French village painting back in progress; plus a blog award!

I managed to slip away for a few short hours yesterday to work on the oil painting I'd sketched out before Christmas. I have some real challenges with photography at my temporary painting site, so the photo is not great. But hopefully it can give an idea and I can figure out a better way to photograph as I move further along. Here I'm just trying to establish a good sense of notan in my design (AKA: my pattern of light and shadow):

In looking at the digital image of this painting, I am seeing too much busy-ness in the shadow pattern on the ground, so I should probably benefit from simplifying this somewhat. This is where positioning a large mirror across from your painting station really comes in handy. The reverse image in the mirror really helps to provide an alternate view so that you can see errors and make adjustments. I'm lacking a mirror right now in my temporary studio setup. In addition, I have very little room to step back. So it's often not until I get home and download my digital shots that I am able to see the "fresh view" .

In addition to finally getting back to work on this painting, at long last I'd like to thank lovely artist Amy Sullivan for her kind recognition of my blog some time ago with an Art y Pico Award. I am just embarrassed it has taken me so long to respond to this, but I guess it speaks to the sense of overwhelm I've been experiencing during these last couple of months. In any event, I hope it's not too late to pick up the torch.

The Rules:

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award through creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.

2. Each award should have the name of the author with a link to their blog.

3. Award winners have to post the award with the name and link to the blog of the person who gave them the award.

4. Post a comment on each recipient's blog so they know they've been picked.

5. Show these rules and this paragraph explaining the awards origination. "The Arte y Pico Award" has arisen from the daily visits that I make to many blogs which nourish and enrich me with creativity. In them, I see dedication, creativity, care, comradeship, but mainly, ART, much art. I want to share this prize with all those bloggers that entertain and enrich me day to day. Doubtlessly, there are many and it will be hard to pick just a few." ~Without further ado, please check out these wonderful artists~

~1~ Marilyn King, a wonderful artist whose work and blog has grown by leaps and bounds ~ check her out~

~2~ Rick Nilson, who makes truly unique and imaginative paintings, mostly of the Outer Banks of North Carolina, with cryptic quirky comments to go along with them. I always enjoy my visits to his blog, and I'm sure you will too.

~3~ Dianne Mize, for her wonderful work on her Bagatelles and Meanderings blog. From what I've read on her blog she's run out of "Tag Steam". I can actually understand. This tagging stuff takes time, so in a way I hate to harass her ;-)  But even if she can't participate I couldn't help but mention her blog any way--I really love her paintings and drawings and the thoughts she shares about her processes are wonderfully interesting.

~4~Keith Wilkinson~I first learned of his blog, The Filbert and Rigger from Marilyn King and I've really enjoyed following his work and seeing his newest, mostly e plein air paintings. Very inspiring!

~5~ Molly Young~my niece. Her blog is relatively new, but every time I visit I am impressed by her growth and her willingness to try new things. Go Molly!

Studio building updates; plus a sale

Well, it looks like the moving schedule madness is now taking hold, so I make no promises of posting many new paintings over the next several days. I have a lot of work ahead of me and a lot of decisions to make as I move out of my current studio space. The new studio will be less than half the size of my current one. This isn't a complaint, mind you (after all the space will be my very own.) But I will have to make the most of the space I have. So in between the packing, I'm prepping for a Studio Moving Sale this coming Friday and Saturday at the gallery.  I'm being pretty ruthless about what I'm allowing myself to hold onto (believe me, no easy task but it must be done.) As a result I'll be offering some great sale prices on selected works from my inventory (mostly older landscapes and plein air studies); plus sale prices on prints,  some picture frames (new, used, and 'scratch and dent') and a few art supplies. If you're in the vicinity come on by and check out the sale. 

As for our garage/studio building project, rainy weather has slowed our progress a little, but progress is still being made. As I write this, the plumber is making a racket outside the door, trying to get things lined up for the first of several plumbing inspections. I don't have a lot of new "progress" shots to show, but the foundation guys have built the forms (currently protected from the rain by a big tarp.) So once the plumbing passes inspection #1, they can set about pouring the concrete. 

Meanwhile here are some pictures of the plans that have been drawn up by the builder:

Side elevation:

 I actually think of this as the front, but the builder calls it the side elevation. It's the long part of the building, facing out to our side street. The left end has a little portico/porch that faces the back of the house. At some point I'd like to have a little courtyard patio join the two structures of the house and studio. This side faces roughly east, so I only have windows on the left part. The painting area will be on the right, and I'll probably put some kind of trellis or other tall feature on the exterior to balance the windows at the other end.

Left end elevation:

This is the end with the portico that faces the house. Probably this will be the main door I use to come in and out, though the French doors shown above will be good for loading/unloading from the nearby alley. The portico allows for a loft area on the inside above my office for storage, so that upper window over the porch is just for looks and light.

Floorplan:

This image is a bit hard to read, but here I've overlaid my proposed "room" plan (the furniture/interior wall) on top of the builder's drawing so that I could see how much of my crap I could cram in there ;-)  . Since I seem to have a 2-D brain, it's really hard for me to imagine the actual space until I'm in there. So aside from the painting area (and utility sink) being on the right side and my office being to the left, the particulars of the furniture arrangements may change. Therefore, we've opted not to have the builder install the interior wall. If I find I can fit a wallor room divider (and right now I think I'd really like to have more wall space) we would have to come up with an after-the-fact solution, space and budget allowing. Not shown (but planned) are ceiling fans--one on each end of the building. We're addressing the other considerations (hvac, insulation, drywall, lighting, picture rails, flooring, etc.) in due time, though right now we're just focusing on getting the structure up and the roof on.

