My Approach to Painting on Location (a demo)

Note: This is a four part plein air painting demonstration of my painting "Vineyard Patterns".You can see the rest of the demo at the following links: Part II, Part III, Part IV (conclusion). 1. Step one: Choose a scene.

I often head out to the Virginia mountains to do some plein air painting, and on a morning last week I visited Veritas Vineyards in Afton Virginia. This is a beautiful winery and there are many possibilities for painting subject matter. However, my umbrella broke and I hadn't yet purchased a new one, which can make painting on location in an open field a bit difficult. If the sun is shining directly on your canvas, all you see is a bunch of glare and your paintings end up turning out way to dark and muddy as a result.

Having said that, I can't stress enough how important it is to take the time to choose a scene that excites and interests you. You have a better chance of producing a much better painting as a result. Luckily I came upon a nice shady spot in a private area off of the main road past the winery's tasting room and became excited about this scene:

Okay, so it loses something in my photograph, perhaps! But what I liked about this scene was the abstract shapes and patterns formed by the sweeping lines of the vines and ground. The light was constantly going back and forth behind cloud masses, making painting with consistent lighting very difficult. But that is the fun challenge of painting on location!

2. Lay out the design.

My paintings usually begin very inauspiciously, I'm afraid! All I want to do at this point is plan my layout and get the elements of the scene down in very abstract shapes.

As you can plainly see, I have to work quickly with the changing light, so I don't do a lot of detailed drawing. In fact, I'd say I do far fewer details in the plein air drawing stage than I do in the studio, and if any one were to come upon my painting at this stage they would hardly be impressed! But the marks mean something to me, and I guess that's what matters. In the coming days I will continue to unfold this plein air painting demo, so stay tuned!

Note: This is a four part plein air painting demonstration of my painting "Vineyard Patterns". You can see the rest of the demo at the following links: Part II, Part III, Part IV (conclusion).

Landscape Values- Part II

If I want to take it a step further than the small sketch, I can lay out a value sketch on my canvas, using a mix of alizarin crimson/ultramarine blue thinned with paint thinner. This is done very thinly. I use a rag to rub off most of the paint and just give me my drawing with the values as a stain to the canvas. Alternately you could use burnt sienna for the value sketch, but I don't typically use a lot of earth tones on my palette.  Here's the canvas value sketch I've done as the first stage of my painting:

I won't always do this detailed a drawing to begin, but since this scene is more complicated than my straight landscapes I thought it might be a good idea. When painting en plein air, it is a good idea to sketch out your composition and suggest some values perhaps, but the light changes so quickly that I wouldn't do this much detail at the beginning stage unless I could return to the same spot at the same time of day on subsequent days.

Tags: art painting landscape painting artist plein air Italy travel

Back from the Workshop

The Friday workshop was a lot of fun. I was impressed by the talent and friendliness of the entire group, and it sure made my experience a real joy. I look forward to giving more workshops in the future! I will post more pictures of the class on in my "photo journal" on my website when I have time, but here are a few images in the meantime. The class began with a little talk and a demonstration. Here is a shot of the classroom. I'm standing in the front of the room (wearing a black shirt and green apron).

Giving the demo... 

An action shot of the painting process; I'm laying in my lightest and darkest areas first to establish my values. 

I got about half way done with this little painting before the participants broke out and started working on their own projects. I should have the finished painting up on my website soon.

Read about Jennifer's current and upcoming workshops here!

Painting Demo Part III

Things are really starting to take shape now. I've started to add more of the "local" color greens to the highlight side of my distant trees, allowing the deep blues and blue grays to act as the shadowed underside. I also begin to indicate the lines of the vineyards and the silvery olive trees that dot the distant countryside.  

 

The painting is looking close to being finished (at least in my mind). Just a few details to address now. I've given more dimension to the olive trees in front and have begun to restate the trunks, adding some of the bluish highlights just in places where the sun hits the gnarled forms. I keep my distant buildings soft and sketchy because they are farther away. Highlights on the distant trees are duller than the richer green colors that I put on the highlights in the foreground. I also add detail strokes to my cypresses. Now I take a nice long look at the painting to see what adjustments need to be made before I start finishing. Placing a mirror on the wall just opposite of your painting is an excellent tool for this purpose. It reflects the painting back in reverse, giving you a fresh viewpoint from which to see the painting anew. Sometimes when you've been staring at a painting for hours it's hard to see what needs to be changed.

 

 

Viola! Here is the painting in its finished (or nearly so) form. I've touched in the slight suggestion of windows on some of the buildings, taking care not to do too much of that in the distant ones. I've also developed my vineyards a little more and restated my tree branches. One adjustment I made with my reverse viewing/mirror technique was in the foreground trees. I didn't like how the tree line stopped just short of the edge of the picture plane. It made the composition feel too boxed in. So I extended the tree line out to the edge, which I think gives it a nicer sense of fluidity.

 

 

"Gli Olivi della Crete," Oil on Canvas, 30 x 40"

As you may have surmised that "Gli Olivi" means olive trees, and La Crete is the region in Tuscany that is depicted. Over the next week as I work on other paintings, I will prop this painting up in a visible spot in my studio and just keep looking at it. I may make minor adjustments to it if something really jumps out at me after a while, or I may deem it "finished" and put a coat of retouch varnish on it when it dries to the touch for protection.

Thanks for tuning in! If you'd like to see the entire demo again, please view the following links:

Painting Demo Part I Painting Demo Part II

To see more of my Italian Landscape paintings, click here.

Painting Demo Part II

I begin to block in some of the color here, laying in the foreground so that I can gauge the values and temperature of the rest of the color. I want to emphasize these wonderful olive trees and the sloping hill. The olive trees are so distinctive in the Tuscan countryside. At different distances and in different light they take on shades of green, silver, and even blue/violet. But back to the painting; the ground is too dark. The light from the sky is shining directly on the places that are not in shadow from the trees, so I will try to bring out some more highlights as I progress with the painting.

Here I am giving a little more form to the foreground trees, and I lay down the color for where I will show some of the bare land. All of the ground is still too dark in my opinion, but I begin to lighten it up a little.   

 

 

Blocking in more of the painting, the distance is starting to take shape. I lay in very cool colors in the far distance, using blues and cool greens. In general warm colors come forward and cool colors recede, so I will start with relatively cooler, lighter colors in the distance and stronger, warmer colors as the eye moves forward in the painting. I still use slightly darker blues, (ultramarine, plus a dab of cad red light and white/ or ultramarine plus a dab each of cad. orange and alizarin crimson and white) even in the middle ground, as I can always add more local color later. I've also lightened up the ochre ground colors throughout the painting, which I think looks better and more convincing.

I start to feel more comfortable once the canvas is covered with paint and there aren't any unaddressed areas. Even if the value or color isn't quite right, it helps me to "see" the painting better if I can have everything more or less laid out. I have now indicated the buildings, more of the distant trees, and have added detail to the olive trees in the foreground, including giving them some more shadow areas. As I have worked in more color, you can see I've painted out some of the tree trunks and branches that were indicated before, so I will have to restate them again at some point.

As you can see, this is very much a push and pull exercise for me. Some artists start with the distance and work forward, and I used to try and do that too, but I always tend to want to lay in some of the foreground so that I can better determine what the distance will need.