Artist Daily : landscape painting, How To Paint

Go For Awesome

Courtney Jordan — Fri, 24 May 2013 04:38:00 GMT


Looks Like Heaven by John Budicin, 2002, oil painting, 32 x 40.

Almost any artist will tell you that there's a certain appeal to working outdoors that can't be found anywhere else. With spring in full swing, many of us have left our studios for our porches, backyards, and beyond. To celebrate the season and all of the landscape art being made, here are 10 ways you can make the most of your next outdoor painting session.

Start with a good, long look. Painting landscapes lets you create work that can take the viewer on a journey into a new environment. To create a truly expressive work of art, it helps to take more than a cursory look around and quickly set up shop. Walk around, sit a spell, and really soak in the landscape around you.

Focus your eye. Whether's it a rocky cliff or a busy urban street, outdoor settings can offer a myriad of potential subjects. Sometimes, however, it can be too much to take in, leading to a painting that feels busy, cluttered, and lacking a center of interest. Massachusetts-based artist Nancy Colella starts every composition based on what she's visually drawn to. She makes those elements the focal point of her painting, and tones down everything else so that they come to the fore.

It's all about the light. Light changes throughout the day, which makes accurately capturing it one of the biggest challenges of painting outdoors. The flip side, of course, is that when one is able to do this correctly, a painting is instantly elevated. Observe the quality of light, aiming for a spontaneous interpretation that still takes observation skills into consideration.


	Birds Wading by Stephanie Sanchez, 1989, oil on panel, 32 x 46, private collection.


	Marble Cascades by Jane Bertram Miluski, 2003, watercolor, 14 x 21.

Don't paint a blue sky. They rarely exist! California watercolorist Dick Cole acknowledges that landscape painting has enhanced his skills as a colorist and helped him to realize that the sky, along with many elements in nature, are made up of a variety of colors and not just one pure hue.

Strike a balance. Spend as much time observing as you do painting. For artist Glenn Rudderow, this is a crucial part of his plein air practice. "Nothing can take the place of direct observation—of being there, seeing, communicating, and expressing the spirit of one's subject," he says.

Go for awesome. Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran of the Hudson River School produced paintings of the American landscape that were technically masterful, but most of all they were awe-inspiring. They created luminous paintings that seemed too bright to be true. They amplified the elements of the landscape that inspired them most, leaving the viewer with the same sentiments.

Don't bring your studio outdoors. The thrill of working en plein air is that you can shake up your routine and work differently than you might usually. Use the change in location to try new techniques, such as working on a smaller scale or focusing predominantly on light and other atmospheric qualities.

Colors contribute to a sense of space. When creating her landscape paintings, Kansas artist Kim Casebeer adjusts her palette in order to accurately render atmospheric changes and a sense of space. For example, there is usually more red, orange, and yellow running through objects in the foreground, and blue, indigo, and violet for shapes that recede in the distance.

Go with the flow—of air. Air moves objects. It ripples water, curls leaves, and sways limbs of trees. Use brush strokes and shading to create movement in your work.

Perfection isn't everything. You can spend all day looking for a "perfect" composition that just doesn't exist. Embrace the reality around you—smog, power lines, even debris—and open yourself up to telling interesting stories with new subjects.

How have you been taking advantage of spring in your work? Leave a comment and let us know. If you want to learn more about painting landscapes—including how to paint mountainous vistas accurately, avoid compositions that lack cohesion, and more—Donna Dewberry's Essential Guide to Flower and Landscape Painting gives you all the one-on-one instruction you'll want to successfully paint landscapes and all the elements you'll find there. Enjoy!

Dark Tidings

Courtney Jordan — Wed, 01 May 2013 03:24:00 GMT

Sounds mysterious and threatening, right? No worries! It's just that when Liz Haywood-Sullivan began to create pastel drawings, she was dismayed with the range of dark colors available. "Rich, dark pastels were hard to find," she says. "Most of the time the darks just weren't dark enough. Now, fortunately, times have changed and colorful, dark pastels are easier to come by."

Fanfare by Liz Haywood-Sullivan, pastel painting, 24 x 24.

