Tips to Follow for Successful Paintings - Page 2

CreativeHal · #16 10-23-2009, 09:40 AM

Hiya Larry,

Great thread with a lot of good and useful tips. Here is one that I have lived by throughout my career. Treat every piece of art as a piece to a puzzle. The puzzle isn't complete until you have washed out your brushes for the last time.

Hal

LarrySeiler · #17 10-23-2009, 09:46 AM

hal....hahaaa...better 'n gettin' hit over the head with a mallet!!!

blondheim12 · #18 10-23-2009, 10:26 AM

Larry, You are so right about the heat index. it is brutal here. As I age, the light becomes more brutal as well. After 20+ years on location in Florida, the whole thing is about humidity, atmospheric condition and light. I do so love fall and winter painting here in Florida.

The word for Florida is "extreme". The light and color here are so harsh that many painters do poor work. To paint well in Florida you must understand atmospherics,light and greens. It is so easy to go over the top. It took me a few years to even come up with a good palette for Florida.
Love,
Linda

LarrySeiler · #19 10-23-2009, 11:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blondheim12

It took me a few years to even come up with a good palette for Florida.
Love,
Linda

...and I think many would agree, Linda... you're one of the best with greens, and that wonderful palette that works for you..!!!

blondheim12 · #20 10-23-2009, 12:01 PM

So kind of you Larry.
Love,
Linda

Shadia · #21 10-23-2009, 01:31 PM

Wonderful and so useful and inspiring thread.
Thanks everyone for the advises!

Shadia

Michaelmcg · #22 10-23-2009, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LarrySeiler

To go along with that...I was painting along the shores of Lake Superior, my artist/son Jason was painting along with me, he was fairly new to plein air at the time.

It was a situation of cloud cover, breaking of clouds, fronts and so forth. One moment the scene all lit up, next it was shaded over.

In short...it was driving him nuts, and he was getting irritated that I was just merrily painting away next to him. I actually was enjoying this very talented internationally known artist/punk kid squirming and making indistinguishable grunts and groans...but, so much so that he finally just expressed it so. "How the heck...where do you see that?"

Told him when we first set up...that's what the light was doing, really liked it and I knew THAT was the painting. I locked it in mind, and from that point on the scene was simply a reference...

He just *sigh and "AAaaaaaaa"

He's seasoned now though...and we all pay our dues.

Larry makes a very important point here and something which has really only dawned on me this year, that to a large extent plein air painting involves an element of painting from memory, particularly if you want to capture those fleeting moments. I remember a couple of months back, we had a paint out in a coastal location in South East Wexford. It was a dull, calm autumn day, with very little colour on the grassy sand dunes, and an almost flat sea. Struggling with what to paint, I observed the sun partly shine through and turn the sea a stunning silver colour. It lasted all of five minutes at most, but that is what I painted.

Michael

Kmart · #23 10-23-2009, 05:54 PM

What a great thread. I agree with Larry, if you are passonate, everything will happen. Just keep on going.

For me, that means, having inspirational reading material close at hand. Often, you wake up, just not feeling like painting. If you read a few pages in Robert Henri's book, "The Art Spirit" you will be fiending to get out there.

As long as you are painitng honestly, session after session, things will be good. I have been at this for a year and a half, it is more about building momentum, that creative force, than making good paintings. I fail most of the time, but know that sometime, the time will come.

Observation is key, and the pure joy of a life of seeing color is the best thing on earth. Painting has given me a new lust for life, and I am thankful for it, and everyone, such as Larry, who opened the door.

Kyle

Ruth · #24 10-23-2009, 07:09 PM

Thanks to all of you! I have rated this thread "excellent" and think it should be made a "sticky."

JamieWG · #25 10-23-2009, 08:27 PM

I agree with Ruth! It takes five ratings I believe to get the gold stars to appear. Every plein air painter should read this thread, and let's keep adding to it. Great stuff! It deserves a spot in our "Hall of Fame" once it falls off the front page of the forum.

Jamie

RandyP · #26 10-23-2009, 09:46 PM

So many great points here!

Larry, you're one smart dude!!!! Very good insight about what it means to be an artist.!

My only input, and it might have already been mentioned, is to paint with reserve. This was a point made by Carlson in his book on landscape painting and was also drilled into my head by Scott Christensen in his workshop. Simply put, don't shout when a whisper will do. We need to consider how much color a painting will take and if we hold back a little, leave some in reserve, the end result will hold up better to those viewing it. Scott used to quote Churchill, who was a painter as well, and he would use Churchill's example of comparing painting to a general's strategy during wartime.

Churchill's quote is as follows:

"In battle two things are usually required of the commander-in-chief: to make a good plan for his army and, secondly, to keep a strong reserve. Both of these are also obligatory upon the painter. To make a plan, thorough reconnaissance of the country where the battle is to be fought, its fields, mountains, rivers, bridges, trees, flowers, its atmosphere all require and repay attentive observation from a special point of view. So many colors on the hillside, each different in shadow and in sunlight, such brilliant reflections in the pool. In order to make his plan, the general must not only reconnoiter the battleground, he must also study the achievements of the great Captains of the past. He must bring the observations he has collected in the field into comparison with the treatment of similar incidents by famous chiefs. Not only is your observation of nature sensibly improved and developed, but also you look at the masterpieces of art with an analyzing eye".

"But it is in the use and withholding of their reserves that the great commanders have generally excelled. After all, when once the last reserve has been thrown in, the commanders part is played. If that does not win the battle, he has nothing else to give. The event must be left to luck and the fighting troops. But these last, in the absence of high direction, are apt to get into sad confusion, all mixed together in a nasty mess, without order or plan and consequently without effect. Mere masses count no more. The largest brush, the brightest colors, cannot even make an impression, The pictorial battlefield becomes a sea of mud mercifully veiled in a fog of war. It is evident there has been a serious defeat. Even though the general plunges in himself and emerges bespattered as he sometimes does, he will not retrieve the day".

--Winston Churchill, Painting as a Pastime. With credit to Scott Christensen also.

Cheers,

Randy

JamieWG · #27 10-23-2009, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandyP

My only input, and it might have already been mentioned, is to paint with reserve.

That's a great addition to this thread, Randy, stated as many of us are into the height of fall foliage. How many of us get carried away by the brilliance of the color we perceive after a summer of greens? *raising my hand*

Jamie

noge · #28 10-24-2009, 02:31 AM

Hi folks -I am late

Maby I have ignored it

Dont paint if you dont have sun and shadow on buildings -
Good shadows are the salt in the soup

Freesail · #29 10-24-2009, 12:37 PM

One wonders why no one has given arachosia his due, for starting this wonderful thread.

Sonni · #30 10-24-2009, 03:32 PM

Thanks arachosia for starting a great thread. I'm taking notes as fast as I can, there is so much usable info here. Larry, in particular, summed it up and drove it home for me. Thanks, Larry.

My meager additions are various from different workshops and books.

"First the dog, then the fleas." (George Durkee on detail)

K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid--on my easel)

"Never make any two intervals the same." (Greg Albert--The Simple Secret to Better Painting)

"Always have something within about 10 feet with which to compare the color values of your distant objects." (Charles Hawthorne--Hawthorne on Painting)

"Do a quick four-value notan to determine if you have a good composition before you begin to paint--do several." (Kim Lordier workshop)

"Color is frosting." (Richard McKinley workshop-- on value and composition)

"Most of what you see in the real world is divided by edge, not by line." (Lorenzo Chavez, workshop)

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