Jekyll Island Painting Trip

Here are some images from my recent painting trip to Jekyll Island, GA. I drove down to meet my sister and her daughter, who were vacationing there for a week. I decided to drive so that I could bring my new plein air painting set up and do some painting. This was a mixed bag – It took me 12 hours to get there (not fun), but it was nice to be able to go wherever I wanted and set up my painting stuff with minimal hassle. I got some painting in and also did some sight seeing. As you can see, I got some good reference photos as well.

Sunset Jekyll Marina

Sunset Jekyll Club Hotel

Sunset Jekyll Marina

“ Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. ”

Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890)
Dutch painter

Plein Air Painting – For Real!

Just to prove to you that I can suck it up and really do some Plein Air painting, here I am painting at one of my favorite locations, Seneca Golf Course.

Personal Log – Star Date 12/4/10

The last few days I have been somewhat depressed because I missed the OOAK Show in Chicago and the last real opportunity to make sales in 2010. I am trying to keep my mind off of this and focus on creating new work.

Getting Better As A Painter

No matter how well a painting turns out, I always feel a sense that I can do it better next time.  I recently read an article about artist Jill Carver in Southwest Art magazine (June 2010).  She said: “I think I’ve found who I am stylistically. I just want to get better as a painter. In my head, I’m six months ahead of what’s coming out at the end of the paintbrush. There’s always a sense of chasing to catch up. That’s what gets me up every day: I think my next painting could be better.” www.southwestart.com I know how she feels, I feel the same way.

Kay Hurley Workshop

Images from the Kay Hurley Workshop this past weekend. Guess who was the only male in the group!

How I Created “Contemporary Landscape Series 6, No. 2″

This is my take on a popular motif that is seen in various sizes and shapes. Mine was done using Golden Fluid Acrylics and various Golden Mediums on a 24x48x1.5” Signature Canvas.

Base: Apply a coat of gesso (not too thick / use sweeping, curved strokes). Let dry. Use a palette knife to apply Q. Gold (Quinacridone Gold) mixed with Polymer Medium to the entire canvas (create texture by dragging the knife thru the almost dry medium). Let dry.
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Stage 1: Tape off a 1.5″ wide horizontal band (approx. 5.5″ from the bottom of the canvas). Use a palette knife to apply a mix of QBO (Quinacridone Burnt Orange) and FMM (Fluid Matte Medium) inside the taped-off area. Remove the tape when the paint is about 60% dry (to allow the paint under the edges of the tape to remain on the canvas, creating less of a hard line). After the paint has dried, to get rid of any remaining hard edges, use a very small brush to go over the existing edges with a very narrow bead of QBO and FMM, varying the intensity of the color and the line of the edges as you go. Let dry. Go over the entire band with a selected application of QBO + FMM to create areas of darks & lights, and to further vary the edges. Let dry. Add a band of Q. Gold + Polymer Medium above the horizon. Let dry. Add a band of Indian Yellow + Polymer Medium above this. Let dry.

Stage 1
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Stage 2: Tape off the sides (12″ from the edges). Apply Matte Gel (regular) to the bottom portions to create texture. Apply a thin glaze of SLG (Self Leveling Gel) mixed with lots of water and a little TRO (Transparent Red Oxide) to the top portions, to create a very light glaze of red. Let these dry. Apply a glaze of Burnt Umber Light + FMM to the bottom areas and another glaze of TRO + SLG and water to the top areas. Let these dry. Apply a layer of TRO + FMM over the Burnt Umber. Let dry. Add background trees to side areas using QBO + Diox. Purple + Fluid Matte Medium. Remove tape.

Stage 2
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Stage 3: Tape off the center area. Apply a thin glaze of SLG (with lots of water) and Indian Yellow to the top portion. Use a palette knife to apply TRO + FMM to the bottom portion, creating texture and light. Let these dry. Remove tape. Finish background trees using QBO + Diox. Purple + Fluid Matte Medium.

Stage 3
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Stage 4: Foreground Trees – use a sponge to apply a mixture of Matte Gel and Q. Gold to create tree shapes. Apply a layer of Matte Gel and Diox. Purple over the first layer, refining the shapes. Apply some Sap Green over this. Apply more color with oil pastels – create lighter areas on tops of trees. Add tree shadows with Diox Purple + QBO.

Stage 4 (the last tree has not been finished)
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Hilton Head photos

Here’s some of the images from my Hilton Head trip which I may turn into paintings.

Hilton Head Trip

I recently returned from an invigorating, albeit brief, trip to Hilton Head Island. I love this place and have been there many times.  Usually I rent a house, but since this was a short trip and we were staying an odd number of days, I rented a villa at the beach. It was a very nice place and certainly convenient to the beach (see photo). As sunrise over the ocean is one of my absolute favorite times to shoot photos, I got up early and shot several images which I plan to use as references for future paintings. Stay tuned to see how this works out.

Acrylic Revolution by Nancy Reyner

This book is a terrific compendium of techniques and information on Golden acrylic paints and mediums. The author is a part of Golden’s “practicing artist’s” program. Some of the techniques in her book are described elsewhere by other authors (e.g., using sprayed water or alcohol to create texture, mixing interference colors with black to increase the effect), but as a fan of Golden acrylics, I learned much useful information which I put to immediate use in my painting. For example, I used Reyner’s advice on mixing fluid metallic acrylics (stainless steel and micaceous iron oxide) with “modern” transparent colors (see p . 110) to solve a value and texture problem in my recent work “Tiles Series V, No. 1” I also used Reyner’s suggestion to apply several isolation coats to create depth and luster – she advises using soft gel mixed 3:2 with water (p. 105, 113). In addition to brushing this on, Reyner gives suggestions for pouring (pp. 115, 116) and spraying (p. 74) an isolation or final coat of clear medium. I used such isolation coats in the aforementioned “Tiles” work, as well as two recent landscapes (see e.g. the work on my home page). Some of my additional favorites from the book are:
• I often use tape to create edges In my “Tiles” series. Prior to reading Reyner’s book I had used matte gel medium to create a clean edge, but this doesn’t work well with applications where I am trying to achieve an overall glossy finish. Reyner suggests using GAC 500 when taping edges (p. 82).
• Reyner also suggests ways to make the surface smooth and “brushless” (p. 92) which is always an issue with isolation coats and final varnishes.
Some of the tricks I haven’t yet tried but intend to use:
• Using clear tar gel in various interesting ways (pp. 93, 111 – 112)
• Using Golden polymer medium as a resist (p. 41)
• Using crackle paste to create a “fresco” effect (p. 64)
• Using Golden light molding paste (instead of white paint) to tint colors (p. 96)
• To create an opaque look with transparent paint, first apply a tint of the color, then glaze the undiluted color over the tint (p. 98)
• Applying Absorbent Ground to a painting in progress to correct mistakes (p. 101)
• Applying gels to create textures on ink jet prints (p. 114)
• Using Interference acrylics mixed with traditional colors (there is also an article on this on the Daniel Smith website) – Reyner notes that the modern transparent pigments work best and that adding gloss gels increases the effect (p. 108).

Reyner includes several inspiring sample paintings (e.g., p. 41, 110, 120).My only criticism is that there are not enough illustrations for all the techniques she includes and the images of the sample art works are too small to see the detail. Overall, however, I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in experimenting with acrylic techniques and mediums. If you use Golden products, the book is a must read. You can order the book at www.nancyreyner.com/book.htm