snowy days!

When I first started to paint, I lived in Toronto. It's winter there almost half a year, so there was always a snow scene to paint. Snow here in Vancouver is kind of a rarity, not to mention the continous snow we have been getting the last 2 days, and it is still snowing now.
Snow is kind of like fog, it reduces visibility, heightens the sense of depth, lowers the contrast, desaturates colours as well as softens the edges in the distance.
When I went out looking for a snow view to paint last 2 days, I looked for little sky, since it's all flat and boring; I looked for a vanishing point with clear definition of depth to take advantage of what the snow brought me.

Pale ale - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

The city beneath - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

I painted both of these in the car as it was snowing pretty hard, I didn't want them to hit the palette and melt. I have a suspicion the oil pigment I have mixes with the water, next time I will try a grade up, they just get so expensive so fast. Painting in the car is quite comfortable, though I had to roll down the windows a bit so the windshield wouldn't fog up. I also had to leave the power on to run the windshield wiper once in a while.

catching up

This is from 2 days ago.
Looking for a motif to paint in the dark is very different than during the day. Usually I am looking for silhouettes, and big shapes that give me distinct colour variations. I drove by this little creek next to the airport. Cypress sky resort had its bright lights shining into the cloudy sky and the creek reflected it.

Cypress lights up the sky - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

Yesterday we went to Deep cove. It's my second time there and still so captivated by its beauty. Almost anywhere I looked I could paint it. This view is facing north east, so I had the sun on my back shining on my painting and palette. It's the first time I tried not painting in the shade. I have always wondered about how that wouldn't make you paint the painting too dark since ultimately the painting will be viewed indoors, but I have read about people painting like this with success including Marc Hanson. I did put on my sunglasses so I wouldn't be blinded by the bright canvas the whole time.

The painting process was fine, smooth, and whenever i took off the sunglasses to check for real colours they always seemed right, but when I brought it home it does look darker than how I intended, and it actually looks bluer too. As I said I checked periodically without my sunglasses so I don't think it was them, I believe it was the sun. I still want to try painting with the sun on my back again and see if I get the same result, because it really frees up where I can setup without having to look for shade.

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

My cellphone pictures doesn't do it justice at all... The sailboat in the picture is anchored, but it kept spinning. I wanted to paint it facing right but I had to wait for it to spin to that direction on about a 5-10 minute cycle.

 

It's hard to just do one painting at a place this beautiful, so I found another motif to paint (5 meters away looking east.) In order to paint this I had to check the tide to make sure it's going out not coming in because I was standing below the tide line, glad it was going out.

Playground for all - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

I need a not ever-changing day!

This week the weather has been very predictable, by that I mean I know it doesn't stay the same for 5 minutes. I think it'd be great for a photographer though. When can you find rain, shine, and majestic cloud covers all in one day? But it makes it challenging for painting on locations.

When I arrived on the first location, looking over these houses on a hills into the endless mountain ranges, it was just breathtaking. The clouds however moved way too fast, and so was the light. The consequence of that was a rushed painting that tried to capture everything and captured none. The reason for me to paint on location it to be able to have that direct feedback from the world that is 4 dimensional. There is the X Y Z and the time as the extra dimension. Time is important because it gives me a range of light and colours to choose. That's also why some portrait painters like to work with live models and interact with the models at the same time instead of from photos. It allows them to capture more facets of their subject instead of just a slice of time at 1/250 of a second. Back to my painting, it did not capture the essence of what I saw, so when I went home I pretty much reworked the entire painting based on the photo I took, and the colours from what I remembered. Can you tell?

In order to produce a good painting for me, I simply cannot be rushed. I need the time to strategize, plan and think along the way. If I don't I quickly lose track of where I am and where I need to be and the painting falls apart. This is all part of the learning process though. As I grow as an artist I will have better instinct and knowledge about working outdoors.

clouds slow down - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

I was pretty disappointed after the first painting, it was about 5pm and I decided to do a dusk painting where I would paint into effect. I drove around and found a nice view looking north east and the Lion's Gate bridge (I think so). I set up on a hill and did the drawing as the day was still bright. I started with the sky, water and land and kept changing them to stay in sync with the time, and when I reached a precise time I would move on to do other parts of the painting. When I got to the houses they were near pitch dark, and make nice silhouettes in the foreground. This is the first time I painted in the dark with the book light on, and I loved it!

