Saint Ignatius Church studies

Study of St Ignatius as seen from Buena Vista Park I
oil on panel
9 x 12 inches

I love this church, it's called St Ignatius and it sits on the northern slope above Golden Gate Park's panhandle. In the afternoon and evening the western sun lights up the church in dramatic golden contrast to the blue hills of the Presidio and the Marin Headlands behind.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to try a value study of the church in paint, so the above painting uses only brown, blue, and white. For this view I climbed up the forested hill of Buena Vista Park a few blocks above my house and found a spot on a trail where I had a good view of the church.

Study of St Ignatius as seen from Buena Vista Park II
SOLD
charcoal on paper
about 12 x 16 inches

After struggling with the paint yesterday I resorted to charcoal today. Charcoal feels comfortable and familiar compared to messy, gooey paint.

A nice USF couple on mountain bikes stopped to say hi and took my picture. I gave them my card and they were nice enough to email me the photo! See how bundled up I am in coat and scarf... and this was the WARM day!

Plein Air at Carl and Cole

Crepes on Cole SOLD
9 x 12
oil on panel

Carl and Cole Train Tunnel
9 x 12
oil on panel

These were fun because I painted them almost right outside my house. I did them both yesterday: the train tunnel in the morning and the creperie corner in the afternoon.

For both these paintings I was set up near the train tracks and I had to pause every time the little municipal train went by and blocked my view. It wasn't a problem earlier in the day but as I finished up rush hour was starting and a train was going by one way or the other every few minutes! I didn't mind though because I love the train.

Plein Air

View Through the Trees
9 x 12 inches
oil on panel

My friend Mary and I did a day of plein air painting together. My husband was confused as to why artists paint together, especially once I described that were set up far apart and barely spoke to each other all day except to share a couple snacks. But I explained to him that it's like meeting up with a workout partner: Someone to help you have the discipline to get out there, but it's not necessarily a social event. In any case, we had fun together, if only in the mostly non-verbal, co-solitary way two artists can have fun together. Hmmm.... "co-solitary", I just made that up and I think it's a good word!

Anyway, this first painting of mine (above) is very unfinished and I would have liked to work on it longer but after a couple hours all the shadows shifted around and absolutely everything had changed. I don't have much experience painting outside, and how anyone makes a fully developed landscape is a complete mystery to me.

Golf Course Grove
9 x 12 inches
oil on panel

Here I've made basically a value painting, color has nothing to do with it. It's just a range of pale yellow through dark green. I think I need to do some landscape painting copies to find out how people get color into their landscapes. Also, I have to figure out how to handle the foreground, this painting is dying for a foreground.

I'd also like to note that California trees are just weird. I grew up on the East Coast, and even though I've lived in SF for 8 years, I never get used to the Dr Seuss vegetation. These are pine trees, and yet the tops are flat. Where I come conifers look like proper Christmas trees!

Marin Headlands
9 x 12 (detail)
Oil on convas paper (bleh)

I only worked on this for less than an hour, and the overall painting is weak but I decided to post this portion because I had so much fun painting the rolling hills and eroded cliffs of the Headlands across the Bay. The hazy fog-filtered light on the distant hills allowed only a small range of color and value, so I had to mix very subtle color steps to describe the forms. It was a good exercise because it made me realize I often rely to much on dramatic value changes and I need to remember you can can really describe a lot of form with only very subtle shifts.

White Pitcher with Tulips SOLD

9 x 12, oil on panel

After my little monochromatic studies last week, I decided to try a larger color painting. I painted this over two days, about 3-4 hours per day. The progression is below:

I started with a quick drawing. I spent an hour just doing a basic block-in with pencil on paper, to work out the composition and get the main proportions right. It's tempting to skip this step, but it saves so much time and struggle with the paint later on.

Next I tranferred the drawing to the panel. I use transfer paper, which is a tissue paper with a thin layer of graphite coating one side. I taped my panel to my table, taped a piece of tranfer over that with the graphite-side down, and then I taped down my drawing over it, pressing the corners to match up the drawing to the panel underneath. Then I traced the major lines of my drawing with a hard pencil.

After I transferred my drawing, I went over the faint graphite lines on the panel with a brown extra-fine sharpie. Some people use a quill pen and sepia ink. That's too much work for me, but I would like to find a lighter-colored sharpie.

