Painting from Inside My Car!

"Pacific Grove's Point Pinos Lighthouse"    4" x 6"  gouache

It can get pretty cold and foggy along the California coast at Pacific Grove.  When I had a chance to go there I naturally wanted to go painting.  This day was so cold and windy, setting up my easel was not a good idea.   So I tried an experiment ... paint from inside my car!  

Now painting with oils inside a car is not a good idea, but I came prepared!  I bought my gouache paint!  Gouache is opaque watercolor, so I figured if I got some on my car seats I could wash it off.  I was lucky none spilled.  Check out my setup!  I have one of those trays that you can put over your lap.  I have not seen those in the stores in a long time, but when I bought it I thought.... "Hey I can use that one day!"  So the day finally came.  It is great as it holds my water, brushes, paper towels, ceramic palette and a wet palette too.  I was able to straddle it over my console in my new Subaru Outback.  It fit perfectly!

my painting and value sketch on my steering wheel easel 

<  I made a gizmo to fit over my steering wheel and clipped my 4" x 6" piece of archival mat board to it.  It all worked out great!

Point Pinos Lighthouse from my car

My scene was of the old lighthouse in Pacific Grove called Point Pinos Lighthouse.  It is currently closed due to the virus, but a few years ago I toured through it.  It is a wonderful piece of history.  The light still works and it shown bright yellow in the tower.  You might be able to see it from my photo.  

The scene was pretty far away and there is an old wooden fence which I felt blocked the eye leading to the lighthouse.  So I eliminated the fence and added a path.  There are lots of native grasses and some off-white flowers blooming which I enjoyed putting into my scene.  Three hours later, I declared my painting finished!

This little painting is up for auction on Daily Paintworks.

Check it out on my gallery page at

www.RhettsStudio.com

Sloshing Around in an Almond Orchard

 What a fun day sloshing through the almond orchard!  When my friend's family irrigates their almond orchards I come running over with my paint box!  Sam had the sprinklers going and there were large puddles of water under the rows of the almond trees.  Luckily, I was able to set up my paint box on the driveway and saved my shoes from getting soaking wet.  I couldn't wait to get out my paints!  The reflections are wonderful... almost magical under those trees!  I can see so many colors in the water, soil and grasses on the ground alone!  The trees bend here and there in different directions and the soft green leaves on the branches hang down loaded with the almonds.  It is late July and soon the almonds will be harvested in the Central Valley of California where I live.

 Here you can see my paint box.  I started out in the shade, but soon the light dappled through the tree behind me and I had to put up my umbrella.  It is important to see the painting in even light as I am painting it. 

When I got home, worked on the painting a little more, refining some places, adding more color, etc. using my photo references and my memory.

Scroll down to see the finished painting in a frame.

Here are some of the photos I took that day to help me finish my painting. 

Look at those reflections!

"Time To Irrigate" - oil on linen panel - 9" x 12"

Here is what the painting might look like in a frame.

Available for purchase on my gallery page at

www.RhettsStudio.com

 

Exploring Gouache

Half Dome - almost finished - gouache - 3” x 4” - on gelli print

I have been having fun exploring with gouache.  Gouache is basically opaque water color.  Sometimes I add white gouache to water color to make it opaque.  Why do I like it?  It dries with a flat finish, can be painted on archival mat board or illustration board without putting a gesso coat first and is water soluble.  My brushes can be washed with water (I use distilled water).  One thing that is somewhat frustrating is that the colors do not dry the same as when they are put down on the paper.  Light colors dry darker and dark colors dry lighter.  It is more difficult to get darks, but I am learning. See the finished painting below.

Gelli plate printing is lots of fun so I was wondering if the two could be combined.  In this video you can see that I took a print and glued it to mat board.  Then using a photo I took in Yosemite, I began to paint on top of the gelli print.  I wanted the print background to show through here and there which you can see in the next video.

So this is a time-lapse video (my very first one) of my process.  I made a goal to complete this small painting in just 30 minutes, so it is a quick study.  That made it necessary to keep the brushwork loose and simple.

Finished painting

  Below is the photo reference I used.

"Sprinklers" Painting in Farm & Field show

"Sprinklers"    11" x 14"   oil

My painting "Sprinklers" has been juried into 

the Farm & Field show 

at the Carnegie Arts Center.   

The show runs through July 29th, 2018.  

The Carnegie Arts Center is located at 250 N. Broadway in Turlock, CA.  

This scene was painted from a photograph taken of a newly planted field near Snelling, CA.  
This area is beautiful with rolling hills and lots of fields.  

2018 Open Studio

Day 4 work on my commission

I had a great time in Monterey this past weekend visiting artist's studios in the Monterey County Open Studio Tour.  Some very good artists and fun to see their studios.

I really enjoyed Annette Corcoran's studio.  She creates some of the most spectacular porcelain tea pots.  She is 87 years old and quite a lady.  She has been doing these ceramic pieces for 30 years and has many of her pieces in museums.  I recommend looking her up on the internet!

