How the works of a 19th century painter awakened courage.      February 2007

               It began with Austin Hollow, a little study I first painted June 8, 2006 and have been growing fond of. 

       As I have previously written, artists have degrees of confidence in what they are able to describe with paint.
       Confidence grows the more you paint, the more you discern, that is, to select which colors, which strokes,
       which details you want to INCLUDE, which also means there will be colors and details you purposefully
       choose to LEAVE OUT. When a piece is done out in nature, the selection process is not easy.Tons of
       information are crying out for your attention. Not all of it can go into your painting. Something has to be left out.

                
Austin Hollow has trees, ground cover, patches of sky, an orange gate, an overgrown embankment,
       and a strong diagonal working its way through the picture. It is a good start, but I want to grow in my understanding.
      
Working with "the color of dirt in the shade" is a problem I want to solve. Being able "to suggest particular plants
       with dabs and dots" is another problem I want to solve. The sky is generally blue, but certain kinds of blue go better
       with all the other colors. It may be a lighter blue, a purple blue, a green blue, or a cream color instead of blue.
      Think of a bright orange sunset. That sky may not have a blue in it, even though we tend to think the sky must be blue.

             
              austin hollow upside down
            hollow painting.1   
                 7" x 10" original upside down                                36" x 18"  on canvas  stage 1
                        One way to grow and solve composition problems is to paint the image upside down.
               (Composition means where shapes and colors are placed in the picture. "Places everybody!!")
               When you work from an upside down image you are able to sketch in shapes and colors without being
               so attached to them.


    
work on Hollow painting       hollow canvas on easel upside down  
     So, I am working inside my painting space.                                                  You can see the image being
               Smooth jazz playing on the tape player.
                                                   translated onto a stretched 18" x 24" canvas.  
                                                                           
My EasyL portable palette box on the tripod
                                                                                                                                     sits beneath my bigger studio easel.
                                                                                                                                     Brushes hang in a holder at one side.
                                                                                                                                    The water container hangs in front.
                                                                                                                                     Paper towels are ready to wipe the
                                                                                                                                     palette scraper or clean out brushes.
                                                                                                                                    
A water bottle (pink) hangs on the right
                           
                                                                                                          support arm, with which I spritz my palette
                                                                                                                                     to keep the colors moist and usable.

                                                                                                                           
            
paint.room.1       the rest of my room. paintings stored
                                                        The rest of my painting space is neatly organized.
                           
 
            
           At some point I do a series of Corot studies in my 11" x 14" sketchbook. By forcing myself to describe
                     his works in paint, I become familiar with dirt colors, quarry rock colors, rocks in shadow colors. It is the
                     "doing of it" that gets his color choices into my head, into the mainframe, so to speak.
 
                     A friend, Louis Webber,  lent me a 479 page book on Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875).

       
my study.corot.poussin 
Corot's " La Promenade du Poussin "
        11" x 14"  Study of Corot's "La Promenade"                             "La Promenade du Poussin"           by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
        January 13, 2007          

                     
study ofCorot's " Le Chevrier italien"          Corot's "Le Chevrier italien"
                             11" x 14"     Study of Corot's                                      "Le Chevrier italien (effet du soir)"  by  Corot
                            "Le Chevrier italien (effet du soir)"
                            January13, 2007       

        
                 
papino study         corot's papigno
               11" x 14"   Study of Corot's                                                   "Papigno: Building overlooking the Valley" by Corot
                  "Papigno: Building overlooking the Valley"

      Hagar         st.jerome
      "Hagar In The Wilderness"  by Corot                                               "Saint Jerome"  by Corot       (colors of dirt and rock)
     
             
             study of Corot's "Quarry"        Quarry by Corot
               11" x 14"   Study of Corot's                                                    "Quarry of the Chaise-Marie at Fountainbleu"   by Corot
               "Quarry of the Chaise-Marie at Fountainbleu"
                January 14, 2007

    
                      Q: Look at Corot's original paintings above.
                           What color problems did I choose to solve?
                           What parts of my study look like Corot's work?
                           What details does he do better? (for example, tree leaves, yeah and what else?)

                 As I do " the studies,"  my apprehension melts, and I consider new problems to solve.
        I pull out an Arizona Highways magazine photo I admire, have wanted to do sometime, but just had not felt ready to tackle.

      arizona highway mag photo   study canyon 1   study  canyon 3   study canyon 4
       Magazine page                            11" x 14" 
sketch stage1            11" x 14"  sketch stage 2            11" x 14"  sketch stage 3                                                                                                                                                                              January 18, 2007

        Courage awakens. I pull out a three-year old photo I took at Oak Creek outside Sedona, Arizona. It begins. I work at the diagonals,
   rocks become stepping stones that zig zag back into the picture. By stages 2 and 3 I've taken in too much information, and lost
   the focal point. The artist must find an area of interest and stay jazzed about it, and let all other areas become muted or less
   interesting.
  photo oak creek  study creek 1   study creek 2
        Oak Creek photo of mine                               11" x 14" 
sketch  stage 1                            11" x 14"  sketch         stage 2

  study creek 3
  
11" x 14"  sketch  stage 3      
    January 23, 2007 
                          
                                                                      New Problem:  After doing the studies above,
                                                                                              can I create a color painting

                                                                                              from a black and white photo,
                                                                                              using the same kind of colors
that Corot used in his work?
 
            bw photo of jerome hillside     study from bw photo
             Photo mine taken at Jerome, AZ                               11" x 14" sketchbook study    January 18, 2007

   black.white.photo for two tone bluff      
two tone bluff.1        two tone bluff.3.
     Photo of mine taken at White Rock            11" x 14"  sketchbook study  stage 1           
11" x 14"  sketchbook study  stage 2
         
                        
two tone bluff.4.             bluff and trees 4    
                              11" x 14"  sketchbook study  stage 3                  11" x 14"  sketchbook study  stage 4    This excites me. The rocks in
                                                                                                                                                 January 17, 2006    the foreground are rock-like,

                                                                                                                                               the back wall reads as a bluff,
                                                                                                                                                                                   the tall trees appear to move
                                                                                                                                                                                   upward from shadow into light.

     ballet.photo       bluff and trees         Ballet
     Photo of mine of bluff and trees                    11" x 14"  sketchbook study                            18" x 24"   Bluff Ballet     on canvas
       Can I make a study from monotone              January 17, 2006                                               February 6, 2006
       photo using colors Corot uses?

         
    two tone bluff.b.w.photo.mine     two tone bluff.painting.1         two tone bluff.painting.2
   
Photo of mine of two-tone quarry wall            18" x 24"  canvas in progress   stage 1           18" x 24"  canvas in progress   stage 2
                                                                                                                                                               February 2007


    work.in.progress.my photo     work.in.progress.painting
      Photo of mine of rocks at White Rock             18" x 24"  canvas in progress   stage 1   February 2007
    Bubbling Brook by Karl Marxhausen  18" x 24"  Bubbling Brook
                                                                                 Acrylic on Canvas
                                                                                 March 2007

                             Let  this be an encouragement to all. Doing studies is worth your time.
           Describing works by
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot from my palette on to my sketch paper has led me to try other subjects.
           Confidence comes as one gains experience and becomes familiar with the materials one works with. 
           Try try try, paint paint paint, practice practice practice, grow grow grow, let courage awaken.       
             
     
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