Following the Rules of Painting

Yellowstone River Meander

12 x 18 soft pastels on Kitty Wallis Professional White

by Miki Willa

When I first saw this scene, I fell in love with the colors. The river was so blue surrounded by several shades of ochre grasses. This is an area where the buffalo really do roam. The lodge pole pines line the tops of the rolling hills to add a wonderful dark contrast to an otherwise light landscape.

I did several small sketches before I started this painting. I had trouble getting the shapes of the small islands at first. The shapes were very important to the overall effect of the scene. I really wanted to share how I felt when I first saw this place. I feel pretty good about the final result. There were, however, some things that might have gotten in the way.

I have studied pastel painting for about seven years now, focusing on landscape painting for the last two or three. I have been learning all the "rules" for representational painting. I understand the principles of aerial perspective, value, temperature, focal area, and more. Sometimes, though, I think the rules get in the way of what I am trying to convey. For instance, I know that yellow is the first "color" to disburse in the atmosphere, so that in the foreground, the yellow is warm and intense, the mid ground yellow begins to get cooler tan, and by the distance it is a cool grey. However, this is not what I saw in the scene above. I know that an artist has to use these "rules" to trick the viewer into seeing what you saw, but I sometimes have trouble swallowing it. For this painting, I hit on a compromise by adding cooler grays to the distant hills while still using a pale yellow. Rules, after all, are often broken when it comes to art.

Rethinking an old painting

Fall on the River

9 x 12 soft pastels on Art Spectrum Colourfix

by Miki Willa

When Tom and I set up the new studio, we put a cork board on one wall to hang newly finished pieces so we could see them to think about them over time before they were put away or framed. For a long time, I have been looking at this painting and liking it less and less. This morning, I awoke thinking about how to change it. This is the result.

Yesterday, I drove into Seattle along the west shore of Lake Washington. The colors of the fall trees were spectacular. I kept thinking about them all evening and this morning. I decided to work them into the trees along the bank of the Green River. If you look at the old painting, there are no fall colors, but plenty of deciduous trees. I also took out the path that simply wasn't working in the old painting. While I like some aspects of this painting much better, I still think I have a long way to go with rivers. I am just happy I got the fall colors in. I want to do many more of these.

Painting Reflections in Pastel

Little Saco River, Maine

12 x 18 soft pastels on Kitty Wallis Professional White

by Miki Willa

When we were in Eastern Maine, we left our campground in search of a covered bridge crossing the Little Saco River. We wanted to find a place to do some pleine air painting. We had all our painting gear and we were ready. The leaves were beginning to turn along the river, and we wanted to do our first fall color paintings. When we got to the bridge, we were excited to see several areas that would be great to set up to paint. Then we got out of the truck. The mosquitoes were so thick, breathing meant the possibility of taking in some of the critters. Deet was no match. We grabbed several photos, dove back into the truck, and drove back up the river. On the way, we saw this beautiful bush that cried to be painted. Photos were taken quickly and stored for studio reference.

Since I want to get better at rivers, I decided to work on this one this week. I did a dry underpainting, paying attention to values rather than local color. The scene was all about the turning bush and the reflections on the slow moving river. I started with the bush and worked out to the sides, putting the reflections in as I went. I kept in mind the unequal triangle approach to points of interest, with the bush being the main focal area. I went with local color in the final painting. If I do this one again, I think I will push the fall foliage to the brighter reds, yellows, and oranges. I would like the next river I paint to have more speed to it. I still have much to learn about reflections, but I also have to learn to paint moving water.

Painting Rocks

Coastal Acadia

12 x 18 soft pastels on Kitty Wallis Professional White

by Miki Willa

I really like to look at paintings of rocks. When I was doing watercolor, I learned to do pretty good rocks. I used wet in wet, dry brush, palette knife, and credit cards to create rocks with texture and interest. That was a long time ago. Now, I and trying to recreate the same effect using pastels. I think this is my best effort to date.

My husband says you have to look at rocks to paint them. They are all so different. The rounded smooth ones from rivers and the shore are the most difficult to paint, for me. I like the ones with planes and angles. MC Johnson did a short post about painting rocks where he talked about using short straight strokes to indicate roundness. His rocks are very good.

