PAAC Annual Paint Out in Grand Lake

I returned on Sunday from three days of painting alongside 39 other artists in my first participation in the Plein Air Artists Colorado Annual Paint Out. The event was very well organized, and took place in the town of Grand Lake and the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. The weather was perfect and the Fall foliage was beautiful. My family came along and had a great time with campfires, swimming in the lake, hiking, and painting too.

I feel very encouraged that I was able to test a new easel and new paints (acrylic), sell one of my paintings and win Artists' Choice Award at the exhibit! This came as a total surprise, as I was trying a new medium and working hard to simply produce a painting that would not look too shabby alongside the work of all these experienced, talented artists. To win the vote of professionals I admire was a great honor. 

More details on the paintings, the event, and the lessons I learned, in upcoming posts...

Sandstone Ranch in Acrylics

Sandstone Morning, acrylic on board, 8x10, plein air

This is only my third attempt at painting in acrylic, and the first acrylic done en plein air (done on location at Sandstone Ranch park in Longmont on Friday). It was quite a departure from working in watercolors, but the same challenge of rushing against the hot, dry weather.

I used Golden Open acrylics in five colors: Titanium white, phthalo blue, transparent red iron oxide, yellow and naphthol red light. I covered the board with a thin warm orange layer, drew the main large shapes with red oxide, blocked the darker shapes of color before applying the middle and light tones. I must say I really like the Rosemary & Co brushes from the Ivory line that I am using.

I wish I had done a thumbnail value and composition study but I was concerned about the time and wanted to start right away... it would have helped me improve the design, by avoiding lining up the foreground rocks with the cliff, and making the grass line at the bottom less repetitive with the one farther back. Well, working my way through a new medium is hard enough, I think this ended up pretty nicely all things considered.

Visit my new Facebook page: Facebook/MarcioCorreaArt

A Gate of Opportunity, watercolor on paper, 12x9

This week I painted on site at Harvard in Cambridge, MA. I set my tripod easel in a tight corner in front of the tourist information office, about the only spot protected from the rain and from the groups of tourists. I painted directly, without a preliminary sketch or any drawing in pencil.


Many artists and students have concerns about using M Graham and other honey based watercolor brands in plein air work, especially those who have folding palettes with wells on the lid... But I used a folding palette and M Graham colors on this painting and even though it was a warm, very humid day, the paints did not run or spill. I stored my palette vertically in the bag, and kept a wet brush inside it, and it did not cause any problems. The paint was tacky in the wells when I reopened the palette at night in the hotel, but there were no spills. One reason is that the paint had been poured in the pans much earlier; if I had just added fresh paint the night before I may have had problems. At any rate, the only M Graham colors I have tried which have cause spills at all have been cobalt teal and cobalt violet--I no longer carry those colors in my plein air kit for that reason.

Demo on Aquabord at the Longmont Artists' Guild

Marcio's demonstration at the LAG meeting
(photo courtesy of Yvonne Ogg)

Last night, the Longmont Artists' Guild held its first meeting after the summer hiatus, and I had the honor to be Guest Artist. For my demonstration, I chose to do a piece on Aquabord panel, size 20x16. I used a variety of mop, flat and round brushes, and mostly Daniel Smith paints on this demo: Permanent orange, cobalt teal blue, manganese violet, french ultramarine, quinacridone burnt scarlet.

I was able to advance it only to half completion, not as much due to the time limitation of an hour, and to the size of the board, but to my unwise decision to decline the offer of an overhead mirror. Having to maintain the board at a steep angle to allow the sitting audience to view the painting without glare, I struggled with paint runs and drips while painting very fast. Watercolor painting is always a partner dance, and I had to adapt my approach to conditions and persevere. I had to rework areas, work on smaller areas at a time, move from shape to shape to allow for drying time, etc. In the end, I was still able to give the attendees an idea of my method and style, and a sense of the benefits and challenges of this relatively new painting support.

The best part for me was indeed the interest and participation of the audience. They had questions on selection of paints, drawing strategy, choice of subject, materials and techniques used and avoided, and so on. Aquabord was indeed new to many, so I was pleased to share some information and tips, repeated here in summary:

