IPAP + ROCKPORT

10TH ANNUAL PLEIN AIR ART EVENT

SEPTEMBER 9 - 11, 2011

Links:

 ROCKPORT

 IPAP - International Plein Air Painters Artists Organization Worldwide

MEET THE PEOPLE

Wendy Merkley, Organizer
In background: Jay Anderson, Artist

In the background, to the left of the tree, were three
painters, another was perched on Fish Rock and Janet
sits at the end of the dock to sketch.
In the foreground, Jay Anderson is getting ready to paint
and I am talking with Phil who has been painting Fish Rock.

Bob Heddon

                                         

Aleta

Kittie Kelly

Phil

Janet

THE CLOSING RECEPTION & DISPLAY OF ART WORK

                                   

     Patio Deck at Ships Galley

  

1st and 3rd Peoples Choice Awards
Left: Painting of a Tugboat with Tar Island in background
Right:  Painting of the Andress House, Rockport
Artist:  Bruce Sherman

2nd Peoples Choice
Sadly, Artist unknown

At one time this was Bev & Nelson's Island

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TIN BOX & CEZANNE

Cezanne's Card Players on a Cookie Tin Box

Not too original, either in the painting nor in its use.  Lots of cards are played here at the cottage and it is good to view the reproduction of this painting each time we play.

CHILDREN'S ART BOOK

 I found this book in the book store at the National Art Gallery during the class visit to the Caravaggio exhibition in July.

Below is a copy of one page and activity in the book that seems to me would be equally intriguing for adults, and especially to share it with children and grandchildren.

The text informs us that this painting is only a part of the original painting by Vittore Carpaccio.  No one knows where the other parts are.

How would you complete this painting?  What story would it tell?

Found Painting in Oil



Minted from a local church sale.



CARRIVAGGIO - DAY FIVE

This is the last day of our course. Beautiful peaceful drive into town this morning. 



Left side of Studio



So many wonderful paintings greeted us as we entered the studio this morning!   H. achieved her ancestor's image!  She has worked toward this for a few years and the result is fantastic.  Another classmate B, painted a large image of her grandson that so captured his essence. A young artist chose a horse and painted it in orangey reds.  Stunning.  But she needed to apply the various shapes and colours that made up this beauty.  The shapes were fairly large and the colours bright producing an abstract of beauty.  Later, after blending these coloured shapes, she had a horse [only the head done] that you wanted to stroke, so real. Mine is not done but no matter, being oil I can continue for a few more days without the paint drying. 



Right Side of Studio



Some time during the week, I remembered that so many years ago, when we still lived here, that I had taken a painting class, in oils, and I was taught to look at the shapes and held my fingernail up to the area of the photo I was working on in order to achieve a likeness.  It worked.  Then years and other things took precedence and I never did recapture that skill as precisely as that first time.  Here I am, full circle, learning once again to seek out the shapes [and colours] and once again using oil paint.  And  bonus,  I have learned so much more!

{I am distracted.  A small red squirrel has landed on the air conditioner and is making a strange noise.  Now he has jumped down onto the window ledge and seemed to have disappeared, but no, he has just now jumped up against the window, twice, perhaps like birds, has thought the view or reflection was accessible.  Wonder if this is one of family that has been dislodged from our neighbour's cottage and looking for a new place to live. Hope not here.}

 After painting for a few hours, we were gathered together to watch and guide Andrea as she worked on her portrait, using the knowledge that we had been given, plus our experience plus the Caravaggio example.  One of the things she mentioned is the need to the face to appear rounded, but not only the face, also the eyes.  Important where the light is placed to give this effect.

We looked at work by Manet and were asked to visually compare this with Caravaggio's style and were told we could paint like these artists and others because we now new how the paintings were constructed.  Caravaggio was on the cutting edge. 

Notes:

Know how it is done and put it back together - notice the toned ground, how little painting is left to do, the advantage of oil

We were asked to use Liquin - a dryer is in this, useful when there is a need for paint to dry quicker

. In Caravaggio painting of The Flight into Egypt, the wings were borrowed for this painting.  He set up his   models and props dramatically.

. Practice: set up light and draped fabric, using same process as learned this week

. In painting we were shown by Manet, the light background was painted last

LEARN TO SEE with incredible accuity with people, then everything else becomes better

Process of Caravaggio:

1. Prime

2. Tone [1st layer]

3. Mapping D/L shapes [2nd layer]

4. First Darks

5. Map inside areas of lights with colours or colours plus white in various shapes, juxtaposed, not touching, then blended with dry clean brush.  Make changes by lifting or wiping out, shovelling.

RU, YO, BU, R, BS, UB, SG, V, 

Flake White  or soft mixing white.

