The Final Painting: "Summer Meadow"

The final painting "Summer Meadow" posed several challenges. I could use the small oil sketch for color information, but I needed to add a lot more details. Fortunately I not only painted my sketch, but I also took a lot of photographs of the scene from different angles and close-ups of details. These photographs provided me with reference material for the grasses and the trees.

Compare the oil sketch with the final painting. What I think was successful was the feeling that I had captured in the oil sketch is also reproduced in the final painting. Many viewers of the painting have said that they the feel as if they can walk into the scene. In my view, that makes this a successful painting.

Part 2 of Creating "Summer Meadow"

To create the final painting "Summer Meadow" I completed a full size drawing of the painting. I learn so much about my subject matter when I drawing what I will be painting. Non-artists and also many artists believe that the freer an artist works, the better the artwork. I have learned over the years that I can paint with more freedom if I have done my homework. Doing homework means being very familiar with my subject matter and with the various components of the painting.

The painting "Summer Meadow" is very complex. It has several rows of trees that are different and each type of tree has to be painted differently. The water is another complicated element in the painting. How do I show movement and reflection and water receding into the distance? And then there is the meadow! Again, I have to show detail in some areas, create a sense of distance, and suggest a vast meadow that is convincing and interesting. So, I start by carefully drawing. My "cartoon" or detailed sketch for the final painting was all done in pencil and consisted of outlines of the major areas and subjects. Because each painting is different, I sometimes render shading and shadows, but I did not need to very much shading for "Summer Meadow."

I do my final drawings on gridded drafting paper. Again this is probably different from the way many artists work. I use drafting paper because I need a large sheet that is durable and can take a lot of erasing. I like having the grid on the paper because I can make sure that horizontal and vertical elements that need to be at right angles really are at right angles to the outer edges. I prefer using transparent paper because that way I can easily position my final paper underneath when I am ready to transfer the drawing. And if I need to redraw elements, I can again reposition the original drawing over the final painting. I rarely draw directly on my watercolor paper because erasing can damage the surface of the paper. Also, having that separate sketch means that if my watercolor paper has been damaged, or if I mess up a wash, or spill coffee on my painting, I can transfer my sketch onto a new sheet and just start over!

From Sketch to Final Artwork

I was going to write more information about clouds, but I have been sidetracked by participating in Boulder Open Studios 2008. The past two weekends I invited the public to visit my immaculate studio so that they could view my artwork and learn about my techniques. One of the topics that I talked about was how I create a painting. Most people believe that watercolor artists just work freely with the paint without a lot of planning. Well, that is not how most watercolor artists work. My mantra is "happy accident, carefully planned." In my next couple of blogs, I will talk about the process I use to create a finished painting.

The painting that appears here is a plein aire oil sketch. It was completed in a few hours on site in Rocky Mountain National Park. What I am trying to capture is the feeling of that morning and the colors. I do not have time for detail or to work very large. I take lots of photos so that I can add the detail in the studio when I paint an enlargement of the scene. This oil sketch is only 8" X 10". The final painting will be 22" X 30" or a full sheet of watercolor paper. Why do I paint the sketch in oil and then do the final painting in watercolor? Most artists do their sketches in watercolor and then paint the final artwork in oil. Thomas Moran is an example of an artist who works that way. But every artist is different and has their quirks. I am more comfortable painting with watercolors and I prefer the way watercolors look as final paintings. I do my sketches in oil to challenge myself and force myself to see differently.

So here is the sketch and my next blog will talk about how I carefully plan a final painting from a small sketch and photographs.

Painting Clouds with Watercolor

Whenever I start trying to explain how to paint something, I realize how very complex it is. Clouds are very complex, but so important in painting a landscape. The sky defines the light and mood of a landscape. Albert Bierstadt, the famous landscape painter completed daily cloud studies as part of his training. These were small quick sketches done with pastels.

My next several blogs will be about clouds. I have taught my students some very basic techniques for painting clouds, but I am taking these lessons to a more advanced level. When painting clouds, the artist has to be sensitive to form, color, and perspective. In this small painting, I am showing a stormy sky with a variety of forms, colors, and perspective techniques. I will talk more about form in my next blog and then cover use of color and cloud perspective in later blogs. There are two ways to paint skies: one is a very loose wet-in-wet technique and the other a more controlled rendering of cloud shapes. The painting shown here is the loose wet-in-wet and works great for these stormy skies. But the artist has to work very rapidly and then at a certain point let go of what he or she has painted. Yes, just one more way to add stress into your day!