• Aquabord is a panel manufactured by Ampersand for use with watercolor, with a warm white, slightly textured surface made of kaolin, also known as China clay. Working on Aquabord is similar to doing fresco paintings.
• Prior to use, it is important to "flush out" the air bubbles trapped in the clay, by brushing or sponging the entire surface with a good amount of clean water.
• The surface texture is equivalent to cold press paper, but the clay is more abrasive than paper, so the use of expensive and delicate brushes is not recommended. I use older squirrel mops, or synthetic brushes on it instead.
• Aquabord is more absorbent than watercolor paper and paint dries fast on it. To me, it makes it harder to achieve large, smooth washes than on paper. But when working at an angle, there is less beading, and more runs than what you experience with watercolor paper.
• It is very easy to lift paint from Aquabord, which means you can correct errors easily by lifting slightly or back to white. You can actually remove an unsuccessful painting altogether and start from scratch. But it also means that you have to be careful when applying new layers of paint--if your brush is stiff or if you rub too hard, you may unintentionally lift the previous layer. I like that this feature allows me to mix with a previous layer, or correct a drip or run, by applying a different color on top of it and mixing the two with the friction of the brush. 
• Painting on a panel is more convenient than stretching paper to avoid buckling, particular helpful for outdoor work, but panels are heavier than paper to carry.  
• Aquabord is versatile. Colors are very vibrant on it, as you can see in the works of Karen Vernon. It is great for Wyeth-like dry brush realistic technique. Ali Cavanaugh does beautiful, detailed portrait work on this surface. Stephen Quiller uses it with acrylic paints.
• Paintings on Aquabord can be varnished and framed without glass. The Ampersand website has recommendations of varnishes to use. I use spray varnish--Krylon crystal clear acrylic coating, then thin coats of Krylon UV archival varnish mat and gloss in alternation (matte removes glare but too much can deaden the colors; gloss enhances colors, but produces glare).
• Aquaboard panels cost more than the equivalent size paper, but the added cost can be offset by savings in framing, as neither backing board, mats or glass are necessary.
• Most watercolor societies do not accept paintings on Aquabord in their main water media exhibits.

Many thanks to the LAG Board for the opportunity to share my work!

Demo at the Front Range Community College

Lunch Break, 16x12

Last month I had the opportunity to return as a guest to the FRCC in Longmont for a demo. This time I chose to demonstrate painting a street scene on Aquabord. Thanks to Camille and her students, they were engaged and attentive and asked excellent questions. They had a chance to observe how the paint reacts at a near vertical angle on this clay support, and how color can be easily lifted and areas reworked on this surface.

Aquabord is made of kaolin clay, and needs to be "flushed" (saturated with clean water) before first use. After that it accepts watercolor in a similar way as paper. Color lifts easily, so care must be taken when painting in layers not to disturb the previous application. The benefits are that corrections are easy, color can be lifted all the way to white, there is no buckling and the piece once finished can be sealed and framed without glass.

The image below is the result of the 1.5 hour demo.

The image above is the finished painting, after another couple of hours of work.

Demo Photo

Long Wait, Drive On

Long Wait, Drive On, watercolor on Yupo, 16x20

This is the finished painting that I started last month as a demo (see previous post). It resumes my experiments with Yupo and with urban scenes--I like the variety of perspectives and textures that this subject provides, and enjoy the challenge of portraying details on the slick surface of the synthetic paper.

The problem (or solution) is that Yupo makes it so easy to subtract pigment and repaint an area that it invites endless revision... I had started with a much simpler and more muted sky that I liked better, but the intensity of shadows and the brightness of the street color called for an intense blue sky, so I added more cobalt turquoise. It does look better in real life than on the photo.

I have several paintings and ideas in progress, I hope to start posting more often, as it is quite fun to share ideas and images.

Demo at Front Range Community College

Last week I had the pleasure to do a demo at the Front Range Community College in Longmont. My subject was an urban scene on yupo. Due to the longer drying time on yupo, I was not able to complete the painting during the class, but that was not the objective anyway. The goal was to share some of my experience and techniques for working on this new surface. During the one and a half hour session, I described both the thinking process and the many forms of paint application and removal--from the use of stamps and templates to watercolor sticks and sponges. The students participated with their comments and questions, and it was a very enjoyable time overall. The image shows the painting in progress.

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 Portrait of Miguel Lucas

Hoodie, watercolor on paper, 12x18

Miguel Lucas turned two in October, and I finally got over my hesitation of doing a portrait of him. He is such a handsome boy and has so many different facets to him, it was hard to imagine capturing just one pose... I knew I would want to make it a detailed portrait, and did not have long stretches of time to devote to a single painting, so I postponed my attempt for a long time... It took many hours and many nights to complete, as predicted. Children portraits are just so difficult to do... so hard to keep the features soft and round, especially in Colorado where washes dry almost instantly.

This was done with M Graham paints, a size 12 and a size 10 kolinsky rounds (one to paint another to soften edges), and a 1 inch flat for the background, on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper. It helped a lot to paint entirely vertical. No masking, no lifting, no tricks, just brushwork. He had a lot of fun watching me paint it, and it is great to have his reaction now that he can speak and share his thoughts.

Now that I got into it, I will probably be doing many more paintings of him... I had better hurry, as his baby brother will make his appearance in January and compete for my attention as a father and as an artist!