This is my drawing taped below my panel. The drawing has a lot more detail, so I ended up taping it off to the right so I could see it while I worked on the underpainting.

This is the start of the underpainting using the wipeout method. I used mainly raw umber, with a little ultramarine blue and a little white mixed in. I used a Viva paper towel as a rag to wipe out the white areas. I love Viva paper towels, they are the best for painting - almost as strong as cloth and not many fibers.

More refined stage of the underpainting.

I started adding color. At this point I left the painting for another day.

The second day I just worked at refining my colors and getting more detail. The overall look at this stage was very impressionistic. I was trying not to blend very much, keep the brushtrokes visible. I tried to work from dark areas to light areas, mixing a lot of color into the midtones.

The final painting. I'd like to do just a drapery study sometime, it was really fun. The tulips were ideal flowers because they last a long time and don't change much over a few days. They stayed fresh because my studio is very cold. But as I worked with my space heater turned on, the flowers warmed up and opened. I have no idea how people paint flowers in detail... even stable ones like tulips move too much.

Finally, here's a picture of my current studio setup:

The large white panel at the top is a piece of foamcore I have hung from the ceiling, to block my still life setup from the skylight. The light from the skylight falls on my easel, but not on the still life.

I've lit the still life with my white light "daylight" lamp from the left side. I also tried clamping my palette to my easel, as you can see. I abandoned that after 1 day though, it was annoying. But I hate having one hand occupied holding my palette all the time.

One day I will find the perfect clamp that will hold my palette right where I want it....

Three Little Pitcher Studies

Pitcher Study I
5 x 5 inches, oil on panel

I spent a few days doing these little monochrome studies, to get the feel of the paint again. This was my first - the photo is a bit blurry, but the painting itself is pretty hazy, too. I was concentrating on keeping the paint nice and thin until the very end. I am also trying to leave my edges interesting, showing the layers and brushwork. I used raw umber, ultramarine blue, and white for all of these.

Pitcher Study II
8 x 8 inches, oil on panel

For the next one I started over with the same still life setup but on a larger panel. However I jumped in too fast and I got the paint too thick and I began to struggle with control. Also, this was my first drapery study in paint, and it was hard to work out the drawing aspect of it without doing a sketch first.

Pitcher Study III SOLD
5 x 5 inches, oil on panel

For my third try, I decided to go back to the smaller format and just take my time, go slow, and keep the paint thin as long as possible. I abandoned the drapery since I didn't want to take the time to do a sketch first.

This painting is not much to look at, it's tiny and brown and simple, so maybe no one else can tell what a huge step forward it is for me, but I am thrilled with it. Loose and precise are finding a happy balance here. I am not trying to make the paint do anything, I am letting it be paint.

Silver Pitcher with Apricots

11 x 14 inches, oil on panel

I decided to try a longer painting, so I have been working on this one for about a week now. Working over dry or semi-dry paint has different challenges than working wet-on-wet in a single session. It was nice to have the time to refine things a bit more, but I found a whole new set of things I need to learn.

Luckily I am about to begin a marathon of painting workshops. Tomorrow I start a 2-week figure painting workshop with Dan Thompson at BACAA. Later in August I'll be taking a two-week still-life painting workshop with Juliette Aristides, up at Gage Academy in Seattle. I'm really excited about everything I will be learning this month from these two amazing artists.

Here are the process shots taken over the last week:

(Yes, that's me reflected in the middle, with my white painting apron on.)

Onion on a Paper Bag SOLD

11 x 14 inches, oil on panel

Process shots:

I spent a lot of time on the underpainting to get the proportions right. The bag leans so far to the right, and we often want to "straighten" things out. Drawing is basically just making your brain stop editing what you see.

I quickly put in the basic colors of the onion first, with saturated, clean colors. I knew I'd spend a lot of time on the complicated bag, and I wanted the onion to be fully incorporated even if I neglected it while the bag developed.

I blocked in the basic structure of the bag with flat brushes. I just bought some new long-bristled Princeton brushes I like, in both flats and filberts. I use a large sable filbert for the background after I have blocked in the color with a bristle brush.

I used smaller filbert bristle brushes, and in some cases a small flat bristle, to refine the various planes of the crumpled bag. At this point I am very happy I spent so much time on the underpainting - the basic shapes are right so I can focus on color rather than drawing.

After a lot more refining, this is the final. It took about 8 hours to complete.

