first of the year!

Happy New year all you blog readers! Here's my first completed painting of the year, it's always exciting to get started on a new year and imagine all the paintings that lie before you.

Iris and yellow drape
36X24
Acrylic on panel

sometimes it needs to rest a while.

Some paintings come together quickly, others perhaps like a fine wine take time and need to rest for a while... This one was the latter.

It began with a number of color plans.  I'd been painting a number of very colorful pieces so I felt a desire to make my tonal and color ranges a little less dramatic. I think this changing of gears, meant the painting needed more time to crystallize in my mind.

color plans

The first few color plans felt a little cold so I opted for a nice rich table cloth color. I then began to work into the painting, but found myself getting stuck with some of the color choices that I'd laid out for myself. The dark blue chairs had been contrived to balance both the blue in the bowl and gray blues around the edge. However as it progressed the color felt too oppressive (it's a shame I dont have a photo of that stage.

Sometimes a small color plan can work 'small', but once it becomes a 'big' canvas it can fail. The painting sat in my studio, in this almost complete stage for a while. Additionally, I'd realized the bouquets foliage was too pale and the pears too muted and flat.  Ultimately all these changes happened quickly with the color change of the chairs from dark blue to a strong green. This unified the background with the foreground better, and made a nice overall green color tone. It then energized me and provided the catalyst to engage the painting and make the other elements come together.

The colors -  The cool blue/grays balancing with the greens. The soft transitions from rug, to floor, to seat cover. This balancing with the other side of the painting, the slight abstraction; where the background gray/blue eats into a foreground element on the table.  The warm colors of fruit and table cloth pulling you into the center of the table and the blue bowl drawing your eye in. An effective arrangement at this dramatic size (always a joy to  paint).

Fruit bowl with white bouquet

30X48     Acrylic on canvas

detail

It's hard to know what to show in a detail, when there's so many nice things to show. If you look closely you can see the original pear color showing through in places, these gaps were left intentionally, fractionally toning the overall pear color.

detail

Sometimes working over an area already painted allows for a more confident, bolder brush stroke. With some good impasto paint.

Zorn

Last week, I went round the Anders Zorn exhibition at the Legion of Honor in San Fransisco. It had been years since I caught an exhibition at the Legion, and I'd forgotten how nice the location is. Nestled in the middle of a golf course, set on top of a hill overlooking the ocean and mouth of the bay. It's simply stunning, especially on a nice sunny day, which is what I had.

Till this point, I'd seen very few Zorn original paintings in life.  I'm not sure why that is, perhaps just not paying attention? But for me his peers (Sargent & Sorolla) seem more prevalent in the major museums around the world, especially Sargent's work. It was great to see the exhibition and to learn more about the artist, in some ways it reshaped my views on the artist and his work, in others is sharpened and clarified them.

I was fascinated to learn how successful he had been commanding a salary of $1500 a week. That's   pretty good today, but a fortune in his time. There's some nice photos in the exhibition of him through the years, it's fun to see the clothes from the era and his waistline expand as the years march on. There's also shots of his Swedish home, a log cabin. Over the years he modified and expanded it in keeping with his lucrative success. It reminded me perhaps of a toned down Swedish version of William Randolph Hearst and Hearst Castle. Of course I'm sure that anyone who reaches the point of vast wealth likes to 'trick out their home'!

If I'm honest, Zorns work has never had the same strength or appeal to me as many a Sargent portrait or watercolor.  Nor does his work comes close to the best that Sorolla has to offer, who's beach scenes and his handling of water are hard to beat! Having said that it's hard to criticize, his handling of his 'nymph like' nude models, paddling on the shores of lakes and rivers. They are so beautiful, subtlety rendered and hard to criticize. Additionally his rendering of water both in oil and watercolor is flawless, and astounding to behold.

-->Many art circles now hold the limited 'Zorn palette' in high esteem. He primarily used a palette consisting of Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red Medium, Ivory Black plus White. Today many well know contemporary painters use this palette with small editions and modification. A huge range of colors and tones can be achieved with such a minimalist palette, and if used it gives you strong unity of color across your painting.  Having said that I feel, it's a palette that on it's own is perhaps too recognizable, I feel I can always spot a painting using this palette (despite it's versatility). Additionally, over time a body of work painted in these ranges can get limiting. I confess, I had that feeling in the exhibition.
To sum up, I'm really glad I went to the exhibition and enjoyed getting the opportunity to see his work. And it is truly impressive, however for me, (as mentioned earlier) I'd take Sorolla and Sargent above him any day. Perhaps just a statement of the high mark that all 3 artists achieved?

Edge of the bay - featuring the Golden Gate Bridge

Here's a painting I completed last week of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was painted from reference material, but with the weather we've had recently it has made me want to drive down to this location again and get painting!

Perhaps there will be more paintings from this local to come in the future?

 Edge of the bay
18X24
Acrylic

3 Day workshop in Florida

Just returned from a 3 day workshop in Jacksonville Florida with Corse Gallery and Atelier. Just before I flew we had a run of cancellations, rotten luck really, ( a number of poor people with health troubles, very sad).  I was a little worried about numbers, but in the end we had a nice group and the smaller number meant I could really focus on each persons level and help them with their individual concerns.

I don't do many workshops, but I really enjoy teaching and like the chance to share my thoughts and processes. 3 days never seems like enough....

One of the set ups.

Students hard at work.

More talk and demoing of ideas.

A few of the paintings at the end of a day, for an informal critique.

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 Close to final painting from the workshop. I have a couple of incredibly minor tweeks still to do, but it's close enough to view. If you look in the photo above this one, you'll see the same painting minus the lemons and some green background color. I felt without the lemons there wasn't quite enough color variety, so I added these citrus to give it extra color punch. 

Blossoming Cactus

One more from my Santa Fe trip. These little cactus are always fun to paint, I think they're called 'Christmas Cactus.

 Blossoming Cactus with pears

24X16     Acrylic on panel

and some shots from the painting day.....

The source photo was taken for a painting I did quite some years ago. I always rather liked it; here it is, (it was 31.5x26).

Hydrangea

One of the paintings from last weekend in New Mexico at Ventana Fine Art. Reworked the color of Tomatillo when I got home, made them stand out a little more, which created a 'color bridge' or 'stepping stone' from the vase to the table cloth.

Hydrangea with Tomatillo on red
20X16   Acrylic on panel