Class Notes for 3/9:
We will be in class at our Fallbrook location but dipping our toes into plein air. I will have several small (two or three object) still lifes set up outdoors. One probably just outside the big garage door, so you can paint inside. There will be several outside for which you would need your plein air kit. You can also look in any direction and paint landscape.
The goal:
- Become comfortable with painting outdoors
- Make decisions about color spots quickly
- Practice color relationships
- Let go of the literal and the details. Find the structure of your painting.
We will be working small. Bring 6x8" and 8x10" panels. I want you to complete 2 or 3 paintings in one class session.
What to look for in color spots? The hue (temperature), value (light or dark) and chroma (bright or dull) of each color spot.
What is a color spot? It can be any size or shape. A color spot is the area that covers one plane of any object. In a cube, it might be an entire side. On an orange, it might be the up plane of the side of the orange in light. When there is a plane change there is a color spot change.
Here are three paintings by a Russian artist, Yuri Konstantinov. Notice how simple they are. The lilacs in shade are painted as one color spot - (since the bouquet is backlit). There is a very small color spot along the top edge of the large color spot for the lilacs - a narrow warmer, ligher, brighter strip. It is the top edge of the lilacs, turning toward the sun behind.
A more detailed painting could be built on top of this simple statement - but the original statement would not be lost. Everything that started in shadow would stay in shadow. Everything that started in light would stay in light. The color spots are a roadmap for the painting.
This looks simple to do, but it takes a lot of practice to get the hue, value and chroma relationships correct. If you do get them correct, even if you stop at that point, the viewer will understand what the painting is describing.
Yuri Konstantinov
