Divers at Halona Cove

This pastel is finally finished, except for the signature which will be added after placing the picture into the frame.  I decided that I’d try painting it on a soft Rives printmaking paper, with a very satisfying middle value olive-beige tone. It worked well.  The paper took the color very nicely, and allowed for sufficient repeat applications of pastel.  Just a touch of fixative was introduced in the darkest darks and developed lights.

divers at halona cove 650Divers at Halona Cove pastel  14 x18″

The subject itself is one I’ve been working with for years, and  the challenges are tremendous for a plein-air approach.  Most everything is in movement, and the surges of water and sometimes wind can be  powerful and unpredictable. Because of this, the wave effects have to be determined  in advance, and then simplified.  Also, it’s very easy to overplay the already beautiful colors of  the water, so I prefer to make a point of following nature’s lead closely  by revealing the wonderful combinations of colors already presented  as truthfully as I can.

DHC pastel pre

Preliminary 9 x 12″

The first days I had on this piece were remarkable for the clarity of the light…as with so many things in life, good weather seems like it should last indefinitely, though of course I knew it wouldn’t. We eventually were locked down by heavy rains for many days after the first few afternoons, so the final picture was eventually adjusted indoors, from memory.

Makapu’u-Evening Sea

Further work and enhancements.  Almost finished, I ‘m looking forward to some glaze work in the foreground rocks.  Some slight adjustments to tones and simplifications need to be made overall…I’m spending a lot of time looking at the painting upside-down and in the mirror.   What can I do to keep it moving?  Where is the water getting held up, and why?  Moreover, where can I simplify without loosing the look?

Makapu'u Makapu’u-Evening Sea oil on linen, 32 x 36″

Makapu’u-Evening Sea

A quick post on a current work-in-progress. It’s a 32 x 36″ oil, studio painting from a quarter-sized plein-air sketch.

Makapu'u Evening Sea

Makapu'u pencil Demo1 First sketchbook indication.

Silver-Grey, a Corner of Kailua

A Corner of Kailua 2 Silver -Grey, a Corner of Kailua Oil on Linen 20 x 22″

This piece is now finished, one painting of what has become a small series of paintings down in this wonderful area of my local beach.  Construction of a frame is under way, and I’ll be varnishing in a couple months in time for a show in October.

It’s going in a direction I’d like to continue to pursue, turning away from the ocean-based works and drawing more on subjects that are a bit unexpected, the easily-overlooked glimpses of beauty.  It’s been very helpful to find  that others have responded well to this piece and other pictures like it. Despite popular notions of the artist forging a bold direction in spite of opinion, I find it gratifying to discover that I’m not alone in seeing that this difficult world has been laced with unexpected glimpses of heaven.

There’s nothing like it!

Just back from tilting at my windmills this morning at Kailua beach, and it was unbelievably good.

The 22 x 28″ canvas managed to stay planted on the French easel, perhaps not the  optimum choice for such a windy morning.  But I’d scouted a protected position when I did the pencil sketches, and was pretty confident that I’d be okay.

There’s nothing like a lay-in that goes well. It’s like that great date with your spouse- to-be, where you foresee all the great things that are going to happen, and everything seems fresh and clear and possible.  Painterly optimism can soar in this first stage, as it did for me this morning.

The setup was perfect because I like to lay-in a significant painting on an overcast day. Everything is reduced to midtones and nicely flattened, and since lay-in time can be one of the longest of my recurring sessions, an overcast day is good. And I got what I wanted, a cool morning with a smart breeze. After getting in the major preliminary tones, the sun broke through.  Everything lit up, the proverbial scales fell from my eyes, and I could see the path before me, much as I’d  experienced when I selected this spot a week ago. Shadows intensified, colors emerged, people began milling about in the trees in brightly colored beachwear as if they’d risen out of the sand.

Kailuauntitled,  oil on linen  22 x 28″

So, this is now a complete go, and I look forward to tackling it.  I have great hopes, but also enough experience to recognize that in the hours and days to come, that optimism will be tested by disappointments and shortcomings yet to be revealed.

