Color Planning & Fishing

An engrossing process involves choosing colors. THus, a process has emerged for actively choosing which colours to utilize. Beforehand this was sort of an ad hoc process, and, while I admit that books & manuals exist, I've always been too rushed or lazy to study the matter - save one time I learned about a technique I have alluded to, grisaille.

What has emerged is a bit of a record of which colours used bring about which results. Ideally, in the future, a record of how I arrived at each composition will remain, allowing me to reproduce a system I liked, find a colour again which I had mixed, and get used to using more mixes in the things.

1) I sampled and numbered all my available oil paints, separated by hue - the 'yellows' from 1 to 17, the 'reds' from one to 14, etc. Whites, Reds, Blues, Yellows, Blacks, Browns.

2) Take the paper canvas sheets and label each corner with the number of the piece being worked on. Then, dab points of paint, label, and mix. Some or all of these I then use to construct the landscape.

I have found this in general a good first step when I am looking at the book, the block of wood, and find myself COMPLETELY and hopelessly stuck! It can be a double edged sword, though, when the colour mixing process becomes more engaging that the painting!

3) create general personal colour wheels - something I've not done since first year of art school. Especially when playing around with a new pigment, and wanting to see where it can go.

This is all part of my larger goal with this process, which is to develop a painterly strategy that will eliminate that weird moment of vacuum, terror, and awe that grabs the jugular every blessed time the intention to begin a painting is framed.

Now, wanted to share re. this painting:

Fishing upon the Blythe-Sand, Tide Setting In - exhibited 1809

Oil on canvas
support: 889 x 1194 mm
painting

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

First of, a group, the Sandycombe Lodge Trust, is conserving a villa Turner apparently built himself (artist and architect as he was), allowing him to escape the big city and pursue restful hobbies such as fishing, walking and..as usual... making art:

He took his boat along the Thames, he walked the riverside and climbed Richmond Hill with its famous view along the ‘Matchless Vale’, and he drove out in his gig through what was then an area of woodland, farmland and market gardens – always sketching, sometimes painting, as he went. At Sandycombe Lodge a visitor remembered the artist standing by his drawing-room window, ‘refreshing his eye with the run of the branches’. Many of Turner’s most famous paintings date from this time, and were inspired by this Thames scenery, the Aeolian Harp ( l808) and England: Richmond Hill on the Prince Regent’s Birthday (1819) being two notable examples.

Secondly, though the painting in question does not belong to those mentioned above, it is one of the many he did portraying this activity. From the first one of his ever exhibited at the Royal Academy (shown partly finished here - since finished but not portrayed yet) onwards, fishing scenes of one sort or another play a large part of his ouvre - understandable due to the important role the sport had in his life.

JMW Turner would have felt right at home in Madison County, of course. A typical visit to local rivers and watering holes display the occasional fisher man, woman, families. The Laurel River, on the way to Hot Springs itself is one long highway of fisher people, with favoured spots demarcated by regulars with fishing canes, large canisters, and other objects.

As far as my version of 'Fishing...", something about the piece told me to use the pallete knife, as opposed to a paintbrush, to apply paint. Anyone who has ever iced a cake will know what this feels and looks like. Can't say exactly what led me to this - I know he has used it in his work, though possibly not exclusively in an entire painting - at least not during the current phase I'm covering (early 1800's). But viewing the piece let me see wide, discrete shapes among the cloud formations & a planar look to everything that led me to think "palette knife might work here". Skies are also more fun when we experiment with how to portray them. A quick application method, it does make it hard for a person to control what appears at times - plus you must really want the special texture to show up!

I had trouble finishing the water, though I knew I needed to, because I so enjoyed the look of the piece with the rough pallete application.

That's it, then. Before the week is out I hope to post photos of all completed works up to now - and possibly one more post or so. Also, please stay tuned for Rewards survey and other news from that end of things!

London - Crossing the Rubicon

Map of London, back in the day - 1806

First of, I would encourage anyone to visit this site to get a real Tate gallery experience - this is a FABULOUS online portal showing a 3D rendition of his works at the gallery - actually hung on walls - and seeing it just barely makes up for not being able to see it live.

This has become of interest to me, especially as I sense the scale on which Turner and I are working is so vastly different that it takes an effort for me to come to terms with the difference of process and outcome this creates. Possibly more on this later.

Secondly, a lovely correspondent has alerted me as to a Van Gogh exhibit in New York describing his later years - and how at one point Van Gogh himself completed 40 paintings in 40 days. If anyone has information about this, please let me know.

