Hippeastrum for Bradley

This post is dedicated to Bradley Will of Learn to blog.com who was crazy enough to set up the 30 day blog challenge, and so incredibly generous with his time and energy to follow it through!

Hippeastrum Lily and Otto (or Hippeastrum for Bradley) - oil on linen - 12 x 16in

Final, I think. Taking photos of painting progress is a double edge sword. On the one hand, quite useful, but on the other it also shows where one should have stopped painting...usually a few stages before... difficult to go backwards.

Refining most always means taking out the rough edges... and sometimes that means the painting may lose some of its spontaneity. C'est la vie1

I've changed the 'darker grey' family tone of the left wall to a lighter mid tone, which means I may have added a fifth set of tonal values, whereas in the beginning I was aiming for four sets of tonal values. In so doing, it has reduced a little of the painting's original 'punch'.

The tonal value of the Otto Dix postcard has been darkened to join with the 'darker grey' group. 

I think now is definitely the time to stop the 'finishing it' process and let it sit for a while to settle.

On the whole, I am quite please with the results. The rather odd straight intersecting lines throughout the painting seem to work in firmly placing the motif or object solidly within the frame.

I like the way the taller leaf, the shadow of the glass and the postcard overlapping the edge of the painting also serve to help with the structure as well as unite all areas of the work.

In the meantime, the lily being painted has died off, but the two small buds behind have flowered. Interestingly enough, the red accents which were so vivid on the main flower, has almost disappeared on the 2 younger buds. I suspect that is what happens when cut the flower before the flower was able to develop or take the necessary nutrition from the ground to paint that magnificent red.

Hipeastrum project - second stage

TONES

Considered by many to be just as important, if not more important than colours. Sounds odd doesn't it? I guess it depends whether you are a colourist or a tonalist.

However I tend to agree, and not because I consider myself more a tonalist. I heard an artist hero of mine say once: if you can get the tones right, you can use the most surprising or unlikely colour, and it can still look right... it does not necessarily work the other way.

The Fauvist and the Expressionist I think proved that in a lot of their paintings.

So how to see tones in your subject? One good way is to translate your colour subject into a black and white version. How do you do that? You squint, until all you see are areas of very dark, very light and a few tones in between.

To make your painting punchy and dramatic, its a good idea to divide your composition into no more than 5 different tonal values, ie 1 - the equivalent of white, 2 - black, 3 - a lighter tone of grey, 4 - a darker tone of grey and finally 5 - a midtone. Four different tonal values is more dramatic and strong, 3 is even more so, and 2 - well even stronger still, just about a 'tonal dropout'.

For a 4 tone value work, its helpful to do a quick sketch of the simplified shapes in your composition and decide which area will equal black, which will equal white, and then divide the rest of you composition shapes into 2 differing greys.

In the second stage of my painting, I attempt to identify: 

- my darkest darks in the bottom of the glass, the top of the shorter leaf and the small area of the stem just under the flower

- my lightest lights, which is my equivalent of white, is the lit surface of the card that the glass sits on, the highlights on the petal and the highlight area on the top left of the glass and the lower right side of the glass where the light shines through.

- my dark grey tone area I choose the rest of the stem and the dark part of the leaves as well as the darker part of the left wall and the red accents on the petals

- my light or mid tone greys are the right side of the wall, the triangular shape of the table, the foregroung and the rest of the shapes within the glass.

I don't always succeed, but being aware of what decisions I am striving for, certainly helps me in my direction and each brush stroke is an intent as opposed to a hesitation or a series of 'try it and see if it works'

Because I am hopeless at imagining or making things up, and I find it difficult to paint what I don't see, I need to set up fairly accurately and use coloured paper positioned in the background... then I don't have to second guess. Perhaps one day... However once the blocking in of the colours and tones are in, then one can decide to tweak and modulate to the desired effect.

Within that family of 4 or 5 tones which I have decided on and more or less established at the early blocking stage, I can now play around with various cool and warm version of those areas.

I love this stage of the painting, almost there and still strong and fresh...

AARGH! Day - or 'Does anyone want a spare Mum?'

'PAIN' 12 x 12in - French acrylic on canvas - by Zulu (Heather Towns)

This painting is a small work of 12 x 12in that I own, painted by a friend of mine ZULU (Heather Towns) and titled PAIN.

Up to now, I never understood WHY that particular title? - as I was attracted by the playfulness and her typical joyful colours.

