Like all great workshops, I leave this week realizing how much I don’t know and energized to apply what I’ve learned to reach “the next level”. My goal is a bit lofty, and may not be attainable in one lifetime, but I really want to combine the compositional strength of Andrew Wyeth, with the poetic brushwork/expression of Nicolai Fechin and Segei Bongart, and the color sense of Camille Przewodek of the Henry Henche/Charles W. Hawthorne school.

Like Hawthorne, Camille had us focus on the figure largely in shadow, so we could explore the color of flesh in shadow. The study on the left is full sun, the right overcast light. She didn’t complete these to a level of “finish”.

Here’s my gray study study of a figure almost entirely in shadow:

Figure Study in Shadow (Overcast) - Oil on Linen

Aloha!

Another full day today painting! I took off a bit early to soak in the hot tub. Perfect. Tomorrow we paint the figure, which will be a nice change of pace.

Here’s Camille’s first demo start (Wai’oli Hui’ia Church, 1912). The lighting conditions were overcast. You can see how she starts with flat masses of rich color. No modeling at this point. She also knows where she’s headed, eg, the far-right middle spot of Magenta will end up being a clump of trees. She’ll work green into it later, but for now she’s making it a rich red to bring it forward, and due to the fact that overcast days emit a cool light, which means warm shadows.

Here’s the near-finish.

I really like the composition in her second demo. Again, the light conditions where overcast, so a cool light, warm shadows. Remember that everything is relative. She carefully placed color notes in relation to each other, both warm/cool and value.

Here’s the finished study.

As for my work today: the day shifted from cloudy to sunny every few minutes, so I split my canvas in half and worked back-and-forth, sometimes minutes apart! You really can’t paint “the light” if it’s constantly shifting, so if you’re painting in conditions like these, consider splitting your canvas, or bringing two to work on.

The sunny version on the left is just the start, it didn’t stay sunny long enough to finish. I’m happy with the gray day side. I went back-and-forth quite a bit between color spots to get them to harmonize and read (by value). Overcast days are a great time to learn, because you’re not “chasing the light”. Even so, the cloud cover varied quite a bit, so it was definitely a challenge.

Here’s the finish:

Wai oli Hui ia Church (Overcast) - Oil on Linen - 8×6

More mixed weather today, sun in the morning, overcast in the afternoon. I have two images by Camille, one for me. I only kept one as I spent the morning doing several starts, wiping off each start as I went.

Here’s her first start in the morning:

Here’s the near finish…she said she’d adjust a few areas, but it’s close and again shows you how she transitions paintings. Note the dark warm shadows in the foreground trees, the high intensity warms in the sky (that she later tones down to read as blue); and feeling of atmosphere she creates.

She then painted this study in the afternoon, with overcast light. See the difference?

And finally, here’s the only painting I finished today, the “Old School” (now shops). I don’t think the light key is as accurate as I’d like, but it reads well, and that roof was a blast to paint!

Old Hanalei School (Kauai) - Oil on Linen - 10×12

This has been a full, tiring day, but hey, I’ll at least post some images and perhaps catch up and write smart stuff about them later

I painted this study of Anini Beach in the morning, before class started.

Anini Beach (Kauai) - Oil on Linen - 9×12

Here’s one of Camille’s demos. The first image is her “start”. She starts with intense colors that represent the light, being careful to keep all color and values accurate not to the local color, but in terms of relativity

Camille Przwodek Demo “Start”

Here’s the finish. She’s worked in local color on top of the start underpainting:

Camille Przwodek Demo “Finish”

I did two studies of the same composition, to try and differentiate the varying light keys: one in the morning, the other later in the day. Here’s the morning painting.

Anini Beach House (Morning) - Oil on Linen - 12×9

Here’s the same house, later afternoon.

Anini Beach House - Oil on Linen - 12×9

And, finally, here’s a little study I did yesterday at the Kiluaea Lighthouse.

Kilauea Lighthouse (Kauai) - Oil on Linen - 12×9

The first day of Camille’s class, we followed her “Color Boot Camp”, which involves painting colored blocks in natural sunlight, after the technique she learned from Henry Henche.

These exercises allow you to clearly see color relationships. Each block is painted a different color (in light and shade), as well as two different colored table cloth. This technique is similar to the “color separation” technique I’ve written about before here. When you think about it, none of the colors in these studies should repeat, after all, they’re all separate colors. The same is true in nature, it’s extremely rare to see two things that are not the same the same color–especially when you introduce distance, space and air. Have trouble simplifying outdoors? I know I do. This simplies things greatly, so you can really focus and study on color.

