable subjects. (ONE PAINTING AT A TIME)
• Subject rotation - keeping fresh and engaged 

 SUBJECT ROTATION

This post is about the next BULLET - "Rotating Subjects" a structural part of my painting process. As a daily painter one subject led to another and ultimately to rotating a number of subjects, always connected to a conclusion.........as in one painting at a time. My focus was never distracted by unfinished ideas lying around.

When a painting idea or binge was concluded, after studying my results and to keep my momentum going, I removed all paintings from my studio to encourage fresh ideas. This time off allowed me to collect my thoughts, think about the next idea, stretch a few canvases - watch a movie....anything.

It was always about recharging, keeping fresh and engaged and avoiding frustration or over thinking an idea. I hope this typical early example shown below helps visually how it worked.

A TYPICAL MONTHS WORTH OF PAINTING 

(AUGUST 2009 SNAPSHOT)

 #127 Sunset plein air Bird Park 11x14 oil on panel  (8-5-09

 INTRODUCTION TO LONDON via VIRTUAL PAINTOUT

 #128 Virtual Paint-out London (Google) 8x10 oil on panel (8-6-09)

Artist Bill Guffey, founder is still doing the The Virtual Paintout using Google Street View (with permission). Thanks to Bill, he introduce me to a simple way of painting global subjects from my studio.

Basically, you  search a different location each month with a group of other artists and paint the globe from your computer! Bill posts the teams results on his blog. I treated it like plein air and amazed with the results. Clever idea and worthwhile doing! That is unless you can hop a plane for a visit! That works too

Another idea, is using real time live cams readily available all over the internet......not done it myself but no reason it wouldn't work. 

 PLEIN AIR LED TO AN INTEREST IN NOCTURNAL EFFECTS

 #129 August Moon 12x12 oil on panel (8-8-09)

CONCLUSION

 #130 August Moon 18x24 oil on linen panel (8-11-09) 

(2nd of (2) OPA 2009 Eastern submission)

  PLEIN AIR - SUNSETS

 #131 Libby Sunset plein air 8x10 oil on canvas panel (8-8-09)

 #132 Libby Sunset plein air 8x10 oil on canvas panel (8-8-09)

CONCLUSION

 #133 Twilight Dip 18x24 oil on linen panel (8-14-09 private collection)

(#132 used as a colour chip - first ever nudes)

ANOTHER BACKGROUND IDEA

 #134 Secrete Falls 18x14 oil on canvas panel (8-16-09)

MOVED ON - SUBJECT CHANGE

 & 

A CONCLUSION TO #128

 #135 London Eye 18x24 oil on linen panel (8-18-09 private collection)

When I painted #128, didn't know what it was other than a big butt ferris wheel. I was quickly informed it was called the "EYE" so #135 was given a proper name.

RETURN TO #134  AS A NOCTURNAL
(The falls setting still had my attention)

 #137 Secrete Falls 24x18 oil on linen panel (8-24-09)

MOVE TO LARGE FORMAT
(40x30 on linen)
(Based on 137 and previous plein air & studio full moon nocturne's)

 #138 A Moment in time 40x30 oil on linen (9-5-09)

Because I kept a digital record (including a calender record) of my painting history from the very first painting it was easy to reviewing how I got from "A" to "Z". It was remarkable how valuable and informative these simple organizational tool were to my development as a painter. It showed the process clearly, snapshot after snapshot how one thing connected to another.  And what it took to continually raise the bar and why it was necessary to raise it......often because of outside competition.

S.I.P #35 & #36 Friday, 11th and Saturday, 12th of November

"SWIMMING-IN-PAINT"

 Venice & London

 "ICONIC SUBJECTS"!

10:00 am to 2:30pm  (Lunch break at 12:15)

team LIMITED TO 10

The team will meet in CLASSROOM 

#1 (Friday) & #2(Saturday)

 Contact Crossroads Art Center for details 804.278.8950 

"Swimming in Paint" is always about following the light, painting shapes with colour and energy!

 

J. M. W. Turner

Painter 1775-1851

 

Joseph Mallord William Turner, RA was an English Romanticist landscape painter. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting.

 

 

As a kid, library books gave easy access to the visual arts and artists like Turner. Turner's brilliant sunrise painting below got my attention early on.

The Fighting Temeraire 

Tugged to her last Berth to be broken up, 1838, 1839

TURNER'S LONDON

TURNER'S VENICE

SALUTE & CANALS

  REFERENCES

LONDON EYE

 BIG BEN & MORE

Friday and Saturday, the demos and team project will be painting London and Venice. There will be references to work from - each will have a clear painting idea.....so just choose one and run with it!

If a team member has a special subject they want to paint, that's OK, providing it represents a solid single idea. Otherwise be prepared to paint one of the references provided.


Some team members have requested time to finish previous class paintings. They can bring their unfinished work and finish up.

A member can use a Centurion OP DLX Linen canvas pad and do quick studies - similar to my Demos

The ultimate goal of "Swimming-in-Paint" is to discover that "Signature Look"  in a team member!

