I completed a new painting! It will be exhibit in the group show, “Ice” at the Artisans on Taylor gallery in Port Townsend this December.  This painting took some coaxing and patience to realize and I thought I’d share my process. My studio work involves the following stages:

1. Vision: articulating an idea
2. Exploration: both of palette and composition
3. Realization: making the vision a reality

This process evolved from a quote I read in the book, Art and Fear:

“Vision is always ahead of execution, knowledge of materials is your contact with reality, and uncertainty is a virtue”

My vision for this painting is what inspires all of my recent work- a desire to contrast vast, atmospheric spaces with vulnerable elements of the polar environment- like birds and icebergs. While on expeditions in these regions, I also feel a certain meditative quiet in the relative simplicity of the landscape as compared to my life back home in the city: big skies, long horizons, and a limited palette. With my studio paintings, I’m striving to find and recreate that quiet space for myself and others.

A photo I took in Antarctica was my initial inspiration:

My palette was based on my Greenland field sketches such as this:
From my field notes, I identified colors to experiment with for a limited palette. I mixed puddles of paint until a set clicked with me: raw sienna, deep scarlet, indanthrone blue, and cerulean blue (all Daniel Smith).

Once my colors were chosen, I began making small 8″ x 6″ versions of the painting to work out my challenges before scaling things up to 30″ x 22″.

This one I liked so much that it became a painting in its own right. It’s now framed and exhibiting in the show, “Ice Stories” at the Washington State Convention Center through January 2012. Next came this study, with the same palette mixed cooler:

Using this study as reference, I began working on a 30″ x 22″ sheet of 260lb Arches watercolor. Starting with wet paper, I premixed large puddles of paint and began painting the sky large brushes. I wasn’t happy with the result. Maintaining the right ratio of color was challenging, and working on the big surface area. I prepared another sheet of paper and once again, painted the sky varying my technique and palette. Still not satisfied, I repeated the process again and was closer to vision, but still not quite there. The next day, I prepared another sheet of paper while muttering to myself, “trust in process.” Looking over my initial efforts and my study, the painting and techniques suddenly clicked to me. I dove in with more confidence and completed the painting.

As I worked on the final version of the painting, my drafts gave me the opportunity to practice adding additional layers of paint such as texture in the sky and water, as well as how to paint the horizon and iceberg. Here’s a sneak peak at my three drafts.

So that’s the realization of Storm Light! All in all, it took me about a week in my studio to complete. Visit the Artisans on Taylor gallery in Port Townsend this December and see it in person!

Recently I completed a set of three aspen tree watercolors for a friend of mine. They were great fun to work on and for the first time, I recorded a time-lapse of my process (one photo ever 10 seconds) with the help of Darin. The time-lapse shows how I first sketch out the pieces, mask areas with brown packing tape, and add my layers of watercolor washes, textures, and darks. I worked on all three paintings at once, switching between compositions while the others dried.

Since these paintings are a set, I used related palette of color so they would resonate with each other. Each piece is painted predominately with Daniel Smith’s Pthalo Blue (red-shade), Hansa Yellow Medium, and Deep Scarlet. Each one has some additional colors mixed in, but the overall consistency of palette offers them greater harmony as a set.

The soundtrack to the time-lapse video is Maserati, “We Got the System to Fight the System” on their new Pyramid of the Sun album. When painting, I often lose myself in music and can listen to an album over and over. I learned about Maserati from my favorite radio station, KEXP, and the album was my primary painting soundtrack for the three days it took for me to complete these.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

During the past few weeks, the landscape around my house has just exploded with green. It’s been cultivated by warm weather and days of rain, which are productive for studio work. I recently finished the painting above and thought I’d share a bit of my process. It’s by far the greenest and most detailed painting I’ve ever completed! First, my inspiration was a large field sketch I completed a couple weeks ago using my new tripod. I liked the general composition, and sketched out ideas for painting the Apsen trees more densely, exploring the patterns of trunks. Once I finalized my drawing (done lightly with a 2H pencil), I used brown packing tape and a razor blade to mask out the tree trunks.

Next I wet the paper and began to wash in colors, using Daniel Smith’s hansa yellow medium, pthalo blue (red shade), pthalo green, quincridone rose, and quinacridone burnt orange. (My color inspiration came from Molly Hashimoto’s lovely Alder Demonstration). As some areas dried, I began to add more detail.

Working my way from the background to the foreground, I defined foliage and painted the trunks. I used a limited palette, working only with the five colors listed above.

I continued adding patterns of light and dark to the foliage and trunks.

Finally I added the shadows in the road and defined the grasses.

To complete the painting, I punched up my shadows to emphasize value changes. I keep in mind the advice a professor of mine in college once gave me, “make your darks dark!”  Once the marks I was making were no longer making an appreciable difference to the painting, I declared it complete! (Please note, the colors between these photos shifted as the light changed in my studio.)

I had a great time sketching this past weekend. I’m excited to build my Methow Valley palette and plan this spring to develop a series of watercolors that will be exhibited at the local (and delicious) Cinnamon Twisp Bakery.