U-W-O Figures

One of my watercolor teachers showed me this wonderful way to construct figures, a technique developed by watercolor artist Tony van Hasselt (www.tonyvanhasselt.com/). We want to leave figures out of paintings because we are afraid that we won't get the anatomy right or there is too much detail. Well, the solution is to leave out the detail and be aware of a simple lesson in proportion. To leave out the detail, use only the three letters, U-W-O.

1. Start with the U. Paint an upside down U and fill it in. This becomes the torso.
2. Use the O for the head, but make sure that it slightly overlaps the upside down U so that it doesn't look like it is floating.
3. Then add a long, elongated W for the legs. Make sure that the legs are long enough. The midpoint of our body is about where the legs attach to the hips.

Try with this simple technique to make the figure more interesting by changing the position of the torso, adding arms, shadows, feet, bending the legs, etc. A good drawing exercise is to take a sketchbook and pencil and sit down in a public place. Draw the figures that are walking past you, waiting for a bus, riding a bicycle, etc. Learning to quickly respond to these gestural figures will give you plenty of figure sketches that can then be incorporated into your paintings. Have fun!

Figures in a Landscape

The lesson this week demonstrates how to paint figures in a landscape. Portrait paintings feature the human figure so artists often paint realistic, detailed figures. But in the landscape, the figure becomes less important than the setting and can be rendered as simple shapes. However, these simplified figures often become the focal point of a painting because we are so sensitive to the human form. So make sure that you place these simple forms in a good focal point spot in your painting.

The figures shown here are silhouettes of groups of people. Notice how easy it is to recognize that these are figures even though we see only shapes with no detail. Even the colors are totally unrealistic. Notice also how I painted the feet. Feet! What feet? You're right, there are no feet and also no hands or arms. What you are looking at are just simple shapes showing the basic masses of the body. A good way to practice painting these kinds of figures is find a photo of a group of people in the distance (walking on a beach for example). Then, cover the photo with tracing paper and just outline the figures. Transfer or redraw this outline onto watercolor paper, wet the inside of the shape, and drop in color.

Stay tuned, in my next blog, I will demonstrate how to draw and paint U-W-O people.

Colorado Sunflowers

Well, it has been a busy, busy summer. I have been painting a lot and traveling and taking care of my son and hosting visitors. It was a hot summer and dry, but it did not seem to bother many of the native Colorado plants. The sunflowers by the side of the roads are spectacular and I love to paint them. Here is a bunch and I have more to upload. Enjoy!

Sunflower

Here is the third prize winner. Not only did I win three prizes, but my work will be shown for three months in a gallery space in a local hotel here in Boulder. I have struggled for so many years to acknowledge that I am serious about being an artist. But now that I have, I've never been more motivated and excited.

Aspens

Well, I never thought this would happen, but I entered three paintings in an art show and I won prizes for all three. This painting won a third prize, the Orange Beet painting I uploaded yesterday won second prize, and an older painting of a sunflower won an honorable mention.

Orange Beet

I feel like it has been so long since I posted a blog. I was on vacation last week and have lots of new images of the Badlands and Black Hills to work from. But I had to finish two paintings for a show and here is one of them. I am so taken by these orange beets. This is the second one of a series and I believe more successful than the first. So I will keep on painting them!

Shifting Sands

Back in the US, this painting was done of one of my favorite places. I probably spent more time here on vacation than any other place. It is Assateague Island, a National Seashore in Virginia. When I first started going there, the beach had not eroded to where it is in this painting. They tried to keep the sand from eroding and put up all these snow fences, but it didn't and isn't working. This barrier island is slowly moving west.

Jerusalem

And now I have traveled even farther. I loved Jerusalem. It was the most fascinating place that I have ever been. This quiet little market was tucked into an alley and no one was there. I loved seeing the decaying architecture and the rickety sun shade. Even the car in the background is rusty and old. That was my impression of Jerusalem: everything looked old.

View Over Paris

Ok, so now I have really traveled far away. I grew up in Europe and my family traveled all over so I had to go back as an adult with my husband and visit my favorite places. Paris is one of my favorites and I am ready to go back again.

Route 38

I am so fascinated by how much time we spend on the road, especially on vacations. We probably spend more time in the car, seeing the landscape through the car window, than we spend actually out in the landscape. This painting is a combination of several scenes. This exact view does not exist. Except that I have had so many people tell me that they know exactly where this barn next to this road in front of this mountain exists.

River

My son and I spent a week in the Ruby Mountains in Nevada doing trail maintenance. We had a wonderful time, but it was hard work. Our campsite was right next to a river and in the afternoons, we rested and played before dinner.