This is from a photo I took on a walk from our campsite in Acadia National Park in Maine to an overlook on the coast. Coastal Maine is known for wonderful rock formations and islands on the horizon. I took a series of photos from this spot to create this painting.

Gibbons River, Yellowstone

Gibbon River - en plein air

12 x 18 soft pastels on Kitty Wallis Professional White

by Miki Willa

I did not do as much plein air painting on our trip as I originally planned. During our third day in Yellowstone, however, we found a very nice picnic area on the Gibbon River. It was a perfect day. There was a shady spot right where I wanted it to be. There were no bugs, it being too cold at night for them to be around in the morning. I didn't have to drag all my stuff very far. In short, it was comfortable enough for me to paint outside.

I don't think the river was as full or as deep as it looks in this painting. I really need to work on moving water. Maybe that should be what my series is about. Any ideas about who I should study in this area will be appreciated.

Painting Grand Vistas

Vista

12 x 18 soft pastel on Kitty Wallis Professional White

by Miki Willa

I was reading Rose's Artlines yesterday, and she posed a question about what kinds of art a person likes and why. I have been pondering that question for a while in an effort to narrow my focus for my paintings. I think I will start with subjects.

One of the subjects I really like is the grand vista. I like the idea of the majestic landscape, but not in an over romanticized way. I also really like pastoral scenes, with or without buildings. Old barns, rivers, wetlands, rock formations, and mountains always draw me in. I also really like still lifes, if they are filled with odd and interesting things.

I guess the reason I am starting with subjects is because I am thinking of working on a series. Katherine at Making a Mark has been writing about series paintings. Some time back, MC Johnson wrote about painting in a series. Yesterday, I read Elizabeth Mowry's Landscape Meditations: an artist's guide to exploring themes in landscape painting. All of this has made me think about what I would like to get from painting a series.

1. I would explore a subject in depth and make it a part of me.

2. I would hone my skills in certain areas that need work.

3. I could explore various techniques while staying true to style and subject.

Now I just have to decide what I want to use as my primary subject.

Today's painting is from just outside West Glacier in Montana. We stayed one night at a very overpriced, not really pleasant motel before we started our camping trip in Glacier National Park. The only thing this place had going for it was the view. I used an orange underpainting for the trees in different values of orange. I was really pleased with the way the underpainting turned out, so I very carefully followed the values when I added the greens and violets. I also worked hard getting the values the way I wanted for the receding mountains. Once again, I was going for good aerial perspective.

New Directions

Early Fall in the Blue Ridge

12x18 soft pastels on Kitty Wallace white

by Miki Willa

We returned from our seven week adventure last Friday and I have spent the week getting used to being home. During the week, I have been pondering this blog and where I want to go with it. I started out doing a painting a day and the blog helped me to stay focused on that project. This summer, on the road, I was exploring plein air painting and how I would adapt to it. I have learned several things.

First - I am a studio painter. I am very glad for the opportunity to paint on location and learn new ways of seeing things. I know it will help me enormously in the studio. I learned a great deal from Richard McKinley about translating what I see onto paper to help others see it, also. I have a long way to go, but I will keep at it.

Second - Doing a painting a day was very good for me to learn to control my medium. When I started out, I had a heavy hand. All my strokes were way to heavy. I am pleased to say, I am getting better at varying my pressure and strokes. That being said, I still have trouble with tree trunks. I have to work on that.

Third - I want to work on larger, more in depth paintings for a while. This means that I won't have a painting a day to post on the blog. I also want to do some artist studies. I have become very enamored of Andrew Wyeth and Winslow Homer of late. Do I post only my finished paintings as they are done, or do I take the blog in a new direction to share what I am studying and learning? I am not sure yet. For the time being, I will post some of the paintings I did on the trip that I have not already shared.

To that end, today's painting was done in studio while in Virginia. We spent a lovely weekend in Syria, Virginia in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. On the way in to Syria is the small town of Crieglersville. As we drove past it, I came upon this scene and knew it had to be painted. It was early fall and the trees were just beginning to turn. I am a complete sucker for these pastoral scenes. They bring me so much peace.

I am glad to be back and hope to figure out my new directions very soon.