New show

Paintings framed and ready for the Federation of Canadian artists Active members show next month. The 3 paintings in black frame will be in the show, and the one with gold frame has been claimed by Heather and will stay with us at home on our wall.

The show runs from January 7 - 18, 2015 at Federation Gallery on Granville Island in Vancouver.

Trip to Deep Cove

It's my second time painting in Deep Cove, and I wanted to avoid the heavy touristy area. I wandered for a while and found a little path up into a small forested hill. There were many unique views that would have made great photographs, but in order to paint comfortably I needed to find an eye-level view.

Deep Cove spot - oil on panel - 12" x 9"

Overdue updates

In September I participated in the annual Grand Prix of Art in Steveston. It's a plein air painting competition where the participants are randomly assigned to varies spots in and around town. The artists are given 3 hours to complete the paintings, then frame them to be hung in the following exhibition.

I was assigned to the boardwalk overlooking the docks. The boats are always a sentimental subject, but in this case, there were too many of them. The view was pact with boats and riggers and masts, incredible amount of detail. I was ambitious and decided on a wide view, but just as I started the drawing phase I knew I was in trouble; with the 3 hour time limit I would be lucky to have finished the drawing in one hour, and I wanted to make sure the drawings were as accurate as possible. Objects like boats and cars can easily look wrong if not drawn properly.

I ended up removing a lot of things in the view in order to simplify, including an entire jetty, and many boats. I tried to depict one in the foreground with most care, and let the other 4 or 5 boats into obscurity.

Overall I am happy with the result despite the rush. It has grown on me. I did not place in the competition. To see the winners' pieces follow the link.

Noon rush at Steveston Fisherman's Wharf - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

sun on your back

This is a beautiful example of a frontal lit painting by Simon Lok. the shapes are flat, and separated by aerial perspective. I also love the warm darks in the foreground.

Simon Lok

Seymour Art Gallery Art party

All 3 of my submissions to the Seymour Art Gallery Art party were accepted and they have all sold.

Marcia Burtt

Great abstraction of shapes.
http://www.marciaburtt.com/art/1130703/

September paintings

This has been a very unproductive month. Though when I paint, I find myself much more in tuned to what inspires me.

These 2 are done on Seymour mountain. It's about a 40 minute drive from home.  A lot of time was spent on observing the different colour spots before the stroke is made on the surface. I really enjoyed this process of painting the light and the shape it creates, to create the illusion of reality.

Edge of the forest - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

Seymour in fine mist - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

This one was done at Colony Farm in Coquitlam. We got there pretty early so the sun was still low and the air cool. When I was done at noon the light wasn't as appealing and it became very hot. It's undeniable that mornings re charming, but it is still hard to wake up early.

Coquitlam River in the morning - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

This was done on the balcony when I didn't want to go out to find a place to paint. Finding a location to paint day after day near the same area can become very taxing quickly, because there are so many things to consider before a location is picked.

I find the hardest thing about a painting where there's such a value difference in the view (in this case the bright sky and the balcony in the shade) is to obey the key through out the painting. By that I mean I first key the sky, then everything else that gets painted needs to be compared to the sky in turns of value. My eyes wanted me to paint the balcony brighter, but I knew it had to be painted darker than what my eyes saw because my eyes were just compensating. This is to keep the bigness in the picture. Marc Dalessio does this really really well. He has many paintings in the dark alleyways where this is evident.

Balcony with sunny sky - oil on panel - 12" x 9"

Russian painters

I have admired many Russian painters and I find many of their paintings are very connected to the land they lived on. Ivan Shishkin and Isaak Levitan are pretty much household name for the landscape painters today, but there are many more whose work are just as moving and powerful.

REPINART does a good job posting many Russian paintings.


Some names:

Alexander Pushni  
Alexei Borodin 
Vladimir Ovchinnikov 
Nikolai Timkov

Here is a link to some photographs of Russian plein air painters at work.

 

Paintings open for sale!

I am opening my paintings up for sale.
Please visit my website for price.



This is the entrance at Pitt Polder Ecological Reserve. It was my first time there and I was very impressed with the view. I walked on the dyke for a couple of hours looking for a more unique view but ended up being exhausted from the heat and fatigue. When I got back to the park entrance, I realized, though it wasn't late, I only had about another hour of sun before it would dip behind the mountain behind me. This ended up being a unique painting due to the fact that there's no details at all.