I sat outside on my porch a few days ago with my watercolors and painted amid gusts of wind. The sky was rapidly changing and I played with painting clouds and discovering the early spring colors. The following are a promising limited palette: Daniel Smith Quinacridone Gold, Pyrrol Red, Indathrone Blue, and Pthalo Blue (red shade).

Together they create lovely golden browns and deep greens. I find it useful to work with limited color palettes to bring harmony throughout my painting and I find it pushes me to mix colors  instead of relying on what fun tubes of paint I may have on hand. (There’s always such temptation to buy new colors!)

What are your favorite colors and mixes?

My goals is to complete 10 or so paintings and display a series at Polar Science Weekend in Seattle next month. I’d love to see you there!

My first step was deciding what information I needed to record in the forms. The screen shot below illustrates the form I built for my artwork.

Bento allows me to make calculations between several of the fields, so I’ve included my stock (quantity – quantity sold), as well as adding up my materials cost and calculating my profit. I also can link to my customers in my address book and add supporting documents including invoices and scans of the images. Keep in mind that data fields are easy to create, customize, and move around. You can create whatever layout may best suit your needs.

Bento 3 added the feature of thumbnail grid view, which as a visual person I love. I can easily scroll through my images. This search function also works well for finding items and there’s an additional spread sheet view. The data can easily be exported to programs such as Numbers or Excel for backing up.

Here’s my address book form. It’s fairly basic, but note that it links to works purchased with room for additional notes for how I may have met someone. That’s the overview! Let me know if you have any questions and I’d love to hear how you organize your businesss and inventory.

Ah, and for something a little different, here are some bird studies from the week (with a thank you to Dean Bandes and Kelsang Jorlam for the suggestions). Let me know if there’s one you’d like to see!

Then I began exploring color with a couple of 5″ x 7″ sketches:

At this point, I was excited about the composition, but unsatisfied with the flat, block of evergreen trees in the foreground and made a mental note to add more depth the large painting. Ready to begin, I taped down my 140 lb Arches paper and lightly sketched out my composition. An artist friend and mentor of mine, Tom Hoffmann, reminds me to think of three major layers for paintings: 1) The big shapes, 2) texture, and 3) Darks. I began by washing in the sky with a mix of Daniel Smith Cerulean, Cobalt, and Cobalt Teal Blue. For the shadows, I mixed Indathrone with Deep Scarlet (a favorite of mine) and “palette grey” (what ever happens to be available). Once the paper dried, I added a warm mix of New Gamboge Yellow and Quinacridone Gold for the rocks’ underpainting. I worked wet on wet around the clouds and blotted them with a paper towel for a misty effect.

The painting developed as I added texture to the rocks using a mix of Indathrone Blue, Lunar Earth (which granulates beautifully), and Deep Scarlet.

Next I continued to add texture as well as my shadows. The trees were painted wet on wet with a mix of Daniel Smith’s lovely Perylene Green, Indathrone Blue, Deep Scarlet (you may notice a theme here) with a few warm yellows thrown in from time to time.

The question, “When is a painting done?” is hard to answer. For me, it’s when I begin making fussy little marks and changes that may barely perceivable but risk disrupting layers of paint. At that point, it’s best for me to stop, sit back, and enjoy my work! Soon this painted will be framed and delivered so my friends may finally enjoy their overdue wedding present as well.

This Springtime I completed my largest watercolor yet, which was a wonderful commission for an avid kayaker in the Boston area. The vision for this painting, kayaking on the Alaskan coast with an expanse of glaciated mountains, felt right up my alley and I was delighted to accept the project. (Learn more about commissioning work with me.)

To begin a commission, I first use reference material to explore the composition through value sketches. Next I consider color palette and and begin experimenting with ~4″ x 6″ color studies. At this point, I send materials to my client for feedback and direction.

For this project, my “Afternoon Light” study, which is inspired by Elfin Bay in Alaska, become the basis for the final composition. Since this painting was to be large, I continued with another study one more size up.

Once I was ready to begin painting the final 44″ x 32″  size, I purchased a roll of Arches 140lb paper and learned to stretch it on a large masonite board. (Read about my methods on my Stretching Big Paper post.) I also purchased a larger 5″ wide brush. As my artist friend and mentor Mitchell Albala once told me, “big tools make for big ideas.”

Working large, I completed three drafts before I was satisfied with the fourth and final painting. Each version was an opportunity to practice and experiment with painting loosely and verses with tighter and more specific brushstrokes. I tried to find a balance in the final piece!  To share a few more technical notes: I used masked the kayak and the icebergs to protect their brights with brown packing tape and used a sponge and paper towel to lift the spouts of the whales. Finally, I shipped the painting off and received this photo back from my happy client in Boston.

After completing my value sketches, I lightly outlined my compositions onto Arches 140 lb cold-press paper and began painting. In this case, the paintings were fairly small (7″ x 5″). When I work larger, I’ll often do color studies first to explore my palette. With these, I just prepped a few extra sheets of paper to be available in case I wanted make other versions. In the end I was satisfied. These were fun to paint and are inspiring me to tackle more of my own Antarctic material. More projects! I invite you to learn more about commissioning custom work with me.