Another Creek Painting

"Alder Creek" -Yosemite-   16 X 20 acrylic on canvas

I'm never quite sure when a painting is done but I know when I'm done painting on one at least for the time being. This painting is of a section of Alder Creek in Yosemite.  The foreground plant is a thimble berry. It grows along creeks and provides an edible berry the size of a thimble, hence it's name. The berry isn't super tasty but not bad either. It is somewhat like a black berry only red and smaller.

I'm guessing this is Alder Creek but it could be Bishop Creek which is just up the road towards the valley from Alder. Both go under hwy 41. I'd often stop by an photograph these two creeks on my way back from giving a tour in Yosemite.  I took a lot of this one but can't quite remember which creek it was. My best guess is Alder. Both are very similar but Alder is a little bigger.

Hope to get a hike to Alder Falls in this spring. With the warm winter we've had this year they will probably dry up by July or August. Last year was a great year for falls this. This one is going to be a shorter season. I think tourists coming later in summer are going to be disappointed with the falls this year.

Cheyanne

Cheyanne was our model for this Friday. Always a treat to paint her. She's become a good friend and model and we've gone exploring some of the local hills.  She has what I call that Pocahontas look so I'm always looking for places where you might see an native American princess hanging out.

11x14 acrylic on canvas "Ripple

Above is a painting from one of those explorations along a tributary of the Chowchilla River. She's one of the nicest souls I've ever met. A delight to be with and a very patient model.   Below is my first pastel of her from the Yosemite Western Artists portrait painting group.

Ahwahnee Park Pond

Took a walk in the gated and barb wire fenced Ahwahnee Park last Sunday exploring some new locations. Someone had cut the wire near the gate so it was easier to walk around but the fellow in charge didn't like that so he redid it. I suggested he could keep it off so those of us without a gate key could get in without doing the barb wire limbo. Nope. He couldn't live with that. Oh well so far I haven't snagged any clothing and no one has said I can't be there so, I continue my visits.

 I was hoping to get some photos of some Hooded Merganser and Common Merganser ducks that I saw there a week ago. You really need and extra long telephoto because the minute you get near them they fly away. That was the case on Sunday. I got some nice photos as always seems to be the case. Some combos I take with the express intention of making a painting. The painting above is one done from that day.

Here's a few photos from that visit. This first one of the hazy sun reminded me of a spooky eye so I mirrored it. (oo)

The weather has been changing a lot during the day. One minute sunny and warm the next overcast and cold.

Friends on Facebook have already seen this Orange Winged Black Bird that came by singing his claim to his territory.

One of the joys of digital photography is you can take lots of pics to get that one good one. Such is the case with him. I noticed he only showed his orange wing when he sang so the minute he would start I'd click. Eventually getting this one.

A beaver has moved into the nearby creek and has started damming it up. He's been doing a good bit of tree clearing too.
 There was one spot above the beaver damn that had this really nice section of dried weeds. The textures were beautiful. I could have spent more time there but my walking partner was starting to get impatient. I suppose I try folks patience when they go out for walks with me. I've turned into an incurable shutter bug.


Speaking of bug catchers. I'll close this post with one more little fellow who was hanging out by the beaver damn. He had a nice little call and a charming personality.

I'm guessing he was some kind of fly catcher which makes him A OK in my book.

There's just so much to see and enjoy at this park. I'll almost be sad when it gets open to the public and crowded. I won't be sad to lose the barb wire though.

Yes I do finish paintings

Thought it was about time I start posting my new landscape paintings. Often when I look at my paintings I think I could do better. Some times I'll see things that could be improved on a piece that I've moved on from. The perfectionist in me always sees room for improvement in nearly everything. As long as a painting is in my possession it is a possible target for more paint.

Lot's of times I get bored with a painting and start another to keep the enjoyment of the whole process flowing. I surround myself with my paintings and often while I'm reading a book I'll look up and see something that I'd like to do on one. It gets shifted onto my working easel. Some times the nag at me making it hard to relax and enjoy a good book. 

First Painting of Snow

I haven't painted a snow scene since I was back high school. It was a watercolor and a teacher bought it.  O was just never inspired to paint landscapes. Guess I just preferred pics with people in them.

So now here I am in my late 50's having inspired to paint landscapes. I like landscapes but feel my paintings aren't at the caliber I want them to be.  Up to 20 so far and it seems I always get to a point where I lose interest in the piece.

Take this snow scene inspired by a recent morning snow fall in the Ahwahnee Hills Regional Park. Rushed down early hoping to catch the snow still clinging to the oaks. But as I hussled toward the area where the barn is, it was melting fast off the oaks. Fortunately I took some shots of the trees closer to home on the way down so I got a feel for what the branches would look like.

The grasses and weeds were peaking out all over so there wasn't the nice smooth even snow. But the brown and rusty grasses still looked kind of cool against the white snow reflecting the sky. I took a lot of liberties with this composition. The bridge was much farther to the left and there was no water in the ravine. Overall though it still has the feel of what it was like. Three trees to the left and one on the right.

But here's the thing, the more I painted on it the more I started getting into the details of the branches. I'd start with the basic branch shapes and then start branching off into ever smaller ones. Next thing you know I had too many of these detailed branches going all over. It was king of cool but not where I wanted to take this piece. So I'd knock back using bigger brush strokes to define branch clusters. It was fun playing with abstract shapes and lines and got to the point where I lost interest in the rest of the painting.

So I've set it down to work on areas of other paintings that I wanted to improve. I wonder if other artists have this problem of finishing paintings. I've decide to go ahead and start posting these.  For the most part I like where they are headed but they're not quite where I want them to be.

When is a Painting Done?

