Plein Air to studio

In my last post, I wrote about a plein air painting session on Sauvie Island. I started a second painting, while I was there and have been playing with it in the studio since then. I tried to push it in the direction I’ve taken other paintings, lately by indulging in a similar kind of mark making. I think I took it a bit too far, to the point where the scene was lost to the marks.

9″ x 12″ oil on linen panel

So, I decided to walk it back a bit and ended up with this:

I like the composition and seem to be convinced that there’s a painting in here, somewhere but have not found it yet. I decided to leave it alone for a while but, taking up some gouache I found myself at it again.

Sometimes I have an idea of what I think a painting should look like and I have to let go of it and allow it to be what it is.

Day two at Rentanaar Rd

My last post was of a few watercolor studies I did at Rentenaar Rd on Sauvie Island, here in Portland Or.

Sauvie has been a favorite plein air painting spot for generations of local painters and is a common meeting place for local plein air workshops. It’s so great to have this very quiet and beautiful spot so near the city.

I returned to the same place the next day and did a couple of oil studies. I parked my car under an osprey nest and was able to watch as the parents hunted and returned to feed their chick.

 

You can see the chick’s head peaking out of the nest in the picture above.

Here is one of the parents returning with a snack. They seemed to travel together and the other one circled my suspiciously as I took this shot.

I also saw a few bald eagles both days I was there.

Here’s one of the studies I did.

 6″ x 8″ oil on panel

Rentenaar Rd Sauvie Island

Spring has arrived and hunting season has ended on Sauvie Island, which means I can go into the wild life areas to paint again. Here are 3 watercolor studies I did on Sunday.

7″ x 10″ watercolor

7″ x 10″ Watercolor and ink

9″ x 12″ watercolor

Sauvie Island Plein Air

I managed to get out to Sauvie Island once more before the rains started and joined Bev Kindley and Gretha Linwood for a few hours. The day started out very grey but cleared just as I got my first painting blocked in.  I came home with 2 quick studies.

6″ x 8″ oil on panel

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8″ x 10″ oil on panel

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And now for something completely different …

It’s been a long time since my last post and, in fact a long time since I touched a paint brush. I’m having my studio space expanded now and therefore have no where to paint for a few weeks but I hope to start back painting on a regular basis very soon.

In August I attended a week long workshop on Orcas Island with Jordan Wolfson and a small band of other painters. This workshop was different from others I’ve participated in. Although it was billed as a plein aire painting workshop and we did indeed paint plein aire, we didn’t focus just on capturing form and color as it appears in life. We did start out, as most workshops I’ve done, trying our best to paint what we saw but, as the week progressed, Jordan introduced exercises that encouraged us to be more interpretive of the landscape.

I didn’t really do anything close to a finished piece but several starts of an hour or two.

Most of the paintings are 8″ x 10″ and all are oil on linen panels. Click on them for a larger view.

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On the third day of the workshop, we did an exercise in which we did a sort of wire frame of the scene.

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Next we did a sort of combination of the first two days work by painting from observation but introducing lines and marks that searched out how the scene was constructed. I found myself thinking about painting, not just the objects in front of me but the air between me and them as well.

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On the last day, Jordan encouraged us to be really expressive and experiment with any kind of mark making we could think of.

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I’ve admired Jordan’s work for a long time and I was interested in working with him because of his ability to work across a spectrum of realistic to fairly abstract imagery without leaving representation completely. I’ve been trying to move myself in that direction and I enjoyed spending a week with Jordan and other serious painters who were also interested in exploring similar ideas.

This work is very different from what I’ve done in recent years and I enjoyed stepping beyond my comfort zone. I’m looking forward to getting my studio in order and seeing where this leads me.

For more pictures of the workshop and information about Jordan, check out Jordan Wolfson Workshops on Facebook.

Return to Kelley Point Park

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I returned to Kelley Point Park last week for some Plein Air painting but could not get near the vantage point I drew from before because the River is running so high. In fact, there was hardly any beach area at all.

8″ x 10″ oil on panel

The painting above was done mostly plein air at the park. Even though it’s almost July, we’ve had very few sunny days here and this was no exception. This park is a bit depressing anyway and the lack of sun had me feeling pretty low, as I painted this.

9″ x 20″ oil on mounted linen

The second and third paintings were done from studies I’ve been working from, some done on site a couple of years ago.

9″ x 15″ oil on mounted linen

I still feel like I’m struggling to decide on a direction style-wise, torn between pushing the work farther toward or away from my observations.

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Abandoned Farm on Sauvie Island

Last Saturday I went back to the same place we painted in the workshop I last wrote about. There is an abandoned farm there with a bald eagle’s aerie in a big oak tree at the edge of Sturgeon Lake.

