Winter Work

One of my goals when I started my Home Range project was to do paintings that didn’t look so much alike. Most of my plein air work had been painted on sunny, summer mornings. This is definitely not a summer morning.  It is a dreary, cold winter day.

I live a half block away from this grain elevator and have noticed the guys working over there, moving either corn or soybeans from the big storage building over to the elevator. It makes me glad I am warm and cozy inside working on painting instead.

Another goal I had on my list, was to plan a painting rather than finding a scene and rendering it. To that end, this painting tells a story. I used several reference photos to piece it together. One photo had only the blue and white wagon, one the figure, and another the wider view of the scene. Because the inside of the elevator would turn to black in those photos, I also had to get up close and take more photos of the interior.

I added the birds (since there are always pigeons over there) and the smoke to give even more life to the scene. I also did a little experimenting with a wax crayon as a resist on the foreground and I was pleased with the results. I liked the limited color palette with just a touch of primary color. There is a lot going on in this painting, but I think it still works.

 

Waiting for a Train

This was a super fun watercolor to work on. I chose the reference photo because I thought it would be a challenge (it was!) and would take more than just a morning’s work (it did).  Since I live a block away from the train tracks, I spend a good deal of time waiting on trains. One day I snapped the reference picture  for the watercolor above, and I loved how it turned out. Since I’ve been wanting to practice adding people to my paintings, it worked for me on so many levels.

I especially love how the Daniel Smith brand watercolor, Hemetite, works so well for the texture on the shirt and on the black backplates of the lights. Hemetite is black in color and very granulating. It’s a beautiful watercolor paint to work with.

When planning a project like this one, it helps to have experience in knowing the properties of the colors and in which order to paint each area. I started with the person, because, for me, that was the most difficult and I knew if I didn’t get it right, I might as well start over. I also know from experience, that if I put the red stripe down first then try to paint next to it, the red will bleed as soon as the wet brush touches it, so I painted the yellow and grey first.

I love playing with the geometry and shadows. I am more comfortable with this type of subject because it can be painted in manageable sections. I have some more “Waiting for Trains” reference photos, so I might have to do a series.

Another Practice Sketch

So a little more fun with pre-painted backgrounds. This is a view of DeSoto Lake from the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center, within five miles from my home. Right now there are thousands of Snow Geese, Canada Geese, and Trumpeter Swans on the lake. On a drive yesterday, I saw a flock with more than thirty Trumpeter Swans. I have never seen so many swans at one time.

One of my struggles is adding figures and wildlife into my paintings. It is one of my goals, therefore, to work on that over the course of the next year. Robert Wade says once you do a thousand or so of these little sketches (he was talking about figures) you will start to get the hang of it. So I better get cracking.

I was pleased with the Canada Geese, but I felt they were a little big in proportion to the river pilings. Next time I will keep that in mind. Good lesson. I was pleased with the trees anyway.

Dreaming of Summer Watercolor Workshops

January, the time of year anything is possible. I love to browse the seed catalogs and summer watercolor workshops. It is a good time to dream and plan. A combined workshop and vacation is the ideal way to travel to my mind. In 2018, I attended a watercolor workshop on Orcas Island in Washington state and it was fabulous.

That said, I learned a few things about planning a paint vacation during this adventure and next time I will be a bit more wise about traveling and painting. For the most part it worked out smoothly, but I think there are a few things I’d do differently next time.

A friend and I traveled together to this location, and that worked out great. It helped with the cost and it was nice to have company. We flew across country, and I was able to pack all my plein air painting supplies plus a small folding camp stool and table in my carry on, and clothes in a checked bag. I almost ran out of paper, so next time pack more.

The workshop started on Monday and lasted until Friday, with Wednesday off for sight-seeing on our own. At first I was not thrilled about a midweek break; I was thinking of the economics of spending an extra day, but it worked out beautifully. It gave us a few days to acclimate to the island and decide where to explore on the day off. The next time I  go to a workshop, I decided that I’d book at least three more days at the end of it. This would give me time to paint scenes on my own, practicing new skills learned. I felt like I didn’t have enough time to relax and vacation while I was in such a beautiful place, and therefore became a little restless during our lessons.

One of the biggest benefits of taking a workshop from a local artist, I felt, was having a built-in tour guide. We had a “behind the scenes pass” to private property that we otherwise would not have access to. The lessons were another benefit, and we had a great teacher. I have painted a long time, but I can always learn so much. I try to remain open because I never know what valuable insights I’ll gain along the way. My best advice, paint outside your comfort zone.

 

 

 

Looking Back, Looking Forward

This is a scene I pass by every time I drive to town, and I’ve wanted to paint it for ages. It is a quintessential Missouri River Valley landscape. I call it Rand Island. It’s not really an island unless the Missouri River floods, like it did when I took the reference photo in 2011. That year the river spread sand over thousands of acres of superb farmland and private property as the floodwaters receded. So many of us moved from our homes and it cost in the millions of dollars to repair and replace all that was damaged. It barely made national news.

The “Island” is still there, no more than a high spot in the middle of a farm field just on the Iowa side of the Missouri River at Blair, Nebraska. The treeline in the background is the Missouri River and the distant hills are in Nebraska. It reminds me of the power of nature to shape and reshape the landscape which we think of as so permanent.

Looking back, I wonder why I didn’t paint it before. It didn’t take but a mornings work to finish. My excuses: no time, other projects more important, more of a wish than a goal. Life happens, but just like the river, it sometimes scours the landscape we thought was unchanging into a blank slate, one we can remake into anything. Then what?

Looking forward, I feel the time has come to prioritize the projects I want to accomplish. I decided instead of New Year’s Goals per se, I have written down a bunch of life goals to last many years, and from those, I’ve chosen a handful of the most important ones to work on this year. This blog is one of them. I am enjoying painting again, without the dissatisfaction of  the selling rat race. My writing is something else that will take priority for me this year. I’m excited to see what emerges from the blank slate we call 2020.