It's Complicated

Murs, France

Well, Pont Julien may have been a relatively simple subject for our workshop group, but soon we were on to a very complicated one. Mid-week, Maggie took us to the walled village of Murs. Lots of architectural elements mean complicated drawing issues, which can cause many of us to get bogged down in the details. Our approach for this session was to paint the color of light and the color of shadow, rather than to paint the objects. We set to work to quickly block in all of the light areas and all of the shadow areas, using a representative color for each. The sun was warm, and most of us chose a yellow/orange tone for the sunlit areas, and a cool blue/lavender for the shadow areas. Here's what my block-in looked like:

Once these shapes were defined, we were to modulate the colors slightly to represent some local colors. But only small modulations were to be done. Maggie reminded us, with a quote that came to be repeated through the rest of the workshop, that the painting was like a wedding, in the sense that everything in it needed to be either "on the Bride's side" (light) or "the Groom's side" (shadow).  This proved to be a great approach for simplifying a very complicated subject. 

I ran out of time before I could bring a decent degree of finish to my painting. Here is where I ended up. I didn't get all of the color relationships right, with the result that the painting looked "chalky". But it was worth bringing home, and I hope to make some corrections in my studio that will make it sing.

Just to give you an idea of our setup, here's a photo of the talented Rachel Egan at work on her painting of Murs:

Everybody loved the painting that Roy Williamson did at Murs. It was a wonderful mix of abstraction and representation. Most of us agreed that we could hang it over our mantel just as it was, and enjoy it for years! Here's Roy with his wonderful painting:

Stay tuned for the final few posts on the workshop!

Lost in Translation

Only three colors: black, white and burnt sienna

One afternoon of the workshop in Provence with Maggie Siner, we were challenged to complete our paintings using only three colors: black, white and burnt sienna. The purpose of the exercise was to emphasize the fact that we painters are translating what we see, not reproducing what we see. In other words, given the limited properties of paints, the colors on our canvas can never be exactly the same as we perceive with our eyes---but if we get the relationships of the colors right, our paintings will nonetheless be convincing. This point is made loud and clear by a limited palette exercise, because there is no way that the colors will come even close to the reality of the subject. As a result, the painting must stand or fall solely on the relationships among the colors on the canvas.

Limited Palette Study #1

This session was a real struggle! I almost drowned in the flood of decisions---what's the lightest light, and how can I mix it with just these three colors? the darkest dark? the brightest bright? To mix each color, I also had to compare it to all the others---was it warmer or cooler? darker or lighter? more intense or less intense? Yikes! This is what painting is always about, but without the customary colors, there is no place to run, no place to hide. I painted two paintings in this session. I drifted so far from shore on the first one (above), that Maggie had to throw me a life preserver, and so I must admit that the colors in the painting pictured above are more her work than mine.

Limited Palette Study #2

My second effort (immediately above) was more convincing. I learned from my mistakes, and was able to translate what I was seeing far more successfully. One of my favorite paintings of this session was done by the talented Audrey Rosen. You can see Audrey below, and her limited palette painting is at the top right of the photo. Her work was so skillful that you can hardly tell that she was using only three colors--the painting is truly convincing!

Audrey Rosen and her paintings--limited palette at upper right

Village Lane
8 x 8
SOLD

This exercise was so instructive that I returned to the scene of the crime after the workshop was over. I could not resist seeing if I could "translate" the scene when using my normal palette. The last two images (right and below) are full color paintings of the subjects in the limited palette exercises. They came together pretty quickly, since I had previously worked out the solutions to most of the big questions. But note that I didn't get to the second scene at the same time of day, so the shadows are very different. 

Shadow Patterns
10 x 8

Seeing Form

Le Pont Julien
(Photo: Lesley Powell)

Moving forward with my posts on the workshop in France, I am devoting this post to the morning we spent at Pont Julien. After several days of painting landscapes and far distances, we were taken to Pont Julien so we could focus on a nearer object. Our focus was  on FORM, and how light on a form creates planes and shapes.

And what a form!  Pont Julien is an exquisite bridge that dates from 3 BC. It was built by order of Julius Caesar, after whom it is named. The bridge has a series of perfectly proportioned arches, and is built of limestone taken from the surrounding hills. Thanks to the marvels of Roman engineering, the stones were set so perfectly that no mortar was required. The bridge carried vehicular traffic until the early 2000's--which makes for two thousand years of continuous use. About this time we are all thinking the same thing: "They don't make 'em like they used to."

Maggie finding her rectangle

But I digress. The point is our painting lesson. The arches of the bridge were perfect subjects for working to capture different planes, and identifying where planes shift. They were also great foils a lesson in composition--learning to arrange our paintings with interesting patterns of darks and lights. How do you make a great composition? The right placement of dark and light shapes. Simple! Or as Maggie says, "The repetition of shapes makes a melody".

Painting architectural elements really makes you realize how fast the sun moves--shadows shifted and light areas became dark, all in the twinkling of an eye. A plein air painter has to be fast! I did my first painting on the "dark" side of the bridge (the west side when it is morning)(photo below). It turned out OK, but was really just a warm up to the real event of the day.

Pont Julien Study I

My best work came when I moved to the other side of the bridge. It was almost blindingly bright in the morning sun. I painted a very high key painting. After laboring for an hour and a half on the first effort, the second  canvas was done in a third of that time. It was one of those things that happens only occasionally, when everything just seems to go right. I was truly "in the zone", painting from the gut, making decisions quickly, not over-thinking. Here is the painting as photographed that afternoon--still with pieces of grit from the scene and masking tape at the corners!

For those of you who are interested in such things, here is a photo of my setup:

And here's a shot of Maggie and some of our workshop group, tired but satisfied after a hard morning's work. Note the most important fashion accessory for plein air painters: a very wide-brimmed hat!