Supports! pt.2

     After having made a bunch of new panels, and then going on a one week trip with them, I have decided to adjust what sizes I will use and buy in the future. Though there is a very sensible order to the standard US panel sizes, 8x10-16x20-24x30 are all the same relative dimension as are 9x12-12x16-18x24, and with this system it is very easy to make a useful color study for a more important larger project. The problem is that is doesn't offer much variety for sketching and none of it is very panoramic. I am also currently carrying around two separate raymar wet panel carriers, 8x10 and 12x16, a great tool I have discovered since I got back to the states, but transporting two is annoying.  I sat down with a pen and a calculator to see if I could come up with a set of sizes that would be as easy as possible to frame in the US and Europe, all fit in one panel carrier, and offer me a better array of dimensions. Moving between inches and centimeters is never convenient, and the following sizes allow for one centimeter or less in error, most good frames leave you a bit of breathing room in the event you are using stretcher bars with the added thickness of canvas.
     What I came up with was the following; 6x8-8x12-9x12-12x14-12x16. The little 6x8's (15x20cm, a common euro size) are great for quick sketches and easy to throw in my backpack, I don't have a wet panel carrier for them but don't mind, I find them better for 1 hour jobs than 8x10's, just as easy to find frames for, and a touch more elegant and panoramic. 8x12 is basically the same as 20x30 cm a very common size in Europe, and the same size as some of my favorite work by Marc Dalessio. 8x12 is not a popular size in the US but it seems like some people are using it and it is not impossible to find ready-made frames that fit. 9x12, on the other hand, is a very common size in the US and easy to find frames for. 12x14 has a very similar feel to 11x14, and is great for under life size head studies, it is also equivalent to 30x35 cm in Europe. 12x16 is very close to 30x40cm, and both sizes are very standard and easy to find frames for. With my 12x16 wet panel carrier I can now carry everything except the 6x8's, even 12 seperate wet 8x12's as long as they are 1/8th of an inch thick.

the distortion makes this picture almost useless

     I have also decided to go back to shellacked wood panels for all of my 6x8's, 8x12's, and 9x12's. After looking at my books it seems like pretty much all of my favorite small plein air sketching by people like Sorolla or any of the Macchioli, are on this kind of panel. It looks great, it has a very traditional and natural feel to it, and almost no other painters are using them today. The key is to get wood that is as light in value as possible and use refined clear schellac (available both in the US and at Zecchi) otherwise as the picture ages and goes transparent it will turn dull like a lot of work on dark grounds from the 17th century. Also, you can tint clear shellac with a touch of oil paint which will be permanently held in the surface, I tried it with burnt sienna and english red, both were good and my panel was a more usable tone than the strong yellow/orange of natural shellac. Hopefully someone who reads this finds it helpful, now I am looking forward to testing this new array of sizes on my next painting trip!
       

Cheesy Paintings

I just hung up a few of my most recent landscapes at Freestone Artisan Cheese in Freestone, CA. I hope some of their patrons recognize a few of the views, as most of the pictures were painted just minutes away from the shop. They have a great selection of handmade cheeses and olive oils, and I recommend anyone in the area pop in. These days a lot of the food biz can be a bit pretentious, Freestone Artisan Cheese is not, which is why I think it is a great place to look at paintings (with a big mouthful of cheese!)

Freestone Artisan Cheese
380 Bohemian Highway
707-874-1030

My Sketchbook

I thought it would be fun to post a few of the pages out of my sketchbook. As you can imagine I only took the time to scan the good pages and I can promise you there is plenty of chicken scratch throughout the rest. I draw primarily in line, I've always been attracted to drawy drawings and painty painting, for this reason I don't always love the full value charcoal long pose figure drawings coming from some the new "ateliers" these days, I much prefer the equivalent from the 19th century.

I have a leather portfolio that I keep in my landscaping backpack at all times, I also take it with me if I am not going to paint. Because the portfolio is good looking, I am actually more likely to take it with me around a city or into a museum. I use the light grey covered Zecchi sketch pad, it is by far my favorite paper to draw on, a perfect weight and the cream colour is perfect. I prefer loose pages as I can always tear out anything good to frame it, or scan it, like I did for this post. to draw, I always start in pencil H, HB, 2B, something like that, and then I line the drawings with a Pigma Micron pen either 01 or 005, often I will erase the original pencil drawing to fake the look of a precise and confident draftsmen, ha!

John Singer Sargent thumbnail

I try and plan out all of my more complicated paintings in small drawings first, and since I use loose leaf paper it is really easy to take any good work, scan it, and then blow it up and transfer it. The drawings below I did a few months ago in Breckenridge, CO, one is a thumbnail that I ended up re-drawing and painting as a 16x20, the other is Sarah in a gypsy costume wiping her snotty nose on her hand which I transferred into a larger landscape I started in Sardinia 15 months ago. 

I am glad I make time to draw because it is always fun to go back through things you make while traveling. Below I'll attach some drawings from Italy; South American mummies from the Anthropology Museum in Florence, Venice thumbnails, plus some costume studies I did after returning to my studio Florence.

The more I paint landscapes outside, the more I make thumbnails for the purpose. A thumbnail can save a whole bunch of time and prevent you from wasting a decent support on something that probably never would have worked out. I find it fascinating that so many of my favorite landscape painters (like Corot) worked in line more than mass and value, it is a bit counter intuitive. The more I do these, the more I realize how important delineating the outer border is, without it you aren't really planning a picture.

sonoma coast, vineyard trees and fences

bodega cemetery, school house beach 

Finally, I occasionally draw to capture something I would never have the time to paint. This kind of subject captures the pure spirit of drawing as it doesn't have anything to do with organizing a painting, it is just investigation and learning about the natural world. I think the mummy drawing above fits in this category too.

feeding frenzy at Mark's farm

 

Supports!

One aspect of painting regularly is keeping up with supports. I almost never need more paint, I take care of my brushes and the good ones (silver brush grand prix) last forever, but I am always running out of supports. Today I prepared fifteen 8x10's ten 9x12's ten 12x16's ten 16x20's and recycled a few odd sized ones that had horrible sketches on them. All in all it isn't much more than 50 panels, but it still takes a bunch of work, and I know I will feel like I am running low in a few months. Hopefully we will see some of these guys again as good paintings for the blog!

all this oil ground was very stinky, had to open a window!

Back From Italy

After four years as a student at Florence Academy of Art followed by another two as the director of the art history program, on the occasion of my return to the US I thought it would be appropriate to post some of the work I did there outside of the studio, traveling around and learning to paint on the road. I had no idea that painting outside was going to be such a big part of my life, and it is a practice I would strongly reccomend to any student coming from the new traditional painting schools and ateliers. Great natural light studios, like those I had become accustom too in Italy, can be hard to find (or build!) as it turns out some of the time I have been without an good studio has still been very productive.

Belluno

I would also like to thank all the painters I met over my years in Italy who were working outside regularly. I don't think it was any coincidence that many of them had a more well rounded and healthy relationship with painting, not to mention a certain brand of humilty that comes from interacting with natures power and scale.

arno tree 

Gioz 

Castiglioncello boats 8x10 inches (available)

Piazza Beccaria Thumbnails

Settignano Chapel

Viareggio 5pm

Via Della Casine

Corsini Gardens

All of these were done at very different times during my stay at FAA. The final picture of the Corsini Gardens I painted while doing a weekend workshop with Marc Dalessio, it definately signals the beginning of my interest in painting outside. I believe if you dig deep into Marc's blog there is a picture of me painting this scene.