While we could end up with a masterpiece, this exercise is not about making a masterpiece. If it doesn't work, wipe it off, jump in again - always with energy!

For those who can't make the class or live in distant lands, download the references and try this at home. Email me at Chuck@Larivey.com with your results - I would love to see them:=)

BASIC PROJECT INFORMATION 

5X7 References will be available

Brown bag or order lunch from Gretchen's before class. The lunch table is a wonderful time to chat and study our progress.

Canvas, preferably Centurion double primed oil linen. An ample supply of smooth stretched oil primed linen canvas in various sizes will always be available.

24x24 - $20.00 each
30x30 - $25.00 each

There will also be a supply of Royal soft grip brushes (SG4500 Series) available at $2.50 each.

I do encourage using a glass palette - old picture frame glass works with a white sheet of paper and a cardboard backing or foam core with blue taped edges to hold it all together. 

Please try to have (1) Flexible palette knife. Preferably similar to the two on the left.

(16x20 shown)

SUPPLY LIST

(1) 24x24, 30x30 or larger canvas - Centurion oil primed linen or equal

(1) #10 Royal soft grip SG4520 Filbert (rounded flat)

(1) #12 or #10 Royal soft grip SG4510 Bright (flat)

A few palette knives (flexible)
Glass palette with a small paint scraper
3 or 4 sheets of paper towels (folded into quarters)

Neo Megilp oil painting medium

Clean cotton rags - (cut up old cotton Tee shirts and white socks work well)

Small amount of odorless mineral spirits - at least 8 oz.

Basic palette: I added a few of the specialty colours I often use - either way I always share those colours.

Titanium White or a fast drying Griffin alkyd by Winsor & Newton

Naples yellow

Lemon yellow

Cadmium Yellow medium
Alizarin Orange (Williamsburg)
Permanent green light

Sap green
Chromium Oxide or green oxide

Cerulean Blue
Sevres Blue (Williamsburg)

French Ultramarine Blue
Ultramarine Blue French (Williamsburg)

Dioxazine Purple
Provence Violet Bluish (Williamsburg)

Alizarin Crimson
Permanent Rose
Persian Rose (Williamsburg)

Cadmium Vermilion (Williamsburg)

NOTE: PAINTING SURFACE

Jerry's has Centurion oil linen well priced already stretched by the box (6)......check it out.

  ALWAYS WAIT FOR A SALE

http://www.jerrysartarama.com/canvas-surfaces/stretched-canvas/centurion

Royal SG4500 series long handle soft grip brushes (LINK)
or
Direct link to brushes - scroll down to the SG4500 series

Some thoughts for the team this weekend

Over the weekend, at Crossroads Art Center, the team will again step up to the "BIG" challenge. Realization will hit home Friday morning when they are greeted by some very large white canvases....yikes! Only momentarily........ I'm sure they'll jump right in! 

Subject selection: One clear idea - avoid juggling references.......keep it simple!

Establish a basic painting plan: Break points, take each as far as possible before starting another, use the last session or day to bring it all together. Over the 3-days we'll have a morning session and afternoon session....perhaps (6) breakpoints.

BREAK POINT EXAMPLES

The team learned from previous classes a few tricks on how to keep paint brushes full of colour to get the job done, and medium to make the paint flow effortlessly and not waste paint in the process.

This will be a great opportunity to practice painting more from the shoulder than the wrist, as in conducting an orchestra. Also following the rhythm (direction) of a subject with your brush marks.

 BRUSH MOVEMENT 

(direction of brush marks)

COUNTER MOVEMENT 

(back spray - top of wave)

As painting coach, I urged the use of deliberate brush strokes. This is a wonderful opportunity to explore energy painting, moving with the natural lines of our subject - stepping back to observe progress and adjusting our progress. Working towards the ultimate goal, intuitive painting (know your subject)......it requires confidence and space to do it. 

TEAM, THIS WEEKEND YOU'LL HAVE THE SPACE TO DO IT!

 

PAINTING SHAPES  AS COLOUR MOVEMENTS

(1) Highlight (2) Shadow

DETAIL

The detail looks a bit like paint-by-numbers. In many respects painting shapes is, but far more sophisticated.

(broken down to basically a shadow, mid-tone and highlight (3) colours)

A DEMO, THAT'S NOT A DEMO

Like the team, I choose a subject to paint, not as a demo, but as a large studio painting executed over the course of many days.....or as long as it takes.

If they "cop" a glance, it will demonstrate how I developed my concept (established before I picked up my brush)..... how I break my subject down, establish break points, continually working toward a cohesive movement.... a connection between each, so the eye moves naturally throughout. It requires using paint efficiently, making marks that count, not wasting paint.....also, Moving with the energy of the moment which gives a painting movement and life - accomplished by continually taking breaks to check it out from a distance. Then, going back with renewed energy to take advantage of what I saw.

I also hope this painting demonstrates how effective energy painting from the shoulder is. 

LAST 3-DAY STUDIO
COMPLETED IN THE STUDIO

Claiming the High Ground 56x48 oil on linen (10-6-16 canvas 1091)