Today wanted to discuss this is painting:

London from Greenwich Park exhibited 1809

Oil on canvas
support: 902 x 1200 mm
painting

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

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Where burthen’d Thames reflect the crowded sail
Commercial care and busy toil prevail
Whoese murky veil, aspiring to the skies
Obscures thy beauty, and thy form denies
Save where thy spires pierce the doubtful air
As gleams of hope amidst a world of care

(Words by Turner - from the display caption February 2010)

I call this painting my own crossing of the Rubicon - because after completing it, I feel I can do anything!! I chose one of the bigger panels, thinking the panoramic view from Greenwich Park, which exists today, after a fashion (more below) deserved a bigger display. The main problems I discovered with this were that

a) I just don't LIKE working big, for some reason - the absolute largest piece I have habitually created does not pass 3 squared feet, and when left to my own devices everything I create is around 1 ft squared. The smaller, the better I feel about a piece. So, right off, the size of the canvas stalled me out a bit.

b) there was a lot of detail!! I once had an art instructor say "the only limit in how small you can work comes in whether you can see what you are doing or not" and tools exist which can help. Almost every square inch in this painting, for instance, had something to it that demanded use of the magnifying glass, an uncomfortable posture, and lots of patience. The magnifying glass is a pretty amazing tool. A lightbulb attached to it allows a person to get amazing close ups - I've worked with before, in this project and others, but in much smaller pieces! The size of the piece makes a difference, since a person reaches a certain saturation point from working close like this. If I am working on a piece that I know I can basically finish in one sitting, I will feel less of that restless itchiness that comes from deep focus and diminished mobility.

So, at first, dawdled with it, nothing much happening. It bears mentioning at this point that I have had a challenging past few days, where a weird & unexpected infection had me in its thrall for a few days. Not that the project has suffered - I am as of now caught up: with 15 paintings finished and 2 half-finished.
I might have let the sick state get the better of me absolutely but, I think of Frida Kahlo who was able to produce endlessly even after having been skewered by a traffic pole - so I carried on. But since I am neither of a heroic or speedy disposition, the condition has taken its toll - it took me like 5 hours to just get these blocked color areas shown at right - after endless procrastinations, consultations, and attending to other tasks. I finally left the painting there overnight to stew, to see if fresh eyes helped at all.

The next day proved more productive - I ended up spending anywhere from 6 to 8 hours on the thing. The sky was a rushed job, but in the end, DONE!

This project made me curious about London, in particular, this specific view of it. How much of it remains now? How have things changed between now and then?

I have been casually looking at the world of Regency England - the time where Turner was productive. Some of the things experienced were the Napoleonic Wars and the consequences of the American colonies' independence. It was a world of stage coaches, pleasure gardens, and duels of honor - a world captured excellently in Thackeray's Vanity Fair, and the work of Jane Austen. The era was particularly propitious to great literature - the British Romantic Period was in full swing, giving us Blake, Shelly and many more in addition to the above. Given to strong differences between socioeconomic classes, some of the issues experienced then resonate to this day - the seemingly chronic wars, the social ossification, the difference in income and lifestyles of the 'haves' and 'have nots'. In any event, Turner himself had some baggage to overcome in terms of his 'station in life', due to having been born in less stately circumstances than he might have wished - it might become relevant to speak more to this later. In any event, he painted London from the view of Greenwich Park, an ages-old park belonging to the Greenwich World Heritage Site. The meridian line which tyrannizes our watches cuts smack through the middle of this as well.

For a current view of the vantage point from where Turner sketched his work, one can see this video (click on pic)

One may notice many of the things in Turner's painting remain (including the Queen’s House and Greenwich Hospital which eventually became the Old Naval College), and the upwards curve of the river. One can even distinguish St Paul's Cathedral at the horizon level - something not easily seen in the modern-day view, so overtaken with skyscrapers as it is. Interestingly as well, the herd of red and fallow deer seen in the painting are still known to graze in the 183 acres this oldest of British Royal parks contains.

An interesting aside: these picturesque buildings so prominent in Turner's painting later on came to house a nuclear reactor:

"the Royal Naval College buildings were – as the chief British naval training centre between 1869 and 1998, including a fully functioning nuclear reactor between 1962 and 1996 – an institution that guaranteed the survival of the British empire. No Royal Naval College, then no Britain as we know it; rather a country that would pay a a closer resemblance to France and Spain than it does now." Seven Wonders of the World...

What a bizarre confluence of events could have led to a fully functional nuclear reactor practically in the middle of Londontown is more than I can imagine at present,and probably more than Turner could ever have conceived of - but there it is. I have spoken to Jimbo about it since then and come to find out it is fairly unremarkable to have working nuclear reactors in the middle of a large city - that in fact the first one was at a University of Chicago basement somewhere. Ah well, wonders never cease...

Would love nothing more than to spend more time inquiring into literature, culture, and society of early 19th century England but I need to make sure I complete another one before nightfall so as not to fall behind. Have a great week all! Will be in touch again soon.

Materials Questions and Acquisitions

OK, so I have spent far more time than I would have liked researching the materials needed and intended. Part of this problem has consisted of not ever really having KNOWN some technical aspects of the trade, such as the technical names of brushes, primers, gessos, etc. I have used either default materials or intuited a lot when it came time to acquire supplies - I never undertook a systematized study of the whole thing. At some level I realize I need to just base what I am to do on what I already know, but I feel that, since I am already making an investment in purchasing new supplies, I need to know what I am getting and why.

So, the first part of my process has involved brushes. Through catalog consultation and web research, I have found out the names, sizes, and functions of various brushes.

