Plein Air Workshop

  

Yesterday I taught a plein air workshop at the Smith Gilbert Gardens in Georgia. It got pretty hot, up into the 90's by the afternoon, but we were able to find some shade and had a fun day painting in this beautiful  spot.

I did a brief demo in watercolor of this area of sunlit lilies.

Started out capturing the yellow lilies and establishing the light areas

                                          Continued building in the darker foliage behind.

Here is another beautiful view of the garden with lots of contrasting yellow and purples ( and one of our artists Barbara on the right).

Everyone had a fun day and I am planning another for the fall ( September 19) when things cool off a bit.

Painting demo in Italy

Here's a scene looking down the driveway at San Fedele, our home base for my recent workshop in Italy. I choose it for a quick watercolor demo while there since it has a strong value pattern and also the trees are very typical of Tuscany.

Started out with a simple sketch of the big shapes, painted in the light areas first.

Then proceeded to add in the darker trees and shadows. there are lots of greens so I have to continually remind myself to change, change, change for the sake of variety

Here's the final impression of the scene.

Mixing Natural Greens

Color chart for practicing Natural Greens

If you're an artist. like me who loves painting florals and/or landscapes , you have to make peace with the color green. It is often the most challenging color to handle. Many of the paints in tubes like Viridian, Winsor Green, Pthalo green( which is the same as Winsor), Hookers Green are much too cold to accurately depict natural looking greens. So often artists avoid these colors. Of course you could always mix your blues and yellows to get a range of greens, but there are so many nuances of greens in nature, it's a good idea to have every tool at your disposal.

 My tip is to take the tube greens and add a warmer color to them to warm them up.You can add almost anything- yellow, orange, red, burnt siena, alizarin crimson, even violet, to warm up a "too cold" green. The chart shown here is an exercise I do with my students where we mix a range of greens starting with Thalo green to come up with warmer greens on the right( vs the top thalo green which is right out of the tube). You can get everything from a bright spring or tropical green to a deep, rich evergreen tree type of green depending on what you mix into it.

 I recently did a quick demo of this for a watercolor class I was teaching. You can view it at
http://youtu.be/GObTq57wDQI

Go out and enjoy painting some spring greens this week and give it a try!

Plein Air Painting at Smith- Gilbert Gardens

 Thursday and Friday of this week I participated in a plein air painting event at the Smith Gilbert Gardens in Kennesaw , GA. It was my first time there. There were about 40 other artists painting at the same time and at the end of the 2 days we were each asked to frame and submit 2 paintings for a show at the garden. The garden is the best kept secret in Georgia. Apparently it was a private home and garden and has been  recently made into a public garden( for a small admission of $7). There are 16 acres of gardens, about 30 statues and lots and lots of flowers- Amazing roses and irises were available this week.

Today I tried to tackle roses in the garden, keeping my eye on simplifying the scene, capturing just the essence and feel of it rather than worrying about being exact. Rather than approach it as a landscape,  treated it as I would a still life- only with outdoor light. I picked out a couple of roses as my main focus and then  added other flowers from here and there as needed for the composition.

 Here is the unfolding of the painting- start to finish today...

Initial block in of the flowers and a few specific leaves- only transparent paints

 

Block in of background added in

Opaque paint added, brushstrokes to add form

 Final painting still on the easel

Framed for tonight's show

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Painting on Location- What to bring for watercolor painting

The other day I shared what I bring on location for oil painting, today I'll share suggestions for watercolorists:

·      Watercolor Paper- Paper quality does make a big difference in watercolor. If there is one place not to cut corners it’s on paper.  Some of the cheaper papers just don’t absorb the paint the way the better papers do, so using better paper will give you better results and will be easier to work with. 140lb cold press - Arches brand  is preferable. Avoid the inexpensive spiral pads if at all possible. I find the blocks are easiest for painting on location.  I suggest  taking an Arches  block 12 x 16 or 10 x 14 or 9 x 12 ( smaller size is good ,especially if you are a beginner). If you prefer to use loose sheets and have a board to attach them to, then that is fine too. In addition to the block for your paintings, bring along some scrap watercolor paper for exercises and other quick studies we may do.

·      Palette – any plastic palette suitable for watercolors (w/cover) [John Pike or Robert Wood are great options]. If you’re just starting out- a simple white plate or inexpensive palette is okay- just make sure it is large enough to give you room to mix paints.

·      Paints – Here are some suggested colors (Winsor-Newton, Holbein, Daniel Smith or Sennelier  brands preferable, but other brands fine unless noted).  Artist’s quality paints will get you much better results than student grade- but either will work. Again these are just suggestions there’s nothing you absolutely have to have. Also, if just starting out, it’s fine to buy the smaller size tubes to keep the cost down. At an absolute minimum you’ll need a red, yellow, blue and burnt sienna, and thalo or winsor green but if you can get a broader range of paints, these are very useful colors to have:                                                                  

o   Lemon Yellow

o   New Gamboge or Indian Yellow*

o   Cadmium Orange

o   Raw Sienna or Yellow Ochre* or Quinacridone Gold

o   Burnt Sienna* or Quinacridone  Burnt Orange

o   Burnt Umber* or Sepia             

o   Permanent or Quinacridone Red*

o   Alizarin Crimson*  

o   Permanent Rose

o   Sap Green*

o   Winsor or Thalo Green*(preferable to viridian or hookers green)

o   Winsor or Thalo Blue or Prussian Blue

o   Cerulean Blue( Grumbacher if possible)

o   Ultramarine Blue*

o   Cobalt Blue*

o   Winsor or Dioxizine Violet                    

     *Indicates suggested minimum palette

Miscellaneous Tools

·      plastic container for water

·       #2 Pencil, sharpener, eraser

·      Sketchbook 

·      Brushes – round (size 6, 10 or 12), flat (½”, 1”or 2” for washes), rigger

·      Natural sponge

·      Masking tape ( avoid the blue tape- it can distort color pecreption)

·      Tissues/Paper towels

·      A cut up credit card

·      Anything else you use often in your techniques and can’t be without (we all have our favorite gadgets

General

-Camera  (with extra memory discs, battery charger (remember converter/adapter for European currency and other accessories)

-Bug Spray

-Sunscreen

-Bottle to carry water for painting (although you can pick up a bottled water there and re-use that after you finish drinking it)

-A hat

-A small folding stool that you can pack in your suitcase (If you don’t have one, there are some excellent options available thru Judson’s Plein Air 1-866-POCHADE or http://www.judsonspleinair.com/

 ( I have the Roll A Chair- 3133 and really like it- it has good back support and is really lightweight)

-You can bring a lightweight easel if you have one and like to use it.  For watercolor, I find a small folding stool and a block that you can put on your lap work pretty well.

Despite all this, try to think minimal and not have too much to carry around- it gets heavy (maybe someday I will follow my own advice). Take a bag you can carry all your supplies in.

 In terms of the plane- pack anything that could been viewed as a knife( even palette knives) inside your packed luggage. I pack my paint tubes inside Ziploc bags inside a Tupperware type container in my suitcase and note that they are artists supplies- non-flammable/hazardous in case someone checking my bag isn’t familiar with watercolor paints.  If you have some absolute favorite brushes, you may want to take them in your carry on just in case-I do- I’d hate to have to rebuild my collection of brushes if my luggage got lost.


If I've missed any of your favorite on-location tools or supplies, or if you have any other tips, please send a comment to share with others. Thanks and Happy Painting!