Gypsy Look, a Portrait Sketch

I did this sketch last night to take a break from a meticulous realistic large portrait I'm doing of my son. I chose a vacation photo of my wife, in the rental car, all tan from the beach except around her eyes because of her sunglasses.

It started just as a pencil sketch but I decided to color it. I was improvising, pushed the study farther than I should, applied paint beyond the capacity of the sketchbook paper and the paint started looking blotchy on the shaded area. I should know better, but thought "oh one more application will be alright..." Well it wasn't, but the study was fun to do and it captured her expression well, so I decided to share.

Gypsy Look, 8x10 inches, on a Strathmore visual journal, cadmium yellow, cadmium red light, burnt sienna, cobalt blue and perylene maroon, with some raw sienna, and some ultramarine blue used to mix the darkest darks, Escoda travel brush #12.

ArtWalk Demo

The Dicken's Opera House, Longmont, Watercolor on paper, 22x15

Last Friday night, I did a live demonstration at a street fair. It was the first time I did a demo outdoors in the evening. The Main Street in Longmont was closed to traffic at 6:30pm and then all the setup activity started, so I was not able to start painting until 7pm. I anticipated I would not have daylight for long, so I took a photo of the street corner scene I wanted to paint two days before, and used that as my reference. I also did all the pencil drawing ahead of time, so that I would be able to complete the painting during the demo.
I brought a daylight lamp, but that meant intense glare on the paper and less than enough light where my palette was. But I did complete my painting and was quite happy with it, and the viewers gave good feedback as well. This is a view of the Old Opera House in Longmont, a very nice building... so nice in fact that I accidentally allowed it to compete too much with the other focus area of the scene, where all of the figures were.

This is a photo of my setup. I used M Graham watercolor paints (mostly azo orange, cadmium red light, viridian, cobalt blue, cobalt teal, ultramarine blue and quinacridone rust, in addition to some neutral tint) and squirrel mop brushes, and a synthetic round for details. I worked on a half sheet of Arches 140lb Rough paper, and it took me one hour and 45 minutes.

Urban Realism Workshop with John Salminen, part 2

Royal Street, New Orleans, watercolor on paper, 15x21

This is the painting I completed during the urban realism workshop with John Salminen. I used M. Graham paints, Arches 140lb cold press paper, a squirrel mop brush, flat and round synthetic brushes, and a round kolinsky for details. I had chosen my reference from a photo I took in 2001, and did all the drawing in advance of the workshop. I will comment on some of the aspects of the painting that illustrate learning points from the workshop:

1. The tonal plan corresponds to John's guidelines to use value to differentiate the planes of the picture: The background is built with light values, the middle ground with middle values and the foreground with dark values--the exception is the main figures, but that was done as a form of focus. John's demo and the work of other participants showed that the association of planes and values can work in any combination (middle>dark>light, light>dark>middle, etc.) and produces a successful feeling of depth. I also tried to use a wide range of values, from the white of the paper to very dark grays.

2. A lot of the light details were saved with masking tape and cutting knife, some were lifted with Mr Clean Magic Eraser--this allowed for the creation of very thin lines and fine detail.

3. The reflections on the sidewalks was done using John's method of wetting the paper, dropping color with vertical strokes of a flat brush, and softening the transitions with a hake brush.

4. The dark walls on the right were painted mostly with ultramarine blue and burnt sienna, which created a warm dark value that was competing with the warm color walls on the left. If I'd tried to cool the color down by brushing further layers of color, I would end up with a very dull surface. Instead, to fix that problem, I masked around the wall shapes and sprayed with blue color through a mouth atomizer, which cooled the color without significantly altering the value or luminosity of the shapes.

The resulting painting is successful in capturing the mood and atmosphere of a hot, humid New Orleans morning. John Salminen pointed out the role of the foreground darks in making the middle value shapes glow with reflected light.

Reporting from the Field...

This is the last weekend of the Boulder Parks and Open Spaces Plein Air painting portion of the event. Artists were given special permits to some areas that are not normally open to the public. I have been very busy producing my pieces, this is a photo taken last Sunday at Hall Ranch in Lyons. My wife and son accompanied me and hit the trail while I painted. This also shows my compact gear: It all fits in a backpack, but I took a portfolio as well as I am using some larger panels.
Painting on site is always such a joy! In some of the outings, I joined other painters, which made it even more fun! I'll be sharing some of the resulting sketches and paintings in upcoming posts.

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.