Today I had time to work on my commission painting again.  Made lots of changes and I am very happy with them.  New sky, pushed the distant mountains back some, reworked some of the trees, and worked a little more here and there.  Tomorrow I will be working on the foreground and the trees on the right and perhaps a few more changes.

Keep checking my blog to see how it is coming along!

Day 3 Working on the Commission Painting

More work on this beautiful landscape scene.  I got so involved in the painting that I forgot to take progress photos!  But here is the mostly finished painting after adding the pine tree limbs on the right, more grass and of course the purple coneflowers as well as tweaking a few more spots here and there.

Coneflower Field with Sheep Sorrel  -  oil -  30" x 40"

Day 2 Working on the Commission Painting

Day 2 work on the painting

I finally had a chance to get back to my commission painting.  Every time I look at this scene I fall in love with it.  The beautiful golden hills make a beautiful contrast against the purple coneflowers, green trees, and the deep purple brown sorrel is amazing.

Yes, I found out what that purple brown weed is called.  I did some internet searches and discovered it is a perennial and a common weed of crops, pastures and roadsides.  I remember seeing lots of it as I was growing up.  It is a native to Asia and Europe, but has spread to North and South America as well as Australia and Africa.  The plant is green at first then becomes reddish brown as the fruit matures.  There are a number of varieties of this plant with many different names for it

including Sheep Sorrel, Sour Grass, Field Sorrel, Red Sorrel and Dock.  I am not sure, but I think the Sorrel in my painting is Sheep Sorrel.  Some people make a tea from its leaves, but I read that it can be mildly toxic, so I would not recommend it.  I love it as it makes such a pretty contrast to the greens and yellows.

The view today.
Notice the Sorrel under the trees. 

As I drove to Monterey last weekend, I kept looking for the Sorrel along the road sides.  I was disappointed by how little I saw, but I think I found the place where I took my original photo many years ago.  It doesn't look the same anymore. The beautiful purple coneflower field is now a grape vineyard and there are new trees blocking the view of the hills.






So with my piece of sorrel I broke off on the site, I worked on my painting today.  Below are a few photos of the painting progress. 

Working on the field behind the sorrel. 

Softened the hills and worked
on the sorrel and grasses. 

Detail

Working on the foreground as well as the background buildings. 

More detail work on foreground grasses and side trees.
So after a good six hours of work, I decided to give my painting arm a rest.
I will hit it again tomorrow and add some coneflowers, more grasses and work on the trees to the right.

Getting close to half done.  

Day 1 Painting on the Commission Painting

FIRST STAGES OF UNDER PAINTING

First Day's Work

Well today was the first day in awhile that it was cool enough to get into my studio comfortably.  So I headed out there to get started on my large commission painting.  Many artists layout the design using black charcoal, but I have found that to be a mess.  The black blends in with the paint and sometimes changes the color, so I decided to try my new white charcoal pencil.  I was very pleased with the results.  After grafting off the canvas into rectangles, I was able to draw out the design composition.  

Drawing the Composition in
White Charcoal Pencil

My client said she likes grain towers, so I decided it would be fun to add two to the painting and make some compositional changes to lead the eye into the background better.  

Drawing in the house

Adding some of the dark values

When I was satisfied with the composition, I began by painting in the darkest values with ultramarine blue, sap green and a tad alizarin red.  To balance the darks I added some of the lightest lights in the buildings. 

Adding some light values

I wasn't sure how to capture those tall, deep purple weeds and what colors to mix to get that color, but I discovered in my stash of paint a tube of Madder Brown.  It is perfect!  Wish I knew what those weeds are called.  I love seeing them in the landscape.  If you know what they are called, let me know, OK? 








Well I got carried away painting and forgot to take more photos as I was working.  The sky and rolling hills captured my attention for a long time.  So here is my 1st day on the job and getting the under-painting worked out.  That foreground is going to be a challenge, but fun to tackle in the coming days.  Come back often and see the progress.... !

Close up of the house & trees

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NO COPYING IS ALLOWED WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE ARTIST. 

THANK YOU.

Every monitor is different according to your settings.
The actual painting may look different from your computer monitor.  

Preparing the Canvas for a Commission Painting

Look how much bigger the 30" x 40" canvas is
compared to the small 8" x 10" study!  

It has been miserably hot (105) and smoky from all the horrible fires around the state today, but I did get out to my studio early enough this morning to prep the canvas for my large 30" x 40" commission painting.  I set it up on my easel to make sure it fit in my small and crowded studio.  Since I have been painting small 6" x 6" Daily Paintings lately, this canvas seems huge!  But I am very excited to get to it.  The ozone and heat prevented me to do much more in my studio for the rest of the day, but I am hoping to get going on the painting this week.

Here are photos of the clay pot color which I toned the canvas.  I used gesso tinted with acrylics.  I brushed it on with a wide brush then wiped it smooth with an old credit card to even out the brush strokes.  This seemed to work well and I think it will be a good background for the painting.

Brushing on the new tinted gesso. 

Half way there. 

All ready to get started...
when my studio is cool enough that is.