Pitt Lake view - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

Another visit to the area. I particularly liked the rustic colour in the water.

Barrel in the pond - oil on panel - 6" x 8"

Sometimes when the view is too grand and magnificent, it doesn't actually make a good painting. I had to crop in pretty tight to have a more solid composition.

 Mountains beyond the meadows - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

You might recognize the same trees in another painting of mine. This is one of the few small clearings in the woods at the park, but I only get to paint it when it's cloudy, since it faces north and I do not want the sun to shine on my canvas. I also see so many more colours in this woods when its overcast.

Revelation under the clouds - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

I think I do this a lot: I drive to a spot, get out of the car, see what I want to paint after a short walk, convince myself the views only get better, walk on for hours, arrive back where I started hours later, paint the view that inspired me first.

Edge of the forest - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

Валерий Шматько

Валерий Шматько
Ukrainian artist

His work is so beautiful and rich. 
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007236065608&sk=photos

latest work

I waded cross the creek so I would have the sun in front of me. There were a few people sun bathing and swimming around me, I managed to capture one sun bather on a big rock. The water was really cool and clear, very inviting on this hot day.

Mountain pool in Lynn Creek – oil on panel – 9″ x 12″

It had rained all day, and when it finally stopped I ran out of the door to paint the dissipating clouds. I had to work extremely fast on this one, as the clouds were disappearing fast.
 

The wind comes from the east – oil on panel – 9″ x 12″

This was done at the Alouette lake. It being a lake there was no tide, so I could take my time painting this shore line. Normally I paint near the salt water shore so this was a rare opportunity.
I had many kids gathered around me while painting this. I let a couple of them paint some strokes on the painting.

Rocks at Alouette lake – oil on panel – 9″ x 12″

Studies on colours

To test out what I read in Hawthorne's book, I made these paintings from my room of what's outside the window. I wanted to really focus on seeing colours so I didn't do a drawing first, and just work my way down starting with the sky. Since I only focused on the colours I was being very liberal with the accuracy of drawing and changed many things around.

The view towards east, early afternoon - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

The view towards east, rainy night - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

I felt like I could begin to understand at least partially many points Hawthorne made in the book. About how when the colour spots are true itself and true in relationship to each other, the drawing will end up taking care of itself. I also felt that I was able to get a sense of light in the paintings, that could snap me back to the day I painted them. There is a specificity to the light painted, because I tried to stay very true to the colours that I saw.

Normally I wouldn't have done this view, because to me the design was not strong enough. However in Hawthorne's book I remembered him saying to his students to not design their paintings too much and just make sure that the colours speak the truth about the light, the moment.
This was probably my fastest plein air yet for its size. I was able to finish it in less than 2 hours. Though it wouldn't have helped if I worked slower because I lost the sun light completely as I was done.

Chevron refinery - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

This one I didn't push the colours very much.

Alley way on Granville Island - oil on panel - 12" x 9"

Night painting at New Brighton

- oil on panel - 9" x 12"

- oil on panel - 6" x 8"

Aureliano de Beruete y Moret

Aureliano de Beruete y Moret
Spanish painter 1845-1912

Seeing colours

I picked up the book "Hawthorne on painting" from the library. I have always wondered at the about how the colorists were able to see all the colours, and thought maybe the book would tell me how. Well I just finished it, and it doesn't say anything about it. It talks about seeing with your eyes on things as though it's the first time you are looking at it, and that it takes time to learn to see. It talks about carefully studying the relationship between one colour spot to another, and that if your colours are true, the likeness will come with it. The likeness Hawthorne talks about in the book is in a very broad sense. It includes the likeness of a person, the likeness of an object, and even the likeness of the time of day and the feelings, all attribute to the trueness of the colour spots and how they are next to each other. These are all very fascinating ideas, and allowed me to see things in a different way.
I also stumbled upon a few paintings with great use of colours.

Eric Merrell

Daniel Pinkham

Mark Kerckhoff

New Brighton park and a couple mountain paintings

I started this painting about 10 minutes before the sun went down, just enough time to record the colours. The rest was all painted from memory, as it all happened so fast I didn't even have time to take a picture. This was painted a couple days before the super moon. Apparently the super moon would be 14% bigger than the typical full moon and brighter.

