Painting a Plein Air of the Rat River (5/5)
Author: Larry Seiler, Contributing Editor
| This is a reworking of the original plein air from the Rat River Plein Air Oil session. Not that the original needed necessarily a reworking. It was fine as it was, and no doubt would look nice in a frame. I was interested in spicing up the drama. |
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| It is amazing to me that when I look on plein airs of mine...they sometimes remind me of the moments standing in front of my easel. I know the painting is an honest portrayal of what my eyes saw. But it is as if the "spirit" too has eyes, and its memory seems always to remember more drama. Perhaps in a sense, letting time by and then reworking a plein air taps into the pure essence of the "ah-hah" I was first attracted to. In time...perhaps my own evolution will find more boldness in my plein air sessions where I won't be tempted to do a reworking.
Then again...there is that creative impulse we have as artists that often likes experimentation. We look at a work and think...gee, what if I intensified the shadows over here.....warmed up color a bit over there, what would that do? Since the initial painting is well dry to touch...the temptation becomes more than I can bear, because with a rag and some turps/medium...I can rub right off what I end up not liking. So...with that in mind, I intensified the darks of the snow in shadow with the backlit background trees, and made them even cooler in color temperature. |
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| Knowing that the lower the sun is to the horizon the darker the reflections, and ALWAYS darker than that which is being reflected, I worked to nearly overstate this. "Always", that is, with the sun low. Note that when the sun is in a higher position, reflections will appear lighter than the shoreline it reflects.
I'm thinking that the foreground snow will by contrast appear much brighter. Yet...I don't want the snow totally white as I want to repeat color notes throughout the picture to achieve and maintain a color harmony. So, I mix just a hint of hansa yellow and some rose madder into the white to warm it up a bit. That adds to the suggestion of the effect and influence of the setting sunlight on these areas. I've worked more ripples into the tree edges reflected into the water, and may work it more still beyond what we see here. I used a soft 1/4" flat to lay the darker cooler snow into the background, using horizontal brushstrokes. I've added enough medium so that the strokes will blend out easier. Remember that absense of light (shadow) means the revealing of detail is lessened and thus...you want shadows to draw little attention. Brushstrokes serve to suggest detail, and to get the effect I want that convinces us of distance, I don't want strokes real visible. On the other hand...as I warm up the foreground branches on the right, and the bright snow...I load up the brush with thicker paint, lay the stroke down and leave it without blending. Such suggests to the eye that more is visible because that's what light does...it "reveals." I used the smaller palette knife of mine and made sure enough paint was picked up on the side edge, and made deliberate strokes to suggest branches reflecting warm sunlight. So...now, you decide. Should I have left well enough alone? Would the original plein air have been sufficient as such. Did I improve it with my modifications? Or...did I simply create another theme, and could I have just as well made two paintings for the price of one session? Such ponderings are what keep us coming back to the easel. You think I may have taught you something here. If you read between the lines, what you might note is that the real teacher is found observing nature and like anyone else...I too am a student standing at the easel! Believe me, there is a real danger thinking you have arrived, because that's when you stop learning. Have fun painting! |
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After 20 years experience as a musician and winning Midwest wildlife artist, Larry Seiler, (winner of Wisconsin's 1984 Wildlife Artist of the Year, and Wisconsin's 1998 Inland Trout Stamp) finds a reinvention of himself over the last 2-3 years with a passion for landscape painting. His pursuit of the contemplative and spiritual sanity in life finds a special connection with his love of direct on location painting often referred to as "Plein Air." |
| Larry is represented by Art International, and his work is in a number of Midwest galleries including Grassland Gallery in the Mall of America. His background includes teaching art education for the public schools, participation in artist's workshops, travels and seminar speaking. Larry's works are primarily oils and acrylics, with the practice often of doing plein air studies to produce larger in-studio images.
Larry is a contributing editor to WetCanvas! and can be reached via email at: lseiler@wetcanvas.com. He can also be found lurking in the WetCanvas! message boards. Larry's works are also available for sale at our sister site, www.art-agent.com. |
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