Opening Exhibition, A/NT Gallery, Seattle Center

I have a gallery opening this Saturday, June 18 at 6:00 P.M. at A/NT Gallery's new location at the Seattle Center. This is a new space for them and the show is their inaugural exhibition at Seattle Center. I have three small still lives in the show including "Blood Oranges and Shallot". 

A/NT Gallery, Seattle Center is located next to the Key Arena, West of the Fountain. For those of you in Seattle I hope to see you there!

Cigar Box Pochades, Plein air painting, and Rublev Watercolors

A year ago my interest in landscape painting experienced a re-birth. Before that landscape rarely made it's way into my art and I didn't look at landscape painting in general. My last landscape without human figures was in Fall 1997 and it was a Bob Ross style autumn painting. Yup, I know, rather embarrassing. Though I was young and naive back then Bob Ross did help me understand how to create atmospheric perspective in oil paint. This is something I've joked about in art school when Bob Ross came up in a discussion.

Back to last year- I started to seriously study the Hudson River School painters especially Albert Bierstadt. In Seattle we have one of his masterpieces, "Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast" along with a Frederic Edwin Church. Those are the only two paintings I have easy access to. Other paintings I've studied on the internet. I also began to gain interest in British landscape painters such as Constable and Turner. My fiance and I even watched Mike Leigh's "Mr. Turner." That movie was okay, but I'm not a movie aficionado.

By the end of last June I had started a 30" x 24" painting of Mt. Rainier. The whole thing was the product of my invention, not observed from nature and it turned out somewhat stylized. I decided that if I wanted to paint a better landscape I needed to do some studies en plein air.

Cigar Box Pochades- 2015 Prototype

Before I had done any research my idea of painting plein air involved a French easel. Because I'm passionate about my materials I decided to do some research before spending any money on equipment. I learned that French easels are heavy, awkward to set up, and often not durable. I also learned that the best plein air equipment is not sold by Blick. This includes Open M, EasyL, and Alla Prima Pochade boxes.

As I was researching pochade boxes I was intrigued by the idea of building my own. There are many resources on the internet about building your own pochade box, especially ones made from cigar boxes. I decided I'd try to build one of these. I was unsuccessful in getting a box from a cigar shop because the ones that were available weren't ideal for me. Of course if I kept going to cigar shops I would have located one. Instead I found a bamboo tea box at a Salvation Army store near one of the cigar shops. Thus using the tea box I built my first pochade.

I had built it specifically for oil painting. The box has a lower compartment divided for paint and brushes. Above that is a removable masonite palette. The panel holding system is my own invention. I'm not very handy when it comes to crafting any metal related stuff. The panel holder was based on simple stuff that I could easily buy then put together. All I used were some brass bars, speed nuts, and bass wood. The brass bars are adjustable and can accommodate a panel ten inches high. Many artists like to build their pochades so that it can be used to carry wet paintings. My pochade is not able to do that and I would have to rely on a separate panel carrier. Raymar panel carriers would be my choice.

Unfortunately I never did get to any plein air painting last summer. I held myself back because I felt anxious, didn't bother to buy a sturdy tripod, and I lacked the wet panel carrier. However I did purchase a set of plein air brushes from Rosemary Brushes. I was somewhat ready but my plans to do plein air painting fizzled.

Rublev Watercolors and Plein Air Painting

As part of Scholars Atelier my students spent two weeks watercolor painting. I did a few demos for my students with the M.Graham watercolors they use. I believe that students should have access to artist grade paint rather then settle for Crayola or cheap student grade stuff. The landscapes they made turned out great. I will post these in a few weeks. 

While I was teaching my kids watercolor painting my interest in the medium was renewed. I began to think about the British watercolorists of the 18th and 19th Centuries, especially Constable and Turner. They had used watercolors for studies en plein air and Turner created some amazing work. I decided that watercolors would be a great way to ease myself into plein air painting. 

