Posts Tagged ‘plein air paintings’
Placing the Plein Air Painting on Canvas
A composition involves not only how groups of elements relate to each other, but also how those elements relate to the edge of the canvas. The space between the elements and the edges can exert a force of connection or resistance that have a profound effect on the overall composition.
If an object is placed too close to the edge of the canvas, it becomes “magnetized” to the edge. When trees are placed too near the edges, too much attention is given to them. When they are moved away from the edges, there is more balance between the foreground and the open space between the trees.
Centering creates symmetry and balance, but it can also lack the variations needed to make a plein air painting alive and interesting. Instead of the horizon in the middle vertically and a sailboat in the middle horizontally, a more interesting set up would be with a higher horizon line and the boat off center to the left and another small one off to the right.
SEO Optimization for the Web Site Owner
Today I attended a class at the local Chamber of Commerce. The class was entitled “Achieving Top Search Engine Positions” and was led by Ira S. Wolfe, a Social Media Architect (www.socialmediaarchitectsofdelmarva.com and www.bestsmallbusinesssolutions.com ). It was for folks who have a web site or blog.
I learned about searching for keywords with Google’s Keyword Tool. Sometimes a small difference in what you search for produces big differences in the outcome. Using Adwords can be expensive, but you might want to try it for a short time or for a limited budget. In some cases, using Adwords is like day trading on the stock market. Google Analytics can give you all kinds of information and it would pay to spend some time learning how to use them.
This was an introductory class but it inspired me to work on my web site of abstract tree paintings. Mr. Wolfe was an excellent presenter and if anyone out there can get a group together, I recommend you ask him to lead your discussion.
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.
Going Big from Plein Air Paintings
Last week Robert Genn, Canadian landscape painter, had some ideas about how to change a small 8” x 10” plein air painting into a large studio piece. Here is what he said: Effective large paintings are often merely small paintings enlarged. This is how they gain power and authority. The temptation is to put more elements into larger paintings, thus weakening the overall compositions.
To make better bigs, first consider copying small paintings onto the larger formats you have in mind. Enlarge the size of brushes you use, squeeze more paint – you’re going to need it. Where really large amounts are needed, premix. In acrylics, storage in yogurt cups with lids makes for ease of operation and avoids all kinds of problems. Artists need to eat a lot of yogurt.
Gridding, pantographong and projecting-up are useful tools in the art of bigs. Don’t be embarrassed about using these tools – it’s just practical and intelligent. The time honored convention of the thumbnail is most useful in planning bigs. Go small – and let the sketch tell you what size might work best.
Visiting High School Art Classes
Friday, I visited a local high school art teacher and was part of each of her six classes. At the beginning, she asked each student to write a question for me to answer later.
In each class, I spoke for a few minutes about how I became a landscape painter and I showed a few of my paintings. Then each class went outside for a while and sketched the scenery with colored chalks or with pencils and later colored the drawings with colored pens.
When we returned, she showed some of the students’ works on the overhead projector. Then I answered some of the questions submitted earlier. I enjoyed the day very much. It was great to see the drawings of the students and to be a part of the interactions with them.
Discussing Plein Air Painting
Tomorrow I have been asked to speak with art students at a local high school about my adventures and experiences doing plein air painting. The classes are Art I and II and a crafts class.
I will have to confess that I’m an experienced math teacher and came by art on a second chance to get it right! Fortunately, the regular teacher has additional plans for each class because my talk will take only a few minutes of each class. I will also bring some paintings to show. This will be both a fun experience and a challenge, but I look forward to it.
Fluidity in Landscape Painting
Robert Genn, Canadian landscape painter, wrote a newsletter recently about fluidity in painting. Fluidity is the presence of long, languorous strokes, elegance, panache, dash and curves. Like a long fluid line in a symphony, they give a feeling of completeness, mastery and intrigue.
He then gave some suggestions for achieving this: 1) The stiffness of oil paint can be extended by adding more medium – stand oil, walnut oil or other dedicated extenders. Products are widely available often based on Alkyd resins. Highly recommended is the range of Gamblin media that feature various types under the name of Galkyd. Online you might find them at the Gamblin Interactive Painting Mediums Guide. 2) A confident arm’s length stroke will produce more fluidity than a tightened-up finger and wrist action. The combination of a fully loaded brush, full body action and the brush held well above the ferrule does the trick.
For practice, frequent drawing goes a long way to extending your painterly stroke. The “stroke length” of dry media such as pencils, chalks and pastels is much longer than the typical brush. Dry work promotes fluid habits.
Movement and Rhythm in a Plein Air Painting
Among the most important considerations in a plein air painting are movement and rhythm – the journey of the eye as it makes connections among the elements of a composition. These connections, or eye paths, are sometimes obvious, as along a telephone pole or across the top of a mountain. At other times, the eye paths are more subtle as the mind and eye try to connect things along a common path, such as the implied diagonal along the tops of the tallest trees.
A fundamental rule of compositions is that every painting should have a focal point – one spot that is the center of attention. However, all areas of a painting should be interesting. It is much more important to keep the eye moving, never stopping or resting on one spot for too long. Rather than think in terms of a single focal point, think about areas of primary and secondary emphasis in the painting.
Divisions of a Landscape Painting
Some landscape painters compose their paintings with a grid. They divide the canvas into thirds both vertically and horizontally. Where the lines intersect are places the eye likes to rest. By placing elements along the grid lines or at the intersection of those lines, the grid serves as a kind of compositional template and helps the painter place elements in an orderly and balanced way. The focal point would be well placed if it were near or at one of the intersections.
Another way a landscape painter might divide the canvas is by deciding whether the emphasis of the painting should be the sky or the land (or neither). The location of the horizon has an effect on how depth is perceived in the composition. When the horizon is high, the composition is dominated by a large foreground which can carry the viewer deeply into the space. When the horizon is low, the sky dominates, and gives the impression that the horizon is very far away.
Variation John
When I first came to Salisbury, MD, I went to the local gallery to take lessons. The teacher was John Losonczy, a Hungarian pharmacist who studied art when he came to America some 30+ years ago. His students all loved him, but nicknamed him “Variation John” because he always taught us to create variation within a landscape painting.
Variation is one of the most essential considerations, because it is the differences within a composition – of size, value, color, shape and angles – that keep the eye moving through the painting and maintain visual interest. A composition may be full of movement or static. Variation regulates these energies.
For example, when painting a row of trees, rather than having the trees all the same diameter, equally spaced across the page, create trees of unequal diameters, some growing a little to the left or right, some with “V” shaped trunks, Then place them so some are forward of others and with unequal spacing between them.