Megunticook Isle, 12x16

The warmth of the Maine afternoon sun....

.....was just waning when I got my big idea.  It was an idea I had been wanting to try for several years but when I saw a photo of Colin Page doing it, and on this very lake, how could I resist?

My only problem was I didn't have a boat.  Yet here I was staying in a cabin not 60 feet from the shore and there were, after all, some kayaks hanging about....and one was open cockpit.  Admittedly there was not a place to set up my easel in it and it didn't have an anchor....and the wind was blowing hard.

And yet I had to do it.  So I found a hunk of cord and an old propeller to use as an anchor, threw my stuff in the bottom and headed up the lake into a brisk wind.

Finding a sheltered spot I carefully climbed over my gear to the front of the boat and threw in the anchor and played out the line.  Making it back to the seat, again carefully, I jammed my palette between my legs and began painting.  Only one foot was wet by this time.  Not bad.

All was going really well until the paddle fell overboard.  The physics of a kayak are interesting.  Something about for every action an equal and opposite reaction kept coming to mind.  Reaching for the paddle caused the boat to move in the opposite direction.  The paddle was now further away.

Scooching my butt to try and wiggle me over had a similar effect.  

I began using my hands to paddle to it yet each time I got close the action of my hands made it drift away again.   The wind was beginning to catch the blades. 

As a last effort I grabbed my largest and longest brush, stretched out as far as able without getting swamped and tickled the paddle back to me.  My seat was now wet.

So.  Basically that's how I painted this one....but I haven't told you about the cramp in my leg from being bent up around the palette for so long or how the wake from motor boats came over the side.  

I came back smiling anyway....they call this plein air.

Thanks for reading.

Be back soon with a larger piece I've been working on.

Quayside, 12x12

It's been two years.....
.....since I was last in Maine, but I will be there again soon.  Later this week, so lucky me.  As I was walking along it was the vibrant color in the evening that struck me, quickly followed by the simplicity of shapes.  It had to end up in paint.

The same thing happened the other day when I was walking down Seattle's Second Avenue and happened to cross over to see what was so interesting in the Patricia Rovzar Gallery.  Z. Z. Wei was having a one person show of his large evocative landscapes.

Their impact kept me mesmerized long enough that the ferry left without me.  Terrific pieces.  I came home and looked up his website, saw more work but, if it hadn't been that I had just seen his paintings in person I wouldn't have been half so impressed.  His website is HERE.

I kept searching the web for more about him and came across an interview at Triggerfish which is one of the best interviews of an artist I've read.....or maybe it just hit me where I'm currently at.  Some of the things he says remind me of the lessons I learned from Sunny Apinchapong Yang, who I was fortunate enough to study with several times.  A link to Sunny is HERE.

Among many other things, Sunny taught me to not take it all so seriously.  He said it once as he was flinging a demonstration painting into the woods.  "I suppose now I'll have to go pick it up...." but he was laughing.

 In this interview with Steve Parker Z. Z. Wei says things which also give me a fresh take on it all.  I encourage you to go read the whole interview but here is a segment that said volumes to me:

SP:  That’s fascinating, thanks. It sounds like some sort of shamanistic relationship with paint. Does the paint represent part or parts of yourself in that process, or do you think it has some objective life of its own?

I’ve been wondering how I would describe you to someone who had never seen your work. Do you have a name for what you do? I mean as in do you in any way see yourself as part of a school or a movement? Who have been your biggest influences or mentors? We mentioned Giorgio de Chirico a while back. What other artists do you like or see as important? I know that’s another big question.

ZZ: I am not familiar with “shamanism”, but for sure I am not“possessed” when I paint. I like the scientific, analytical approach of your questions, but I might disappoint you. My answers are likely allegorical/fabular. I think that my relation with paint is more like life’s relation with air. Is it parts of a whole? No. Can they be separated? No. (This is oriental thinking.) I think you have a difficult task. We don’t know each other and at the same time I am a person without “stories”. I understand stories are a big part of any article (even so for articles about art) and I am sorry that even the materials I can provide you are also scarce. I always feel strongly that artists are on the back stage of their work. It’s enough to just enjoy my work. If you like the eggs, it’s not necessary to meet the hen that lays them.
I don’t belong to any schools or movements. (I know that art history, especially history of modern art, is mostly about the evolution of schools and movements.) I am merely an “individual” living in today’s world, who enjoys painting. I express my feelings, and I hope to move others. I know it’s comfortable to “swim with the flow”, but I prefer those styles that are different from what’s trendy, and the artists with unique artistic skills and feelings. The list is actually very long, and should include roadside graffitis and shop signs of some country stores. Let’s just forget about listing the names. Once we start labeling, we are limiting and restraining ourselves. As a poet, you must be agreeing with me that we learn about art not just from art history. Life and living are what’s most important.
As for mentors, I think my father, an unknown art enthusiast, is my most important influence. The reason why I say this is not a “gesture”, but is based on facts. Because of him, I am passionate about art, nature, painting and reading. In my childhood, only when I was painting and reading was I allowed to stay up late way passed my bedtime. He taught me that art has to be “real”—to truly express one’s true feelings, not as a tool to obtain fame and wealth by pleasing the crowd with bombastic words and deeds. I think it is the traditional value of the Chinese scholar gentleman of his generation. Arts (in the forms of string instruments, strategy game of go, Chinese calligraphy and Chinese painting) are their required accomplishments and important part of life. Of course, it won’t be practical in today’s society. Art is still my “occupation”.  (Maybe they were a group of people who didn’t have to worry about their means of living.) However, my father’s belief in honestly expressing oneself still deeply affects me. It enables me to remain independent from the often massive and momentous, “populars”. Behind the Dazzling forms there are often commercial hypes. Obscure terms and theories are usually created in need to fill the void of substance (or lack of contents?). What do you think?

