"Night Tide" (18x18) o/p
This painting began with a trip to Hug Point beach on the northern Oregon coast last month with a couple of painter friends. We were there painting and sketching all day, and I came away with several plein air studies and some ideas in my sketchbook for something I would do back in the studio.
From the sketch book...
What I had in mind was a nocturne; a moonlit blue-violet scene that had a sense of peaceful mystery about it (as this beach does at night, being part of what I call the "lonely Oregon coast")...
I did a few monochromatic studies in chalk on Canson paper before I felt comfortable moving to a full colour study with a composition I liked. Although this may appear to be a limited palette, I utilized a full range of oils to achieve a subtle depth of colour involving various blues, violets, greens, greys and browns made up of primary and secondary hues...
More refinement...
Below is the colour study (the small 12x12 on the left) and the larger version about 3/4 done... I later changed the cloud shapes, omitted the shadow on the large tree trunk and added the shallow cave at the base of the cliff (which is there in real life, but I had originally thought it might be too distracting).
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In progress...
I eventually did three versions all together, with the final one being a horizontal 12x16 in which I added more trees to the bluff on the right side. I may post that one later -- it's destined for a show in New York next month.
Your paintings always stun me with your use of colors. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI'm actually surprised you put that much thought into these paintings! I figured you were just doing them for fun, with a plein aire mentality... I've also noticed that your last few are really zoomed in on the details instead of being panoramic. How do you find satisfaction in that, or are you using these more for studies and exploration? Just curious...
Hi Mike -- thanks for your comments. I don't post many plein air "studies" because they're usually pretty messy or uninteresting, yet they serve their purpose. As far as "zooming in", it all depends on what interests me. After 30 years of commercial work, I'm not trying to sell someone else's idea -- it's about what I like now, whether it be a panoramic scene or a specific detail of a landscape or a figure. Decades ago even illustrators put a lot of thought and 'studies' into preparing a finished piece -- time spent doing this will always benefit an artist, no matter how simple the concept may be.
ReplyDeleteThanks Eric for your insight. I assume alot of your income (since you are not doing commercial work anymore) comes from doing these self initiated pieces and selling and put them in galleries? In the distant future I plan to do the same...
ReplyDeleteMike -- at some point you will most likely get tired of illustration, but still have that drive to create -- this usually manifests itself via fine art. When you tire of art directors telling you what to do, and the final product has no satisfaction for you, you can still follow your own vision and create something that's all your own. All my income is from galleries and plein air shows at the moment, although I will be starting up workshops soon...I don't do any other kind of work to support my family other than painting. It's a hard living in this economy, but where there is a passion and and dedication to work hard, it can happen.
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