I’ll probably reach a point of  disillusionment where I’ll ask ” What did I see in this place? What am I after?”  (That’s what the pencil sketch helps with).  I’m already skittish about the centrality of those canoes in the painting, but my hope is that, since they aren’t the central subject but merely an incidental shape-part of the whole, I can be forgiven.  In order to get the tree mass on the left where I needed it, something had to give.

I’m hopeful!

Konahua’nui -third session

After a week of overcast weather, I finally have been able to return to work on the painting.  The conditions this morning were ideal, and so I essentially spent an hour session going after the biggest color notes and  biggest shapes in the mountain itself, trying to get them established more fully.  I’d placed the sky color in the studio, allowing a lot of breathing room with the warm underpainting.

The paint takes on a nice quality as I develop it, one touch over the next, hopefully bringing it closer to truth. I need to build carefully to avoid notes that take way from the large effect, which is such an easy thing to miss. Some knife work will be in order; some of the textures and planes receiving the light  have just that sort of feel, as if the color were spread across the rough mountain face with a trowel .

Konahua'nuiKonahui’nui oil on linen, 20 x 24″

As for knife work, I seem to make a distinction between palette knives and painting knives.  I use a palette knife for cleaning the palette, either a big 3″ trowel or an actual hardware store paint scraper.  The painting knives are too delicate for anything but painting, and I reserve them for the occasions when I want the surface qualities they offer.  I’m still pretty cautious/selective in their use, but can see that changing as I become more familiar with them.  I’ve seen some remarkable use of painting knives in the hands of  Thomas Moran, Frederick Leighton, and others.

pal knives

One idea is to mount painting knives onto the handles of paint brushes. I find it works wonderfully, especially if you have hands as large as mine!

Konahui'nui 2

Because sometimes you have to.

This particular painting has had some reconsideration since I declared it finished a while back.  As I always like to do, I gave it a rest by putting it out of sight, moving on to other work, and returned to reappraise it objectively after some time had passed.

In this instance, I decided that it was falling short of what I was after.

I find the effects of light, color, and motion in Hawai’i  to be so beautiful,  in and of themselves, that I’m very conscious of the danger of caricaturing those aspects.  One sees that enough…exaggerated colors and  stereotyped images of the sea, drained of any actual reality or  meaning, as if the artist has lost contact with the subject.

While I never felt I was running that particular risk, I found that there were improvements to be made in the color of the water, which was running a bit too green, and some compositional additions that would be positive .

Lanai Lookout

Sunlit Surf- Lana’i Lookout Oil on Linen 24 x 32″

I made some appropriate adjustments in the color, some additions in the foreground and the introduction of a white wave in the background on the left horizon, which adds more of an incentive for the eye to travel there.  Finally, I noticed a very pale, waxing crescent moon one evening, and decided that if painted very subtly it could be a beneficial addition. I’m now much happier with the piece and am willing to let it rest for final varnishing and to be framed.

Lanai Lookout2

Sunlit Surf-Lana’i Lookout

seascapeSunlit Surf-Lana’i Lookout 28 x 32″  Oil on Linen

Other than some minor adjustments, I consider this painting  finished. Now is the time where I move on to another painting and get this off my mind.  I love this point, because ironically, that  helps me come back to this piece with a fresh, objective eye after some time has passed, to see if it’s really finished.

I make that judgement based on a couple of factors. Going back to my original intentions, that sense of weight, power, and energy are as close to what I’m after as I think I can manage.  I’ve made some changes from the sketches; choosing to keep larger areas in shadow, shaping the rocks differently than I planned.  The main thing is that the eye moves through the composition as I wished it to, and the handling of the paint seems to me to be energetic and varied, without arresting the movement of the water more than necessary. I remember while doing the plain air sketch that there was a sense of the water actually “galloping” forward,  and I’ve tried to capture some of that.

While I move on to the next painting, I may come back to build some of the impasto areas more heavily after some drying, and possibly a warm glaze over the rocks in sunlight.

I always seem to hold out the great hope that “this time, I’ll really get it.”  “It”, for me, is the sense of creating a convincing, shimmering reality, all the while keeping the viewer fully aware that this is “only made out of paint.”  It’s the duality that one gets with good impressionism…it’s the absolute look of the thing being painted, and the paint itself, and you can’t decide where the thing ends and the paint begins…the awareness of both are simultaneously present.

I’m not there yet, but trying.