Boulder County Plein Air Art Exhibit

This a recent plein air study done on location in North Boulder, celebrating the fact that the weather is more friendly nowadays, and that I have been accepted into the first Boulder Country Plein Air Art Exhibit. The 16 selected artists will be doing their paintings in June, and the exhibit will be held from August 1st to September 3rd, in two different locations, in Boulder and Longmont. Four guest artists will also add four paintings each to the show, for a total of 80 pieces portraying the beauty and variety of the local open spaces, from lakes to museums to mountains.

The painting above was done with a single brush, a squirrel mop size 6, on a 18x12 sheet of Fabriano Artistico rough paper. All the colors are M. Graham: ultramarine blue, cobalt violet, yellow ochre, cobalt teal, viridian, burnt sienna, permanent alizarin crimson, and burnt umber. I used a lot of drybrush to bring out the textures of bark, ground and rock.

Hazy Lazy Morning Light! (Part 2)

In my previous post, I told the story behind the painting Hazy Lazy Morning Light. I painted it on my birthday. I didn't have a lot of time, so I had to work very fast, which explains why some things didn't go as planned. Here's how the process of painting it went:

1. I started with a light drawing on Fabriano Artistico 140lb rough natural white paper. I wetted the top of the sheet, placed a light wash of Indian yellow (Daler-Rowney) and dropped in some quinacridone rose (M. Graham), cobalt turquoise (W&N) and permanent olive green (Schmincke).

2. I applied cerulean blue (W&N) mixed with some quinacridone burnt orange (Da Vinci) for the background trees, and mixed some ultramarine finest (Schmincke) with the previous colors to create the darker areas, trying for a continuous shape.

3. I painted the boats and the reflections in one go, using varied mixes of the same colors as above. I worked around the white details of the top of the boats. I overworked the reflections, they should have been simpler.

4. I used some masking tape to cover some areas, applied water and lifted a little with a moist brush, to indicate the light through the trees.

5. I overdid the lifting, should have been only one or two areas... At this stage I also darkened some of the areas around the house with ultramarine finest and added more Indian yellow.

6. Throughout, I used only two brushes, a squirrel mop #6 and a kolinsky round #12 for the details. The planning and concept took quite a while, but the painting was completed in a few hours, just in time to get ready and head over to Golden for the opening reception of the CWS State Show.

Demo at the Colorado Watercolor Society

This week I had the honor to be one of several artists invited to perform a live demo at the Colorado Watercolor Society, as part of the program for the February general meeting. There was great attendance and the responses were very positive.

I did my demo of a painting sketch on Aquabord, for the benefit of those who were unfamiliar with this support. My subject was the same street scene in Inistioge, Ireland, which I had portrayed in my sketchbook and posted on this blog before.

During the allowed time of one hour, I did my best to answer questions and narrate the thinking process behind the painting, while battling very dry conditions from the air-conditioning and paint runs on a near vertical board. I worked with my usual squirrel mops, sizes 6 and 8, and synthetic rounds, sizes 12 and 16, and used a limited palette of ultramarine finest, perylene maroon, quinacridone burnt orange and cobalt turquoise, with some touches of sepia, cadmium scarlet and neutral tint.

Despite the furious pace and loose approach, I did not complete the painting, but there was enough opportunity to discuss and show the characteristics of the materials, demonstrate some techniques and offer a glimpse at what the normal process would have been like. Below is an image of the study at the point where the demo ended, I will work on it further and later post the completed painting.

Article on Daniel Smiths Watercolor Sticks

I wrote a short article for the November issue of the Collage, the Colorado Watercolor Society newsletter, describing my recent experiences painting with Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolor Sticks (available from www.DanielSmith.com).

My last post already featured one of the sketches I made solely with sticks. They are an interesting new tool, I have only begun to incorporate them in my work. I really enjoyed the quality of the pigment and how well it dilutes for painting.

The sticks are also very versatile for use. The image above is a detail of a study done on hot press watercolor paper using a variety of techniques: Drawing with the sticks onto dry paper, diluting the stick marks in other areas, painting with diluted stick pigment, drawing with wet watercolor sticks, applying the sticks to wet paper, and shaving dust of the sticks onto wet paper.

In a future post, I will include more information and images of work with watercolor sticks. The link to the Colorado Watercolor Society and to the article are available on the side bar.

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.

Demonstration This Saturday!

This Saturday, October 2nd, I and other artists represented in the Rocky Mountain National Exhibit will be doing demonstrations of our techniques, from 11am to 2pm, at the Foothills Art Center in Golden.

I plan to do a complete painting on Yupo, of another urban scene, in a style similar to the piece in the exhibit, to give people a good sense of the methods and materials used, the thinking process, etc.

This will be an informal event, the public is encouraged to ask questions and participate. The artists will be in front of their exhibit paintings, doing the demos at the same time, giving the public the opportunity to choose whom to watch. It will be a fun experience, and it is totally free. By the way, admission is free all day to the exhibition as well.