looking up from the bishops garden

This is from the second location of my class “Evening Landscape Painting.” I painted this a few days before the class met to get used to the venue, though it was painted in the morning so the light was very different. The Washington National Cathedral makes an natural choice for a subject. Standing on the highest point in Washington it is always lit spectacularly from sunrise to sunset. Its stone is a remarkable color that  seems to flicker between pink and yellow, so you get to choose what color you want to paint it. I painted this standing in the Bishop’s Garden, looking up at a magnificent tree with bright yellow leaves. The garden seemed so rich and inviting compared to the austere and  and somewhat harsh appearance of the cathedral. I left its lit portions almost white which contrast with the dark shadows draws you eye at first to the top then down the spires to the garden where you can slow down for a nice stroll.

river islands late day

cool water hot rocks

outward bound kayak

I have been teaching a class, Evening Landscape Painting on Location, sponsored by the Yellow Barn Studio. The class meets at various outdoor locations Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm. I haven’t heard of anyone else who teaches a weekday class  as the sun begins to set; maybe I am the first! It is a real challenge, even for an experienced painter to paint en plein air when the light is changing so rapidly. But it is amazing to watch as the colors mutate from deep orange to deep blue, with purples and turquoises to match, within the space of a few hours.  The paintings that you see here I painted down along the Potomac River, at the Anglers Inn entrance.We met there the first two weeks of the class.

breasts hands thighs

A drawing done in pencil on textured paper  at the Frederick drawing group. I wasn’t happy with the pose at first. The model’s head, arms, chest, and thighs were lined up horizontally and seemed quite static and unexpressive. But I found that the pose’s simplicity allowed me to focus on details like the soft shadows  and on each finger. Something about the angularity of the hand in contrast with the sensuality and roundness of the breast and thighs makes it look like it is from a different planet, but then maybe hands are.

Deliveries Only

Another work along the same line  of the city scene I did earlier this year. Like the previous piece it is acrylic on paper and based on a photograph of a street in nearby Bethesda. I experimented in both with adding a lot of texture to the paint, in this case with pumice gel that I felt  added to the feeling of concrete and harsh summer light.  The point of the painting was to include as many details of city life as possible, to have some respect for the lives lived in each window, but to also to have the painting work abstractly as pictorial space, to have the eye led gradually into and out of the painting. Secondarily there is a little mini-drama going on of a delivery van parked in the street and a car having to cross into the opposite lane to pass it. Drama might be too strong a word, but we do take our driving infractions seriously here in Bethesda.

Construction/Destruction

This large, 3′ x 4′ painting was inspired by photographs I took of an abandoned field that was slated for a housing development. There was some sign of construction, of freshly dug raw earth and plastic orange  fencing and piles of dirt but basically with the economy the way it is the site has been left in this in-between state for over a year. Right next to this is a new shopping mall that is only half occupied. You can see this in the upper left part of the painting. I think what attracted me originally to the site was the  orange fencing against the green grass. While I worked on the painting I added gestural orange lines that seemed to suggest plans for future building. If you asked me to explain what this painting was about I would say something about the contrast of land as an actual place vs. our concept of ownership and business. But really I just like the way orange glows against the other colors and the spidery lines of dry grass. I feel like the hole in the earth might conceal buried treasure.

Great Falls, looking down over whirlpool, towards Virginia side

Top of the Falls

Two pastel paintings (drawings? sketches?) from Great Falls in Potomac, Maryland. Visitors are allowed to clamber over the rocks around the falls though signs warn of the mortal dangers of one slip up. There were a number of nice flat rocks to sit on that overlooked the white rushing water.   The day was beautiful with a deep blue sky and  trees and foliage still very green from recent rains. It was a challenge to capture the water as it rushed by and to give it the look of movement and not just a static foreground . It might be more effective just to leave the paper untouched and let the viewer fill that in with their imagination. The color of the rocks is very beautiful. Their tops are pale green with lichen and nearer the water they are pink with dried mud. And when the water gets them wet they are almost black.  I am enjoying pastels. They are easy to transport and easy to apply. If you apply them with a light touch you can leave a little bit of the white paper sparkling through or you can use your finger to smear two colors with a smooth blur. Balancing the sparkle and blur seems to be  the point.

looking over his shoulder

at work

color arrangement

the finished piece

seated female nude, leg extended

crouching female nude. leg extended

More figure drawing from Frederick. It seems that I am settling on a technique that I can apply to future figure drawing. For the quick 5-minute poses, like the one on the right, I use an ink pen. Using ink forces you to think fast, since every mark you make is permanent and cannot be erased. Then for the long hour poses, like the one on the left, I use a graphite or charcoal pencil and use a lot of cross hatching to build up the shadow areas. Cross hatching is slow but allows you to change your mind as you work. It is a little bit like sculpting, I think, chipping away at the paper, until the form is revealed.

Backyard Shed

I am practicing with pastels lately, getting ready for a workshop with Wolf Kahn. He is a well-known American landscape painter that pioneered the melding of color field, abstract expressionism and impressionist landscape painting. He excels in using intense, seemingly unnatural colors, that perfectly express the light and weather effects of his subject matter. This weekend he is holding a workshop in pastel at the Yellow Barn Studio and, so to be prepared, I have done a few works of which this is the best example. Since you can’t mix pastels very easily you have to have a good selection of colors. Here I am using Sennelier pastels on a very rough white paper. This forces you to work on broad generalizations and not sweat the details. I like how this work conveys a sense of mysterious deep space behind the shed. The color of the inside of the door is different then the outside which looks a bit strange when the door is open but makes for a more interesting work.