Posts Tagged ‘abstract’
Photographing Your Plein Air Paintings
The highest paid blue collar job in Manhattan in 1909 was “chauffeur” because people didn’t think they could drive their own cars. Today plein air painters must learn that they can photograph their own art and do as good a job as the professionals. These tips are from Canadian artist Robert Genn:
You need a camera with at least 8 mega pixels. Check your camera’s handbook and set the camera on the highest resolution and quality possible in JPG. Hang your unglazed art vertically on a neutral-toned outside wall at eye level in open shade on a bright day between 11 and 3. Take several shots almost filling the frame from a few feet away at a medium focal length. In other words, not wide angle and not telephoto. When you look through the viewfinder, make sure the painting is not keystoned (off square) or pincushioned (curved edge). You can crop it if you wish, but you need to save it without any resizing, as a very high quality JPG before you send it by email.
Patterns of Light and Shade
Some of the most descriptive spatial cues for the plein air painter are patterns of light and shadow. When sunlight strikes forms from the side, it creates a light side and a shadow side. This value difference determines the form, creating an illusion of volume and solidity. Finding these patterns of light and shade is a matter of looking at the right time and in the right direction.
Avoid placing yourself so that the sun is directly in front or behind you because back lighting and front lighting provide few cues for volume. At midday, the light stays consistent for longer periods of time, but the shadows are at a minimum, and there are fewer value contrasts. Because the sun is lower in the sky in the early morning and late afternoon, the light side and shadow side of forms are more noticeable. In the spring and summer, the best times to paint are in the mornings from sunrise until 10:00 or 11:00 AM, or in the late afternoons from 3:00 or 4:00 PM until sunset. Keep in mind that the light changes quickly and a 2-hour period is probably all the time that will be available to paint.
Snow Hill Paint Out – Day 1
The Snow Hill Paint Out is this coming weekend. Officially, it is Friday through Sunday, but unofficially, all week long artists are permitted to go to Snow Hill or the surrounding area and paint. The only requirement is that you register before the cut-off number of artists is reached.
My two friends and I met south of town. They drove together, but I drove separately because I paint larger paintings than they and it takes me longer to finish. Once parked, I joined them and we drove around the area looking for interesting scenery for our landscape paintings. We finally settled on Byrd Park, the local city park along the beautiful Pokomoke River, because it had something for everyone – water for them and trees for me.
After 2 hours or so, Suzanne had 2 paintings, Betty had one, and I had about 2/3 of one. Later, after dinner, I finished mine.
Matlacha, FL
Yesterday I went to Matlacha, FL, to paint. Matlacha is a charming little tourist village on the eastern edge of Pine Island and to get there, one must go through at least some part of Cape Coral and cross the “fishingest bridge in the world.” Now, whether this means that the most fish are caught here, or the most people try to catch them, is unknown. But suddenly, on both sides of this 2-lane road for a 2-3 block span, are little houses of green, pink and yellow with all sorts of paraphernalia in front.
Just prior to passing this area, if one turns left, there is a community park and boat ramp and in the middle of all that is a giant live oak tree! You already know where I headed! There’s nothing quite like painting en plein air on a beautiful day in paradise!
On Being Accepted
A few days ago I went back to Sea Star Gallery where I had a show last February. I had been so happy to be accepted by this gallery because the owner had been so enthusiastic about my abstract paintings. I wanted to ask the owner if she would be willing to have another show this winter as she had mentioned last year.