CARAVAGGIO - DAYS THREE and FOUR

Wednesday morning there was a thunder storm around 6 a.m. and a pretty loud crack of thunder.  Shortly thereafter, the computer was no longer connected to our server and attempts to reconnect were not successful.  Late in the day, we learned that the modem had been fried and it was supposed that there had been a surge caused by the morning's storm. 

I left quite a bit later in the morning but fortunately there is no instruction until mid-morning.  I had made my decision to switch to oils while at the Gallery in Ottawa and used one of the acrylic ground canvases from our first day.  I found some photos in the Beaver Magazine to use as models for my very own 'Caravaggio' style painting.  There were three photos of different figures but I settled on one and began, finding the figure on the canvas by negative painting.  Adjustments still needed..

Notes


Oil Painting
Still refining shapes



two brush painting - one with paint and one with no paint, used to move around and shovel the paint already laid down on the canvas

Layer 2 - mapping the lights

Layer 3 - adding the darks

Use small amount of Liquid/linseed Oil and apply paint thinly - smoothly, holding the brush flat and parallel to the canvas, touch surface very lightly



Exercise in seeing

- Sit and look at object for an extended period of time [10 minutes]

- If looking at the object does not work, try touching it, paint by touch.  Run finger around shapes

Caravaggio did not use hogshair brushes, he used sable or squirrel.  His brushstrokes are mostly unseen and his paintings are smooth.



See the SHAPE   -   Lose the EDGES   -  LINSEED OIL better.  Prepare paint, not runny or inky, thicken with linseed oil until easily moved, not much paint involved.

Paint the shapes.  If lines are drawn, will feel committed to the outline.  Look at the white shapes.  Look at the dark shapes.  No line.

PLANNING SKETCH



Choose the figures and items that you want in your painting.  Do a loose sketch, putting the shapes into a box proportional to the size of your canvas, let your pencil sketch the shapes without moving the pencil from the page.  It likely will take six planning sketches.

Why is it necessary to keep pencil on the paper?  Accessing and using other instincts - keep hand down on the sketch, start anywhere, keep scribbleing and try again keeping connected - eventually becomes simpler in line, will find directions of movement and force, not drawing things - don't call anything by name - see angles of direction.

[Caravaggio stages his paintings so that the viewer cannot help but follow the storyline.] 

Mapping out the design.   Adding the Darks

When putting in the variety of colours for the skin or other areas, paint the shape but do not touch other shapes near by.  These will be blended - tickle at the edge, softening the edges together so shapes are still there but blended.  Use dry clean brush to blend [tickle] one shape up to the other.  Light pressure.

Mix paint for part of face.  With paint on brush, hold up and compare to face of model.  Match the colour.

See Shape.  Determine Colour. Mix paint and adjust as required.  Repeat for each shape.

Seeing Shapes is the hard part.  Recognize what you see and brain interprets, seeing what is not there.

Painting shapes becomes much easier, less stressful, when 'brain' not involved - do not need to know what seeing, simply seeing.

Left earlier than usual this morning [Thursday] and found it was a better time for driving the 40 minutes to the college. 

Prud and I went out for lunch again today.  She returned to Ottawa tonight but will come back for the last day tomorrow.

Picked up a Take and Bake from Luna Pizzeria for our supper, which Larry baked.  Thanks to J & D, we had some watermelon to finish the meal. 

Tired.

CARAVAGGIO - DAY TWO

Left the cottage a little late this morning and had the misfortune to get stuck behind a slow driving truck from near Athens to Brockville.  I arrived with ten minutes to spare and boarded the bus.  Beverley was already there.  When we neared Ottawa, she texted her grandson, my grand-nephew, Cameron to see if he would come to join us sometime during the day.



The ramp to the Caravaggio Exhibit



At the National Gallery of Canada, we were given our passes, our electronic guide and earphones, and walked up the ramp to enter the Caravaggio Exhibit.  The first painting was a Caravaggio - the boy who was bitten by a lizzard.  Smaller than I thought it would be.

I did not record the order of the Caravaggio's as I saw them, but they definitely stood out in the room full of very good paintings.  A peek through the doorway revealed two of my favourite paintings by Caravaggio - The Fortune Teller and The Card Players.  Around the room there were other paintings by other masters proraying similar themes.  This was a room that not only exhibited great art work but also provided some amusement.



Posing as Caravaggio's  "The Card Players"

In the fourth exhibit room, there was a door that led off to a small room.  Inside there were games for children and a large opening in the end wall, surrounded by a gold frame.  Some children and an adult were dressed in Caravaggio fashion and posed in the opening.  A photo was taken.  Later I would return to this room and dressed as The Fortune Teller for my Caravaggio photo. When Bev returned with Cameron, the three of us dressed in costume and posed as the card players. 

CARAVAGGIO - DAY ONE

Yesterday, distrusting the alarm, I awoke at daybreak and did not return to sleep.  There were a few things to gather up in preparation for the first day at this summer's workshop, titled "Going For Baroque".

