Art Blog - What Makes A Painting Work

Robins must be one of the best loved birds. They find their way into our folklore, into our songs, and into our hearts. They also find their way into our art. I'm happy enough with the result that I've given some thought to why it works so well. It think the greatest strength in this little watercolor is the way the bird's bright eye provides an exact focal point for the painting. This is a gift from nature, where close observation shows that the eye is surrounded by a thin white edge. The glossy surface of the eye reflects light to provide a white pinpoint in the center of the black eye. Notice that the white flower in the background is muted and is surrounded by a medium value green so that it does not distract from the focal point… Continue reading… 2 comments

Two challenges presented themselves from the outset in painting this view from under the wharf at Santa Cruz, California. Light comes from multiple points, coming round in all directions to pierce the darkness under the wharf. The far side of the wharf admits an almost blinding light as the sun sparkles on the water. Shadows from the supports are cast at many points and from many directions in varying intensity. The second challenge is created by the large number of straight lines which could carry the eye beyond the picture plane and away from the focal points… Continue reading… 0 comments

"Nothing but blue skies from now on," is marvelous as a song lyric or as a description of perfect vacation weather, but rather risky as a painting strategy. Solid blue skies shout. They make statements. They take over. Avoid them as you would avoid a pushy but boring guest at a social gathering. Skies can add to the harmony of a composition. Color and pattern are both important. When you look at sky in a photograph taken on a clear day, it presents a rather solid even blue. The real skies overhead send all matter of colors bouncing back at your eyes. Thus skies can benefit from touches of other colors in the palette that you use for that particular painting… Continue reading… 2 comments

Sometimes the grand elements of a particular place are so impressive that they are painted by seemingly every artist that passes through. Meanwhile other potential painting ideas may be ignored. For example, California's Pigeon Point Lighthouse is one of the most attractive and painted of the Pacific Coast lighthouses. At a juried show I attended a few months ago, I saw a painting of Pigeon Point that captured only the rocky point below the lighthouse. It was an attractive and powerful portrayal of waves crashing upon the rugged rocks, and it was an award winner. The artist had looked at the famous locale from a slightly different and fresh viewpoint… Continue reading… 0 comments

Painting is about light. Art portraying dusk to the darkest night deals with light in three interesting ways. There are works give us only the natural light of the night, largely dependent on moonlight but even the ambient light of a moonless night has form if few hints of color. It takes a deft handling of color and value to depict that soft world of dusk or of moonglow. Moonless or clouded nights are largely value studies. Two masters of the night who painted in California's central coast region approximately a century ago are Charles Rollo Peters and Gottardo Piazzoni. Artificial light may be the focal point or the theme of the painting. Sometimes this is the glowy cottages of Thomas Kincaid, and the window lights on a Christmas card scene… Continue reading… 3 comments

A scant few oak leaves had just begun to color. The oaks grew along the edge of a Sierra trail in a place that would have been awkward to set up to paint. I photographed them for later work in the studio, framing the scene with the camera as I intended to paint it. It was horizontal with a great deal of the dusty greens of late summer/early fall and the yellow leave in the lower left hand area, in a text book example of one of the perfect focal point locations. However, I did not like the first painting effort following that plan. There were large amounts of dark areas, with the eye drawn to the bright leaves and staying there. In the next effort I went to a vertical composition, using only one third of the leafy area I had originally painted… Continue reading… 2 comments

After deciding which slice of the world will make a good landscape composition, a second problem to be worked out is how much detail to show. When I saw these ducks sitting in the sun on a weathered boardwalk bridge rail at Neary Lagoon I was struck by their bright beauty. There was no doubt they were the stars of the scene. They would make a lovely watercolor painting by themselves. Yet I was also struck by patterns which spoke of the rich complexity of the landscape. The weathered wood had a lavender tone where it had been exposed by the peeling paint, and revealed growth patterns in the wood as the paint held to some layers better than to others. The ducks themselves had an array of colors in their feathers although the male's head and wings made them clearly identifiable as mallards… Continue reading… 3 comments