I bought a set of 12 Rublev Watercolors because I love Natural Pigment's products. Plus I like using the old school pigments which I use in oil painting. In addition to the set of 12 I purchased Chrome Yellow Primrose, Zinc White, Van Dyck Brown, Violet Hematite, Verona Green Earth, and Maya Blue. I also bought a tube of Hydrogel. I'm still trying to figure out the Hydrogel and if anyone has any suggestions please let me know. To augment my paints I purchased a selection of Rosemary Red Sable Brushes.

On Memorial Day I went to Woodinville, WA to try out my new paints in a plein air setting. It was a beautiful day and lots of people were out and about. I took my tea box pochade with me and after walking around a bit I set up on a picnic table behind Redhook Brewery, next to the Sammamish River. I was limited where to set up because I lacked a tripod. I could have sat in the grass along the Sammamish River Trail but I observed that dogs have been using it as their own personal restroom. In addition to that I saw piles of horse poop scattered about.  It wasn't exactly all over the place but I was also concerned a snake might come out of the grass along the river or at the edge of the farm fields.

After I had moved to Seattle I was intrigued by the beauty of the Lombardy Poplars that accent the landscape. Living in Virginia most of my life I had never seen the poplars. Woodinville has plenty of them near the wineries and I decided to paint the trees.

Woodinville, WA, watercolor and body color on Arches cold pressed watercolor paper, 10" x 7", 2016

Cigar Box Pochades-2016

The next day at school I brought in my tea box pochade along with the painting I did at Woodinville. I showed it to my atelier students and they thought the box was really cool. One of them wished we could make similar boxes in atelier. I told my students that if they each give me $5 I would make them a box from a cigar box. One student immediately gave me a five dollar bill. The following afternoon I went to a cigar shop in Shoreline looking for boxes. The shop had many nice usable ones. I chose these because I find the wood appealing vs. the decorative stuff. The boxes were only $2 each and I bought six.

I added the adjustable hinges to the boxes. All I need to do is add the panel holder.

Several boxes had these stickers with a 19th Century looking painting. 

I didn't notice it at the cigar shop, but one of the women in the painting had an exposed breast! It's not that bad and you'd see the same thing in an art museum. I decided to remove the stickers since my students are only 4th and 5th graders. I did tell them about it though and one student pointed out that the painting is actually all over the trim too!

My Plein Air Setup

While I was working on the boxes for my atelier students I decided to build one for myself to replace the tea pochade box. I wanted a lighter box and the larger of the cigar boxes works perfectly. It's too shallow to hold supplies and a palette while closed, but I can put my oil paints in a zip lock bag and carry my brushes in a roll. 

Today I used my kit for the first time at Seattle's Discovery Park. For my watercolors the box works out nicely. I can fit my case of 12 full pans in the box while I'm painting. Because of my panel holder I can't carry the watercolor case in there, but that's no problem. I can also secure additional pans above the watercolor case.

My two jars of water attach to my box via brass hooks I made. I used Gorilla tape to make this rig. The brass hooks lock into place when the watercolor palette is in the box.

View of the box without my watercolor block. Right now I'm using a 7 x 10 block and I also have a 9 x 12 block. They add unnecessary weight to my pack and in the future I may carry paper that's been stretched on masonite or Gatorboard. I found that I'm only doing one painting per session and I don't need a block of paper, especially two.

The tripod I use is a Manfrotto 190XB which I bought used off eBay for less than $100. The ball head attachment is a DMKFoto Heavy Duty Ball Head with Quick Release Plate. That was only $16.90 on Amazon and it feels durable to me. I didn't want to spend $50 on a ball head. I bought a Guerrilla Painter Tripod Attachment Plate which is bolted to the bottom of my box. 

Rather than use a rock bag for stability I have a carabiner attached to the tripod. I got this idea from Thomas Jefferson Kitts' Blog. My pack is suspended from the ring and if I wanted to I could put rocks in there. I'll carry a canvas tote bag for that. Also suspended from the ring is my brush case and sketch kit. This is a convenient spot for my brushes and I don't need a tray attached to my pochade box. 