The lake was so still, the trees across the water and white fluffy clouds were reflected on its surface.  Soon, as the sun rose higher,  there was an orangey golden colour splashed on the trees on the opposite shore, eventually becoming almost white as it rose even higher.  Time for me to leave. 

I met Andrea outside in the parking lot, then my niece Emily just inside the college.  Barb and Helene were back, Barb from Napanee and Helene from Belleville.  Only nine in the class this year perhaps because this was a dominantly oil painting class or perhaps because the majority from the past few years graduated from the college's art course.  Prud took the easel next to mine.  Others in the class included Janeen and Ursula from previous years, another Barb, Mary, Diane, Nicole and Diana.

Notes:

- All art begins as ABSTRACT

- Caravaggio lived in 1600s - no electric lighting, light from a window or candlelight

- Twilight - explored lighting in the studio with the lights out - different shades

- Paint in the 'dim', the natural colour

- Looking at painting by Caravaggio, compare how much of the painting is in darkness and in light

- Work from dark to light - almost 2/3 of painting done; can be painted faster

- No details

- Lose the edges into the dark

=  A NEW WAY OF SEEING

Step One:  Prime the Canvas, protecting it from the acids in the oils

Step Two:  Tone the Canvas, using transparent colour transparently, ie thin layer, less medium/liquin.  Attempting to cover the canvas with a smooth transparent coat veil of colour.  [Raw Umber] Map out big shadow shape.  Thinly apply 2nd veil of colour

Step Three:  Adding a second layer of colour to 'draw' in the light, blending.  Can go back in with a rag and reclaim the light if necessary and also to define the shadows. 

- Hold the brush parallel to the canvas, - helps to apply paint thinly - apply transparent paint transparently

- Thinly apply 2nd veil of colour

I used acrylic and really was unsure how or if this medium was going to work for me.  It wasn't long before I wanted oil paints.  Step one produced a lightish but definitely uneven covering of Raw Umber, a colour that in acrylic was considerably different from the same colour in oil. 

More Notes

- Dark background

- Add the dim

- Let disappear except white

- NO DETAIL

- Map out light and dark pattern

- Quick Sketch, to determine design, placement.  Try not to lift pencil.  May make several quick studies until one is what you want.  Look at arrangement/design, draw mid air above canvas and when ready draw onto canvas or draw in mid air above/near the arrangement and when ready draw onto canvas.  Also, combine both mid air drawing before applying to canvas.  Could also draw in with charcoal.  Simple shapes, slightly organic geometric.



Acrylic attempt

TENEBRISM:  Caravaggio = dramatic lighting, parts of body disappear,

light part floating on dark



The Still Life



On the left is the still life, a white jug, a red hat and black fabric draped.  My first attempt was my usual approach, basically a contour drawing and detail.  Wrong for tenebrism. 

A smooth surface or consistent tone was not achieved with the acrylic paint.  The picture to the right shows the second step, painting the area around the whites. [A new way of seeing ]

I have acrylic ground ready on another canvas and it too is blotchy but I will use it for the Caravaggio 'masterpiece' on Wednesday, and paint with oils. 

A different way of seeing - a challenge.

DAY 7 - DV

Day 7 LW Baby Socks

When our three grandkids were young, Jerry took their little socks when they got too small for them, and we have saved them in a window box.

Sketch Day 7 - SS

DAY 7 - CY

7 DAYS - MY RESPONSE



The New Leader on an
Ice Storm damaged tree.



Partial of Farm
Vehicle sketched
at gas station.



Memory of a 'tree' swamp
as we passed by

Quick Sketches from the back seat on our way to Kingston yesterday


Door handle from inside, still
filling up the gas tank.


 

Cornice and Trim on
General Store while Mark
made work related calls.



On the first day, I struggled with getting started on my first drawing, indeed a challenge for me.  Then thanks to input from this group,  the tension was gone when I was told this was a "sketch", not the finished product.  [Some of the sketches posted sure like finished products to me!] 

By mid-point, everything I saw became a potential drawing, and I would mentally begin.  At week's end, I'm planning to continue sketching, at least once daily. 

Are you ready for another challenge?

snowbirds sketch.jpg

Sketching  on the fly.

The snowbirds visited, watching was exciting ,

trying to sketch them,

fast and furious.

 

I feel I captured some of the essence, the formation the birds that made, a heart with the smoke contrails,

( to the granddaughters request ) the red and white of the planes and the design on the wings.

All on on an envelope I found in my purse

 

 

As they zoomed past grandchildren jumping and cheering

“For the birds”

I have small painted birdhouses all through my gardens. This one is actually dark purple and white, but I decided to just work in pencil and concentrate on two skills: perspective and shading.

Day 6 - DV

Day 6 LW Feet

Oh boy, my feet started to go numb keeping them still for so long.  It was an easy subject to find though. 

IMG_3739.JPG

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