We experienced mixed sun and shade during the day, so as the sun came and went, she moved between the overcast day study (above) and the full sun study (below).

A palette knife is used to you’re forced to not get too detailed, keep the colors clean and solid. You keep working each relationship paint over paint, constantly adjustmenting, keeping the light and shadow planes very clearly separated.

This is a great exercise to judge color and value relationships that is transferable to the field. Tomorrow, we’re going to in effect paint a “block”, but this time a building in a park.

Here’s another study, this featuring a rounded object:

I did paint a seascape after class, but it’s too dark to photograph (I like to photograph in natural light, in the shade). I’ll post tomorrow. ‘Til then!

He all, just arrived in Kauai today for my workshop this week with Camille Przwodek! I hope to blog from here daily, but don’t hold me to it, the first priority is painting! Right? In two weeks, I study with Mark Kerckhoff in Palm Springs, yet another great expressive colorist. Stay tuned.

Kauai - 6:45PM - Feb-24-2008

I too was once afraid of paint. I just finished Emile Gruppe’s “Gruppe on Color”, a wonderful book. He studied with John F. Carlson, one of the most influential teachers of plein air/landscape painting ever. Gruppe relates a quote by Carlson that you should “paint like a millionaire“, which is so true. Some subjects just require lots of paint–not just for texture, but just to lay down pure color over others. You can have so much fun with brushwork!

I’ve been thinking about holding a workshop this summer–haven’t done one in years, but Gruppe taught all his life and said he learned a lot from his students, which is very true in my experience. If I do teach, I’m thinking about designing an exercise to relieve painters of their fear of paint, a very common problem. One would be to get some cheap paint that has the feel of oil, and just give them huge, half-cup piles on their palettes and ask them to use all the paint on an 11×14 canvas. Force the issue! I find that once you get over this apprehension, it really frees you. Did you have a fear of paint? How did you get over it?

Okay, back to the painting at hand. I can’t imagine doing my current “rocks & surf” series of paintings without mounds of paint. Ken Auster told me that the ocean is nothing but edges, so you have to paint it that way. Use lots of paint and your brush to create these edges, and it will read as water. I hope this painting is a good example of that.

I’m having a great time with this series–I hope the joy shows. Enjoy!

Rocks & Surf Frosting - Oil on Linen - 8×10

The weather’s been crap here in San Francisco, so I’ve been painting a bit indoors. This is painting is from a digital image I took from a cruise ship we were on this past summer (from Athens to Venice). There were some great sunsets at sea. I recall a cruise we took in 2000 (when we were flush with “dot.com” money!) to the Northern Europe (Norway, Finland, Sweden, Russia, etc). We traveled in late June, and the sunsets lasted for hours. Can you image! No rushing to paint it, sit back.

This one I’d focused on the texture of the paint to add drama, but I also end up using a lot of paint in sunsets just because there’s a lot of re-adjusting of color and value. These relationships in sunsets are quite subtle. I miss painting them plein air–perhaps in Hawaii, coming up next week!

Sunset at Sea (off Croatia), Oil on Linen, 10×8

Mike has a few weeks off between jobs, so we headed to Napa Valley for Valentine’s. We stayed a couple nights at Beazley House in Napa, a great B&B that accepts–no, loves–dogs! Gracie had a great time, running through vineyards and just hanging out with us. We spent a lot of money on wine, but hey, it lasts for years, so no big deal.

I painted this Friday morning. It’s a view from the backyard of Beazley House. I’d originally included a building to the left the obscured the lower half of the palm and other things that simply distracted from the center of interest, so today I repainted those areas. It really helped. Learning to simplify is so important, something I’m still working on.

Napa Valley Morning - Oil on Linen - 10×8″

Gracie wondering Rubicon, her favorite Napa Winery (owned by Francis Ford Coppella).

Fetch, Gracie!

Still working on a new series of seascapes based on rocks/surf. Enjoying it, especially after a couple of weeks of no painting. My next painting trip at the end of the month is a workshop with Camille Przwodeck in Kauai, Hawaii. I’ll try to blog regularly from there as Camille is a great teacher.

Near Point Lobos - Oil on Linen - 11×14