      

                                                   

Discovery Park, Seattle, WA, watercolor on Arches cold pressed watercolor paper, 7" x 10", 2016

Overall I didn't have any problems while painting. My kit was quick and easy to setup and it was stable. I plan on trying this with oils after I buy a Raymar wet panel carrier. Yesterday I bought a small masonite panel which I will fashion into a palette. 

Though I'm happy with my setup, I plan to get either an Open M or EasyL pochade box in the future. Right now my current kit allows me to get out and paint so I can hone my landscape painting skills. 

"Willem's Kat" is going to Laguna Beach!

Yesterday afternoon I received great news that  "Willem's Kat and Pieter's Salt Cellar" has been accepted by Las Laguna Gallery in Laguna Beach, CA. It will be in their upcoming July 2016 Group Exhibition. Here's the info on their site- Upcoming Art Exhibition.

The show's opening is Thursday July 7th at 6:30 PM. If you're in the LA area check it out. The show runs from July 7 through July 30 if you can't make it opening night.

Rublev Lead Whites Part 4- Flemish White

I'm onto number three of six Rublev Lead Whites I have used. Technical info can be found on Natural Pigment's site.

The test samples were painted on canvas toned with Orange Ochre. For the swatches painted with medium I used a low viscosity linseed oil thinned with odorless mineral spirits. This is not the medium I use in my paintings, but a common one used by most oil painters, especially beginners. To test the tinting strength I used it with Venetian Red.

Flemish White

I've had my tube of Flemish White since Spring 2014 and it's not one I use extensively. Made from tribasic lead sulfate and barite Flemish White is the warmest and most opaque of the Rublev Lead Whites. I found that it yellows more than the others. Take a look at the dried paint on this tube compared to fresh paint below.

I've noticed that it yellows within a month of drying. I had that unpleasant experience after I laid in thick highlights on one of my paintings last year. Later on I tried putting Lead White # 2 over it and that helped a little. Still I wasn't happy about the color change. 

I have no idea why Flemish White yellows like that. It's binder is walnut oil which does not yellow like linseed oil as it ages. The yellowing could be a characteristic of the tribasic lead sulfate and barite combination. In comparison Lead White # 2 is made from basic lead carbonate and I have not experienced any yellowing thus far.

Straight out of the tube Flemish White feels a bit buttery, is shorter than Lead White # 2 but peaks up as shown here. It's feel under the brush is smooth with no drag. Lead White # 2 has a bit more drag to it, somewhat like honey.

Here you can see the opacity of Flemish White. It's not as opaque as Titanium White though.

I also mentioned that Flemish White is warmer than the other lead whites. This is especially noticeable when I mixed it with Venetian Red. In addition it's greater opacity created stronger flesh tints that did not sink into the orange ochre underneath. 

Some artists like Flemish White and it's a staple on their palettes. However I do not find it as useful as Rublev's other lead whites and I've mostly used it for underpainting. For general painting it's tendency to yellow does not make it appealing to me. Overall it's strengths lie in it's opacity and warmth and this may be useful in some way if the yellowing is disregarded. 

A Still Life- From Life!

Over the past couple of years I have painted quite a few still lives. However they were all pretty much studies of Dutch still life masters and stuff from my imagination as my still life vocabulary grew. Recently I decided to stop being lazy and set up an actual still life.

While I was in art school at VCU I sometimes added still life objects to my figurative work. This might be a bowl of fruit on a kitchen counter or a breakfast plate with burnt bacon bits and runny egg residue. None of that was actually observed from life. I just invented it and while the objects served their purpose they could have been more convincing if I had the actual objects in front of me. The last time I worked from an actual still life set up was in basic painting class where everyone brought in a object and contributed it to a giant mound of stuff set up on a model stand. After doing some sketching our task was to take a photo of elements of the still life, distort it in photoshop, then turn that into a painting. I was mostly into figure painting at that time and my composition included a female nude inspired by Philip Pearlstein. 

Fast forward to last month I decided to start painting some still lives from actual objects in front of me. I had anxieties about setting this up and I got hung up on trying to find a good lamp. I still haven't got one but the light in the space I am working in worked just fine. It's not dramatic lighting but it still gets the job done. The light box was one of eight I made for my Scholars Atelier students using black foam board and construction design from www.davinciinitiative.org. 