8″ x 10″ oil on panel

It was so peaceful there. I only saw two other couples the whole day as well as a doe and her 2 fawns, a coyote the eagle and a couple of cotton tails.

8″ x 10″ oil on panel

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Plein Air with Stephen Hayes

I received a last minute invitation, from my friend Shawn Demerest, to attend a plein air painting workshop on Sauvie Island with Portland based painter, Stephen Hayes. I was only able to attend one day but it was well worth it.

Caldera by Stephen Hayes

16″ x 120″ oil on canvas panel – Elizabeth Leach Gallery

Since I’ve started painting again, I’ve focused on learning traditional painting techniques and the workshops I’ve attended have been about painting that way. Although Stephen has spent years painting plein air, he is a contemporary painter who doesn’t limit himself to traditional techniques. In fact, he uses the landscape before him more as a jumping off point rather than trying to capture the moment or scene. (Those are my impressions of his work, not Stephen’s words, btw).

Having originally started out as a non-traditional painter,  it was freeing to see Stephen paint more experimentally. Stephen shared some interesting ways to rework areas of the painting. I especially liked how he talked about working a painting back and forth, losing it and bringing it back, pushing and pulling it toward and back from the brink of disaster.

One “rule” I hear over and over from traditional painters is to put a brush stroke down and leave it. That is a rule Stephen is not afraid to break.

I did a couple of studies, during the workshop, starting out my normal way but found it a lot more fun to play with them, not being afraid to damage them or destroy them.

8″ x 10″ oil on panel

6″ x 8″ oil on panel

Although these sketches may not look a lot different from paintings I’ve done in the past, they were a lot more fun to do.

First Plein air of the year

6″ x 8″ oil on panel

I’m not really that much of a plein air painter but I did get out last weekend to one of the Lavender Farms that were hosting painters. I also ran into my old friend Elio Camacho, who happened to be teaching a workshop there. I enjoyed hearing what he’s been up to and hope to maybe catch up with him again and do a little more outdoor painting.

It’s been so rainy and cold here, in the Pacific NW, that the lavender was not quite open yet. I got 2 studies done before I had to head out.

5″ x 7″ oil on panel

Grain Silos on the Wilamette PA

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10″ x 8″ oil on canvas

This is the other painting I did on Sunday. This is from the same spot I painted the Dome painting.

This is painted from the N side of the Wilamette River looking back toward the downtown business district. The large building in the distance is Portland’s closest thing to a sky scraper at 30 floors. It’s the US Bank building, locally known as “Big Pink” for it’s copper colored reflective surface.

North Page and Albina

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6″ x 8″ oil on Raymar panel

I may be a little obsessed with this dome.

Sunday was a beautiful day and I found this great site with a panoramic view of Portland, from the “ugly ” side.  This is an iteresting part of town. Although it’s filled with freeway overpasses and concrete plants and railroad yards, there has been a bit of gentrification and there are some good restaurants and music venues in the neighborhood.

I did a couple of plein air sketches, then had nice IPA and burger at the Widmer Brewpub down the block. A satisfying day.

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From Sauvie Island Convenience Store

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6″ x 8″ oil on panel

Sauvie Island is popular with bicyclists, fishermen, bird watchers, hunters and plein air painters.  The easiest place to meet up is the Cracker Barrel convenience store, which is a short distance from the bridge that is the only way on and off the island. I did this little sketch of the fields across the street from the parking lot, last Saturday while waiting to meet the group I was painting with.

Portland plein air painter Celeste Bergin showed up to meet another group of painters, which she wrote about on her blog.

A couple of things are different in this painting from the others I did during this weekend. One, I didn’t use any alizarin crimson, two, I did this by myself while waiting for my painting companions to arrive. I find that I’m able to get into a sort of meditative state of mind while painting alone that seems more conducive to what I need to enjoy the process.

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Sauvie Island

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8″ x 10″ oil on canvas

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I spent 2 cold damp days painting on Sauvie Island last weekend with Eric Jacobsen. I’ve been fussing with this since I got it home and I’m going to stop now. There are some fundamental problems with it, like the fact that I cut it in half with the stream. The point was just to get out and get some PA practice and I accomplished that.

This one was painted on day one from a covered wildlife viewing stand. It rained off and on all weekend.

Foggy Sunday Morning Sketchcrawl and Tagged

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The Steel Bridge

5″ x 8″ ink and watercolor in Sketchbook

Click here to visit this site on Google Maps

I went on another solo sketchcrawl today in foggy Old Town Portland. This is the top of the Steel Bridge, (the same bridge I painted from below, a couple of posts ago).

