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Peace

Not a breeze to ripple the water.

 Reflecting the warm shadows of the timeworn layers

Weathered and enduring
Geologic strata
Ancient 

My friend, Dorene White, told me that Daniel Pinkham would be teaching a week-long workshop near his home on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.  I have admired so many of his paintings and knew that he rarely taught workshops, so I jumped on it.

Dan and his wife, Vicky, had agreed to help their friend, Katrina Vanderlip, try restore her family's estate.  Dan's workshop and Katrina's watercolor workshop were initiated to build support for the restoration and preservation of the Vanderlip estate.  Katrina is one of the heirs to a large estate in Portuguese Bend.   Her grandfather, Frank Arthur Vanderlip, bought 16,000 acres of the entire Palos Verdes peninsula "First Family of Palos Verdes".  The best I could find online to share with you was the article you can read by clicking this LINK or through a Wikipedia article, HERE.

 The whole experience left me feeling uplifted.  The other artists were supportive and interesting and the daily luncheons were pure heaven. Dan and Vicky invited us to their house for dinner and a talk the night before the workshop.  It was a great way to get us started and set the overall tone of discovery and inspiration.   Katrina and her friends prepared delicious and imaginative meals each day and set the tables so that we were sitting next to new people each day.  She arranged for a "goodie bag" of eclipse glasses, a shawl, a cap, a recipe card, a notebook and a set of pencils for sketching for each participant.  She brought in a naturalist to talk about the various birds in the area.   It was a total well-rounded experience.

Trial sketch          and Practicing the lesson

Thoughts while searching for "emotion"

We all painted and sketched each day all over the property....  Dan came around and made suggestions or painted to show us what he was suggesting.   Several times he used his own sketches to point out examples of what he was talking about.   He did several stages of paintings to show us how he starts out his plein air pieces.  He shared stories of his time studying with Sergei Bongart.  He told stories about his life and how that has informed his painting.  He also showed us pastel sketches he did from museum visits to see original work of Monet, VanGogh and Sorolla.   The pastels pointed out the vibrancy of the colors used by these masters so that we could see how they too created vibrations in their work to make it come alive.

Dorene and I also visited Terranea, a resort built near where Marineland used to be.  Included on the walls are wonderful paintings from  the Portuguese Bend Colony Artists.  If you get a chance, it's a great place to visit.

Dan asked us not to include photos of his demos or sketches on social media so I won't.  Katrina also requested that we limit our photo sharing to those she posts on Facebook so I will.   Full disclosure.....  I painted many "sketches" and none of them really rose to the point that I wanted to include them in my portfolio.  I'm including images already available online from Dan and Katrina as well as a couple from my own studies to create a bit more interest on the post.   But to be clear...  What I learned and practiced and am trying to assimilate and transform into my own vision was priceless.  It will take time and lots more, "sketches" on this journey to find my voice, but I'm glad to have added these lyrical notes from Dan Pinkham to my repertoire.

Here are some of the things I remember Dan discussing with us during the week:

Emotions:
Dan suggested that for each painting we wanted to create we make a sketch of what it is we are interested in painting - a thumbnail.  He encouraged us to find out what emotion it was that we felt when we looked at the scene.  What was it that made us want to paint it.  The emotion is the key.   Although I was never able to examine an emotion and use it to paint a painting, that is what Dan does.  He writes about what he's going to paint.  He feels that that's why the world needs our paintings.  Our paintings should edify life.

The words you see at the top of this blog post are my attempt to express feelings about Abalone Cove on an overcast morning.

Block-Ins and thoughts on light:

Block-ins should be big masses.  Don't paint the "fleas".  Just large masses, NO DETAILS.  The simpler, the masses, the better. The color should be bold and clean and strong.   There should be no white showing through.  See the color --- mix the color and put it on the canvas.  NO FEAR.   The masses should have the darkest middle value of the color.  (Not the darkest dark.)  There are no highlights and no lowlights.  Start with darks and work toward lights.   Each stage needs to relate to the others.    Look for value, color and temperature.

USE BIG WASHES.  We are trying to generate the illusion of sunlight.  We are manipulating colors to create the illusion of the lie.  First color must be a clean great vibration.  It is the first note that all the other notes are compared to.   VALUE, COLOR, TEMPERATURE.    Your perception of the color is based on your peripheral vision.  Squint for value... move your head back and forth to see/compare chroma and temperature.

Outdoor warm light sources create cool shadows.  On overcast cool days the cool light creates warm shadows.  EVERYTHING IS ABOUT LIGHT.  Everything lit by the sun is variations of warm.  Disregard local color.  Throw out your "absolutes".  Train the brain to accept what the eye sees.  When you paint from a photograph you are lost.

There are no greys.  Color is the hardest part.  We must train the brain to see chroma and temperature.  We mix on the surface that we are painting on.  All decisions are on the canvas because each color, each value, each temperature needs to relate to the others.  Reflected light is in the shadow family.

We are not trying to copy nature.  We are trying to create the illusion of light and air.  When something looks chalky its because there is a lack of temperature relationships.  The other colors around it are making it feel neutral.

Vibration of color creates the illusion of light.  It is the relationship between color and temperature.  A sky isn't flat.  It's a dance.  When you look at Sorolla's field sketches you see the "glowy"... Colors should be intense.  

You are playing with warms and cools to generate light.  The color should be loaded with vibrations.  Drawing is the last thing to think about.

Images that are close in value and that have colors which create vibrations go to the part of the brain which deals with music, emotion and memory.  This is the developed brain.  The primitive brain sees dark vs. light, contrast, motion and edges.

Friends
Your artist friends are the ones leading and guiding you to the next steps.  You must share ideas so you both can grow as you continue on your journey.  Dan often paints with his friends in the Portuguese Bend Artist Colony.  They support and share with one another.  They work together to support common causes.

Dan Pinkham

Dan Pinkham

What you should focus on in a painting is the emotion you want the painting to be about.  It all has to support your intent.  

Thank you, Dan Pinkham.  For sharing your vision with all of us.