I decided on the blood oranges because I like the contrast between it's purple flesh, the light rind, and orange skin. Last year I tried blood oranges for the first time and I liked it's unique flavor. Since then I hadn't seen any in the grocery stores until two months ago. However the recent batch tasted like citrus flavored water which was disappointing. For still life purposes they look great.

My support was a 9" x 12" ACM panel which I toned a brownish ochre color. I began the drawing with Van Dyck Brown and I filled in the background with German Vine Black. I admit I did get a bit careless with my drawing but everything was loose and I could go back revise it. You can see this with the sliced blood oranges.

The first session for this was within a 1 1/2 hour period on a Sunday night. This included starting the drawing and ending with with what you see here. I would have kept going but I had to hit the sack for the night. The table was colored with Bone Black and Lead White # 2. Bone Black is a new addition to my palette and I love the cool bluish grays it produces. The only drawback to Bone Black is that it takes an unholy amount of time to dry even when I'm using Venetian Medium.

The next session I refined the contours of the objects and I began to develop them further. The palette I used for this was Ercolano Red, French Red Ochre, Vermillion, Alizarin Crimson, Minium, Naples Yellow, Van Dyck Brown, Bone Black, Black Roman Earth, Venetian White, and Lead White # 2. The flesh of the blood oranges at this stage was French Red Ochre and Van Dyck Brown along with some translucency created with Minium. 

The finished painting. 

I can't remember how many days I spent on this, but it was done over the course of two weeks. I put the sliced blood oranges in the fridge and I pulled them out as I needed them. The reason why this was dragged out over two weeks is because the Bone Black areas were taking too long to dry along with the blood orange flesh. 

The rind's texture was created using Lead White # 2 without any medium.

I had a lot of fun creating this painting and I plan on doing more still lives from still life set ups over the next couple of months. Yesterday I started a seashell still life inspired by 17th Century Dutch still life painters such as Adriaen Coorte. I will be doing several seashell still lives and I found a supplier that sells many different types for reasonable prices. Future still lives will include an acorn squash, a ham hock, and other perishable goods. In addition I will do several still lives using World War I US gas masks I have collected over the years. 

Cat Painting # 2

Willem's Kat and Pieter's Salt Cellar, oil on ACM panel, 18 1/2" x 19 1/2", 2016

Recently I've taken an interest in painting cats. For the past couple of years I've painted mostly dog themed stuff along with a testy looking rabbit and some shrimp loving hamsters. Now I'm onto cats.

Once again I've made a 17th Century Dutch inspired still life and included a modern pet. Scottish Fold cats did not exist in the 17th Century. At least that's what my research has concluded. But in my art the accuracy of time is of no matter. If I want to include a pug among some 17th Century still life then bam! There he/she is about to twerk next to the oysters and roemer glass. In a later post I'll talk more about combining modern pets with still life.

One of my favorite still lifes is Willem Heda's 1635 masterpiece, "Still life with gilt goblet." Check out the Rijksmuseum's image for some insane high resolution zooming- https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/mijn/verzamelingen/33941--mathijs-van-soest/willem-claes-heda/objecten#/SK-A-4830,0

This painting has always intrigued me because of the skill Heda used to render the materials he's depicted and the painting painting has a nice atmospheric quality. I also find the palette he has chosen to be exquisite in it's simplicity. The part that I love the most is how the roemer glass contrasts with the background. That's the atmosphere I mentioned earlier.

For awhile I had contemplating trying a Willem Heda inspired still life. I was going to do that last year with a black pug but I ended up painting an anthropomorphic pug based on Bartholomeus van der Helst's "Treaty of Munster" banquet painting instead. So this painting is my Willem Heda influenced piece. It actually combines Heda with Pieter Claesz and Jan Davidsz de Heem ( for the lobster), but Heda was my inspiration for the overall look. 

