Guy Rose Seascapes

Hans Heysen

Hans Heysen (1877 - 1968) was an Australian artist who painted the arid landscape of the Australian bush country, the cattlemen and drovers. He is remembered for many paintings of the native gum tree. We call them eucalyptus in California. The light in his paintings is full of atmosphere and color. More of his work can be seen here and here.

The first painting is in oil and the second in watercolor, but the color and value choices are similar. Both are high key, light drenched paintings.

The three pencil sketches are a reminder that underneath a painting with loose brushwork, is a careful plan and accurate decisions about what each stroke means.

I am assuming this is a plein air sketch. I like the spontaneity of the brushwork and color choices. He's gathering information. Heyson controls the design and values much more tightly in his studio pieces. 

Edouard Manet's Last Flower Paintings

Today in class we had a discussion about painting from life versus painting from photographs. I always encourage students to paint from life whenever possible. You are learning to see color and value. Photographs never have the subtlety and variety of color and value found in real life. I mentioned the last flower paintings of Edouard Manet as an example of small still lifes. They may be small, but the problem solving and creativity required are the same ... color, value, chroma, edges and composition. You will learn more from doing several small still lifes or plein air sketches from life than you will from doing a large, studio painting from a photo. Direct observation from life results in paintings that have veracity and sincerity. The more you paint from life, the more you will be able to overcome the shortcomings of photographs.

Without looking the details up, my recollection is that Manet did a dozen or so small still lifes of flowers that people brought him during his last illness. He painted them in bed.

The Tree Thing Continues

The ongoing "sidebar" in class has been to study trees. Last month we worked on eucalyptus and we're still working that patch. I go on location before class every week. Somewhere close to class, within a block or two, to do a plein air sketch. For an hour or so. The paintings are practice. Arrive whatever time you like, but we break by 9:45 a.m. to get to class.

This week's location, courtesy of a screen capture from Google Maps.

The light is flat in these photos. It is much better in the morning before class. Here's a close-up of the magnificent eucalyptus, earlier in the day.

Next week, before class, we will be working some palm trees within walking distance of class. The palms caught my attention because I recently saw a Guy Rose painting of palm trees that reminded me of a few by other artists.

Guy Rose

 Winslow Homer

John Singer Sargent

Claude Monet

Trees, please!

The assignment for the painting class this week is to choose a tree in your yard or close to your home and do two sketches and a painting.

• The first sketch is a study of the tree - its structure, shape, branches and sky holes. 
• The second sketch is a value study of the shapes of the tree and its surrounding. Use only three values; light, medium and dark. Do this in a comp ratio of 3:4.
• Paint in full color on a 6 x 8" or 9 x 12" canvas. Paint from life. Finish the painting in no more than one hour. The pencil study and the value comp are focused study. The painting is intuitive. Paint without fear. Paint fast. Cover the canvas.

Bring the sketches and painting to class for a group critique. I will bring mine in and do a one hour demo of a tree in class.

Where I Live

I have had so much techie work lately, and personal business, that painting has been pushed off the map. I am determined to schedule it back in. What gets me excited is to finish a number of plein air paintings and studio paintings that are already started.  In looking at the group, they are all about "where I live".  Many are of the oak and savannah ecosystem of Temecula and the Santa Rosa Plateau.  Others are of eucalyptus groves in Temecula and Fallbrook.  A little further out are beach and marina scenes of the coast, and mountain scenes in Idyllwild and Julian.  They are all about the southern California I live in.  I go up to the Valley to visit my niece and nephew, to Orange County and Laguna environs to check in on my mom, to San Diego and the beaches for paint-outs with the SDAI and CAC.  All of it together encompasses a huge variety. But all of it is Southern California and all of it is where I live.  I see a coherent thread. I'm going to focus on all of this and produce good work.  That is my immediate goal.

First up is a plein air sketch I painted last spring in Meadowview. There is a great sense of light in the sketch. I've done a comp to analyze the design.

There are two large masses of  trees. The design challenge is to make one mass dominant and to give the painting balance without creating symmetry, which can be boring. The two masses of trees are different types of eucalyptus.  

1. The mass to the right is darker in local value of the two and is a cool, blue-green hue. It is further away than the mass to the left.  

2. The mass to the left is lighter in local value and is a warm, yellow-green hue. 

3. The grass is a bright, spring green that is the lightest green value in the picture, but cooler than the trees.

Juggling all of this and creating a sense of distance will be the challenge.

"Lupines and Oak", Santa Rosa Plateau

"Lupines and Oak" by Mary Mulvihill

"Lupines and Oak", oil on canvas, 24 x 20".

The Santa Rosa Plateau is one of my favorite places to paint plein air. "Lupines and Oak" is a studio painting based on a plein air sketch. It was a spring morning at the Plateau.  Spring green grass and lupines were breaking through the dried grass from the previous year.  "Lupines and Oak" will is currently on exhibit at the 15th Annual Santa Rosa Plateau Art Show.  The show closes August 11th.

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