Discussions with Mark Norseth

18 x 22″ oil on linen

I’m chipping away at the values and colors of this piece, getting closer to calling it finished. The sessions (about 6 so far) at the Honolulu Museum of Art have been a great pleasure for me, and I’m hopeful of wrapping up my work this week.

Along with clarifying the values,  I’m refining shapes somewhat, keeping lost edges lost,  and especially getting somewhere on the palm that is central to the composition.  Scraped down, repainted; it gets too picky in the details very easily, and I’ve had to take it all down on more than one occasion and redevelop it. The greens are so beautiful in life, I keep re-establishing them to get at some of the richness in the darker areas.  The foreground is only a bit more than layed-in, and doesn’t need too much more to my eye.

A thing suggested…a theme for the whole work maybe.

Whatever color the container in the right hand corner is, it’s beautiful to try and paint…a cool yellow in shadow, always tricky.

I hope to keep this painting light and open in feel, with the just the right amount of mystery… from value adjustments and color touches. It needs to look like paint, and I’m using the old three-part medium in this to get some richness and brushwork evident.

“The beginner seeks to improve their paintings by adding details.

 The artist does so by refining relationships.”  

 -M.N.

The Palm Courtyard (working title) 18 x 22″ oil on linen

Thanks to the kind generosity of the Honolulu Museum of Art, I’ve been allowed to work on the Museum grounds in this very special location, the Palm Courtyard.

The courtyard  itself is one of several integrated into the Museum’s design, in this instance quite a large area with all sorts of compelling tonal, color, and light/shadow things happening. When I first entered it with an eye towards painting something, it was as if I’d stepped into a life-sized still life arrangement.

Composition ideas often come when I’m looking for “something else”, and this particular  arrangement caught my eye while setting up our model for my class “Painting the Model en Plein Air”.  Perhaps the biggest attraction was the momentary effect of light falling on the large palm  right-of-center (which at this stage of the painting is not yet developed) and the beautiful variety of shapes which I find lead the eye nicely.  Also, the full value range —  from bright, near dazzling light to near darkness…are a big challenge.

The painting is developing slowly…many trips to the location, and as a nice additional bonus, plenty of  interest from Museum visitors and staff alike.  A few have added a brush stroke of their own to the painting at my urging; I believe it’s good to let people experience the process and I enjoy doing so immensely.

As the painting progresses through increasingly subtle adjustments of color, shape, and value, I hope it will capture some of the very quiet richness of this easily overlooked courtyard.  As I stated at the outset, and teach my students,  the artist attempts to improve the work by adjusting relationships.

This is a pastel demonstration piece I executed at Spalding House for my Painting the Model en Plein Aire class last week.

Our topic that day was “Selection and Emphasis”…the idea that one must select from what Nature presents according to your priorities, and then appropriately simplify. Every element must be considered and it’s value to your picture determined, much will  need to be eliminated, and what is left must be simplified and refined.

         Dulce in the Sun      Pastel on Canson       12 x 9″

It’s been seriously busy over the last month. Here’s a resurrected piece from at least three  years ago that was begun outdoors in a rather unplanned moment of enthusiasm,  and set aside as unworkable until a friend dropped by and commented that she thought it had more potential than I was allowing it.  That was about a year ago.

Finally over the last few days I’ve given it some attention and it’s looking better. I love working in close values and  color temperature shifts, and so this little canvas has become a pleasure to work on rather than the struggle it originally was.

Kawainui at Sunset  oil, 12 x 16″

Can’t help but be excited about my upcoming exhibition, and I’m earnestly ( does anyone still use that word?) prepping everything…painting s to be signed, one or two are in mid stride, and I started small ones today.  So, I’m crazed, but it’s fine.  Here’s some things I put out today, frames are in process.  They may look familiar if you’ve ben following the blog.

The Sunlit Shore, Kailua 30 x 40″

            Lightfall   20 x 36″

            Konahuanui-Morning Shadows 12 x 16″

Ironwoods at Dusk 18 x 24″

There’s more, and you will see them later.  Thanks for the look.