Road Trip

I am going to be on the road this week, so I thought that I would preload some images and blogs while I am gone. I also thought that it would be fun to show some of my paintings that I have done as on the road images or special places that I have traveled to. This is Colorado National Monument in western Colorado.

Tattoo

This has been a very exciting week. I was accepted into Open Studios, a local exhibition in which artists invite the public into their studios. It all happens in October. Right now, I am constantly submitting my work to shows, both national and local. I submitted this painting to a local show because the juror likes paintings that take risks. This is a portrait of a woman that I worked with on a festival. She told me that she had a tattoo and I asked to see it. I didn't realize until she pulled up her shirt where the tattoo was. She was the one taking the risk, but I liked the contrast of the colors that she was wearing with her skin and the tattoo and the carnival pattern in the background.

Baby Rock

Driving through the Four Corners we drove past this abandoned gas station. The desolate landscape, the lonely road, and the ragged left over gasoline station buildings all came together in the pen and ink drawing. I also loved the soft pastel colors. which I added with watercolor washes. The paper I did this drawing on is sand colored with a speckled texture. The name of the place was Baby Rock.

Flatirons

It is so ironic that I am posting this image today because the Flatirons have been invisible for the past two days. Usually our weather here is clear and sunny. But for the last two days the Front Range has been covered with clouds and it has been foggy and rainy. Tomorrow, the sun should be out again and the Flatirons in their full glory.

Sleeping Ute Mountain

Sleeping Ute Mountain is in the far western part of the state of Colorado. This sunset view is from Mesa Verde National Park. You can stand on the edge of a ridge and see for a hundred miles to the west.

View from Sheep Lakes

A summer storm is coming through the pass in the painting View from Sheep Lakes. Sheep Lakes are in the north-eastern part of Rocky Mountain National Park. They are a little off the main road, Trail Ridge Road, that goes through the park. When I painted this, the sky started out bright blue, but soon the storm clouds gathered and headed towards me.

Quiet Plains

We has a lot of excitement out here in Colorado, a tornado a mile wide made national news. My in-laws called because of the hurricane that came to Boulder County. We had to explain that hurricanes really don't find their way out here. Here is a painting that shows the plains at a quieter time. There were more tornado watches and a tornado today, but thirty miles to the west we only had our usual pleasant weather.

Bowen Gulch

Bowen Gulch is on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park in the Never Summer Mountains. This painting started as a plein aire pen and ink sketch with watercolor washes. But when I tried to finish it in the studio, it needed something. Since every time I go to the west side of the park I see moose, I stuck a moose cow and calf in the background.

Long's Peak

I teach watercolor painting and this painting is a result of an exercise that I am going to assign my students tomorrow. This painting was done with only two colors, burnt sienna and ultramarine blue. Most paintings fail because of the incorrect use of values. This painting is all values, yet it still has color .. Not as much color as it could, but the lack of color gives the painting it's drama.

The Plains

When we moved out west, we moved to be close to the mountains. My family spent vacations in Switzerland and my mother loved the mountains. I realized many years later that I had also developed this love for the mountains. What I didn't expect however was how much I would react to the plains. I find them fascinating. I have grown to love the wide open views and the ever changing clouds and dramatic skies.

Cherryvale Road

Cherryvale Road is not far from where I live. In fact, I can easily bike there. It is a bit of a walk. Cherryvale Road runs north/south a little further to the east from where I live. I live tucked almost up to the mountains. This painting is looking south/southeast towards Denver. But it is open space so there is no development. The pasture around the old shed is used to graze cattle and last year I watched the cowgboys rounding up the herds and loading them into trucks.

Summer Woods

Today felt like summer. It was 86 degrees and sunny and the clouds gathered and pretended that they wanted to storm. Clouds do that here all the time. These woods are eastern woods and not western. I used a different technique for painting these woods. I poured paint all over the paper to get the glowing effect of the sun shining through the trees. I have several other paintings like this, but so far, this is the best of the bunch.

Stormy Sky

Skies are not easy to paint, so I keep practicing. They have to be painted quickly and spontaneously. I have read that you are lucky to have half of your painted skies look all right. The rest get thrown away. This is one of the ones that works. But, I need something in the foreground. I'll keep trying.

Sandstone Ranch

It was such a beautiful day when I did this painting. Sandstone Ranch is about a 30 minute drive from my home. It is out on the plains with wonderful views of the mountains. As I wandered down the trail looking for a place to paint, I found this wonderful cliff and a view of the mountains to the West. There was also a perfect focal point. I often have trouble with focal points because I just get so taken in by the beautiful scenes and I want to put everything in and everything is important! But here, the composition came together and I had a lovely little painting.