Right end elevation (interior view):

This shows the interior wall on the right end of the building. This is my studio side and the wall faces roughly north. But there is an another building just across an alley on this side, so I have high windows here. They will let in some light, though unfortunately the neighboring building will block it somewhat. I wanted fancy shaped arched or triangular architectural windows here....until I saw the price. So we quickly opted for more standard windows. They all open, and the two smaller windows are awning windows.

The builder we've been working is a company called Bradley Buildings out of the Atlanta area. They've been great to work with so far, and very patient-- especially since this is the one zillionth version of these drawings they've come up with. We started out with something very different, but changes were made based on our lot restrictions. I also made a decision even after that point to further reduce the overall size so that the structure would be more in proportion to our house and lot.

Well, enough of this building stuff. Guess I'm pretty excited about all of this, but it may be a little too much information for a painting blog. It's time to get back to packing any way.

Art Studio update, and which wall color?

Well, we came back from our beach vacation this past weekend to find out that our building permit application for the garage/studio was approved. We were pleasantly surprised, especially considering it only took a week, and we had been warned that this process could take much longer. I'll not gloat too soon though. We have a long process and many permit applications yet ahead; but at least we can get this ball rolling. I've got to get some painting and packing done today, but soon I will share my little floor plan I've worked out for my work space. Meanwhile, here's a related question I've just received from a fellow artist, followed by my response:

Q: Just moved into my new home. I have a north facingwall with lots of windows and storage space, now I need a wall paintcolor... any suggestions???

-J.A.

Dear J.A.-

I am just getting started building a studio, so this is a topic I need to investigate myself. My main thought is to do something neutral. White can tend to make the light bounce around a lot, especially if you have lots of windows. You might check out artist Casey Child's blog post about the paint color he picked. A lot of portrait painters are into this neutral gray-green. I have no problem with the hue but I'm a little afraid the value shown at the above link would be too dark for me. But it could just be my monitor or his photos --or it could be that the walls don't need to be as light as I think they should be (Any thoughts, anyone?) In any event, whatever color I am considering, I'll try out in swatches in my own space first. Paint colors can look very different from one location to the next.

Vacation time and odds and ends

We're heading to the beach for a week for a little much needed R&R. I'll be bringing my paints and my laptop with me, but I have no idea if I'll have good internet access there for blogging. In any event, this will be a "painting and blogging optional" trip so it may be kind of quiet here on the blog for a few days.  Once we return I'll start the serious packing for the studio move. And not long after, we can hopefully get started on building me a place to eventually move to!  I've been pretty quiet about the potential project of building a home studio lately, because writing about waiting for this or that contractor to call us back with a quote doesn't really make for very interesting writing! But finally, we've gotten some quotes and the survey has been completed. So since we have enough info to feel secure that we can actually build on the proposed site we've just submitted an application for a building permit.

It's been a lot of "hurry up and wait." If we get our permit withouta hitch, I'll share more about the actual plans and process. All I can say right now is that everything I've heard about these things taking a lot longer than expected has definitely been true in my case--especially since we haven't even begun to level the ground.  

Ah well, at least we have had some progress. As for the Outer Banks, the weather looks a little "iffy" right now, but they're calling for sunshine by Monday (I hope!) In any event, while I know I'll be fine no matter what, the best part of this vacation will be taking some time off from worrying about this stuff.

Wet panel carriers, plus more on pochade boxes

I have a new painting to share, but the rain we're getting is making it hard for me to get good light for a photo. Hopefully I'll get something to show a little later today. Meanwhile, those readers who are "gear-heads" like me might enjoy some light reading on plein air gear: Wet Panel Carriers:

Ever wonder how to carry those wet paintings around after a day of plein air painting? Never fear, that's why wet panel carriers were invented. :-)  There are a number of commercially available boxes designed with interior slots to hold a few wet panels at a time. Raymar is well knownamong plein air painters for their lightweight and moderately priced wet panel carrier made out of corrugated plastic.

But with very little time, ingenuity, and even less cash, it's easy to make your own, even if you aren't into gagetry or woodworking. The folks on the WetCanvas plein air forum have discussed this topic endlessly. Here are a few of the solutions I've bookmarked:

1. Marc Hanson's wet panel carrier, cheap and fast.
2. Cost Cutter Ideas from Larry Seiler and others- includes wet panel carriers and other home made solutions for some of your plein air painting gadgetry.
3. And lastly, here's Wayne Gaudon's solution, and the one I've tried myself (with a few modifications.) Easy!  It uses el-cheapo Walmart picture frames and a few very simple tools. I pretty much ditched the tools and came up with the lazy woman's version. As soon as I photograph it I'll write about my own experience with this version of the home made panel carrier.

Pochade boxes

Don't worry, you'll not get another thousand-word dissertation from me on plein air easels (but if you missed it the first time, you can read my thoughts here, here here and here).

This time, Charlie Parker has taken good care of this task on his most interesting art blog Lines and Colors. If you're in the market for a pochade box and feel overwhelmed by the choices, this post will go a long way towards helping you along in your decision. I was happy to see that he wrote abouta new pochade box I've been lusting after myself- made by Alla Prima Pochade.

I first saw one of these boxes (the Bitterroot Lite)  demo'ed in France by fellow artist-traveler Joyce Gabriel, and I was impressed with the many thoughtful and unique features, and how all of it folded up into one neat little package to fit inside her everyday backpack.

P.S. If you have extra reading time, check out the rest of Charlie's site for lots of great art coverage, including his latest post on a painter I've long admired, Richard Schmid.  This is a timely post for me personally, as this summer I've been re-reading Schmid's wonderful book, "Alla Prima" (also available in a more  affordable paperback) and doing the color charts he recommends (incredibly enlightening!)  You also might enjoy Joyce's posts and pics on her trip to France . I met Joyce at Le Vieux Couvent where I'll be teaching my own workshop next spring.