This SATURDAY at 8am, join us,
the Inland Northwest Outdoor Art Group for
PLEIN AIR PAINTING
HAYNES ESTATE CONSERVATION AREA
1712 E Leona Dr, Spokane, WA 99208
see more here: https://youtu.be/NROJlzemHbk
There is no better way to reward your inner artist! Pack only the essentials in art gear and come play with other artists outside.
This is the first of five summer events to help increase more artist participation in plein air painting in our beautiful region. Artist’s from our group will meet with up to 25 new participants on location, to paint together for 4 hours. We are not teaching a class, we are just artists painting together outdoors. If you are a member of this group you do not need to sign up to go, we just need you to show up. This Open Air Painting Meetup (Plein Air) is sponsored by the Libraries in Spokane (https://scld.libcal.com/event/14100798)
This view is what caught my eye at this location, it was a massive tree that fell down and made a bridge over the Little Spokane River. Over the span of only 4 ours the olors in this scene changed in so many ways. (Bring a camera)
Now to inventory the Createx automotive paints that have been sitting in the studio all these years. Is there any of it still good left in them after all this time? There are qu7ite a few bottles here, but my hopes are not very high that any of them are still useable. We will have to see.
The bottles are rinsed off to get the dust off and then shaken to see if there is any fluid still in them. The bottles on the left are pure pigment and are shakable because they are still wet. There is only one red paint still fluid. The ones on the right are all goners with paint residue that is hard-as-rock. Thump Thump.
These bottles of automotive pigment and one red paint are now ready to investigate further.
After shaking, then opening each bottle and pulling samples of the paint out, two more bottles are discarded. You may have noticed that these bottles are now sitting on their heads in the carrying tote. These will sit in the studio and every time I pass them sitting on the wash-up counter, I plan to vigorously shake them and set them down rotated 180º. Shake them, turn them, and then shake them some more. I need to buy some colors to be able to shoot this tank.
This is a photograph of “Minerva Amaryllis”, one of our blossoming beauties that I will be painting in watercolor. Its petals range in color from salmon to pink with white tiger stripes extending out from the center. Peter grows this one, and many others in our kitchen window. When they quickly spring up with their bright blossoms it can literally take your breath away. Amaryllis always cheer up the house in the winter.
The approach for the second, third (behind), and fourth petals are pretty much the same except for how the lighting and shadows change as they stack on top of each other.
Following this, apply a light wash in the background petals that is more muted in value to exaggerate distance.
With this beautiful yellow rose sketch, I carefully recreated the petals from the photograph and then lay it out on the table right next to where I begin to paint. I also have the actual flower in front of me as I begin to paint so I can get the colors right but the first part is usually dark areas taken from the dark values in the B&W print. My goal is to get the soft light to yellow fading (wet on wet) on each petal surface first and then add in shadow.
I am not going to use mastic to reserve the whites, instead, I plan to be careful to reserve the light areas of the paper. These first three images show the desk setup with the reference materials, paint pallet with brushes. Working on the first three petals establishes which colors seem to work best. After wetting the petal area, I fill my brush with Aureolin Yellow and drag along the darker edge to the center leaving a puddle of color at the center, this one lets other colors wash over it. Using a darker orange-yellow named, New Gamboge, to drop in color where more brilliance in the yellow is desired.