Art Blog - Art In History

The colors of water are endlessly fascinating, and a source of everchanging interest in landscape. If the sky (according to Constable) is the "chief organ of sentiment in nature", then the water is its mirror, reflecting its many moods and colors, and mixing them with colors of its own. I have just returned from a week in the Carribean, on St. John, and the colors of the tropical ocean were one of the singular glories of the visit. It was a week of broken clouds, driven by high winds, creating an endless succession of light and color conditions, duly reflected in the colors of the water. In addition, there were the unique tones of the tropical ocean: turquoise where the bottom was sandy, lavender when the bottom was reef, and a deeper blue over deep water… Continue reading… 2 comments

As we approach the new year, I am realizing that it is now ten years since ArtId took birth (as MindsIsland), and just how many articles I have written and posted over that period. I took a look, and discovered that many of the older ones were not presentable, having been crudely converted from native HTML to our present platform. I have just completed a process of spiffing them up, in high hopes that someone out there might care. This post is for those who have enjoyed my writings, and are interested in poking around among the many I have done in the past. It is a summary of the main topics I have dealt with, and some instructions on how you can find them. Because if you don't know they are there, you can't even decide whether you care or not… Continue reading… 3 comments

It is autumn in New England! That means it is both a wonderful and a dangerous time for plein air painters. Nature is begging you to capture her beauty, but also challenging you to compete with her brilliance. Fall color, perhaps more than any other subject, teaches you humility and caution, because it is a competition you will always lose. At any time, the range of color and value in nature is far beyond the range available to the artist trying to represent it. Usually, nature's restraint allows us to compete, by using strong color to represent that which in nature is muted. It is relatively easy to set up a range of color and value which will represent what we see. Autumn in New England is not so kind… Continue reading… 3 comments

When we think of the Coat of Many Colors, whether Joseph's biblical coat or Dolly's country version, we think of a patchwork of bright, rainbow colors, intense and splashy. Most of us. When I think of the coat of many colors I think if nature's coat of subtle tones, colors so rich and intermixed that each is every color. Not that nature doesn't have its bright accents too, its pure blue sky and profusion of wildflowers, but for me, the real feast is in the shades of brown and grey. Brown is just a name for a profusion of color that is on balance warm; if the balance is cool, we call it grey. The richest colors in nature come in the Spring and fall, when no one color dominates… Continue reading… 2 comments

This post is another holiday from my art history pieces; in fact, another in my series of artistic tips, though my theme applies as much to studio painting as to painting plein air. From the title one might suppose I was going to talk about fantasy, or more generally about work not springing from observation of the world. In fact, the opposite is true: triggering the imagination is the key to painting convincingly realistic works… Continue reading… 1 comment

It has been a chunk since I did a post in my series on plein aire tips. However, I got some tips myself in my recent week at Casa del los Artistas in Boca de Tomatlan. For more on this week, see my personal post under Peter Barnett. It was a plein aire workshop, and I came away with three tips that will add flexibility to my repertoire. The first had to do with Sumo Brush painting on the go. Bob Masla had me experiment with a special travel brush and "ink pencil". I drew first with the pencil, much as I would with a soft graphite pencil, but doing only cursory shading. I then used a brush with a hollow plastic handle with a self-contained water supply, much like a dish sponge with its own supply of soapy water… Continue reading… 2 comments

My painting method is certainly influenced by my predilection for plein air painting, but it in fact the same whether I am painting outdoors or indoors. I t is based on organizing and realizing a work quickly, even if the circumstances do not require it. I find that I am seldom able to work for more than an hour at a stretch, and tend to lose the acuteness of vision if I try. As I have said in an earlier post, I begin with a toned panel or canvas, which among other things allows me to establish relative tones and values much more quickly than working on white. Often I am able to choose among several toned panels the one which best matches the color character of the subject I am doing… Continue reading… 2 comments