I started the morning with breakfast at one of my favorite spots, the Bijou Cafe, where I did the sketch below.

Inside the Bijou Cafe

3 1/2″ x 10″ ink and watercolor

Click here to see this site on Google Maps

I usually get down there pretty early in the morning and sketch as the vendors setup for Saturday Market for a while then head across the river to SE Main near Water Ave for one more sketch from my truck (it’s a little cold sitting outside).

I5, the Hawthorne Bridge and KOIN Tower

5″ x 8″ ink and watercolor

Click here to visit this site on Google maps

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Tagged

I was tagged recently by Celeste Bergin, check out her blog at Celeste Paints. Celeste is a founder and one of the primary organizers of the Portland Plein Air & Studio Painters. Unfortunately for me, their paint outs are on weekdays when I’m working.

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The rules are:

1. Link to person who tagged you
2. Mention the rules
3. List 6 or 7 unusual things about yourself or quirky but boring, unspectacular details about yourself
4. Tag 6 or 7 other bloggers at the end of your post and comment on their blogs to let them know they’ve been tagged

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The 7 unusual things I’ll list here are jobs I’ve had over the years:

1. For 2 summers, while in college, I worked as a drawbridge tender on 2 railroad bridges. It was pretty spooky leaving there at 11 PM at the end of my shift.

2. I completed the first year of a 2 year Machinist Apprenticeship.

3. I worked for several years as a cook in restaurants in Delaware, Pennsylvania and Eastern Long Island, NY

4. I apprenticed as a Handmade Papermaker with Douglass Morse Howell, who made paper for lots of famous artists.

5. I worked for oil paint manufacturer Robert Gamblin of Gamblin Artist Colors.

6. I had a landscape contracting business for 16 years.

7. I once worked for a day tuning waterfalls at a convent in the Columbia River Gorge.

OK, at Frank Gardner’s urging, I lied about one of the jobs I had. See if you can catch my lie.

I really don’t think anyone is left untagged at this point so I’ll just list 7 artist blogs that I find especially enjoyable and inspiring.

Juilan Merrow Smith

Steven Goodman

Frank Edwards

Eric Jacobsen

Donald Yatomi

Lli Wliburn

Nico Muhly (composer)

Scott Conary

OK, that’s eight, I can’t help myself. Here’re some more artists whose work I love:

Timothy Horn

Alex Kanevsky

Jennifer Balkan

Heather Horton

Marc Bohne

Kate Lehman

David Shelvino

Christine Lefuente

Connie Hayes

Glacier Concrete Tank

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4″ x 8″ ink and watercolor

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to do any artwork. The renovation project is nearing completion and I hope to be back at it on a regular basis within a week or two. Today I was able to do this sketch from the apartment of a friend who has a fantastic view of the Wilamette river.

I appreciate the encouragement I’ve received over the past couple of months, from comments and emails.

btw, I started another blogger blog as an experiment and have posted the occasional sketch there.

Painting with Elio Camacho – man of mystery

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I was delighted to spend the last three days painting with my friend Elio Camacho. Elio did his best to coax more color into my plein air paintings and I resisted as much as I could but I think he may have gained some ground on my precious grey palette.

Elio studied with Ovanes Berberian (some of his work can be seen here), who studied with Sergei Bongart.

My paintings got progressively worse as the workshop continued and I think that’s a good thing because it means I was trying new things and I expect that, as I’m able to find my way with these new ideas, my work will be better for it.

It was great fun to finally meet Elio, after coresponding with him over the internets and blogosphere for the past year or so.  I hope we get to paint together again.

More Sauvie Island Plein Air paintings

Here are two more paintings from my idyllic solo paint out yesterday.

8″ x 10″ oil on canvas panel

8″ x 10″ oil on canvas panel

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Sauvie Island Hayfield PA

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8″ x 6″ oil on canvas

This was my perfect plein air painting day. I stood in the shade of a row of cotton wood trees in a deserted field and the only disturbance was a small group of black tail deer and a bald eagle. I did three paintings and even put my head down on my pack and dozed a bit before starting the last one of the day. A really lovely relaxing day.

This was the first and worst painting of the day.

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A Few More Scans from my Sketchbook

Click on the images for a larger view

5″ x 8″

3 1/2″ x 5″

3 1/2″ X 7″

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roof with a view

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10″ x 8″ oil on canvas

The house we’re staying in has a sod roof from which there is a commanding view of the mountains, coastline and ocean. The sun finally came out yesterday so I hauled my paint box to the roof. The view of this painting is looking west (obviously) and the rock in behind the trees is, I believe, the same one I painted yesterday from a different point of view.

Below is a shot of my setup and view.

