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I'm not sure why I've not blogged about this workshop.  I enjoyed it and I learned from it.  Ray is a wonderful man and a great artist.  I met nice people.

Probably, my reluctance is that I painting absolutely NOTHING worth posting.   So finally I'll share some noteworthy items from the workshop and I won't post anything I painted.   I've been doing a lot of thinking about this blog and my painting journey.  There is no doubt that I have improved and a lot of it has to do with posting all of the humiliating work I've done over the years.   However, more and more, I'm reluctant to post the losers.   (and there are LOTS of those).   Sometimes the ones I thought were good enough to post, after time (sort of like dead fish) begin to stink.

Ah well, perhaps that's also a sign of growth and not just a bit of vanity. 

On to the workshop...

The workshop was hosted by the California Art Club so we met at the headquarters in Pasadena on the first day.   Ray showed us some of his studies and explained his basic procedure for painting outdoors.  Then were were off to Eaton Canyon where we spent all of our outdoor time.  Unfortunately the weather was quite overcast and atmospheric so all of the work we did revolved around those constraints.

However, here were some of the insights from the first day:

• Ray's outdoor studies are just that.  Done to help him remember color and values in a scene.  
• He sketches in the basic composition first and then paints the darks in to establish the pattern of light and dark.  
• He always works dark to light.
• Everything is relative
• He establishes atmospheric perspective by doing the foreground shadows first then greying down as he paints those shapes that are further back.
• He designs with value.   since there were not many shadows he uses the dark/light pattern of the wash because it unified the scene.
• He likes verticals.  Horizontals create walls.
• The challenge was to create form when there were very few shadows.
• He looks for a rhythm for the light and dark patterns.   Not too many equal sized shapes -- Not equidistant, etc.
• He made shapes descriptive yet interesting.  He didn't necessarily paint what was there.
• Shadows serve two purposes.   Everything in shadow is darker than anything in light.  
• Every time you put a different value on your painting you are creating a pattern.  The pattern should have a pleasing rhythm.
• Sunlight harmonizes everything.  
• He doesn't paint the colors he sees... He resolves color.   When working in the studio he tries to stay close to the the original studies for color and value of the larger paintings.  Color relationships are most important in the field.
• Always paint a little bit lighter or darker than you see within large areas of color.
• Within a value area -- keep value the same as you add color.  If you change the value pattern you liked when your started out, your painting is likely to go downhill.
• Quoting Asaro (one of his teachers from Art Center) "Whatever you do... just paint!"

(There was more... but that's enough from the first day.)

Early in November in 2012 the full moon was spectacular as it shone through the layered clouds in the night sky.
I couldn't resist this view from my backyard.

I'm not entirely happy with this painting and will revisit it at some point, so we'll call it a work in progress -- waiting for answers or solutions.   I've found lately that if I let a painting sit on my mantle where I can see it often, I begin to see areas in the painting that need some additional thought and paint application.  Sometimes it's an edge that is too hard, sometimes, I just haven't achieved the feeling or the spirit of the painting.  SOMETIMES an area will stick out and look odd... It looked perfectly fine while I was working on it, but suddenly a floating bear or something appears!   Once it's seen, it never goes away.

           Painting by Soren Emil Carlson   (above)  
        

This painting was inspired by a beautiful night with a full moon and great clouds.   We had been talking about such great artists as Soren Emil Carlson and George Carlson while in David Gallup's class, so I decided to attempt to capture this scene while channeling these two greats.

Painting by George Carlson (right)   

I was fairly happy with my sky and moon (although I'm sure those areas could use more work also) but the palms and foreground bushes really gave me trouble.  They are backlit by the moon.  --- That's a lot different than being backlit by the sun.   Anyway, I played with them for a while and this is what I've got so far.

I'll let you know if I figure out how to make this the painting I really want it to be. 

