The Old Red Chevy

The Old Red Chevy  (1948)

6x8in oil on canvas panel SOLD

Artist Note

The inspiration for this one comes from

the Lets Paint New Mexico group.

February 14th Challenge

see here 

The original photo was of a 

rusty blue truck -

 beautifully rusty - but as the theme 

this month at the Artists Guild 

was on painting

RED 
I thought I would demo

red in the sun and shade.

In my opinion,

Red is one of the hardest 

colors to paint in the light

without going chalky or 
losing its local color and turning
pink
due to adding 
too much white.

 These are the colors I used
for the truck.
Permanent Alizarin
(with a whisper of green
from all the trees around)
to darken into shadow.
Permanent Red and Grumbacher Red
as base colors
then I
added orange with a touch
of Naples Yellow  Light
to make it
even lighter.

The basic principle involved
when painting a dark value like red
is that it cannot possibly go as light
as a middle or light value can. 

The exception being highlights 
or reflective light on shiny surface.

I really admire this painting by Sargent
using all the values of red.
The background is rich, dark red.

Dr. Pozzi At Home
 Hammer Museum, CA
An amazing, life sized portrait.

notice how dark a value

the red in the light is

below

The one below is by Gauguin.

Women of Tahiti, on The Beach
Musee d'Orsay, Paris.

It  is perfect for
showing red in light and shadow 
plus
pink in light and shadow.
Pink can go lighter due to it already
being a lighter
value to start with.

Easy to write about, but not as easy for me to do.

I am always intrigued how the principles
are followed by the masters in every style.

I have certainly picked
the pursuit of lifelong learning.
Does anyone else love the fact
that we  artists can keep
getting better at our craft...forever?

White Rose

White Rose

8x6in oil on canvas panel  $125. SOLD

Artist Note

This was a demo for a guild member

to show how I do transition edges.

Transition edges prevent the dreaded

cookie-cutter look by running a mixture 

of the background color and 

slightly darker value of whatever

you are painting... along 

the edges.

I find this applies more to the color

WHITE than any other color.

As  Marc Chagall taught us..

All colors are friends of their neighbors...

so you can see from the cropped close-up

all the colors from the background 

are mixed into the white rose and the actual white 

does not go all the way to the edge. 

There is a transitional value of pale color 

on the edges.

Below is the way John Singer Sargent  handled 

the transitional edge.

Click to enlarge and you will 

notice the purest white is not at the very edges.

And notice the background colors brought 

into the white

Ruth Sears Bacon

JSS

This one is hard to see, but it does have a line of

slightly darker values running along the edges.

Roses

JSS

Dry Weed Nest and Line in Watercolor

 Dry Weed Nest

6x6in  watercolor on aquabord 

waxed. NFS

Artist Note

I was asked to explain about 

line in watercolor

and how it is used.

This one is for you, Edith!

Traditionally, water-colorists have used a pencil

to draw their subject. Often they will go over

the pencil line with a stronger paint line

where they want to describe the form

with more emphasis. Line can change from 

thin to thick, straight to round, 

over or under a mass of color.

In my nest above I used line

with opaque paint over a dark base.

It is called "form line" because it 

follows the direction of the form

A curve is a curve or  

straight is straight...etc.

I mixed different values

 to create the weaving of the grasses.

In the painting below,

Winslow Homer used the form 

line around parts of the boat
creating an outline, and 

even lightly around the sail 

at the back.
This was to create a separation
between boat and water.
So form line and outline are the same
thing, but used for different reasons.

If you look at the clouds

you will see the edges

are formed from the 

mass of the sky color.

No line. But the weeds

and lines on water are 

line. The way he painted

the dark shadow under the 

right end of the boat

could be a lyrical line...

it is expressive and 

yummy as it dissolves into an area of shadow

Andrew Wyeth, below, has obvious lines which

emphasizes the flow and direction of the water.

They merge into an area of color. No longer a line.

Sargent, below, has the lady on the right 

with lines to describe the folds of her

clothes, but on the lady on the left 

he used a softer line and

gently massed in with color.

Ask why one and not the other?

Most likely to direct the eye to her

first, but he did add a sharp line on the 

bonnet to bring some focus 

back to the other one..

 Line can be an important way to 

add some direction and emphasis.

Sargent used lyrical or expressive lines to 

describe the flounces in the one below.
And left it "as is". 

Many of the popular artists of today

like to use the line all the way through

their painting as a style -instead of using them for 

direction or emphasis. 

See Stefan Duncan below

My personal fav is

Shirley Trevena who is

 brilliant 

at mixing all types of line and mass.

Explore all the lines in this one.

It is fun to look through art

magazines trying to find the 

different types of LINE.

If you stuck all the way through this - I thank you!

Edith - hope you enjoyed it.

Sargent Copy

Sargent Copy

6x6in oil on canvas board  $85.

Detail, Pomegranates 1908  John Singer Sargent


When Sargent was in Majorca he painted three pomegranate trees and this is the only close-up study in oil. He also did a fabulous watercolor of a very similar viewpoint.
I found the world of difficulty painting this copy as it was impossible to capture his confident and organic brush and still be somewhat true. His paint quality was creamy and his transitions of colors and values were flawless. He hit his warm and cools on the leaves more than on the fruit. I must admit - I learned a lot...which is the whole point of doing this series of copying the masters of the past but... I am going to try and avoid lots of tiny leaves on the next one!