Well now I totally understand that title! This painting is absolutely what my brain went through on Sunday after the following episode with my mother:

My mother lives between Vanuatu (my birthplace) and Australia. She's a lively 84, needing to come to Australia to rest and go for all her medical checkups.  Last Sunday, I pick her up in the morning at the airport, we spend most of the day at Paddy's market, Chinatown (her favourite haunt), then at 4pm, we decide she's getting tired, I get her to sit on one of the rock sculpture seats, on the busy footpath in front of Paddy's, with trolley full of fruit and vegies, whilst I go pick the car up.

My mum in her element

Really busy day around Chinatown, car is parked far away, by the time I drive past for fast pick up where she is sitting, its 4:30 - no MUM! I park the car in No Parking zone, and for 45 min I search, I ask people if a little old lady was taken ill, and get totally stressed, imagining the worst... ah... knowing her, I think: she's pretty impatient, and she's probably taken the bus and train home (a trip which usually take 30min)... no she can't, she's only got her purse, her handbag and luggage are in the car... but maybe...

I ring Mark her neighbour below her appartment who has the keys and ask him to check if mum is there... no mum. Now I really panic,  I go to the market Security centre give details, then I go to the police station and ask what to do... they check the city hospitals' database... no mum... well that has to be good. By now its 5:45, the police tell me to go back to search once more, then if no mum by 6 -  pick up my illegally parked car which has probably a few parking tickets by now, come back to the station and they will issue a formal 'missing person' notification.

6pm, now I'm imagining kidnapping, mugging, morgue... but I try to keep cool, and before troubling the police a second time I ring Mark once again to check my mum's apartment... whilst I'm on the phone, he goes to the door and says "oh, she's just coming up the stairs, being helped by the next building neighbour, Philip, with the trolley full of vegetables... I guess you'll want to talk to her..."

At this stage, the mixture of total angst, extraordinary relief, followed by extreme anger and a wishing to murder, my mind explodes into those colours and shapes of that painting of Zulu's called Pain... and yes, I now totally get it!

Well, I guess it is a happy ending, especially since no parking fines!

Hipeastrum project - first stages

COMPOSITION:

I really envy those artists who take about 10 to 15 mins to do a still life set up. Alas, it is not the case with me. When I used to do 'Tuesday painting' with another painting buddy, Sally (who unfortunately for me moved back to England) would be well into her painting, while I was still moving fruits or vases around 3 hours later!

However, during a wonderful workshop month with Civita JSS last year, some of my best still lifes were of simple setups put together by one of the wonderful teachers, Jody Joseph, in a few minutes.

I asked her why her set ups for me always worked... what is the secret. As far as I understood - its not so much the objects and how they are placed, but how they relates to the 4 edges and what interesting negative spaces they create.

For example, if there is a large space between the object and the top edge, she would put a piece of card against the wall, to create a connection between the object and the top edge - this connection can be as simple as an imagined shadow, or a shift in colour.

So for this project, I decide to focus on that aspect of the composition. The Hipeastrum and its leaves, in its smokey blue glass is a pleasing enough object.

Connection to the edges:

The simple placement of the object on a white cardboard at an angle to the edge of the table, covered with brown paper, results in a strong horizontal line as well as a diagonal one, which in turn creates the connection of the object to the two sides of the canvas. The leaf and the cast shadow going out beyond the edge further strengthens that side connection.

The placement of the Otto Dix postcard makes a connection towards the bottom edge, as verticle line of the corner of the room makes the connection to the top edge.

So now we have an object solidly connected to the edges, thereby also creating interesting negative forms. Time for the drawing.

Again, following one of my Civita JSS workshop tutors teaching, I use straight lines for the drawing, focusing on a strong structure.


COLOURS
For this project, I observe and try and be as accurate as possible in painting the colours that I see, not what I 'think' I see. One way to do this is to put a palette of the mixed colour against the colour area of your subject to see if your mix matches.

I also pay attention how the neighbouring colours look and  as I lay them next to each other.

An interesting way to paint is to carefully observe each neighbouring shape and its colour, rather than observing a leaf, or a petal or a transparent vase. By concentrating on the juxtaposed or interlocked shapes, you reduce your subject to its simplest forms. In effect, a painting or an image is not a replica of the subject. It is a 2 dimentional rendition of a series of abstract forms, which the eyes then translate as a replica or an imitation of the original. I know... it kind of does your head in.