But Haywood-Sullivan also uses two approaches for painting pastels that achieve powerful and intriguing dark effects--working on black paper and layering colors with alcohol washes. The result is that the dark areas in her pastel paintings command attention and enhance the glow of the highlights and give the paintings a solid, grounded appearance where the eye can rest. Here's a rundown of these two valuable pastel-painting techniques.

Pastel Painting Using Black Paper


Roadtrip by Liz Haywood-Sullivan, pastel painting, 36 x 24. Adapted from an article by Christopher Willard.

Although Haywood-Sullivan never uses pure-black pastel, she does not shy away from using black paper for her ground. "This allows me to get more light into a work," she says. "If I took a light-yellow pastel and put it onto a white paper, the yellow and white would look very similar. I would therefore try to compensate and make the yellow stand out by using a more highly pigmented yellow. On black paper, however, the difference is clearer, and I end up using more color. Such a dark ground also keeps me honest as an artist: It's more challenging to work on, it's not as forgiving, and it won't take unlimited layers. I have to think and plan more in advance."

Alcohol Washes for Painting Pastels

Haywood-Sullivan takes an entirely different approach when creating darks on lighter papers. She begins with a white pastel paper. "I block in the darks very roughly and then take out a flat 3/4" brush and rubbing alcohol," she says. "This is where the fun begins. I start washing down the dark pastels with the alcohol, delineating major shapes, such as tree trunks. I find it very much like working in watercolor, except that the alcohol dries more quickly. As I work, I'm careful to preserve any areas of light paper I want to shine through."

After Haywood-Sullivan is satisfied with the appearance and placement of the darks in her pastel drawings, she lets the work dry fully. "This takes about 15 minutes," she explains. "At this point I can actually rub my hand over the whole paper, and the pastel won't rub off. The other nice thing about the alcohol method is that it restores the grit to the sanded paper."

Two exciting possibilities for pastel painting that can give you eye-catching passages in your work. For more pastel instruction and pastel lessons that are keyed in to allowing you to grow exponentially in your skills and methods, consider the Essentials of Pastel Landscapes Premium and Deluxe Palettes that include six to eight book, DVD, and digital resources--so you can learn the way you want to. Enjoy!

It's Not Magic, It's a Free eBook on How to Paint With Acrylics

Courtney Jordan — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 03:11:00 GMT

Interest in acrylic painting is skyrocketing. There is less and less of a bias against this medium as a newcomer, and more and more of an interest in the healthful qualities and vibrant colors acrylics have to offer.

In our free eBook, Acrylic Painting Techniques: Methods on How to Paint With Acrylics for Acrylic Landscape Painting and Interiors, you'll see what all the fuss is about concerning painting with acrylics. To start, Jeanette Chupack offers her unique point of view on how to compose and paint varied acrylic landscape paintings. Her biggest inspiration is the land, sea, and wildlife around her home. Chupack shows how she translates these images to canvas and troubleshoots along the way, including how she corrects mistakes and treats her surface for a high-gloss finish.

Rounding the Bend by Jeanette Chupack, acrylic painting, 2009, 20 x 30.

Then there is an acrylic painting tutorial devoted to interiors, so you as an artist can understand how acrylics work both indoors and out. You'll find acrylic painting techniques on how to use retarder to slow down the drying process so that you can blend colors seamlessly, plus a step-by-step demonstration by artist Ronald Lewis.

In Acrylic Painting Techniques: Methods on How to Paint With Acrylics for Acrylic Landscape Painting and Interiors, you'll also find five acrylic artists sharing their methods, materials, and techniques. It's a smorgasbord of information valuable to any artist who wants to get the most out of their acrylics. Download your copy of Acrylic Painting Techniques: Methods on How to Paint With Acrylics for Acrylic Landscape Painting and Interiors now and enjoy!

And if you have an artist-friend who would love to have access to this free eBook, feel free to forward this email onto them as well!

You Have to Lie to Get What You Want

Courtney Jordan — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 04:25:00 GMT

I may have grabbed your attention at the risk of making you think I'm a big fat fibber, but I do think that when it comes to landscape painting, you sometimes have to lie--or at least exaggerate--to get what you want. This is based on personal experience--maybe I'm unlucky, but I do not step into a landscape of wonder and majesty every time I go outside. Finding a place worthy of being documented in a landscape oil painting doesn't happen to me regularly.


