Smoke on the Water or What can happen painting in the elements

Silvio and I ventured out into the wilds on HighWay 49 very early Friday morning and headed towards the Sierra Buttes . Edgar Payne, one of my painting heroes, was fascinated with the light that occurs at this elevation , 6000 ft + , and he painted around Salmon and Sardine Lake.s and produced some memorable paintings. As we approached the turnoff we discovered that the access road to the Lakes was snow covered and had not been plowed yet . That was a big bummer. We do however plan to go back in 3 weeks , when the road will be open , and paint these glorious Buttes as they rise majestically above emerald lakes. Just breadth taking! Therefore we had to employ plan B. Just up the road we had a clear view of the buttes and we both planted our gear and went to work.

We had both planned to paint 4 paintings total for the outing and we were giving each location about 1 1/2 to 2 hrs tops. That meant plan, design , big brush and economy of motion.





This design is a cliched formula but it works under pressing time frames. That's one good thing about being a trained illustrator. I like a large object on the left side that is only partially visible but I want it to lead the eye into the scene. Next in the middle ground are the same objects and they are moving the eye toward the left and middle distances. The same color of the brush then picks up cooler tones as it recedes into the background distance. As you can see, I was not thinking of producing a finished painting, but rather a plein air SKETCH. This is absolutely the first time I have painted snow outdoors and so I did not want to get caught up in details. After about an hour my eyeballs were freaking out. I was on my way to becoming a snow blinded victim I need to ask Stapleton Kearns how he battles white snow eye strain.....

One way to keep yourself from getting to phinicky and end up with a painting that looks like a Pizza, is to simplify the shapes and use a bigger brush than you are used to working with. Think in terms of masses and group like minded objects. Both in terms of shape and temperature. Most of my mixing is on the palette and I am not overly blending my applications. This keeps things looking fresh.

Any way, its blocky and rough, but it achieved the purpose I intended. A good feeling of the rock titan and a sense for the atmospheric colors if I ever intend on making this into a painting. But I still like the charm of a quick loose 11 x 14 oil.




Now I was feeling good and pretty confident about myself and we then drove above Graegle and saw this wonderful scene. Maybe 7ooo feet. It was a small hike from the truck but well worth the effort. We also noticed that a controlled burn was ongoing on the other side of the hill and just did not anticipate that it would affect us.

This is another 1 1/2 hour painting and I needed to simplify. But in the middle of painting, smoke began to cover my beautiful view. Here I was feeling pretty cocky about painting a great little sketch and my whole middle ground was disappearing before my eyes. I just left the middle ground unresolved as you can see from my sketch. Pride comes before the fall and I learned to paint with a little more humility and learn that anything can happen in Nature at any time.









The light was great as we traveled down the mountain and again we stopped alongside the road and captured the last entry for light on March 27 2009. What caught my eye was how weirdly pthalo blue the mountain shadow looked compared to the trees that rose up in front of them. It was a color and intensity that I would have not believed unless I had seen it with my own eyes. I really liked the starkness of the telephone poles against the landscape. The color spectrum was changing fairly fast . I am showing this to give you an idea of how I block in a painting sketch. Again, big brush. Simplify .

This design is the time tested fulcrum composition. More on this compositional device later. I think my son David is in the process of creating a grease fire over the stove......bye.....yikes........turn off the burner and move the PAN!!!!!!!!...........

11 x 14 lay in sketch



Get out there and PAINT

Bye for now...................


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