It is also useful to identify and paint your darkest darks and your lightest lights which can then be used as a reference point when you paint the tones in between.

Hippeastrum Lily and Otto Dix

Another Wednesday Project...

Since Philip (my husband) started to raise honey bees, his interest in growing flowers on our property has been a great for my painting subjects. I really love painting still lifes, the subject doesn't move... except that flowers do!

This lovely Hippeastrum was picked outside the kitchen, and was taken on a trip to Kerrie's studio. I love flowers that are sculptural and have a defined structure.

Some of Kerrie's old postcards were on the table and my favourite Otto Dix work ended up providing a nice balance to my simple set up.

Zorn Again!

Zorn (Anders Zorn) Palette
A few people have asked a clarification of this lovely looking colour chart, so at the risk of being repetitive, here are some pics. But as one friend pointed out, the proof of the pudding is in the painting it...

I cut a mat in Yupo Paper to be able to see all the colours swatches separated

Mat showing guidelines of the colour mixes

On the mat, are the instructions of how to mix the samples using the very limited palette of Yellow, Red and Black.

To top row shows the colour mixes in between the 2 Pure colours, to get various degrees of colour hues. For example the mixes of Yellow Ochre and Cadmium Red will give you various degree of oranges. The Cad Red and Black result in a purplish burgundy, and Cool Black (you can use Paynes Grey) plus Yellow Ochre will result in beautiful earthy greens.

The columns under each colour hue is achieved by adding various degrees of white to achieve 4 lighter tones. Its a good idea to do the Black first, and then use that column as a guide to get similar tonal values for all the other colour hues. Lots of squinting helps!

The lower 5 rows are a mirror image of the top 5 rows, but with a smidgen of the 3rd colour to change the temperature

The zorn palette mix showing colours next to each other

  Its really quite incredible how the colours seem different here to the pic with the mat, separating each square with a white border.  Colours can visually change quite dratiscally depending on which other colours you paint them next to. The brilliant Bauhaus artist Josef Albers spent a lifetime researching and teaching the magic and science of colour.

WIP - Thank God its Wednesday - Painting day (who's counting?)

This 30 day challenge is really interesting:

Why? Because I'm succeeding in blogging each day? Nope!

Because I'm still blogging in spite of being 11 days behind? Yep!

These days, I have learnt to be kind to myself, not to be critical of my small failings and just start again and again... Can't recall the countless times I've started an every day walking schedule, or a week long detox diet, only to just start over again and again without feeling guilty.

This posting is a WIP post (work in progress), as opposed to a TIP post where the information could be useful to other student of painting.

Wednesdays come around like lightning, the day I go to my painting buddy's studio. Today I finally tackle a potted plant which I've been eyeing for a long time... but hesitated... all those leaves!

Work in progress - 'Kerrie's potted plant' oil on linen - 12 x 16in

 The challenge here is not to get too engrossed in the details, keeping areas in the foliage simple. Easier said than done. Other challenge is to decide where to push the colours, as in reality, the colours are very subtle and monochromatic. This first stage will do, it has enough information for me to continue playing with it at a later date in my own studio.

The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions

... I reckon that Hell must be hellova more interesting place than the 'other' one! In my typical convent school upbringing, feelings of guilt well up inside, until a small voice says: 'who gives a toss?!... so you missed 3 days of the 30 day challenge... so what.

Indeed. So here is Self Portrait IV with the Zorn Palette, and no lengthy description... they say a pic is worth a thousand words... who said that? who cares? Hey, I'm getting the hang of it... I am the boss of me. I digress. A Nano senior moment... or is it mental moment? Just post the picture Mim!

Self Portrait III with the Zorn Palette

Back to core business... that of further exploration of that Zorn limited palette.

Its painting Wednesday with Kerrie again, hot sunny day, her garden is exploding with colour, but let's remain focused with the seemingly unexciting 3 colours squeezed out on my palette. Ho hum! Yes the Yellow Ochre, the Cadmium Red and the cool Black.

Today, I feel cheerful and somewhat reckless... let's get stuck into it and not take ourselves too seriously. To hell with creating an accurate likeness and I just concentrate on a brighter palette for another of my 'selfie' with a focus on mid tone values...

In the previous painting 'Self Portrait II', the focus was on the light values and the dark values of the face half in shadow. Also I was attempting an accurate likeness through constant measuring and comparing.