Sizes: As above illustrated, sizes range from less -than - zero to 24. The typical brush range I use (since I tend to work small) is less - than -zero to 4 or 6. However, having a few larger ones at hand facilitates many things - especially when it comes to glazing.

Types: for a good primer, here's a very basic site. I will review what has affected me most directly.

Round brushes come to a point, are round, and are the most traditional shape associated with painting. They hold a lot of fluid, but can be too soft for some work. They are also not particularly good for filling in large swaths of space, flat or bright brushes are better for that. These two also allow one to cover wide space while still maintaining a sharp outline edge. Bright brushes have shorter, often stiffer bristles, which make it difficult for them to hold paint, they can be great for texturing, however. Filberts are similar to flats and brights, but have an oval shape at the top which will soften the edge and makes for a less 'square' painting experience. Rigger brushes are great for detail and long, thin lines such as tree branches, though I find them hard to work with due to being difficult to control. Fan brushes can be fun - their unusual shape allows one to do unusual things or blend colours in a gradient. Specific detail work is also possible, though generally the shape makes it a fairly inflexible brush to use all the time. The mop has become one of my favorite kinds, especially when doing any glazing - obviously fatal for any detail work, they however have the magical ability to apply a uniform layer of paint without leaving a single brush mark.

Some new brushes I am excited to learn about are the rake, the deerfoot stippler, the dagger, the spotter, and the angular shader. In particular these last 3 are indispensable to fine detail work - that which I anticipate most doing.

The second phase has involved - of course - the paints. This has meant cataloguing every single tube of paint I have (comes to 78), checking which are viable, which are almost expired, which are duplicates, and, in general, which hues or pigments am I really lacking. This has taken the better part of a day - as did the brushes study the better part of a morning.

It allowed me to make a mini-painting on which to try.

The main thing I want to discuss re. paints is the concepts of hue, saturation, and value. Here's a short & sweet video explaining the issue, and here a more involved glossary tutorial.

In a nutshell, hue is that which we call the colour. Blue, red, etc. In its purest state - unmixed with black or white, a colour's chromacity is at its highest. Saturation is a similar idea - does the colour appear weak or strong? A highly saturated colour will look stronger, an unsaturated colour will look weak or washed out. We can think about magenta vs. pale pink to get an idea of what that means. Value relates to a hue's lightness or darkness - a lighter colour has a higher value.

Tint, tone, and shade are additionally useful concepts. A tint is a colour of lower saturation due to the addition of white. Tone is a colour modified by gray, and shade is a colour darkened by black, thus lessening its value.

My next challenge will be to ascertain which is the best sort of gesso or primer to use. I have used the standard white acrylic gesso by default- occasionally using a grey or transparent gesso for effects. However, I have found out about other primers and painting grounds which, though more expensive, seem to offer something closer to what artists have traditionally used - in addition, these grounds promise colorfastness and better permanence.

I may spend some time looking at this, though, since I do not have unlimited time or means, I may end up just using the same gesso I have for a while.

Hoping that by next writing I will have gotten around to submitting a final materials list to the supplier. Even if delayed, I have enough with me to begin on schedule, on Feb 24th.

SUCCESS!

I wanted my first post to show the actual screenshots showing this one as a successfully funded campaign.

In the next few days I will have to get very organized to be able to accomplish all the things mentioned (as well as general lifestyle tasks) all in as best a way as I can. I will need to

• take inventory of what's needed
• come up with an action plan regarding gathering/preparing wood for preparation - IE speak to the neighbor about possible collaboration
• set up a work space (issues - such as lighting, permanence of position, space required are all things to take into account)
• take inventory of backers so as to provide the appropriate gifts (including the 2 that mailed contributions due to not wanting to deal with the site) - this includes subscribing them to this blog since frequent updates are part of the package deal
  
• start where I can till the funds arrive (a 2 week wait from the day the campaign was deemed successful, and
• paint!

I also have to give a shout-out to my dear mother who went in there and PUSHED the thing to everyone imaginable right when the campaign was more than 75% done and only 25% funded. Her efforts made the pledges double, which gave me the impetus to go after the rest.

I also wanted to note that at one point, unbeknownst to me, my project actually appeared as 'most popular' in its category for a full week. That was fun, and definitely a first for me as well!

And, of course, I cannot forget the wonderful friends and strangers who saw fit to donate to my artistic process. I hope I will not let you down. The trust you have put in me and my process is immense.

Introductory Post

Am creating this post in anticipation of successfully funding a Kickstarter campaign titled '90 Paintings in 90 Days' AKA Epic Painting Project.

INSPIRATION

JMW Turner has always stirred my soul and fired my muse. Since relocating to Appalachian North Carolina, the thought of doing something simultaneously to honor and reconfigure Turner’s brilliance has become something of an obsession.

Finally my mother and my husband ganged up on me. Their challenge: “Do something with this; go to Kickstarter, and plead with the world for help in achieving your vision.” So here I am.
I intend to update this blog at least 3 times a week, if not once a day, so as to document this epic process. Some weeks I may opt to video blog and others write - in any event, I do intend to document this challenging and rewarding process, the outcome of which will be 90 Paintings in 90 Days.