Gear:

This is the first time I’ve used one of these umbrellas. It really helped with controlling the light on the panel and palette but it made the paint box unbalanced and it’s huge to carry. I may have to find a smaller lighter solution.

I also am not completely happy with the EasyL backpack I bought to haul all my painting gear. I’m always interested in how others handle these logistical problems. If anyone has experiences or solutions to share I hope you’ll leave a comment.

Bird Rocks PA

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6″ x 8″ oil on panel

Second day at the coast. I hiked down to a beach that’s only accessible, at high tide,  from a trail through an incredible rain forest  of giant twisted Sitka spruce and hemlock. It was another cloudy day and I had this stretch of beach to myself most of the time.

I find that painting in the open air makes the paint act differently than in the studio, so my project for the day was paint consistency. To get the look I want, I have to build up a substantial layer of paint to paint into. When painting PA, I’m limiting what I take with me to mainly the primary colors and I only use OSM for thinning the paint. I know some painters use the paint as it comes out of the tube with no medium whatsoever. I played with that today, trying different consistencies of paint, painting thinner paint into thicker and visa versa.

Here are a couple of warm up sketches I did in my sketchbook.

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Haystack Rock PA

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6″ x 8″ oil on panel

I’m spending the week at the Oregon Coast while my wife recovers from her treatment.

The weather has been pretty much socked in like this everyday. Even though this is not necessarily the prettiest scene to paint, I didn’t have to hurry since the light isn’t changing much. It did brighten slightly toward the end. This resulted in the kind of weird colorization that occured in the closer parts. I thoght it might give it a sense of space if the color intensified in the foreground but the almost complete absence of color in the middle and backgrounds make it seem odd to me.

I continue to not see the color on the panel that well while painting outside. Only when I get it back inside can I see what I’ve done.

Airport Sketches

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photo from window of airliner somewhere between TN and TX

I had to make an unexpected trip to Tennessee last week and spent a lot of time waiting in airports. These three sketches were done in the Portland, OR, Knoxville, TN and Dallas/Fort Worth airports. It’s much easier to find a comfortable place to draw what’s happening on the tarmac in the smaller airports but the larger ones are more exciting visually. Their organization is more complex and difficult to grasp.

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CLICK TO ENLARGE

The sketches are all ink and watercolor in a 5″ x 8″ handmade sketchbook. The paper is Twinrocker handmade paper that I’ve been a little disappointed in but it may be my tools and techniques that are not that compatible with the paper.

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Stairway PA

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8″ x 6″ oil on linen panel

It was supposed to rain all weekend but the sun came out this morning so I dragged my pochade out to the driveway for a quick study. The stairs are a little steep at the top and I think I may have to replace the alizarin crimson with a cad red for more flexibility in mixing, otherwise, all my paintings will be maroon.

Bee Hives plein air

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6″ x 8″ oil on gessoed paper

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Krueger Farm – Sauvie Island

I went out with a friend for the first plein air painting trip of the year. I was disappointed to see that after avoiding plein air painting all winter, I still suck at it.

March sky cloud study

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6″ x 8″ oil on paper

One might think that cloud studies would be easy to do in Oregon but the fact is that Spring and Fall are when we have the best clouds. In Summer the sky is pretty much cloudless and in Winter it’s just a single endless cloud with no discernible form. I stared this plen air and it was awful but I couldn’t leave it alone. I like it better now.

Haystack Rock

6″ x 8″ oil on canvas

Here’s a plein air oil version of the sketch in my last post. I’m finding it challenging to make the surf convincing.

Cannon Beach

We spent last weekend at a friend’s fabulous beach house in Cannon Beach Oregon. This is the view from the front patio.

This is a really remarkable house, btw. The view is amazing and the house was built to have a zero energy footprint. There’s more information about this incredible house → HERE ← , if you’re interested. Beware the link is to a pdf file.

I spent most of the weekend painting and drawing. After 2 weeks of cold miserable rain, the skies were clear, the sun shined bright and it was warm. It was also a full moon.

There’s a hidden path down to a beach that’s secluded from the main beach except at low tide. I spent one day drawing and painting there and almost got stranded by the incoming tide.

I had to put in a telephone pole drawing.

Crown Point Plein Air

8″ x 6″ oil on canvas

This was painted from the Portland Women’s State Scenic Viewpoint in the Columbia River National Scenic area. I joined a local Plein Air painting group for this paint out. When we arrived it was completely fogged in and I set up my easel pointing in the direction I thought I might see Crown Point. It cleared long enough to paint this (about an hour and a half) and was almost completely fogged in again when I finished.

I’m still pretty awkward painting plein air and not really getting out enough.