Almost super moon - oil on panel - 6" x 8"

Normally I would have chosen a smaller size to capture such a fleeting light, but I only had a 9" x 12" left. You can see from the strokes how fast I had to work to get all the information down. After I came home I added the details such as the street lights, the path and the figure.

When the crows go home - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

This is one of those paintings when I extensively reworked the entire painting. I actually liked the paintings as it was when I finished it outside. A couple days later I decided to brighten the sky. I sat down, and worked on the sky, and felt the distant trees need to be more blue and hazy, then I brightened the highlights on the houses, then the saplings, the the grass... I am glad to say that I am happy with this new version, considering that I was already happy with the older version.

Maple saplings near sunset - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

The clouds were moving so fast going in and out of the mountains. I had to paint them from memory, and invent the foreground ones.

Cloudy view from up high - oil on panel - 6" x 8"

I have always wanted to paint a mountain when I get close to it, but could never find a location to do that. Finally I had enough and did this. I cropped in on a small section of the distant mountains and found this composition. It was so far away that when I used my hands to form a view finder, with my arms fully extended, it's only about a stamp size.

A world away - oil on panel - 6" x 8"

Driftwood and logs

I love logs. They have so much character and so many colours.

Large pile of wood - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

They form nice shapes and are great design elements.

Logs and hill arrangement in the rain - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

Logs and hill arrangement in the sun  - oil on panel - 12" x 16"

Frank Duveneck 1848 - 1919

Frank Duveneck made equally impressive work in both portraiture/figure as well as landscape. His handling was bold, textural and explosive, and surprisingly contemporary looking even today! Here are a few of my favourites:

Horizon at Gloucester - 1905

Red Sail in the Harbor at Venice - 1884

Rocky Coast Scene

Tuscan Hills - 1900

Landscapes from last week

This one was a tough one. It had so many vanishing points and lines. I spent the first hour drawing it out, and wiping it down, and drawing it out. I finally got around to painting it, but the painting after 3 hours was still a flop because the drawing wasn't quite right. After I came home I scraped the whole thing again except for the sky, and redrew it all over again this time using the photograph. The colours weren't a problem at all, just have to be aware of with what's in the shade and what's in the light. I am not quite sure yet how to make an architecture painting that's loose and still with accurate drawing, I hope that will come with time.

Alley way by the park - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

What I scraped:

This one I didn't have much problem with the drawing, it's much more straight forward than the one above.  The alley way was back lit and I wanted to capture that, but the sun went away half way through the painting. I was able to add the cast shadows and the strong highlights and sun glints when I got home from the photo I took. That's why I almost always take a photo before I started painting.

Garbage day - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

The ginat building on the left belongs to Viterra, apparently it's a grain handling business, I had to look to it. I assume they are grain silos? I don't usually paint something far away without a foreground, but I wanted to see if I could capture the morning hazy and light. I had to be very careful with the value level in the shadows as they recede in distance.

Hazy morning hill - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

Done is the same day as the above painting. These maple saplings are planted in the corner of the park, with the purpose of turning it into a forest in the future. I didn't plan on spending the whole day here painting, and when I got home after a whole day of painting I was completely spent.

Maple saplings - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

This view faces north, so I was waiting for a cloudy day to paint it without the annoying sun behind my back. The rain had just stopped and the low hanging clouds were very appealing, so I gave the painting a low horizon.

Farming the field - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

Drizzle turned into down pour, the painting and my palette (and me of course) were covered in water. It was pretty neat to see how the oil paint was able to still mix with each other in big water drops, though the water drops made it hard to judge colours.

Pine with orange bark - oil on panel - 8" x 6"

Looking like a hobo. I put my backpack in a garbage bag so it doesn't get wet.

It's not often you get to see driftwood near/in a pond. The beach was just to my right, the whole area was littered with driftwood, giving me lots of arrangement on top of the purdy clouds. The clouds were moving pretty fast so there was quite a lot of effect chasing.

Shallow pond with drift wood - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

I ran out of yellow and my next shipment won't come in until late this week, so I used yellow ochre instead. Obviously with a darker dirtier yellow I wouldn't be able to hit the bright green notes, but I hoped that they would still read as green. I guess in a painting with more saturated deeper blue and reds, the orche would read more yellow, but here it's not very much.

- oil on panel - 9" x 12"