		Rocky Landscape by Hercules Seghers, 1600s, oil painting.

Instead, when I walk out of the house, usually I'm struck by how ordinary everything is. But that doesn't mean painting landscapes is an endeavor that should grind to screeching halt. Artists just need to learn the rule of pushing it.

Suppose you've settled on a subject for your next landscape oil painting, but no unicorn has trotted in to make an otherwise normal scene truly exceptional. If you are second guessing yourself about what you've chosen to paint and are considering something drastic like starting over, don't! Instead, you have to start to push it--and everything is fair game. From the angles of a cluster of trees, to the colors in the sky, to the patterns made by the wind in a grassy field, everything can be enhanced or firmed up to give you a stronger composition than what you started with.


Landscape by Camille Corot, 1800s, oil painting.

I don't know if this strikes some committed landscape artists as insincere or wrong, but it works for me, mostly because I don't believe your subject should have ownership over you as an artist. You get to make the decisions, and that means changing, moving, and pushing things to get your message across--and that is the most important aspect of painting landscapes, cityscapes, people, still lifes, or anything else.

For more landscape painting techniques, check out landscape ebook title TK. It is a solid resource for artists interested in firming up their technical abilities, and it just might give us all the inspirational nudge we need to get out there and paint what we see in front of us--as well as what we want to see in front of us. Enjoy!

A Painting Just Waiting to Happen

Courtney Jordan — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 04:06:00 GMT

I was in Florida a few weeks ago and felt so lucky to be in such a warm, sunny place that I don't think I spent a minute indoors. I was kayaking, mountain biking, walking on the beach, and swimming in the ocean. And again and again I would look around and think, "That's a landscape painting waiting to happen."

Pebble Beach, California I by Keiko Tanabe, watercolor on paper, 14 1/4 x 21 1/2.

Now, as I sit here bundled up in a sweater and scarf, I'm trying to really think about what made those scenes that I saw worthy of a landscape artwork. First, what comes to mind is the color. When I was kayaking in the mangroves, I was struck by the bold but simple colors I saw--rich, deep blue water; lush green vegetation and tree leaves; and pale taupe-gray tree limbs. In terms of a color map, this would make for a pretty simple fine art landscape painting, and yet I can't think of anything that could truly enhance that natural beauty.

Next, I remember how lovely the light was. I was mesmerized by the dappled reflections of sunshine on the water or when the sun would make a crashing wave seem to glow transparently. Those light effects that stick in my mind are the same qualities that the best landscape paintings have to offer too.

I would also have to add a bit of the unexpected to this hypothetical landscape artwork that I'm painting in my head. The dim but at the same time really rich light that would settle on the landscape in the evenings wasn't something I expected to see, and that's what made it so appealing.

Light at Sunset by Joseph McGurl, oil on canvas, 24 x 36.

In my mind's eye I also see an incredible amount of texture or pattern. Whether it was leaves in trees, reflections on the ocean's surface, or the pattern on a bird's wing--the landscape was alive with repeated lines, colors, and forms.

Thinking of the landscape this way, it's clear to me why I thought these scenes were landscape paintings waiting to happen--it's because they were! I pinpointed the elements that made the views noteworthy in my memory, and those are the same elements that would go into great landscape artwork. But in order to really fulfill my vision, I need more landscape painting know-how, which is why I've turned my attention to Johannes Vloothuis's downloadable videos. There are lessons on painting water, trees, skies, and more. See for yourself what Vloothuis might have to offer you and enjoy!

What You Really Want in a Winter Landscape Painting

Courtney Jordan — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 04:48:00 GMT

Around this time of year we are inundated with wintry scenes and beautiful snowy landscapes--on greeting cards, products, advertisements, calendars and more. But these winter landscapes aren't necessarily all created equal, and the same goes for the fine art paintings of the same subject. One of the most important elements that separates works of quality from those that are less appealing often comes down to color schemes.

Late Winter Afternoon by Birge Harrison, 1908, oil on canvas.

Landscape paintings of winter can get boring really fast because artists sometimes make the big mistake of stopping at "white." I put it in quotes because, as many of us know, it's never really just white. Just like the darks in a painting, the lights or whites must be created through dynamic color mixing to grab a viewer's attention.