Lion's Gate activities - oil on panel - 9"  12"

This is when I first started

I am looking forward to the summer (I say that now), when the days are longer and more clear sky, where I will be able to slow down with painting.

Road not to Captital Hill

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday, so here are the 2 paintings. I actully did three, but one is pretty horrible so I scraped it.

In this painting I was drawn to the colours and shapes of the cloud. In the sky there were blues and yellows and the clouds purples. I liked the complimentary combo and wanted to capture it. Of course the clouds were moving fast and during the process it was different every minute, so I mostly painted from memory and studied what's in front of me to add authenticity.

cloud study - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

Yesterday was another sunny, cloudy and rainy day. Even though on my way out it was not rainning I wasn't going to take my chances. I stayed in the car and guess what, it rained on and off throughout and I would turn on the windshield wiper once in a while to clear the drops off.
This view wasn't that appealing, it was more for the convenience and retrains from where I could park the car without obstruction, though it still made a good target for me to practice comparing values and identifying big shapes.

Road not to Captital Hill - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

 And of course the sun would come out beautifully at the end.

5 o'clock murder

It poured all day again. I stayed home and finished a couple paintings. When it was getting darker I decided to paint the scene from the back yard.

5 o'clock murder - oil on panel - 12" x 9"

In order to complete this painting, I started at 4:30 to block in the shapes, 5 o'clock the daily migration of crows coming to roost and I tried to capture a few in flight. 5:30 the sky got to the deep purple I was looking for and that's when I combine all the elements and finish the painting.

Lots of great artists painted night time scenes. From the top of my head there are Isaac Levitan, James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Marc Hanson, look them up if you haven't.


Here is the updated "A rainbow kind of day". In a previous post I talked about finishing the painting with some foreground elements. Here I added some shrubs and poles and wires leading to the top edge, completing a spiral that leads the eyes to the boats. I also added a bald eagle to the top of the pole to insert my memory.

"A rainbow kind of day" - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

 

Inspiration from Edouard Vuillard

Yesterday it rained all day. In the evening I decided to go out to paint in spite of the rain. We drove for a while and I couldn't find any view that I was satisfied, and that the rain turned into down pour, so we went to the grocery store instead.
When we got home, I decided to do an interior painting. I have always loved the interior paintings by  Edouard Vuillard, so I wanted to do one inspired by him.

Heather in her rocker - oil on panel - 9" x 12"

Vuillard's interior are like no others. They are complex, full of patterns and details. The rooms are often filled with oriental rug and decorative wall papers, paintings on the wall and fine furniture. His renditions of them are so organic and rich. I love how he includes figures in the interior like them belong there. In wild life painting, many painters paint a tightly framed animal, and it usually looks dead and unappealing. Robert Bateman on the other hand, always shows the habitat in which the animals live, sometimes the animal is so small you can to look for it. He gives the animals a context and that makes his painting much more personal and intimate, and to me that what Vuillard did too.

I worked all night on this with Heather sitting for me when I had finsihed most of the interior. This morning she sat for me so I could finish it. She sat for about 2 hours, 1/3 of the time holding the baby, I really appreciate it. 

Here are just a few of them by Vuillard so if you can get an idea of what I was after if you have not heard of him.

Edouard Vuillard: 'Madame André Wormser and her Children'

Edouard Vuillard: The “Voiles de Gênes” Boudoir ,1931

  Edouard Vuillard: La Comtesse Jean de Polignac., née Marie Blanche di Pietro, 1932, in her boudoir

A rainbow kind of day

When I got there, it was cloud. Later it turned sunny with blue sky and near the end it was pouring rain. At least I got to see 2 rainbows and a bald eagle.
The lights and the clouds were moving so fast, I got frustrated chasing the sky, so the more detailed volumes were added back at home. I tried to squeeze in all the elements I experienced: cloud covers, blue sky and rain.
When it started raining I didn't think to use the umbrella so the palette got wet and I was unable to mix and had to leave early. Once the painting is dry though, I want to add a utility pole with a bald eagle on top and some trees at the foreground. The eagle was just sitting there to the left a little outside my composition

oil on panel - 9" x 12"

You can see here the weather changed many times.

Excuse my bad photo but the last picture you can see the rainbow in the centre of the picture.