If you paint on site, how much should you do with the painting after you get back to the studio? It all depends what you are trying to achieve. It is a time-honored process to develop works in the studio from sketches done on site. Often these are single-purpose sketches, to study composition, record color, trigger your visual memory. Many artists will begin on a fresh canvas once back in the studio, but many others continue to develop their original image. I do almost no revision once I return from the field. Most of what I do is add specific elements from mental notes, elements that require the paint to be dry, like fine branches against the sky, or grasses against a dark background… Continue reading… 3 comments

I thought I would do a more nuts and bolts piece on how I travel out of the country with my painting outfit. The image is of me set up on the atlantic coast of portugal at the end of November, but I'm not even sure you can make it out. In any case, I will use the Portugal/Spain trip as an example. I repack my paintbox in its original cardboard box, with the styrofoam packing material. I have jury-rigged a rope handle on the top of the box, which is tape shut with packing tape. By the way, I always take a roll of the tape with me incase customs opens the box and I need to tape it shut again. I don't leave me brushes loose in the box; I've found they can work their way out from under the drawer… Continue reading… 2 comments

One of the great pleasures I get from plein-air painting is the oportunity to interact with very special places. It isn't just that these places stimulate me to paint them. Of course they do, and the paintngs then become a wonderful trigger for memories of the place and the experience. But beyond this, the time spent in those places is therapeutic in itself, and the hour is well spent even if the painting fails. For me, there seem to be three kinds of special places. The first are familiar places with an endless appeal, places which show me new pictures each time I visit them. I count among these the northern Berkshires (my family home), the Adirondacks and the coast of Maine… Continue reading… 0 comments

If you're a photographer, you already know. A bright sunny day is NOT the best time to be looking at scenery. Bright sunlight washes out subtle color. It replaces the subtlety with strong contrasts of light and dark, and only the bold colors really survive. That is why bold colors are favored in North Africa, Mexico, South America. That is alos why the majority of postcards you see have been color-heightened: everybody wants to see a sunny day, but a photograph of a sunny day is often without real color. A meadow in sunlight might have 3 or four shades of green; on an overcast day it will have a hundred. Of course, strong contrasts of light and dark can make a great picture in their own right… Continue reading… 1 comment

One of the main choices I have made as a plein-aire painter is to work primarily on masonite panels rather than on canvas. I find that I like both surfaces in different ways; what is certain is that they require a very different application of paint. But for working in the field, panels have great advantages. First, they are inexpensive and easy to prepare. I really do consider this an advantage, because you should not feel the need to make each outdoor sketch a winner. I buy masonite by the 4' x 8' sheet, and will prepare 20 to 30 panels at a time in a range of sizes and shapes. Second, they are very durable, much less vulnerable to damage than a stetched canvas. My panels travel everywhere with me, under a blanket in the back of my Forrester… Continue reading… 1 comment

I think many artists are discouraged from working out of doors by the problems of putting together a kit which is portable and not too complicated. I have settled on the French Easel, an ingenious piece of equipment designed for the purpose. My first paintbox easel, almost fifty years ago, cost me c.$250 and lasted me ten years without complaint. Since then I have tried a number of name brands and found them all a disappointment: none lasted very long without breaking down. There may be a really well made one out there, but I don't know what it is. Instead, I have decided to consider my easel a consumable item. I now buy the easels two at a time at Ocean State joblot for $50 apiece, and assume they will last me a year… Continue reading… 0 comments

Hello out there! I am a plein-aire painter and teacher, and what I most want to do with my new blog is to pass on the tips and techniques which I have shared with my students in the past. This cannot be a substitute for the interaction with a teacher as you work, but particularly for artists with previous experience I hope it can be helpful, and will start some fun conversations. This is the first of many posts in this category. In it I want to define what plein-aire painting is for me. In the broadest sense, plain-aire painting means working out of the studio, in front of your subject. However, this can be done in many ways, notably as preparation for a later finished work done indors, or as a finished work in itself… Continue reading… 0 comments