Crested Butte on the 4th of July

We had a wonderful trip to Crested Butte to visit our friend and great artist Peggy Morgan Stenmark. What a beautiful place, and so many subjects to paint! After the 4th of July parade, I did a couple of sketches and completed this 12 x 9 inch plein air study on Elk Avenue. I set up in the only quiet, shaded spot I could find amidst the buzz of the tourist crowd. The stage with the band and the food court were only a half block away... The shade did not last long, a couple of families congregated on the same spot, and there were many passers-by who stopped to view, ask questions, comment and tell me about their own home towns. And I did not realize I had been painting in front of a gallery until artist Ann Sharkey came out to introduce herself! I did not do any planning and just tried to capture a bit of the scene and ended up overworking it, but it was only meant to be good practice and fun, and so it was.

Using a Pochade Box

I have been using a French Resistance pochade box for my sketching outdoors and at home. With the need to carry my paints with me around the house to keep an eye on the children or simply sketch around my family, and to be able to quickly close the sketch box and put it all away (as when the baby monitor goes "wahhh"...), this has become a convenient setup to buy me more time to paint.

The box mounts on any of my tripods, but it takes the Velbon to make it really stable. My En Plein Air Pro easel is more convenient outdoors, but to paint from the car, or a home on a table or on my lap, the pochade box works better. I carry it with me in the trunk of the car. It is pretty convenient and it takes only a minute to open it and get ready to paint, and even less to close it up and put it away.

I've been carrying a 7x10 sketch book in the storage compartment of the box, and have water, brushes and pocket brushes, and a folding plastic palette with my colors. The photos show both the use with a sketchbook, and with a loose sheet of paper, using the cover of the storage compartment as a support for a gentler angle.

The photo also shows a recent sketch of a house down the street, as seen from my back yard gate.

A Window of Opportunity

October has been very hectic, with the celebration of my son's second birthday, family trips and a business trip--very little time to paint and little opportunity to post until now. I don't go anywhere without my sketchbook though, and look for the chance to sketch and practice.

I did take advantage of my trips to sketch, including the pen and wash above, done last week with a regular pen, a water brush and my small half pan palette on the tray of the airplane during flight, to the amusement of my fellow passengers. The photo is from a challenge from the painting forum I take part in. I sketched in pen while I waited at the airport in Charlotte, NC, and colored my sketch before landing in Denver.

Before takeoff, I took advantage of the time to sketch a few of the airplanes I could see out of the window, with the intent to show them to my son when I got home--he loves airplanes, trains and tractors...

The Greens of Summers Past

The Greens of Summers Past, watercolor on Yupo, 20x26

Nowadays, Summer arrives with the sound of children on vacation playing in the neighborhood... Thinking back of younger years my summers were also filled with the sounds of friends playing in the back yard or on the streets, but also the loud noise of cicadas, the warm, humid air of southern Brazil and the intense, unforgiving green of the landscape. It was in this nostalgic, peaceful mood that I painted my latest creation on Yupo synthetic paper, of a scene in a park near my sister's home in Castro, Brazil. It was based on a study I did on my sketchbook. Simpler days that can still inspire...

This painting was done with only four colors, and only one green. I took advantage of the variations allowed by the color green apatite genuine from Daniel Smith to create a range of greens. When applied very densely, this color is very dark. I layered a thick coat all over the colored areas, and later painted back into some sections with clear water, diluting the pigment to lighter, warmer greens to create the main tree and other features. The sky and the house and the highlights in the water reflections were all lifted back to white, in a negative shaping process akin to carving. I'm including below a detail, to show some of the textural effects of the color on Yupo, some intentional, some less controlled.

Hazy Lazy Morning Light! (part 1)

A year ago, I was in Ireland on a business trip and took a side trip from Dublin through the Wicklow Mountains, on my way to Kilkenny. My intention was to see some sights and do some paintings on site.

I spent the first night in the beautiful village of Graiguenamanagh, in an Inn by the river Barrow. I woke up very early in the morning, and opened my third-floor window to a wonderful view of sunshine through the mist and boats lined along the river all the way to the old stone bridge. I don't know how long I spent bent over the window sill looking in every direction, snapping photos, taking it all in. By the time I did take notice, I was freezing in the March morning air, in my shorts only, I could not feel my ears, my fingers could hardly press the shutter button anymore. I had to make some hot tea and get back under the covers to warm up again. As they say: Beware of wonder... Later that morning, after breakfast, much warmer, I went out and completed a painting on site.

The reference for this painting was one of the many photos I took from the window that morning. My next post will include the step by step progression of the painting.

Hazy Lazy Morning Light, watercolor on paper, 16x12

Cloudy Irish Day

The images and stories of my visits to Ireland in March and May will continue to find their way into my sketchbook and my blog. This time around, I decided to practice by doing a sketch of a street in Inistioge, a beautiful, scenic village where I stopped for lunch on my way to Kilkenny. I was sitting outdoors at a cafe, and this was the view uphill from us. Only occasionally would the sun break free of the clouds in that afternoon in March. My goal here was to capture the atmosphere and the light conditions, using some muted yet interesting colors. It was a fun sketch and brings back good memories.

Trying a New Sketchbook

A page from my sketchbook, showing a sunset view of a back alley in Boulder, captured with a quick sketch in watercolor.

I have experimented with a lot of different papers and surfaces for my paintings, but had stuck with the same sketchbooks for quite a while. I have been using Moleskine sketchbooks, for their great format and sturdy cover, even though it is a bit of work to overcome the paper's resistance to watercolor. There is a watercolor version of it, but I don't really like the landscape format. I also use Arches 6x10 spiral pads, but it has the opposite problem, it is great for watercolor studies and small paintings, but does not work well for simply sketching.