I experimented with Prussian blue instead of my usual Ultramarine, it was a nice change for me. The whole palette was:

Cad Red Medium
Cad Yellow Deep (an orange I love)
Cad Yellow Medium
Sap Green
Prussian Blue
Raw Umber (just for the underpainting)
Mars Black (yes, I just started using black last week for the first time ever)
Titanium White

I used to get really frustrated where a light area meets a dark area - because so much white mixed with so much dark (blue, umber, black, or all three) makes a really chalky, ugly midtone. So I have started pouring a ton of color into my midtones and it has really helped.

Two Onions

8 x 10 inches, oil on cradled panel

This would have been a whole lot easier if I had just painted the onions, and left the silver platter out of the composition.

Silver Pitcher & Plum - SOLD

1o x 10 inches, oil on panel

Wow, today was a blast. I went out this morning and bought a bunch of fruit for still lifes at our little neighborhood grocery store, and then checked out a little antique shop around the corner. I ended up buying about 5 different vessels, including this amazing globe pitcher and the little pewter pitcher.

With all the new props to play with my still life just fell together, and over the next 5 hours or so this painting just fell out of my brush.

I'm trying with these recent paintings to let objects melt into the background and into each other, finding as many instances of "passage" as I can, while still retaining the structure of the form. This is the most successful I've ever been at that, and I'm really happy with the painting.

Here are the process shots. I included a shot of the block-in this time, which I usually do in the first 10 minutes and never photograph.

Green Vase with White Roses

10 x 10 inches, oil on panel

I decided to try my hand at a flower arrangement, a subject I've never painted before. Maybe I'll do a longer painting like this one sometime, there isn't time in one day to capture all that detail. But it was fun to experiment with an impressionistic style.

Process shots:

Teapot and White Flowers SOLD

8 x 10 inches, oil on cradled panel

My mom gave me this teapot as a birthday present this year because I said I want to start a collection of teapots. I love the color of this one. Anyone know what these flowers are? They look kind of like roses, but they have no thorns.

Here are the process shots:

Peach on Green SOLD

8 x 10, oil on cradled panel

This painting was a real breakthrough for me. I finally started to feel like my recent investment in intensive drawing study is showing up in the painting.

I had fun with the colors in this one, the pale lavender "fuzz" around the edge of the peach was so satisfying to paint. And the red/orange fruit on the pale green cloth just pops.

"Cradled panel" mean the wood panel has a lip around the edge on the back, so the panel is easy to hang and has a nice hefty depth (about an inch). I need to buy a bunch more this size and larger, it was a much better size to paint on than the tiny panels I've been using.

Daily Painting - Bud in a Bottle

6 x 6 inches, oil on panel

Daily Painting - Apricot

6 x 6 inches, oil on panel

The Daily Painters have a goal - 2000 painting in 30 days! I'm taking the opportunity to get back into my daily painting routine with 4 -5 new paintings a week from June 15 - July 15.

Read the press release here: 2000 Paintings in 30 Days.

Also, check out DailyPainters.com.

Peach Rose on Gray SOLD

6 x 6 inches, oil on panel

Yellow Daisy - SOLD

8 inches x 8 inches, oil on panel

I managed to save the daisy. It looks like a progression from the first session, but it was pretty much painted from scratch today since I wiped the whole thing down a few days ago. It looks so innocent, but I really stressed over this one.

Yellow Daisy (unfinished)

Phase III

Phase II

Phase I

This little daisy in a glass cube vase was supposed to be a quick "daily" but I was having fun with the monochromatic underpainting and decided to slow down & enjoy the process. I've worked on this two afternoons now, just a couple hours a session. Hoping to finish it in one or two more sessions.

I'm really enjoying this one, it feels great to get back to painting after drawing so much recently. It's amazing how much of painting is actually drawing.

Daily Painting: Pear & White Rose SOLD

6 inches by 6 inches, oil on panel SOLD

Today was a rare day in San Francisco: sunny, 85-degrees, no fog, clear blue sky, warm breeze. I just couldn't help but set up my easel in the back yard & paint this little sunny still life sketch. Afterwards I rode my bike through Golden Gate park and down to the beach. Just one of those days everyone you see seems happy to be alive. Happy May, everyone.

Tissue in Lightbox II

6 x 8 inches, oil on panel

Pear SOLD

8 x 8 inches, oil on panel