The more you understand tonal values, the more you can start to manipulate the painting other than what you see... you are no longer slave to painting exactly what you see, you have your own internal 'lighter' or 'darker' button... just like on your iPhone camera!

Self Portrait III (at Kerrie's)

Just to clarify the pic below, I have set up my easel with a palette of our now very familiar colour pigments, and set a mirror as close as possible to the easel, so that I can see my face clearly.

After a quick sketch (I'm getting to know how my features are placed by now) I attempt to set out the correct tonal values, as opposed to correct colour hues. If you concentrate on accurate tone values, you can place the most outrageous colours and you work will still work out... that's how some of the French Fauvists and German Expressionist did it.

Stage 1

Just about there! Let's not overwork it...

Kerrie's garden breaking out into summer... no Zorn limited palette colours there!!!

On Reflection... 5 reasons to write a blog

Some more pics of that wondrous garden, Red Cow Farm.

In the meantime, I'm musing on the five reasons for me to write this blog. Well the most obvious one:

1. To have a platform to show my art, and to write about it in more detail and depth than one would on facebook or other social meda platforms. The aim is to make my art more familiar to the public and followers, to do my own marketing, with the possibility of a future sale.

2. Another possible reason. I have spent the last year, since a fabulous workshop with JSS in Civita with Catherine Kehoe, finally embracing social media as an outlet for the sale of my paintings and to connect with a great group of artists. Its been an intense time, learning how to build my website, use facebook, pinterest, instagram and the blog... especially as I am definitely not IT savvy. But if I can do, so can other artists, and perhaps I can write, instruct or help others to do it also.

3. I used to a teacher at a high school, then some design colleges and finally a university lecturer. Education has always been a substantial part of my life. The idea of teaching art, or giving workshops myself seems to be the natural development of my art journey. And the financial earnings would certainly help buy the next batch of paints and art material.

4. Making art can be a solitary activity. Through a blog, one can express ideas, doubts, discussions and get feedback, wisdoms and support.

5. Last but not least, this blog can be a diary recording special and not so special events that make up a life on a farm in one of the most beautiful valleys in the world, and how it impacts on my art.

Next, is to work out headings or sub-headings or hashtags, so that all posts can be sorted within those five sections or more. Its important to try and organise that aspect, so that filing, sorting or finding posts becomes easy.

hmmm, lots to think about!

Red Cow Day!

The day before yesterday it was 42ºC, the following day the temperature dropped to 20ºC! A fortunate thing, as on that day, I and 3 other artist friends had planned to visit a wonderful garden not far from the valley - Red Cow Farm at Sutton Forest... don't ask, too long to explain.

Suffice it to say that it was absolutely magical! I liked it better than Monet's Giverny... tall order I know! But this garden had an incredible soul! I'm still floating. So inspiring! and its designer Ali Mentesh was amazingly generous and informative to two of our group who are avid gardeners (not me... I'm the one that has the black thumb with the kiss of death)

I'll be back!

Self Portrait II with the Zorn Palette

Another attempt of a self portrait using the limited Zorn palette with a little more thought and planning. Sometimes planning and care result in a more successful likeness, but at the cost of spontaneity freshness. Them's are the breaks. I guess there is no 'right' way to paint portraits... more a  case of artistic license?

Final product

Back in my own studio working on stage 1- again a charcoal sketch on the canvas

Careful study in mirror and guidelines as accurate as possible

Mixing the various hues, then tonal values from our familiar limited palette once again.

When the painting is not going quite the way you wanted, its most helpful to scrape all the paint off. It usually improves the work.

The marvellous artist and teacher Lennart Anderson, upon being asked by a student his advice on how she could improve her current painting, he told her she should scrape all the paint off... that it would help unify it... he was absolutely right! What a brilliant man he was.

Today, my painting turned out yuck, so I scraped it... and it really improved! I rather liked it, but of course then I could not resist 'improving, fixing, fiddling...' familiar story?

The 'scrape it off' look...

(Day 4) Wednesday Painting : Selfie and the Zorn Palette

Thank God for Wednesday - the day I paint in Kerrie's studio. On this particular day, I decide to break the six week painting drought, that well known 'artist block' sitting on my back since my group show in September.

When you have absolutely no idea what to paint, a self portrait excercise is always useful and the modeling cost is right!

Starting first with a pencil sketch on paper to get the ol' skills warmed up... deciding on where the light and shadow meet, constantly measuring and comparing distances, getting back the feel of pressure and texture. Drawing a face is a bit like being a surveyor and mapping the lay of the land.