This time around I am giving the Aquabee Super Deluxe 6x9 sketchbook a try. It contains 60 sheets of 93 lb neutral white paper, very slightly textured. It is a little bulkier to carry than what I've grown used to, but the spiral allows for more freedom during use--I don't have to hold it or clip it open. I included a photo above, and you can see it took watercolor well and ended up only a little buckled, even when I used wet washes--as opposed to my old Canson sketchbook pages that buckled severely and acquired a crackly sound when they dried. I have only filled out a couple of pages in this new book, but am enjoying it so far.

Painting Ireland 4, What's wrong with this picture?

Grattan Bridge, Dublin, watercolor, 11x15 inches

This is another image of Ireland, but unlike previous posts, this was painted back at home, not during my trip. This was the evening of St Patrick's Day, and I was strolling around Dublin with friends. I took a reference photo of Grattan Bridge just before we headed to the Porterhouse Pub for live music and a pint. It was cold at the time and the sky was still bright with a soft glow, but back at home I decided it would be more interesting to make it a rainy day. This was painted on Fabriano Artistico Cold Press paper, with Schmincke and Winsor & Newton colors.

After I had finished the painting, I noticed a serious factual error (my apologies to Dubliners for it). Of course I took artistic license and modified a lot of things, simplified details, added elements from imagination--actually the entire effect of the rain was imagined--but there is one thing that is completely wrong and not intentional at all... Let's make it fun: I'll give people a week to view this and maybe leave a comment with the solution, before I post a detail picture with the explanation.

Painting Ireland, 3

Detail, Graiguenamanagh, Sunday morning

When I was leafing through a travel guide during my planning of my trip to Ireland, I ran into the photo of the village of Graiguenamanagh, on the Barrow River valley, and I knew immediately that was a place I had to visit and paint.

I arrived there at sunset on Saturday, March 13, and got a room at an inn overlooking the river. I woke very early and opened my window to the cool morning air, the stillness of the morning prior to sunrise. The scene was so inviting that I almost caught a cold from leaning out of the window for such a long time in a t-shirt--it took some seriously hot tea to warm me up again. As soon as it was warm enough, I walked around taking photos in every direction. Then I got back to the inn, ate breakfast, picked up my painting gear and walked across the bridge to paint a view of the town in the sunlight.

Graiguenamanagh, Sunday morning, watercolor, 11x15

The resulting study is shown above. I liked the view of the stone bridge in shadow leading into the town buildings, with their interesting roofs and chimneys. I did a careful sketch in pencil, but ended up painting very fast, as it was still pretty cold, even in the late-morning sun, and I had to continue my trip before long. The water and reflections did not come out very well, so I tried to improve on them later at home, without much success.

Unlike in the previous sketches I've shown in this series, I did not use watercolor pencils on this piece, the details were added with a rigger. I used Schmincke colors on Fabriano Artistico Cold Press paper. The work was done in a hurry, but ultimately I feel I managed to capture something of the peaceful Sunday morning scene.

Painting Ireland, 2

Houses in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland, watercolor, 6x10

Ireland was a wealth of beautiful, varied scenery under changing light conditions. I didn't do as much painting as I had intended--both lack of time and the weather conditions made it difficult at times to even complete a sketch. The sketch above is an example, a scene viewed from the fourth floor of an office building, on a cold day, captured during lunch time in between business meetings.

Painting Ireland...

Enniskerry, Ireland

I'm in Ireland, on a business trip. I had to work this morning, but took a road trip in the afternoon through the Wicklow Mountains south of Dublin. The scenic route winds through mountains, blanket bog, valleys, wooded hills and open farmland. I stopped at a café in the picturesque village of Enniskerry, and took the opportunity to make a quick sketch, even tough it was pretty cold (I had to wear gloves to sketch). I'll do some more painting tomorrow. Cheers!

Sketching "Plane" Air..., part 1

Okay, so you are trapped in and buckled up... but your imagination does not have to be! Sketching on the plane is a great way to pass the time and hone up your skills. Below are a couple of my favorite exercises, with examples from last Thursday:

1. Sketching people: Flight attendands make good models, as they are often in the same positions and are used to being looked at. I don't try to make a portrait, but focus instead on capturing their general figure, or some interesting aspect, such as their uniform or earrings. You can start the sketch during the safety demonstration, and resume it when they come through with the beverages cart. But more often than not I try to sketch other passengers, usually a few rows ahead and across from me, so I can sketch their profiles without bothering them--look for distinct features such as eyeglasses, unusual hairstyles, hats, etc. Sleeping passengers also make good models, for their immobility. Remember to be discreet.

2. Abstracting from in-flight magazines: These magazines always have great photos, you could always imitate the images, but try this more creative exercise instead: Look for photos or sections of photos that could make interesting abstract patterns. Make a simplified thumbnail outline of the key shapes and patterns, then close the magazine and try to finish the value study from your own imagination, adding lines and other shapes, changing the tonal values, etc.

Too challenging for you? No worries, you can always practice sketching the people and scenes from the photos in the magazines, or from photos of your own.
Not challenging enough? Try sketching with a brush, or in color. Or sketch from memory, by focusing on a photo in the magazine for a few minutes, then closing the magazine and trying to reproduce it from memory.

Interesting subject, and a lot more ideas to discuss, so I'll get back to this topic in a future posting. Bon voyage !