New paintings from Skip Lawrence workshop

Last week was spent in a painting workshop at Bon Secours retreat center near Baltimore, studying with Skip Lawrence (skiplawrence.com).  This is something I've done every spring for the past five years.  Always a challenge, always a surprise to see what I end up with.

And, as always, I entered the workshop with the intention of continuing to paint as I always have, and, as always, that changed. 

Above is a painting I did in February. I followed the same steps I explained in my post from February 14th, starting with an under-painting of mechanical shapes, like these...

What I like about the finished painting above is the transparency and complicated layers showing through behind the final details. Before the workshop I prepared twelve panels ranging in size from 8X8 to 12X12, all with the hard-edged mechanical theme in limited color. I thought I would methodically paint all of these with the same routine approach as above, but that didn't happen. 

Every year Skip encourages me to get away from my default iconography of houses, trees, birds, etc. Or at least to integrate them to become more harmonious with the surface treatment of the painting. He stresses concepts such as making sure your paintings have a dominant element (is mostly - fill in the blank - a color, texture, etc.), that there is something in the composition that serves as a compliment to the main theme, and that there is variation (gradation of color, different treatment of edges), to name just a few of his valuable tenets.

Below are the paintings I did over the five days. Some still have remnants of the under-paintings, others have many layers of paint covering up those designs. They are shown here in roughly the order I painted them. You might see some kind of progression as I worked...you might not. The first six are 12X12, second six 10X10, last six 8X8. 

Still sticking to my houses, etc. in a landscape, thinking I needed a "focal point" with the hard-edged, dark forms. The surfaces have interest, and the edges show some variety.

I allow for more freedom with the landscape, letting the under-painting suggest the arrangement, staying away from the dark 'focal point".

Not sure about this one. An experiment. Under-painting still evident behind the wash of black gesso. White charcoal pencil for the trees and highlighted forms.

Again, under-painting can be seen, this time with a black wash, warmed with quinacridone gold. Skip had suggested I do something other than what I would normally be comfortable with (I know, don't end a sentence with a preposition, but the correct form sounds so stuffy). Hence! the bright yellow and red, which was eventually covered over and muted.

At this point Skip had me look at paintings by Catherine Liu, to give me ideas about covering parts of painted surfaces and leaving elements of focus, complimentary to the composition. I need to keep working on this...!

Things get simpler, elements start to blend into the surface somewhat. Under-painting disappears.

Skip wasn't crazy about this one, but Judy wouldn't let me do anything else to it.

Surface....

Simplicity...

Enjoying the mark...

Using the under-painting again...

Going for it, with contrast, limited palette, using my marks in a less predictable way...

Abstraction, but with elements of story, which I need...

And back again to subtly, hopefully with a fresh look.

Some new paintings with acrylic and collage

With the exception of this first piece, which is 36" X 24", the paintings here are small, ranging in size from 8" X 8" to 12" X 12", all on 2" deep wood panels, with acrylic, charcoal and paper collage.  I'll be taking them with me to the American Crafts Council show in Baltimore next week.

Nine new paintings, some with cold wax and oil, collage

Cold wax and oil with paper collage 20" X 20"

Each of these paintings started with an acrylic under-painting based on designs from machinery and mechanical objects, as I've done before. 

 

I used a simple palette of white, titanium white, yellow ochre, burnt sienna and black. 

I used the forms in the under-painting to determine the final composition. The painting below is what was painted over the painting above. You can still see some of the elements of the under-painting. 

I covered the under-painting with a light yellow ochre, using patches of paper labels to mask out the yellow ochre and reveal some of the under-painting.

Why did I do this? I wanted to create a deep and interesting surface. 

 

Cold wax and oil with paper collage 24" X 18"

 Cold wax and oil with paper collage and charcoal 20" X 20"

 Cold wax and oil with paper collage and charcoal 20" X 20"

 Cold wax and oil with paper collage and charcoal 20" X 20"

 Cold wax and oil with paper collage and charcoal 24" X 18"

 Acrylic with mixed media and paper collage 24" X 24"

 Acrylic and mixed media with paper collage 24" X 24"

Cold wax and oil with paper collage and charcoal 12" X 12" 

The Evolution of a Painting ~ A Commissioned Work for Ann and David

In August I received an email from Ann and David. I had met them at a show a month before. After seeing my work they had gone to my website and became interested in having a piece for their living room. When one they picked from the website had already been sold, and was a bit larger than they were looking for anyway, I suggested they commission a painting to match their size requirement and any other specifications. I told them they could choose pieces on my website that they liked and I could use elements from each to come up with an image just for them. I also referred them to Tim and Jill (with Tim's permission). Tim had commissioned a painting for Jill last year (post 12/22/17) using the same process of choosing aspects of previous paintings. 

Ann and David agreed to a custom painting. They suggested the motifs of birds, trees, leaves, stones and ponds, and chose three paintings from my website to give me an idea of what they were looking for.

They liked the soft reds and birds in this painting...

...the silhouetted bird and colors of this one...

...and the trees in this one...

They had specified the size of 38" X 40". I sanded and gessoed the wood panel and started with a layer of thin paper for texture. (Ann had expressed concern about the need for framing and I had reassured her that with the 2" deep wood panels I use there is no need because the sides are painted.) When I tried this first attempt I was thinking of their colors and the birds from the first painting they had chosen, the ponds and stones and leaves, using collage for much of the detail. This is what I came up with. I sent them the image thinking that it wasn't quite there yet, but at least it was a starting point for their feedback.

Ann very generously started her feedback saying that they liked the colors, the pond and trees, the style and the mixed media approach, but that the birds were too large and sinister looking. (Of course they were! What was I thinking?) She suggested making them smaller, with softer colors and more like herons, which they see often where they live. She and David also wanted more putty green and darker natural green.

So I tried again, painting over the black birds, adding more of the putty and darker greens. But this time the birds were too realistic for the style of the painting, and the one in the front was still too big. Because the birds in my paintings are generally stylized and certainly not specific, I was having trouble figuring out how to include herons in a style that was compatible with the rest of the painting. I never even showed them this stage.

In the meantime, Ann sent me a picture of their living room, showing where the painting was going to go. This was an enormous help. I could see the colors of the room as well as the style of furnishings and get a better sense of what was going to be appropriate for that space.

I had already toned down the blue in the sky and water and that worked better with the subtle colors of the room. It also meant glazing over the trees that were there, so I was able to add more trees over the ones that had been pushed into the background creating more depth. The birds are painted in a sketchy way, matching the style of the painting, but coming off recognizably as herons. The light yellow grasses were added for depth, surface interest and texture.

I sent Ann and David an image of this version and hoped for the best. When they saw it they asked if they could see it in person before committing, so I shipped it to them on spec. They loved it, bought it, and here it is in situ...

In Situ

I've been putting together a file of pictures people have sent me of my work in their homes...