Sunrise in Winter by Birge Harrison.

I remind myself that an artist should take every opportunity to mix colors and emphasize them, especially in a winter landscape where a blah whitewash effect is so easy to create. One artist that is worth considering when it comes to mixing colors for winter landscapes is the late nineteenth-century painter Birge Harrison. Just look at any one of his winter scenes and you'll see incredible color usage: shadows on snow are richly colored in blue and gray-violet, and the winter skies that can often seem one-dimensional are subtly prismatic. Harrison pulls in pinks and greens and yellows, but combines his colors so deftly that you really have to spend time looking closely to see all of the undertones.

Mixing colors is all about pulling off our blinders and looking closely at the subject before us--and this is especially true when landscape painting in winter and any other season of the year. In the Step by Step Landscape Painting Instruction and Strong Design: The Key to Dynamic Painting eBooks, you'll find strategies for color choices, mixing colors, and ways to improve your knowledge of color in the landscape. And right now all of our eBooks are 50% off! So see what resources you gravitate toward that just may help you take the next step in your art. Enjoy!

Light, Light, Burning Bright

Courtney Jordan — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 03:50:00 GMT

Hopefully Blake will forgive me for that little rewrite, but when I see a painting that has complicated light effects or diffuse light that seems almost prismatic I can't help but think of that adulterated line of poetry.


		New York City, Winter 2006, The Storm by Nina Maguire, 2006-2011, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24.

It happens when I look at Whistler's nocturnes and it also occurred when I looked at the acrylic paintings of Nina Maguire. The latter's art makes me wonder about the acrylic painting techniques she uses to get her surfaces to look almost like clouded glass--the colors are clear but they have an opacity to them as well.

The artist's acrylic landscape painting, especially her snowy winter scenes, shows such sensitivity to how light reflects off of and spreads out onto the white reflective surface. The diffuse light changes color as it pools over different objects, going from bluish-white to gray, green, or yellow.


Bridge Nocturne V (Tappan Zee) by Nina Maguire, 2006, acrylic on canvas, 20 x 30.

Maguire is also sensitive to how objects that "carry" the light--like snow in motion or clouds in the sky--can be depicted with acrylic paint. To effectively paint snow coming down at a diagonal she uses brushstrokes that follow the motion of the flakes. Car lights whizzing by are rendered as dabs and streaks of pigment. Painting this way allows the artist to create visual depth even though Maguire's scenes are usually quite sparse and show a lot of open expanses of sky or sea.

Painting light is essential for any successful realistic landscape artwork. 500 Acrylic Mixes gives an inside look at all the color possibilities that can allow you to create luminous color and light in your acrylic paintings for just that purpose. It's a resource to keep on hand and refer to often if you are interested in becoming a true "painter of light." Enjoy!

3 Things Every Well-Designed Painting Has & How to Join the Cure!

Courtney Jordan — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 03:35:00 GMT

Of course there are more than three painting techniques that will allow you to create a compelling artwork, but learning how to paint a picture well can certainly start with these elements.

Rhythm. Painting objects that actually look alive, in the case of the figure, or lively, as in a landscape, is often a matter of visual rhythm. One of the best painting tips I know to prevent figures and scenes from looking wooden and lifeless is by using active lines along edges of forms in alternate contrasting rhythms. If you set down your paintbrush and the forms you just painted are missing something, try painting accents along the contours.

Paul Helleu Sketching with His Wife by John Singer Sargent, 1889.

Repetition. As a painter, reinforcing what you want to convey to your viewer is never a bad idea. If you've created a landscape painting that you want to appear calm and peaceful, using several horizontal lines to mark the horizon, land masses, and perhaps a waterway is more effective than using just one line and separating the canvas in two. Your message will be more dynamically conveyed if you use multiple overlapping lines, and your work will have a sense of unity because you've incorporated a design motif in several areas of your painting.

Rain in an Oak Forest by Ivan Shishkin, 1891.

Contrast. I'm always a little leery of promoting the idea of contrast because a little goes a long way, and I sometimes struggle with combining contrast with subtlety. But that being said, if you want to make the paint texture of an object really pop, surround it with an area that has a smooth surface. If you want to accentuate a color, use its opposite nearby. If you want to paint a dark nocturne, have a slice of light appear somewhere. Just be aware that contrast can begin to seem like a stark game of "opposites" when really--at its best--you want it to be undetected.