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My friend, Sharon Weaver, and I had driven up the California coast together to attend a California Art Club paint out and gathering arranged by the CAC and several wonderful artists most notably, Richard Lindenberg.  The drive up was magical and we both enjoyed painting along the way. 

The actual paint out location featured dorm-like rooms which were comfortable, but the food was the real star of the accommodations.  Cooking for large groups is never easy, but the chef of the Marconi conference center seemed to thrive on providing us all with tasty and varied meals.  He even made sure to include special items for those with unique dietary needs.

During the three days, we found many captivating locations to paint.  We enjoyed meeting the other artists,  most of whom were from Northern California, and we delighted in exploring this lovely location.

However, on the morning of the last day, as we walked up the hill... (did I mention that we definitely got some exercise while we were there?) to get our breakfast, we were treated to the most spectacular view!  The sun was breaking through the trees and was absolutely glorious.

Before we set out to go on this trip, I knew I had to paint something "good" for an upcoming show.   The juror was to be my mentor and teacher, David Gallup, so I couldn't use anything he had seen before.   I had to paint something new, but it had to be good enough, so if he DID recognize my style, I wouldn't embarrass myself.  I  also decided that I wouldn't sign the paintings, hoping that I could avoid feeling like he would favor me because he knew me.   I know him to be fair and honest, but I wanted to do that anyway... just for my own satisfaction.   I had painted quite a few paintings while on this trip, but only one was "good enough" to include among my two submissions for the upcoming exhibit.  I could have only submitted one painting, but the jury fee was the same for one or two, so I wanted to submit two.

This was the scene I painted at home before the submission date.   I tried to capture the "glory" of the light as it filtered through the trees.  Happily, this painting, called "Glory" was juried in to the show.  (YAY!).   My other submission, painted on the trip up the coast, called "Along the Cambria Coast" was also juried in and was awarded a first prize!  (Double YAY!)  

It was a great adventure and hopefully the joy of being showed through in the paintings.

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BTW....   If you enjoy reading this blog and would like to get it regularly, you can click on that little icon on the left side of my FASO blog that looks like this:  

Follow this Blog         (or you can just click on this...)    Anyway, I'd sure appreciate it if you wanted to "follow" my musings.

"Cooper - Staying With Nona" was painted from a Cell Phone Photo.

If any of you are interested in asking me to create a painting of one of your loved ones...  cell phone photos are NOT the best source!!!

The Daily Artshow and Statistics

As I've written about several times, my website hosts, FASO are always doing new things to help us promote our art.  That's a good thing in the long run and I really do appreciate it.  See an example of today's DAS:   FASO Daily Art Show 

Today for example, this little painting I did of my grandson is in the daily art show.  It's there today because I posted it to my portfolio yesterday.  FASO gathers up everyone's postings and creates a little exhibit for anyone to enjoy.  At the time of this writing I already had almost twice as many hits as I had all day yesterday because I hadn't posted anything new for yesterday.  The problem (if there actually IS a problem) is that the vast majority of these visits to my website are single page visits.  I haven't found out, but I'm beginning to wonder if just having the little image highlighted on the side counts as a hit or whether the viewer has to actually click on it and go to your webpage.   I suspect it's the former.  I also suspect that the vast majority of the viewers are other FASO users, thus mostly other artists -- not a bad thing, but although many of us artists do purchase other artist's work, most of us are looking beyond the pool of artists for our collector base.

Every once in a while one or two viewers seem to stop to look at every piece of art I have posted on my website.  And every once in a while, from that group, someone decides they would like to purchase one of my artworks.  (YAY)  But what is it that encouraged them to browse through the collections in my website in the first place?

It's always good to share one's art and I am thrilled to do so, but looking at these statistics continues to make me ponder the whole issue of how an artist gets his or her work in front of OTHER types of viewers -- those who are not artists but who love art or who love the outdoors... or who love flowers ... or who know what?????.  I'd appreciate it if any of you have great ideas you'd like to share.  Who is the perfect audience for your art and where do you find them???