One of you asked me if I would show the painting that was on the easel in the last post. I am not happy with it and expect it will get worked on in the studio. But I will show you this picture from the last trip. It too will see some studio work, as is my practice. I might show that process for one of those. I paint everything outside, but it is what I do to them in the studio that makes them really work. Here is the initial lay in for that.
What I have done here is to let the white of the panel represent the snow and sky and wash in everything else (the paperdolls I spoke about last night), transparently. Again, as long as I keep the painting transparent I can shove it around as much as I like. I then cut back into it with the snow, which containing a lot of white is very opaque. Notice how much I cut in the snow in the foreground. The lay in is true, my later version is edited.This was a REAL gray day so there are no shadows on the snow and everything is a little flat. I will probably enliven it in the studio some.One of my friends e-mailed me and suggested that I was wrong to recommend wearing cotton in the cold. They recommended only synthetics or silk and wool. They also spoke glowingly of underarmor. A little research on my part found that the current recommendation from the woodsy types is against cotton. Evidently the new synthetics wick moisture away from your body more effectively. So I recommend you lean towards the synthetics, I guess. I have been perfectly comfortable out there for 35 years in outfits that included cotton and am fond of L.L. Bean chamois cloth shirts. However If you are getting cold, that sounds like a good thing to know. I have a really serious parka and snow pants. I often have only the parka on over a shirt and am fine till below zero when I add a wool sweater. I do think that some of the synthetics, like my horribly ugly orange hat are great though.
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19 comments:
Stape, when I painted outdoors in the High Sierras, I went to the local thrift shop and bought a bunch of old jumpsuit style ski suits. Got them for $3.00 a piece. They work great! I also believe in cotton long johns 100%. I am allergic to synthetics. Plus, I also bought up the ski boots at the thrift shop. Funny thing, that day I bought some old jeans and brought them back to the cabin. Inside one of the pockets was a baggie with several joints in it. Too bad I don`t smoke the stuff. I threw them out. I like your boots, look like they keep your feet high up from the freezing ground. Got to keep the feet dry and warm or it`s not any fun. Waterproof boots are what I look for too.
Oh yeah, I believe in working or tweaking the plein air painting back in the studio, just did it this past weekend. It made a so-so painting of a lady in a lingerie teddy on a chaise lounge look va-va-voom!
Love this kind of a post, Stape. Great seeing the beginnning and the build up. I can't imagine what you will do to this to improve it but I agree that warm sunlight in this picture may make it more interesting. But wouldn't you have to change everything. The sky color, the snow color and value changes between light and shadow... cast shadows, etc? many old panoramic landscapes had cloud shadows strategically placed. I would think that would be very hard to get right.
That painting is beautiful. I like when you show your paintings. I hope to see more. I also like when you talk about them. I look for the things you talk about and learn a great deal. I like the way this one shows how you edit as well. Great post.
I think the most important pieces come together in a painting after the scene is long gone and you are in your studio alone with your personal visual impressions and the mind's eye image. It's when the painting gets its life. It's separates the artists from the cameras.
Thanks for getting that important piece out there.
I, too, love to see your process. I also block out in the field and then take the painting back to the studio for interpretation. That way the painting gets to be about how the place made you feel, rather than the technicalities of the acutal scene, although keeping a sense of place is very important to me, as to you.
Your choice of seeking out and painting in places that artists have painted before gives your work and your words a tie to the art history of New England that is much appreciated.
Stape, this is Great!
It's more than I hoped for, seeing
and reading really relates your
process.
Tweeking things back at the studio
is permissable?
Good to know that.
I'm looking around for Moxie. If Minnesota has it I will get some.
Abra-Cadabra!
Great post Stapleton, You have a way of saying "it" that produces so many oh-yeah moments. Also I was feeling guilty for re-working so much in the studio.
Can you speak more about the shadows on gray days. Like how you "enliven" the painting once inside. Thanks again....
barbara b.
Two comments on one post..
That first pic,"Glorious Snow" I'll call it, has much appeal. I want to walk up to those buildings
and just look around.
Maybe talk to someone about something.
That enitial block in is about as close to "seeing" inside your thought process as you can give us. Very helpful Stape!
Those boots make me think of Frankenstien, AAUURRGGHH!!PAINT! GOOD!!
Billspaintingmt's comment about what Frankenstein would say made me laugh. Apparently I am not the only one who goes around thinking what that character would say about this or that painting I'm doing. I know it is ridiculous, but those old movies I grew up on have enormous currency in the back of my head. Also when you're out painting all alone, you might as well have imaginary conversations with whomever you'd like. Just remember when real people come around start acting normal again.
Love2;
I wish I could paint in the high Sierras. I have painted Tahoe. I don't think I would look good in those ski suits. Lycra and I are not compatible.
.....Stape
Willek:
I am not sure what I am going to do to it, but I don't think I will try to tale it to full sun.
..............Stape
Gregory: Thank you
...................Stape
Marian:
I think the studio part is where much of the art gets installed.
...................Stape
Jo-Ann;
I like to paint in areas that are art historically interesting.
.................Stape
Bill: Not only admissible but desirable I think. There is no Moxie in Minnesota I am guessing.
..........Stape
Barbara:
Thanks.I can speak about that, but I don't know if it comes next.
..................Stape
Bill:
Frankenstein would have loved these boots.
................Stape
Philip:
Normal is a setting on the dryer.
....Stape
Stape, I love this painting! The composition knocks one's socks off.
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