Escalante

Sometimes landscapes are so big that they don't seem to fit on a sheet of paper. This is a painting of a view of Escalante National Monument. Some of the views of this area are so vast that they leave you breathless. Apparently some of the first non-Indian people that stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon, fainted when they saw the sight of the large landscape. I can imagine that could happen looking at the grandeur of Escalante.

Madonna in Chartres

We spent one day in Chartres. We took a train from Paris. It turned out to be a magical visit because filmmakers were shooting in the main apse. They had brought in strong lights and had the entire inside of the cathedral was illuminated. It was amazing to be able to look all the way up into the arches and the ceiling. We spent a long time watching them filming and walking around the cathedral. This Madonna was in a little alcove. I liked her blue robe with the gold decoration. She was also wearing gold shoes and I used gold acrylic paint on her dress and her shoes.

Dried Roses-Two

Yesterday was a wonderful Mother's Day. We actually celebrated the night before by going out for dinner. My son spent the night at a friend's house and my husband and I got up very early and went birding. We came home and, after breakfast, worked in our garden planting rhubarb and raspberries. My studio has big double doors that will eventually open onto a small stone patio. Right now there are only weeds. But at the end of the patio, I am planning a rose garden. So yesterday I pulled weeds, but soon, I will plant roses.

Dried Rose

Today is Mother's Day and my husband and son gave me a beautiful single peach colored rose. The rose in this drawing is an old dried out rose. I have a bunch of them and I am not sure where or when I got them. I have kept them for a long time and love drawing them. I use a steel nib dip pen and sepia colored ink.. This drawing was done on paper prepared with watercolor washes. After I drew my rose and the foliage, I went back in and added watercolor washes. I love drawing with pen and ink.

The Meeting

Back to the Sandhill Cranes. This is an early sketch and although I like the spontaneity of it, I also see all the flaws. The legs on the crane on the left are too short and the knees are in the wrong place. I do like the loose line and the pen and ink work. Usually I use dip pens, but since this was drawn at the museum, I used a felt tip called a Micron. I am hoping to do more drawings at the museum, but have not been able to go these last couple of weeks. May is such a crazy month when you have kids. The schools try to do everything in one month!

Beets

Here is another painting done with pen and ink and watercolor. I saw these beets last year at the farmer's market here in Boulder. They stopped me in my tracks. I had never seen beets that were orange. They had recently been sprayed with water, so they were glowing under the vendor's tent. I decided not to buy them because I knew that I wouldn't have time to paint them. Now I buy bunches of these beets and paint them and then roast them with garlic and olive oil. They are delicious!

Red Fox

Red Fox is a pen and ink with watercolor painting. I was experimenting with an acrylic ink. I have used all kinds of different inks in the past, but I decided to try acrylic inks. It worked very well. I drew with the ink and then softened the linework with a brush. I liked the effect that I got. Then I let the ink dry overnight. This made it waterproof so that I could paint the colors with watercolor. Overall I like the effect.

Frida's Fig Tree

What a busy day. I have been painting, painting, painting. This painting is an homage to Frida Kahlo. I visited her home outside of Mexico City. In her garden was a fig tree and the leaves were backlit with an amazing blue wall behind them. Frida Kahlo decorated her house and garden, so she picked this in incredible blue for the wall. The figs glowed against the wall.

Coyote

Wildlife in our neighborhood has included fox, skunk, coyote, mule deer, bear, and now mountain lion. I have seen all of these except the mountain lion. I have seen coyote several times in the open space surrounding our neighborhood. I know that neighbors have seen them in the neighborhood. They are very dangerous for pets because they prey on dogs and cats, except for Ginger. She is our next door neighbors cat who definitely has nine lives or more.

Havasu Falls

This painting was done because we spent time at the Havasu Falls which are in a side canyon of the Grand Canyon. It is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been. I am painting today and have started two paintings. I will start a third tomorrow. They are all going well in different ways. I need to finish them by Friday to submit them to a show. I will post them next week.

Fly In

Fly In is a large painting that I did from images that I saw at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. I watched the Sandhill Cranes flying in to the marshes in the evening to form large flocks. They leave the marshes during the day to feed in the fields, but at night they gather in the marshes. When we were visiting the Refuge, there were 4,000 cranes. Later, 16,000 more join the 4,000 and they spend the winter at the Refuge.

