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.

 

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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"