I threw in the Scottish Fold wearing a circa early 1630's ruff as worn by Rembrandt and dudes seen in Frans Hals paintings. At first I was going to have the cat climbing up to the table as I've done with several of my other paintings. However I decided to have an anonymous pair of hands hoist the cat into the composition to make it even weirder.

As with all of my paintings from the past 3 years I have used Rublev Oil colors. I have different palettes which I use depending on what I'm painting. This painting used a variation of my 17th Century Dutch Still Life palette along with few extra additions. The colors I used consisted of Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Brown Ochre, Venetian Red, Ercolano Red, Roman Black Earth, German Vine Black/ later on Bone Black, Van Dyck Brown( Cassell Earth), Genuine Naples Yellow, Lead Tin Yellow Type II, Malachite, Vermillion, Minium, Transparent Mummy, Lead White # 2, and Venetian White. My medium of choice was Venetian Medium though I did dabble with Italian Varnish a bit. I'm still learning how to use the Italian Varnish with my technique.

This is a detail shot of the texture on the lemon and knife handle which I invented, inspired by fruit knives in Pieter Claesz and Heda still lifes.

The lobster came from a Jan Davidsz de Heem pronk still life. I enjoyed painting the lobster in the tabby cat painting and I had to do another one. Colors I used for this were minium, genuine vermllion, Ercolano Red, Venetian Red, and a bit of transparent mummy. Minium is a bight, fiery, opaque orange that costs less than a tube of modern Cadmium Orange. I bought a tube three years ago and recently I had to buy another because the other tube hardened and was unusable. Compared to other Rublev colors minium has a short shelf life and dries faster than other lead colors. I plan on using it more this year. 

Pieter's salt cellar, a prop which Pieter Claesz used in a few of his still lifes. I'm still mastering painting glass and this roemer was studied from Heda's roemer that I love so much. For the glass I tried out some malachite which I mulled myself using pigment from Natural Pigments. 

Finally here is a detail shot of the oyster plate and bread roll. The texture on the white of the bread was created using Lead White # 2 straight out of the tube. I also used pure lead white utilizing it's wonderful stringiness to create the rims of the oyster shells and highlights on the oyster flesh.

I'm taking a short break from Dutch still life over the next month or so as I focus on still lives I am working using actual still life set ups, a painting commission, and a landscape. This summer I have a pronk still life planned which will be a large, elaborate, ambitious project. I still haven't decided whether there will a dog or cat included. Maybe I'll do both.

Beer and a painting

What do these paintings by Leonardo, Rembrandt, and Edvard Munch have in common with my Bonsai Tree and Rabbit painting? If you're familiar with the history of the paintings you probably know what today's blog post is about.

This afternoon I noticed I had a missed call from Jack the owner of Hellbent Brewing in Lake City, Seattle, WA. Last month I had three of my paintings publicly unveiled as part of the brewery's permanent collection. I also had two other paintings up- Still life with tabby cat, and Bonsai tree with rabbit. I returned Jack's call and he told me that last night someone had stolen the Bonsai Tree and rabbit painting. Say what? 

Jack told me a police report had been filed and he was trying to get leads on who walked out with the painting. I wasn't angry about the theft. I was saddened but at the same time strangely flattered. He told me that there was a possibility that someone got drunk and walked off with the painting. Maybe he/she would wake up today and realize the mistake they made. As a precaution Jack had taken down the cat painting and he posted on Hellbent's Facebook page regarding the rabbit painting.

Within an hour Jack called me back and said that a woman brought it in. Evidently she was a bit inebriated so she took the painting down, stuck it in a trash bag, and took it home. My fiance Cheryl said "Naw that was premeditated. She had peeped out the painting before and used being drunk as an excuse." Who knows. I'm glad the woman was honest and returned the painting. Cheryl did tell me she felt guilty for stereotyping because she had thought a dude stole the painting. 

Now that the painting is safe I do have one question. Where did the woman get the trash bag? I certainly hope it wasn't from one of the restrooms. I'm a germophobe and I'm picturing the trash bag's former contents.

The three dog banquet paintings are up permanently at Hellbent Brewing. Stop by and check them out, buy some beer, and bring your furry friends.