I tented for near two weeks in the far NW corner of Wisconsin outside Superior on Lake Superior. Unfortunately, it rained nine of twelve days, which is not fun for a plein air painter...
I thought I'd take share one acrylic I did this past week at the St Louis river near Tomson, Minnesota at the far western entrance to Jay Cooke Park...
Here is my set up...a 20"x 24" stretched linen canvas on my El Greco Mahogany halfbox French easel...and of course, a gorgeous inspiring location-
I begin mixing some darker value of violet...use a bristle and draw out contours of the masses. Ordinarily, or with oils...on a canvas this size, I like to wrap a rag around my finger dipping in turps and not bother drawing contours, but masses in the large shapes. It is not as practical with acrylics as the paint seems to resist an easy wiping on and is just as easy in this case using brushes as would be a rag. That I found out from experience...
Next I use a larger synthetic flat. I put paint around the exterior contours of a styro foam picnic plate, mixing in the center of the plate for a palette. I work very quickly, and there really is not choice for the acrylic plein airist as the paint will dry on you especially in the presence of a warm sun. I put out what I need, and really not more...and my intent is to block in those contour lines with color masses. I paint acrylics generally from dark to light. I mass in the darkest value and work layers building toward the lighter and warmer colors over the top-
my paints are Galeria, using the convenience of the 200 ml pour spout flip top jars, and quite affordable at about $10 per bottle of color. For years I used Atelier professional Chromacryl colors...but I have come to enjoy and appreciate these Galeria pigments. They are bulky, and I haul this plastic toolbox around which can double up as a seat for me to sit on if I should like-
there has been some talk in the past about wearing or using sunglasses in lieu of bright sun, and many here know I tend to paint backlit subjects which has me looking into the sun more often than not. Hard on the eyes. Here, I took my sunglasses and put them over the camera lens to give you an idea how it differs from the natural appearance of the view. First without the glasses, next with...
You can see that color is a bit compromized...but I allow the glasses to sit just a bit down on my nose to give me relief from the sun, but lets me look down to see my color and mixing. I tilt my head a bit to see over the glasses at times to judge actual color. Its a bit of a pain....and at times I simply remove the glasses altogether, but looking toward the sun takes its toll believe me. This painting took four hours to complete, and after squinting my eyes, looking hard and so forth my eyes ended the session with a permanent annoying blur of everything and took nearly an hour or more for my vision to return to normal. Guess that's not good, and I intend to talk to an eye doctor about possible alternatives here in the next couple weeks.
Here now the masses blocked in are complete. The paint in its initial stages is fairly watercolor like or thin...and lets much of what is beneath visible, streaky. It will take a process of building up to arrive at the values and color I want, and the level of opacity I want of masses. This process though does give leverage and control that allows a lot of depth and variation in color which gives the acrylic its power in the end. Oil paint as a dense and thicker medium inherently captures existing light in the room or air and gives a jewel-like brilliance, acrylics achieves it by transparent layering or adding various gel mediums...
Its important now to begin to strengthen values, put some distance between foreground planes and the distance, and give character to the rock faces...so, I begin to suggest crevices, shadows, some more color and layering of the rocks...
here a closeup of that effort...
I work on defining and suggesting my distant trees mixing up some sky pigment. I don't paint trees. I don't advocate novice artists to think of the "what" of what they're painting. Artists see in a different language. Sure, Da Vinci wrote a whole book on tree anatomy based on an ideoogical worldview of mathematical ordering in the created universe, but...as artists we can see and judge in a visual language that can become highly refined.
After all...how many trees are there for you to study and attempt to become expert of? There are endless pines, gazillions of hard and soft wood deciduous trees. Instead...I squint my eyes, see the basic shape of the tree mass, block it in...then use sky pigment to sculpt negative space. Negative space is defined as that area seen around, in-between and thru a mass. So so so much easier suggesting trees this way than actually looking at and trying to paint the tree itself...
Here...you can see this tree work up close, and I have only refined the one tree...the others to the right waiting their turn. Once I shape the mass to appear as a tree with negative space pigment, I do go back into the foliage masses to suggest various value changes, depth, warm and cool...
One area many acrylic painters struggle with and where oil pigments shine is the nature of oil to be textural, impastoish, thicker...
I don't let that distinction stop with acrylics, because texture is an important finishing step for me to help suggest depth and suggest detail. I use Liquitex Extender gel medium (the only time I use a medium with acrylics, otherwise I use just water)...and mix about half gel half color. I use the painting knife and suggest nearest foliage....
I also use the knife and gel liberally to sculpt (and sculpting is really what it feels like) the suggestion of movement, foam...and effects of light...it appears very abstract and chaotic up close, but it is what it does for the viewing backed away. I squint my eyes often while applying this, as it gives me a sense of what it will look like backing up taking it in as a whole...
the water...
This pigment dries this way holding texture...and while the texture as an effect has been my motivation for using it, acrylics I have done on canvas surfaces have been confused even by gallery owners to be oils.
and now...here is the finished acrylic 20"x 24" plein air...
hope you find this useful and if nothing else, of interest...
Larry
Step by Step Demo...the St Louis River falls...
Bertoni
I'll return to it many times I am sure for inspiration and education!
Linear Mode