Above the Eternal Tranquility by Isaac Levitan, 1894.

If I was ever going to encourage you to explore the Artist Daily Store for the resources that build on these themes and that provide the instruction that is right for you, now would be the time. From now until October 5, the Artist Daily Store is holding a fundraiser and we are donating 30% of all profits made to the Breast Cancer Foundation. I hope and encourage you to be part of our efforts during this special event. Thank you!

It's Not Like Eating Junk Food

Courtney Jordan — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 03:48:00 GMT

When it comes to putting additives into your paints, it just isn't the same as eating a Twinkie or bag of Doritos. Additives are necessary in some cases, especially for landscape artists who work with varying conditions when painting outdoors. They can open up whole new aspects of your paint if you are willing to experiment a little and--most of all--don't get too carried away with them.

Taos Mountain, Trail Home by Cordelia Wilson, oil painting,
undated, ca. 1915-1920s. Wilson obviously enjoyed the thickness
of her paint. For artists who want thinner paints, additives are available.

Most often you use additives to change the way the paint will look at the end of the process or to adapt the paint to your painting environment--to deal with issues of environmental temperature and humidity. The latter is especially pertinent if you create landscape paintings. Out there in the elements, whether you are making quick sketches or full-on plein air landscape art, you may have used additives in the past to deal with the elements and get what you need out of the time you had to paint.

For oils, there are binders to lend transparency to the pigments, speed up drying times, or prevent color fading or changing--poppy or safflower oil is often added to white and light colors because they are less prone to yellowing. Plus thinners like turpentine (not the household kind!) and mineral spirits to, you guessed it, thin your paints down. Mediums also can improve the flow of paint, change its consistency, and give a matte or gloss finish to the paint. Some speed up the drying times, others slow it down.

For acrylic paints, there are fewer rules because unlike oils, acrylic additives don't need to be more flexible or "fat" than the layers beneath it. My favorite is gloss medium--it makes the paint thinner and slicker, and makes the colors more luminous. Matte medium, meanwhile, dries to a nonreflective finish, and you can also combine the two for a semi-gloss appearance. Gel medium is also useful if you combine collage techniques in your work. It thickens paint so you can build up the surface impasto-style, and increases the adhesion ability of the paint. There's also retarding mediums for reduced drying times, texture paste to build up the surface of the paint, and flow improvers for acrylics.

Watercolor painting by Hsuan-Chi Chen of a bulb of garlic, created using masking fluid.

Watercolor additives can increase color vibrancy and luminosity. Iridescent mediums can make a finished painting look glossy or leave a shimmer on the surface. There are additives that "thicken" the paint--slowing its flow--plus ones that leave a granular finish or make the paints more opaque. Masking fluid is also popular, although you don't apply that to your pigments, just the surface you'll be painting on.

I'm still new to all of the ways you can add things to your paints to make them do things that are new and novel and useful. Terry Harrison on the other hand is an old pro at it. Harrison is a sought-after workshop instructor and artist who has written a reference book--Terry's Greatest Tips for Acrylic and Watercolor Artists--filled with tips and techniques for watercolor and acrylic painters. It has a whole section on using additives but goes far beyond that, delving into all aspects of the painting process. It's perfect for taking with you when you are out there landscape painting or making quick watercolor sketches on the go. Enjoy!

The Long, Hot Summer

Courtney Jordan — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 03:22:00 GMT

The light of summer is a powerful and extreme thing. Getting effects of extreme darks and stark, searing lights is not something every painter can do. There's an acuteness of vision that must come into play to see the color that resides in the light as well.

When I look at the work of pastel painting artist Jane McGraw-Teubner, I see that kind of vision. Take any one of her pastel drawings and there is a sense of time of day and seasonality present. This probably comes from the fact that McGraw-Teubner spends a good deal of time outside of her studio, painting the landscape outdoors.

End of Summer by Jane McGraw-Teubner, pastel painting on paper, 11 x 14.