My daughter posed for the portrait group on Friday. You'd think I'd know her face very well but in the process of studying her face while painting in pastels I was reminded of just how pretty she can be. Of course she's not so pretty when I'm nagging her to do something. :o)

I could have quit after the first 20 minutes with a satisfactory sketch but I wanted to try modeling the face more. Sometimes I start off really strong and then end up over working a piece and wrecking it.  In fact I've done this so often that people will tell me, "stop and start another one before you over work it".

There's something to be said for the quick sketch, though 20 minutes is hardly all that quick.

This photo of the first 20 was taken inside without a tripod so the whites are dark but you can see how I start a portrait. I tend to do it traditionally by making small marks for the top, then the chin, and how much of the neck and body I want to show. Always aware of how I want it to fit inside the first lines of the page borders. Next I mark where the eyes sit, then nose, mouth, and general shape of the head and hair.

I have to remind myself that the eyes tend to sit right in the middle of the head.  Then everything is a half way distance from there on down. Nose half way between eyes,  mouth half way between nose and chin. This is a formula that works fairly well as long as one continually eyeballs if features are a bit higher or lower.

Most of what I look for are basic negative and positive shapes. As I model I look for similar planes and how the light falls on them.

How do I know when I'm done? Usually when I get bored with it or run out of time. When painting gets tedious it becomes work and unless someone is paying for something more finished I rarely take it as far as I feel it could go.  What I need to remind myself to do is keep things simple and not tighten up on every detail. Details can be nice but they can detract from the whole. The design of shapes and the way light hits them are the most important things for me. Things I'm still trying to master.

I tend to like the vitality that looser paintings have. IMHO, I can render with the best of them. But who wants to paint a photograph? These days I find myself wincing if someone says one of my paintings looks like a photograph. Hey if you consider photographic looking art to be the hallmark of great art then why not just frame a photo? Right?

Photography and Painting are representations of reality not actual reality. Is one a better representation of reality?  Which better expresses the artist's vision of what they are trying to portray? Both are crafts that require a certain amount of skill and I love both mediums.  It's easier for me to say when a photo is done than a painting. Very rarely do I take a photo and find it needs no further fine tuning. Sometimes I have to combine several exposures of the same shot to get it the way I experienced it.

Painting takes much more time to get to something I consider close to complete. Especially working in acrylics. If I'm doing a digital painting it goes much faster because I have the undo and history buttons. Plus there's all those layers one can experiment with. Experimenting is something I need to bring back to my painting.

Art seems more alive when you can see the artist's strokes. So though I consider myself a realist I don't hold photographic representation as the ideal. Personally I'd much rather gaze and a John Singer Sargent painting than a Richard Avedon photo. Both are masters and I'm a huge fan of both. I just tend to prefer painters. Prints tend to distance the artist from the medium where as painting you really feel ans see the artist's touch.

Pastel of Wayne as a Pirate

So when is a painting done? Usually when I get tired of working on it. Anything that takes longer than a day get's tedious. But , , ,  that doesn't mean I think they can't be improved. I'm constantly reworking older paintings. The reality is nothing is ever going to be perfect. But some times I'll see things I'd like to do to a painting to improve it. Sometimes I ruin it by over experimenting. Sometimes I paint over such paintings because I need a fresh canvas and am out.

The important thing is to enjoy what we do in life and art. I'm relearning the joy of making art and even when someone commissions a piece I try to keep it fun. The challenge of creating something from nothing is always rewarding. Not always easy but then if it was easy it wouldn't be as rewarding.

I've got a lot of landscapes I'm anxious to share but have held back because I don't feel they are where I want them to be. When they become tedious I start a fresh one or go out looking for new inspiration. It's that beginning process when everything is fresh that I enjoy the most. It's that freshness and vitality I admire in the masters that I want in my art. It's the rendering that tends to kill it for me. One day I'll figure it out.

Photographing in the Rain

Hurray we finally got some winter rain here in Mariposa CA,  We really need it. Been a long dry spell for winter so this has been a very welcome little storm.

I love how the rain washes everything off. The pine needles are a bright burnt sienna verging on red. Most of the blackberry bushes have lost their leaves but those that are left are bright red as well. The dry grasses have lost their fall gold and look more like straw now and with the little bit of rain we had earlier the new grasses are sprouting bright green.

The bright green moss on the trees and rocks is loving the rain and the lichen on the rocks is happy too.

People often think of rainy days as gloomy and grey, but if you look at things like rocks after they've been wet you start to notice just how much more colorful they are when wet.

Living so close to Yosemite sometimes forget just how beautiful the surrounding communities can be. Lately I've been reconnecting with this place (Mariposa) that I call home. We don't have the huge waterfalls and giant cliffs or the Park but we still have beautiful scenery.

In fact every time I go down one of this counties many dirt roads I'm rewarded with the gentle charm of this place.

Today I took a break from painting and went in search of more subjects to photograph and paint. It's not like I'm running low on great material from previous outings. I just love getting out in nature and taking it all in. I'm like some greedy sponge that can't seem to absorb enough of it.

The rain was light today so I went out hoping to find some good pics between showers. Fortunately no one else was out where I was so no one saw me with my camera under my jacket making my belly look bigger than it already is. It was my way of protecting from the drizzle while I water the creek looking for interesting places to set my tripod down. Once I'd find a good spot I'd wait for a lull and snap the camera on and take some pics.

The light was low so I was using slow exposure times to try and capture all the color. My camera isn't as great as some of the pros but for my purposes which is mainly for painting reference it's perfect. But sometimes I wish I had something a little better. My aperture only goes to F.8 and my time is 15" which I'm not quite sure what that means.

One day I hope to be able to afford a better camera but for now I feel pretty fortunate enough to have the one I have.A (Cannon SX40). It's basically a sophisticated point and shoot. Which sounds a whole lot better than a digital SLR wannabe. :o)