Monday Plein Air

the start

We only had 3 people show up for "Plein Air Monday" this morning. I think because of all the rain lately everybody assumed it would be a washout and slept in. Some folks, I know had better excuses than that. Anyway, we missed you and the sun came through now and then. Although it was a bit chilly we had a good time. We set out to paint the very old little church on Piedras Chinas (near the bottom at Garza). Donna and Yvonne found a good angle and did a couple of good watercolors but I couldn't seem to be happy with the church, so I found myself a windy little spot in the deep shade at one extreme corner of the churchyard looking down onto calle Garza where it meets P. Chinas. I ended up doing a wider angle of it than I at first thought, so I don't have reference material for the foreground vegetation - I may go back up in the morning to finish it "in situ". I will post the result ...............

"Morning Light"  9x12 ins. oil on panel
$450. U.S.
I don't know how many "morning lights" I must have painted by now. ........... Lots!
However, that title seemed to fit better than all other contenders so, - there you are.
It was a great challenge that I hope I have pulled off not too shabbily. It was especially tricky retaining  (maybe even enhancing) the feeling of looking down over that bank. I left out the V.W. in the yard below - it would have become a competing, extra and unnecessary center of interest - even though the empty yard might be a little lonesome without it.

the ref photo

Rooftops

the subject

I forgot to take a ref photo on the morning the painting was begun, so I took this one this morning. Never forget to take a reference photo before you begin. So I have this very dull photo to work from. Naturally, it was sunny the day the painting was begun. Not the end of the world as we know it however. It may even be a plus - we'll see how it goes. It's pretty obvious that we don't try to slavishly copy the subject at any rate.

An artist re-arranges, re-designs, composes, drawing heavily from the right side of their brain .......... 

..........often butchering beyond any hope of recovery what could have been a nice little picture ...........

 

the "start"

It's pretty dull in the studio for painting today - I've been waiting for the light to strengthen a bit but it doesn't look promising. Anyway, let us begin .....................

the "finish"
"Rooftops"  9x12 in. oil on panel
$450. U.S.

Well now,

The first tool I grabbed was the palette knife and I stuck with it almost all the way through. It was very engaging, almost fun, working it over but you know it wasn't nearly as much fun as in the beginning when it was just a "start".  Did I butcher it beyond hope of recovery? - no, I don't think so. I like the result but I do a lot of second guessing that I shouldn't. I just can't seem to help nudging the color a bit here and there, just to see what it might have looked like that way -  I'm usually surprised  to find later that the original, spontaneous decisions were better. Is this a case of "curiosity killed the cat" only in this case it's paintings?
Sobre todo ...............it was an entertaining challenge and those funky rooftops came off not too bad.
...................time to move on ..................

Resurfacing .....................

the subject

my "interpretation"

mmmmmmmmm ....................... I think this scene has tremendous potential but I don't think I'll do a lot more on this "sketch" than what I did on location yesterday morning. (it remains to be seen  if I can hold myself to that) If I can find the time, I'd like to do a more controlled studio version of this. It would be nice if I could do this without sucking all the spontaneity out of it ............ but I can see more potential with the composition. I think what I did yesterday was passable but maybe I should have spent a little bit more time with viewfinder and sketch pad, Yes? - oft times, like this time, I just jump right in and feel guilty later.

 Hate that.

I've been pretty busy lately. There are a couple more "starts" I'll have to get back to from last week and I'll post them after I deal with this one. I've also been working on a large studio painting of the dreaded Parroquia and environs. It's almost complete and was more than a bit of a handful. You'll see............

At the same time our supply of custom design plein air kits dwindled to nada, so I've been crafting away on the side. We're not all snoozin in the shade of a cactus down here..........

 "Esquina de las Animas" 12x9 ins.
oil on panel     $450. U.S.

Finis
True to form I fussed with it all afternoon but I still like it. I think it lost a little here and gained a little there.
I'll post another of last weeks "starts" in the morning. Pleasant dreams .................

June 25th. "San Miguel Morning" completed

"San Miguel Morning" 9x12 in. oil on panel

$450. U.S.

I'm going to place the finished ones along with maybe some explanation in the initial blog with the "starts"and photos, so they can be compared more or less alongside with the first posting. So check the previous entry if you're interested. You'll also notice that I've posted a price on this one. I'm going to put prices on the finished ones from now on (unless they're first class duds) so they can be purchased outside of the gallery. With tourism in a bit of a slump we're not getting the numbers through the gallery that we used to. I'll post prices on the other recent ones too.

Morning June 25th. plein air

June 25th 9x12 in.plein air from this morning at the Jardin in centro San Miguel de Allende

 We picked a great location this morning. Everyone was fairly close together but all facing different directions and all with very nice compositions and good results after several hours work.Donna tells me I've got to start placing my people earlier in the process. She's right of course. - teachers are so annoying.
I think this will be fun to work on tomorrow morning. The photo looks quite different. Part of that is because there is a wider gamut of contrast between the lights and darks in a digital photo. Even a print of a photo will generally have more contrast than an oil painting. You have to be careful when using a photo image for reference that this phenomena doesn't lead one astray. Squinting at the two pictures you will see that the bright cream wall of the Allende building across the way is brighter than that same part in the sketch. I could have made this slightly lighter by using more white but the yellow saturation would decrease and even if it didn't it could never attain the brightness of the actual, anyway. Of course, even a digital photo can't reproduce the true, actual gamut of reality. All an artist can do is closely imitate the sequence of values (contrast) in an attempt to get  all the elements into their proper positions relative to each other. In a high contrast picture like this one it demands getting your darks quite dark and your lights almost "washed out".

If all the above sounds like gobbledigook, try lifting these two pics and place them side by side. Squinting at the two at once might be very instructive.

"San Miguel Morning" 9x12 in. oil on panel

This is the completed painting. I've decided to post the finished ones on the same page as the "starts" - makes more sense I think. I'm pretty happy with the result of this one. The fact that I didn't totally lose the spirit of the original is always gratifying. You can see that contrast thing I was talking about - it's still apparent when you compare the finished product to the photo below. In the photo the cream wall is a lot lighter than the blue part of the sky, the blue sky is a lot lighter that the lit leaves of the tree.............. and so it goes. If your desire is to really handle light well, you have to begin to understand the phenomenon like a good photographer. I tend to harp on this stuff, first because it's exciting and second because, after all this blog is ALOTaboutLIGHT - Right?

Any comments or criticisms are always welcome.

Rio Laja Valley completo

"Rio Laja Valley" 14x18 ins. oil on panel
$850. U.S.

Completo

We've got to get out to the country and do some more hard core landscapes! 

I'm O.K.with this one........it was fun but there's always room for improvement - lots of room.

As always, your well-considered comments are appreciated.

Rio Laja Plein Air unfinished

14x18 ins. oil on panel

and the photo below

The photo tends to make this place look a little flat. It's really quite an inspiring location. You're up on this limestone bluff overlooking the river valley. We were hoping the clouds would roll our way later in the afternoon and sure nuf they did. Their shadows creeping across the terrain were so nice and added a lot of depth. It's an unusual location - the river valley has a lot of limestone but the highlands are all extinct volcanoes. I started this a couple of weeks ago just after the corn was planted in the fields below. We've since been doused with some rain, so it's going to look completely different in short order. We'll have to go back and squeeze out more green  this time - any takers? On second thought to get there you have to ford the Laja. It was bone dry last time ............... better take a ride up there and check first.