You can always tell an accomplished painter by what they can do when they are painting outside because nothing is a given and there are challenges galore. McGraw-Teubner always seems to find an interesting vantage point that makes her composition stick in your head. And then there's the way she uses color, light, and texture to reinforce a composition. For example, she might play with a diagonal direction in a painting. She'll not only establish this with a physical element--like a tract of road or a field of flowers--but she'll reinforce the direction or sense of movement with color contrasts or a pattern of light and shadow. Smarty!

Avalon Barn by Jane McGraw-Teubner, pastel painting on pastelbord, 11 x 14.

I'm also drawn to the way she incorporates different natural elements in her pastel drawings. There's a sense of the land, but usually a waterway and patch of sky as well. All of these combined give a plein air painting a breadth and scope that is really welcome.

If you have an interest in pastel painting in the great outdoors and want to make the most of your time when you go, McGraw-Teubner's new DVD, En Plein Air: Pastel Landscape Painting is a video workshop definitely worth watching. It delves into all the elements that make a great work of art--whether it is created inside the studio or out. Enjoy!

AAA: Abstraction is an Asset to Your Art

Courtney Jordan — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 03:42:00 GMT

Abstraction is a key part of how you paint or draw anything. It is seeing completely with the eye, and not allowing the brain to contextualize what we are seeing. But turning off the brain is no small task! I've found that painting with acrylics has given me a bit of insight into abstraction for two reasons: when painting with acrylics, each layer dries fast--so I can practice seeing (and painting) abstractly over and over again in a fairly short period of time. Also, the paints are opaque, so gesture comes more strongly to the fore in any work because it is much less about blending than about making successive layers work together.

Earth and Shade II by John Harrell, acrylic painting.

As I've confessed before, I'm usually a slowpoke ditherer when it comes to painting, largely due to the intimidation factor. When painting with acrylics, I found my speed because those paints dry fast! But that means that as soon as they do, I can go in again. I really enjoy the fact if I try to paint a figure or aspect of the landscape too literally, I can wait a few minutes, assess what I've done, and experiment more abstractly right then and there.


		Sun Lovers by John Harrell, acrylic painting.

We all know that acrylic paints dry opaque unless you add a medium to make them more transparent. This solidity or opacity has proven helpful to a lot of artists who want to build up their abstraction chops. That's because you can see your gesture completely in every stroke you put on the canvas, as opposed to brushwork that layers on in a more transparent way. Exploring gesture in an acrylic painting is especially exciting if I use a palette knife because the entire surface of the painting is looser, more textural, and all about big shapes and color.

John Harrell puts abstraction and acrylic painting techniques together in compelling way in his new DVD, Acrylic Painting: Scenes from the City. He explores how to take two aspects of art that are the most interesting--the figure and landscape painting--and put them together to create appealing compositions and a beautifully painted surface that can be appreciated abstractly and on the basis of representation. Enjoy!

Ahoy Matey! Your Free eBook on Painting Water Has Arrived!

Courtney Jordan — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 03:11:00 GMT

Being outdoors revitalizes us in a number of ways. You can relax and laze away the day in the shade, climb the tallest peak in sight, or be awe-inspired by the waterways around you. Of late, I am definitely in the latter camp. A good friend of mine has just gotten a small boat and we go out on the water whenever we can because there is something really special about being out there. It is mesmerizing--peaceful and powerful all at once, and you see light and motion in ways you can't when you are on land.

Surf at Prout Neck by Guy Corriero, watercolor and casein painting, 2011.

Water painting can be the same way. It can turn an "ordinary" landscape painting into something with visual interest and dynamism. And there are formulas that an artist can follow to capture the play of water currents, the lapping of water on the surface of the ocean, and the crash of waves on the shore. The latest free eBook from Artist Daily opens the door to all of this.


William Hays paints light and color effects of various bodies of water.

Paint the Flow and Movement of Water: Painting Techniques, Methods, and How to Paint Water with Power and Rhythm covers everything I want to know about water painting. It starts with Guy Corriero's unique approach to recognizing how water moves and circulates through close observation and a bag of tricks that involve painting sea foam, knowing the anatomy of the wave, and using a particular kind of brush.

William Hays takes it from there and talks about how color contrasts are his key compositional tool for the reflection and refraction of light on different bodies of water--shallow pools, shorelines, and offshore depths. Plus there are three step-by-step water painting demonstrations that breakdown the essential elements of painting water. All in all, Paint the Flow and Movement of Water: Painting Techniques, Methods, and How to Paint Water with Power and Rhythm is one that I'll keep on hand all summer. Download your copy now! Enjoy!