Once a bit more familiar with those contours, its time to sketch a few guide lines on canvas. Again with the measuring and comparing of distances. A few lines showing where the planes change. It always helps to forget that one is drawing a face... but rather a simple shape next to another shape, the relationship of that shape to its neighbour and to the whole. You are making a construction really, and using mostly straight lines is a good tool, as it tends to gives your drawing a kind of solidity and a hopefully a good foundation.

Using a charcoal stick is a good idea - more forgiving

Squeeze out that limited palette of yellow, red and black and white

'Black ain't always black'. I've squeezed out 3 blacks to test out - Williamsburg cool black and two other brands of Ivory black. Its interesting to see the difference when white is added.

Then straight into it, doing the shadow areas first. The great thing with such a limited palette is that you tend to paint rich pigmented shadow areas. Again, trying to concentrate on the combinations of simple shapes and their tonal values rather than trying to accurately represent what you think should be a face, is a useful exercise. It makes you more adventurous, relaxed, less judgmental and its a lot more fun.

  How many times have you heard an artist say 'I should have stopped earlier'. This is the stage that I should have stopped. I like the spontaneous brushstrokes and more dramatic use of tonal values...

... but one always wants go on adjusting, fiddling, fixing... that's the nature of making a painting I guess. However, I'm pleased with what can be achieved with that limited palette. The next time, I might try doing more careful planning with the colour mixing.

Ah well, all in a day's work! The painting was on a 12 x 16in linen stretched canvas.

Zorn Palette - easy way to mix accurate colours and values (day 3)

To make the Zorn colour chart a useful and an accurate reference tool for colour mixing, its best to mix as many of the colour samples on your palette before placing them on your chart. This is no time to be stingy with your oil paints, as you want the best result for a chart which can be useful to an artist for years to come.

I find the best results come from using a palette knife rather than a brush for application to your chart. The colours will have more body and intensity.

Self portrait by Anders Zorn with his famous limited palette

Top row of chart showing pure pigments of Yellow(ochre), Cadmium Red and Black(cool) with mixes in between

Add white to each colour to give a range of 4 more tones (values) ranging from dark to light

Zorn Colour chart with the lower half reflecting the top half tinted with a little of the third colour

In the top row of the chart - the 1st square is the pure Yellow ochre, the 5th square along is the cadmium Red (pretty obvious!) with the cool Black being the 9th square along. The in between squares are various degree mixes of Yellow and Red, Red and Black, Black and Yellow.

The careful addition of white result in a range of 4 tones, from the pure pigments and their mixes to very light. It is useful to do the Black column first, and then use it as a visual guide to mix the tonal values of the neighbouring colours.

The lower half is a reflection of the top half, but slightly tinted with the 3rd colour: Yellow and its mixes with Red are tinted with Black; Red and its mixes with Black are tinted with Yellow; Black and its mixes with Yellow are tinted with red thus creating a beautiful shift in 'temperature'

Zorn Palette (day 2 of 30 day challenge)

Today is the start of a challenge to see if I can do a posting each day for 30 days running... I'm nothing if not a supreme optimist. But to make it easy on myself, I'll start with posting what I've been doing lately - playing around with the limited palette which Anders Zorn was famous for.
If there is one thing I love doing, is colour charts... they tend to slip you into a meditative zone, requiring a bit of focus but most of all a chance to play around with some beautiful colour combos.
For my version, I have chosen to use:
1. Cadmium Red (Winsor and Newton)
2. Cool Black (Williamsburg)
3. Ochre Yellow (Gamblin)
The reason for recording the brand name, is that it is sometimes astonishing, the discrepancy that exists between brands, and this can be all important, especially if you are a colourist. This is the beginning of my chart:

Let's crank it up again!

Almost 4 years since my last posting... wow, its amost like a confession! Well better late than never, and again, I think its better to do an imperfect job than wait till its perfect to make it public!

So here goes with posting a pic...

'Kerrie's Singing Bowl', oil on gessoed panel, 6 x 6in

....quite appropriate to give this rebirth a little OHM blessing!

The other milestone which I am proud of, is that I have finally set up my website through Weebly software, using my own domain name from HostGator, the process of which was a marathon in itself. Here is the address for now (I'm sure that its suppose to be somewhere else on this blog but until I find out where...):

www.myriamkinyee.com

phew!!! that's it for today!