Green is For GO!



Inspiration Plein Air, studio completion from memory.



It was a green week.



An overdone block-in, but a start.

The Impressionistic Block-in Method is ideal for landscapes. No preliminary detailed drawing, just block-in the general color of the shapes and developed till satisfied. Good way to start, but Schmid's basic palette fell short. Viridian is not  going to satisfy all my green needs when painting the woodlands.


With the glorious weather Father's Day weekend, I dragged an easel out back and gave the impressionistic block-in a try in plein air. I chose to paint the contrast of cold and warm of the Olive and Maple tree stand.  I got as far as the photo on the right, when I had enough of painting plein air. Stooping to load my brush from the palette resting on the low patio side table and watching suicidal gnats kill themselves in my paint mixtures moved  me and the mess indoors--along with the grass clippings that clung to the bottom of my shoes. Lesson learned: don't paint plein air the day after the lawn was mowed and do use the easel you bought for plein air if you ever get the whim again.

This week turned out to be a week. of distress over green and photographic inefficiencies.  Schmid mentioned that green was a bear to photograph. He wasn't kidding.  I had a heck of a time  photographing this green painting throughout it's development.  My Nikon L120 and/or my computer refused to record Viridian mixtures as green; the photographs kept coming out blue.  I spent the week experimenting with different camera settings--till Thursday when I came closest to duplicating the colors of the painting and realized Viridian wasn't the only green I needed on my palette. I  charted the other greens in my paint box to compare and determine which were more suitable for landscapes. Sap green, Chromium Green Oxide and Permanent Green joined my Green Family.  My interest in photographic color correction software for the computer got stronger.

 

Viridian, Sap Green, Chromium Oxide Green and Permanent Green.

 

 

Schmid Start method 1: Line and Mass block in pushed a little further. I'm still not spending more time mixing the right values than I am  painting.  So more emphasis on palette time and observation, less time at the easel.  and when I do go to the easel, the mark has to be on target. Tonal accuracy begins at the palette with the knife, not a brush. Get over it! 

 

I did very little work on this mass/line block-in exercise this week. I was too busy overdoing my Impressionistic block-in.  I can't work on  two such different paintings at the same time.  I don't have the palette space. 

My new oil paint tambour

I'm feeling a bit discouraged.  While I am progressing with regards to constantly keeping the brushes clean, I am still falling back into old bad habits of not cleaning the palettes as often as they should be wiped down.  I think that's  due to my stinginess with paint. I dislike throwing out those dabs --and while mixed together they do make lovely grays, the grays are too dingy to use as an initial block in color, I prefer a fresh mix. of just a couple of colors.  I have to get over my miserly ways--and maybe it would be best to give up keeping a record of artist supply expenses? :-))

36 canvas panels; 3 gallery profile canvases, an
assortment of oil colors. There's going to be a lot of
paintings started; Linda has gotten serious.

Going through my notes this morning, I found this quote I jotted down from somewhere?  "Start a lot of paintings. Don't worry so much about finishing or likeness.  Those words must have come from one of the many videos I've watched?  Richard Schmid also said a painting doesn't have to be finished from side to side or corner to corner. Paint what made you paint and stop before you think you should.  This is incredibly hard to do.  I think the Impressionistic Block-in, the freest one of them all,  ironically did me in this week all  because I didn't stop when I should have. The irony in my screwed up thinking is: I'm miserly with paint left on the palette, but over the top .when painting freely and stocking my studio. The two characteristics don't jive. Open your eyes girl! You've decided to Go!