Plein Air Watercolor Survival Guide

Courtney Jordan — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 03:37:00 GMT

When plein air painting, one of the most enjoyable and facile medias I've found to work with has to be watercolors. Hands down. The supplies are minimal, you can paint quickly and move from place to place making sketches of what catches your interest, and the paintings dry so quickly that there's no stress involved when it comes to packing up and moving out.


		A Break in the Weather by Jim McFarlane, watercolor painting.

But there are a few learning curves that artists can hit along the way when painting outdoors. That's why I want to share a few tips straight from the brightest plein air artists in the biz so we can all paint with confidence when we are painting outside.

Jim McFarlane focuses on using a limited number of values when he wears his plein air painting hat. It requires you to link areas of similar values together, resulting in larger shapes and sounder compositions.

McFarlane also encourages painters to be opportunistic-look what is around you and take it as a visual gift. If there are unexpected views or situations, make the most of them. Don't get bogged down in preconceived ideas about how you want the painting session to go before you even leave the studio.

The first question McFarlane always asks himself is, "Where's the sunlight?" That becomes the white of his paper, and from there he knows that anything that isn't sunlight at least gets a light value, which is especially helpful with shadows that move so quickly when you are painting en plein air.


China Camp Village by David Savellano, watercolor painting, 14 x 21.

It can be a jungle out there, and one way San Francisco artist David Savellano stays focused when plein air painting is to write down the title of the piece before he starts painting to maintain a sense of purpose and continuity throughout the process.

Savellano also cautions artists to forego multiple layers when painting outdoors. Instead, he encourages focus on painting with the fewest expressive brushstrokes that you can manage, and trying to get values and colors right the first time. It may not happen that way all the time, but it is a goal worth striving for.

For more survival tips for watercolor painting inside and outside the studio, a subscription to Watercolor is what I would recommend. There are great instructors passing along their tips and trade secrets, and in the Summer 2012 issue that you'll receive with your new subscription you'll find David Dewey's newest watercolor paintings give coastal landscape painting a modern makeover, and see how artist Amy Arnston paints water with water. Enjoy!

Here's One From the Heart

Courtney Jordan — Mon, 07 May 2012 03:40:00 GMT

In their day, the Hudson River School landscape artists were so popular with the public that people would line up and pay a fair amount of money just to view a single painting. Our plein air blogger Jennifer King shares her insights on why the works of these painters were worth waiting in line for back then—and what they can teach artists in the here and now. Enjoy!

I think it's safe to say that the Hudson River School is the group of artists who put America on the map of the art world. Starting in the 1830s, their exquisitely detailed, richly colored, often very large landscape paintings attracted worldwide attention. People were fascinated by the world-class abilities of the artists and by the beauty of the American landscape, but I think there was more to it than that.

Lake Tahoe by Albert Bierstadt, 1868.

The first wave of the Hudson River painters was led by Thomas Cole and later by his good friend Asher B. Durand. They tended to paint in the wilderness of the Northeast, such as the Hudson River Valley, the Catskills, the Adirondacks, and the White Mountains. A second generation of Hudson River artists who shared their passions and interests expanded their range of landscape painting subjects to include scenes of the western United States and beyond. This group included Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Edwin Church, Sanford Robinson Gifford, Thomas Moran, Jasper Francis Cropsey, and John Frederick Kensett.

Given the very precise and detailed way in which they painted, we might assume that Hudson River painters were intent on replicating the landscape around them. But documentation was not at all what their work was about. In fact, many of them often painted idealized versions of their subjects, modifying aspects of their scenes to make them more beautiful. To understand the significance of these artists and their works, we have to look at what was happening in society at large.


Shroon Mountain by Thomas Cole, 1838.		Manchester Beach by Sanford Robinson Gifford, 1865.

We had great thinkers like Emerson and Thoreau encouraging people to think about nature and our relationship to it. We had American politicians talking about the young country's Manifest Destiny to expand westward and "civilize" the wilderness—and the people—found there. And we had the public at large questioning the existence of God, and wondering if nature was the true religion. These weighty, provocative, evocative themes—not the physical attributes of the land—were the true subjects of the Hudson River paintings. And that is why I think they were so popular in their day and even in ours. These paintings ask important questions and make powerful statements about the most important issues in life.


Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone by Thomas Moran, 1872.		Autumn by Frederic Edwin Church, 1845.

My friends, I think that if we want to make Art, we have to think like the Hudson River painters. Not paint like them, but think like them. We should be asking ourselves, what is important in our society today? What are the issues, both personal and social, that are significant? And how can we, as artists, encourage people to address these issues through our work? Whoa. Tall order. But let's aim high. Are you with me?

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I second Jennifer's call to action 100 percent. And so does American Artist magazine, which continues to promote artists who are thinking through the big questions in their work and instructors who educate and share tried and true techniques to students of all levels of painting ability. Certainly it is a long road to paint like the Hudson River School, but American Artist is certainly thinking like them. If you are committed to the same kind of artistic practice, consider a subscription to American Artist. Enjoy!

If This Sounds Harsh, Forgive Me...

Courtney Jordan — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 03:18:00 GMT

Below you'll find artist and blogger Jennifer King's discussion of when a plein air painting can be too real. I don't think she's being harsh at all, but you'll have to decide for yourself. Enjoy!

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I think it's time for some straight talk. I've participated in many, many plein air painting critiques over the years, and I can't begin to tell you how often I've been faced with landscape paintings that are a little off. Perhaps it's an ugly red stop sign that distracts from the pastoral mood or a stand of trees all the same height that deadens the rhythm, or a color palette that's just too dull to hold my interest. And time after time, when I or someone else says, "Um, hey, gee, that part there isn't really working for me," the artist invariably answers with dismay, "But that's how it looked in real life."


Salisbury Cathedral from Bishop's Ground by John Constable, oil painting, 1823.		The Hay Wain by John Constable, oil painting, 1821.

Painting real life can be tricky. As much as we may want to be faithful to the initial inspiration and to the outdoor painting subject in front of us, my friends, we never have to paint exactly what's there. I think we plein-air artists are particularly guilty of this. In our rush to get something down on canvas, we don't always take the time to analyze the subject and "edit" real life. Believe me, I speak from my own experience!

So perhaps we can break this bad habit by looking back to landscape master John Constable (1776 - 1837), the creator of some of the most beautiful landscapes in history. In his day, neither paint tubes nor the camera had been invented, so Constable's method was to sketch (drawing and painting) on location, and then use that information for composing and creating his paintings back in the studio. He took his time in crafting his designs before he committed to one for a final work.

Brighton Beach with Colliers by John Constable, oil painting, 1824.

Now look at what he painted and how. Trees gracefully frame a distant cathedral, wagons and people stop at the perfect spot to balance buildings, and clouds appear at just the right moment to create compositional rhythm. Just in case you're thinking that England really looked this perfect back then, think again. Constable took what was "there in real life" and modified it to perfection.


Mill at Gillingham, Dorset by John Constable, oil painting, 1826.		A Cottage in a Cornfield by John Constable, oil painting, c. 1816-17.

Like Constable, we always have the opportunity to change certain aspects of our subjects to improve upon the composition, especially when we're in the studio and even when we're working quickly en plein air. If there's a distracting element in your subject, leave it out. If there's a really boring section of your subject, find something nearby that would add interest there and put it in. Make the contours of your shapes more varied, adjust the values to add more drama, and push the colors in a direction that supports the mood or idea behind your painting. Be creative in finding ways to make your subject better.

In my opinion, art should not duplicate real life as it is. In the hands of a master like Constable--or even mere mortals like us--art can and should reveal the artist's vision of life as it could be.

-Jennifer

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Seasoned plein air painters deal with "real life" differently depending on their own focuses and interests as artists. If you want to see how varied these reactions can be, you can do what I did and get expert inspiration and instruction straight from the source, from Plein Air Painting--one of our most comprehensive magazines devoted entirely to the subject of how plein air painters do what they do--to Mastering Painting to Plein Air in Oil with Frank Serrano. It's a way to jumpstart the spring season and will let you make the most of your reality when painting outdoors.

P.S. What do you have to say about art duplicating real life? Leave a comment and let us know!