Winter solstice on the sound

[john]

It's becoming a tradition for me to plein air paint on the solstices. I wasn't feeling very energetic but I set up on the beach near me for an hour. It was cold but at least the wind was calm. I got to try out my new set up. My home made pochade box worked well but I found out that sand can get in the sides and I got some on the painting as I was packing up. Hopefully I can brush it off after the paint dries.

I have the hardest time trying to get the color of sand right. It's so variable. I need to practise in the studio I think. It's tough while out in the cold with fading light. I wanted to get out of there so I just slapped something down at the end for the beach. I might try and work on it a bit more in the studio. I'm actually thinking of sprinkling some sand on it for the beach part. Easy texture.

This was all done with painting knives. I got some new ones and was trying them out. I'm not exactly sure why I'm trying to make it harder on myself by using just knives.

Thank goodness for cropping. The left side of this was terrible. 7x7 inches oil on paper.

 

[Enyaw]

I like the coloring. It's a great little study.

 

[Bartc]

John, try not using the usual yellow/tan range for sand on a beach. If you look at the wet sand where water has barely retreated you'll see shades of purple, magenta and ultramarine (sky reflecting usually). In other places you can see stronger yellow. On some beaches chocolate brown to black. Just tan/"sand" color is flat appearing in paintings, even if your brain tells you that's "right".

 

[Artyczar]

I LOVE how this turned out, especially the sky. I don't mind the yellow sand. I think it looks stylized.

Try tack cloth to get those pills off after it's surface dry. Sand is hard for me too. I've been doing nothing but dirt/sand lately so I understand. I bought a bunch of new colors and have been doing a lot of mixing with various other colors. But Bartc is right about those brighter colors reflecting on a beach because the sand is actually glass. In the desert, it's flatter. I bought some Titanium buff and have been mixing it with yellow ochre, raw umber, and Titanium white. I also bought some foundation umber and yellow gray by Holbein but haven't experimented with them yet. They were pricey!

Oh, and Happy Winter!

 

[Lazarus]

you'll see shades of purple, magenta and ultramarine

 

[Terri]

This is beautiful to me! I can't speak to you about process like these other experts here can, but I can assure you the colors look right to me, unique and serene. I love your texture, your lines, the sky colors - all of it is beautiful. I can't take my eyes off that horizon!

 

[Enyaw]

The sand, like all else, is a rainbow and you have to find the colors in there that talk to you. If I tell you what you will see, odds are you will see it. Look for yourself with inquisition and you will find the colors that will make sand for you.

 

[Donna T]

I love the soft color harmonies you saw, John! The sand, the water, the sky; they are all singing from the same page. You get points for going out to paint in the cold, especially when you weren't feeling all that inspired to begin with. I hope you go out again instead of adjusting this one too much so you don't lose that fresh look.

 

[john]

I like the coloring. It's a great little study.

Thanks Wayne. I wish I could yield the knife like you do. I gotta make a lot more paintings. I do like the effects the knives get, esp for the seas and skies.

 

[john]

John, try not using the usual yellow/tan range for sand on a beach. If you look at the wet sand where water has barely retreated you'll see shades of purple, magenta and ultramarine (sky reflecting usually). In other places you can see stronger yellow. On some beaches chocolate brown to black. Just tan/"sand" color is flat appearing in paintings, even if your brain tells you that's "right".

Thanks Bart, yeah I've gotten sand right before but It does require me to think and take time with it, which I didn't have. Again, plein air is tough. It shows me what I don't know. I should have already known how to mix something good.

 

[john]

I LOVE how this turned out, especially the sky. I don't mind the yellow sand. I think it looks stylized.

Try tack cloth to get those pills off after it's surface dry. Sand is hard for me too. I've been doing nothing but dirt/sand lately so I understand. I bought a bunch of new colors and have been doing a lot of mixing with various other colors. But Bartc is right about those brighter colors reflecting on a beach because the sand is actually glass. In the desert, it's flatter. I bought some Titanium buff and have been mixing it with yellow ochre, raw umber, and Titanium white. I also bought some foundation umber and yellow gray by Holbein but haven't experimented with them yet. They were pricey!

Oh, and Happy Winter!

Thanks Ayin. Yes Happy Winter, to all. Good tips about those colors and tack cloth. That might better than trying to sweep because it would lift the sand grains instead.

Yeah stylized. I like that. Not screwed up, stylized.

 

[john]

This is beautiful to me! I can't speak to you about process like these other experts here can, but I can assure you the colors look right to me, unique and serene. I love your texture, your lines, the sky colors - all of it is beautiful. I can't take my eyes off that horizon!

Thanks Terri. The painting knives create some cool effects and I don't mind going into a bunch of colors all at once because you can mix it in or scrape them out. It goes with my "I don't know what I'm doing" style. Also called "winging it"

 

[john]

I love the soft color harmonies you saw, John! The sand, the water, the sky; they are all singing from the same page. You get points for going out to paint in the cold, especially when you weren't feeling all that inspired to begin with. I hope you go out again instead of adjusting this one too much so you don't lose that fresh look.

Thanks Donna. It seems that plein air on the one hand makes things harder, and on the other it can be inspirational.

 

[Jo Castillo]

I really like this. Colors are soft and imaginative. PleinAir air is something I really like

 

[P. Barrie]

Overall sand color, like any things color, depends on it’s environment. In a painting environment it would depend on how it relates to the colors used in the painting environment. So..I think there isn’t a set color for sand. As Barc pointed out, in nature, wet sand reflects light, light from nearby objects, light from the sky, light within shadow. Look closely for color in nature, practice painting it from life. Then you might have enough color vocabulary to find those colors from memory or make up color relations that work to convince the viewer. I know I dont have it yet. I still have to look, then look some more. No imagination I guess.

 

[Bongo]

Bravo John for having the discipline and tenacity to "just do it". There is some good advice here, but also imo don't lose sight that you're making a painting and not doing a topographic survey for National Geographic.

So I think it is very helpful to look at paintings of the same subject matter done by established artists. See how they tackle the same problems - how to simplify rocks, water, how to set up value and temperature contrasts etc., composition. You learn that by looking at paintings, not so much nature. Nature is complex, not simple, nature does not know the rule of thirds, nature does not follow color harmony, nor does it know much about brush strokes or texture. Just saying.

 

[Bartc]

Bongo, I agree with you about nature not following human rules of painting. And painting has all these ways of suggesting natural forms that are just two dimensional illusions. Yes, observing how other painters pull that off is terrific practice.

However, if you look at the Zen and Ch'an schools of sumi-e you will see that they teach shorthand/rules for suggesting rocks, mountains, flowers, animals, etc., and their formulae do work.

The reason is that nature does a lot of what we would call "fractals", repeated patterns at smaller to larger scale and aggregated. So if you find a painterly way to paint one small rock, you can repeat it to suggest a whole mountain range and have it very believable. (That's how digital art/games suggest entire landscapes without having to actually "paint" each rock and hill separately.)

When I paint the coastal cliff formations out here in California, I have to deliberately vary the shapes, because if I painted them as they actually appear, they look like constant repeats of the same shape going well into the distance.

 

[Artyczar]

Thanks Bartc. Very helpful.

 

[john]

Well I wasn't happy with the painting. So I attacked it. Now I'm a little happier but at this point I'm beating a dead horse.

I have too many 80% finished paintings lying around and it's bugging me. So before I chase the next shiny thing I'm going to finish them, dammit.

 

[Artyczar]

It's good you beat that horse, because it MUCH better!