More Sandhill Cranes

You would think that I would get tired of drawing and painting cranes, but they are so fascinating. The Denver Nature and Science Museum has two dioramas of Sandhill Cranes. The cranes in this drawing are in a diorama depicting their breeding grounds way up north near the Arctic Circle. This group of cranes looks different from the cranes in the other diorama showing them at Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge in Colorado. The cranes here have shorter necks and look smaller than the other cranes. Cranes also dye their feathers with mud when they are nesting. Their feathers are very gray except when they are nesting, they look brown. I am working on a large painting of a crane flying in for a landing. They are such elegant birds that no matter what position they take, they are beautiful.

Clematis

What a great day today. I spent time with friends, spent time with my husband, spent time with my son, and spent time painting. I also cooked dinner for some new friends and had a wonderful conversation with them. It is great making new friends here in Boulder. Tomorrow, I will focus on another love of mine, working in the garden. I was afraid that when we moved out west that there would be so many things that I would miss. I grew clematis in my garden back east, a big beautiful plant that climbed up a trellis at the front of my yard. Well, I am finding that so many of the plants that I loved back east do very well out here. Plus there are all sorts of beautiful plants that I couldn't grow back east that I always wanted to grow such as Russian sage and rhubarb. So, tomorrow, I may start buying and planting, unless it snows, of course. Such is life in Coloorado.

Edge of the Marsh

Wow, I can't believe that it is the first of May. I managed to post every day in April. This is a painting of a dead tree on the edge of a marsh. The marsh in on Assateague Island in Virginia. The sea shifts the sand and salt water moves in where it hasn't been before. This means that the vegetation that only survives near fresh water is killed by the change in the water's salinity. A whole row of trees, or bushes, died because of this. This is one of those trees. It is spring in the painting. The young marsh grasses are starting to come up and flower. Everything is turning spring colors.

Blue Goose, Blue Goose, Snow Goose

I love using unusual papers. This is a handmade paper that was given to me because I gave the papermaker pieces if mica. She put the mica into her paper pulp and made beautiful flecked sheets of paper. Unfortunately in the reproduction you can not see the mica flecks that glitter when they catch the light. It is very unique paper and I only have a few sheets of it. This drawing was done using the same birds that I had already sketched. I mainly used a very soft graphite pencil for the black and added the white and orange with soft pastels. Again, this paper was a challenge to work on. It is unsized and I had to work very lightly and gently. Sometimes the mica flakes would fall off if I worked over an area too much.

Tree Study

I love working in pen and ink almost as much as I love painting. I am starting a group of paintings today that use watercolor with pen and ink. This drawing is unusual in that I am working with pen and ink on unsized Japanese paper. It was very tricky to get a good drawing. I had to use a light touch because the paper absorbed the ink so quickly. Also, the soft paper fiber would get caught in the pen nib. I did have a few blobs, but I was able to hide them. I like the color of the sepia ink on the textured Japanese paper.

Mixed Bouquet

Here is another little bouquet of flowers. It is that time of year when we are thinking about things changing and blooming. My garden so far only has weeds, but some of my perennial plants are coming back. I am anxious to go out and buy more plants for the garden.

Blue Still Life

This is the time of year for daffodils and tulips. This little bouquet was sitting on my dining room table and I loved the way the sun highlighted the edges of the flowers.

Snow Goose Study II

I love sketching birds. They are so complicated, but I love drawing the way the feathers overlap and the interesting shapes of their bills and feet. The Denver Museum of Nature and Science has such amazing displays. These birds are somehow suspended to look like they are flying, but it is impossible to see the wires holding them up. I have only drawn these birds, but I want to paint them. They are so graceful.

Canada Goose Study

I was sketching at the Denver Zoo this week and was amazed at how the zoo has been taken over by Canada Geese. They were everywhere. They are nesting on top of the rock habitats for the Dall Sheep and the Bighorn Sheep. They have taken over all of the plant islands in the walkways. I started to sit down on a bench and found them tucked under the bench. A little boy was all excited. "Look, Miss, an egg!" Yes, lying right in the middle of the walkway was a large goose egg. When I set up my stool and started working, geese came running towards me honking like crazy. It turned out that it wasn't me they were after. Something else had made them angry. I was relieved because I have been attacked by a goose. So instead of drawing and painting the "exotic" animals, I had to sketch the geese.

Looking West

What an amazing day. The clouds rolled in late in the day and it was dark and threatening. When I look west from my house, I see the Front Range Mountains. The sun sets behind them so they get very hazy and dark against the setting sun sky. Sometimes the colors are amazing. Sometimes the treeless hills in the front catch the sunlight and the mountains are dark. It is always dramatic and awesome.