That strikes a whole keyboard of chords with me, especially his comparison of paint to air.

Hope you enjoy that interview.  I hope to meet him someday.  

I'll post more when I return.

Coastal Ledge, 10x12

Now That I Have....
......my ticket I can begin to get excited about my almost annual trip to the Maine coast....interrupted last year by going to Italy.  It's a tough life but I'm doing my best to keep up.

I love painting in Maine.  It has all kinds of quirky twists and turns and the fiberglass luxury yachts take a back seat to real working boats, net sheds, farms and towns with as much anglo history and dignity as can be found anywhere in this country.  Interesting shapes and color are everywhere.

With that in mind I thought I'd post this painting of rocks at a beach I don't remember exactly how to get to anymore.  I think I did it two years ago.  Check out those big and little shapes of color that bounce around everywhere.  Mostly variations of blues and reds except for that green ribbon weaving itself from side to side.  Immensely satisfying to me.  I wish more of my paintings had the qualities of this one.

So think of me during the last half of September working away on as many paintings and drawings as I energy for....but with a smile on my face.

Thanks for looking....

Neck and Neck, 10x12

"Time flies when you're having fun"......

From that I can only conclude that this past year I have been having a blast of a good time.  I'm in for that and more.  Good to have that feedback.  (Here's a study on it!)

Going through my end of the year 'toss 'em out' party I've been running across paintings I never got around to posting.  This is from one of my favorite places, Rockland, Maine, home of the Wyeth Museum, great fish and chips, thousands of boats and pretty nice people.  To be fair, I need to also throw in Camden, Rockport and about a hundred other little coastal towns.  Beautiful places.

This is the last post of 2013....  It was painted on a September evening in the company of Dan Corey.  He has a nice video on his blog of painting a snowman.  Worth a watch.

Out For The Winter, 16x20

Starship Enterprise....

.....is what I think of every time I look at this painting.  I don't know why but all I see is the Enterprise moving across the television screen.  Beats me....I'm not in complete control here.

This is the last painting I did in Maine and, fittingly for someone from the Northwest, it was raining so I had to pack up during midpoint and head for shelter until it passed over.  The most difficult part was getting the dinghy convincingly drawn.  (It looked so simple.)  The colors in the blue of the boat were also a challenge but I think I like how it came out.  Makes it look like there was dancing light reflected off the puddle I was standing in.

I feel so lucky to stand around and play with paint.  The process continually amazes me.  Some hair tied to a stick, dip it in vegetable oil with some colored dirt thrown in....then put it on a piece of cloth stretched on some sticks.  Voila!  And you think you are looking at a boat.  How abstract is that??

I should begin to mention that I'll be teaching a marker workshop later this month at the Winslow Art Center....and, of course, the painting classes.

Acadia Shore, 12x16

Yellowstone, Yosemite, .....

.....Acadia?  The three most popular national parks.  Who would have thought?  Evidently the Grand Canyon doesn't come close....but Acadia is both beautiful and unique.

So that is where I found myself the day after landing and driving to mid-coast Maine.  One of those sunny, rainy, windy, cold, warm days typical for a changing season kind of time.  I had a lot of possibilities to choose from but I went with an 'overcast with emerging blue' approach. 

When I'm out there painting I think that what I've done is too vibrant for the conditions but so often, when I see it later in room light, I wonder why I didn't push the color more.  Even so, the colors I did use float pretty well together.  I wonder what it would be like to paint with rose colored glasses....

While there I hung out a bit with Daniel Corey.  Here is a link to his work at the Camden Falls Gallery: HERE   The photos on their website don't do Dan's work justice.  Perhaps they just need to be seen in person so you can appreciate his color and edge handling.  He was a finalist in the recent Raymar panel competition and is deserving of the recognition.

Rockport Harbor, 7x9

I just returned from Maine.....

....where I met a bunch of talented artists, hung about the art galleries, chain sawed my way out the driveway (there is a story there) and learned a lot from Colin Page, one of those handful of painters I would call masterful.  More on all that later.

I did some drawings and especially enjoyed the relaxation of doing this one, as it allowed me to get 'into the zone'.  I took some progress shots which I'll have in the new version of my book 'Value Sketching With Markers' which I've been promising will come out soon for too many months....so it has to happen pretty quick.

There were a number of ways this could have gone but I liked the double masted boat up on blocks and chose to have the shadow line move the eye into that area.  I didn't make it up, all that shadow was there...but it was also other places so it got subdued.  One example is the shadow under the foreground ramp was just as dark but I made it slightly less so to reduce its significance.  Ditto for some other parts.

This art thing can be a lot of fun...and I do enjoy those markers.

Evening Anchor, 10x12

I find this piece inviting me in.....probably to sit on one of those boats with my feet up, rocking with the waves, enjoying a beer and swapping fish tales.....of which I only have three.

Even though it hasn't been formally announced, there will be a plein air workshop at the end of the month AND it will be held at the Bloedel Reserve.  What a place to be able to paint!  In the past it was rare for it to be open even for sketching but times are changing and plein air painters are no longer the suspect individuals they seem to be.

Now that reminds me that Scott Burdick did a short movie on the police of Barcelona who kick painters off the street.  Evidently other nefarious activities are sanctioned but moving a brush on a canvas just steps over the line for the city fathers.  You can find it on his website.

Anyway, if you are interested in joining me for some plein air fun, give Martha at the Winslow Art Center a call and get signed up before it fills.

For the next few posts I'm going to be digging into paintings that I never got around showing here.  They are all plein air....just to get you in the mood.

Friendship Traps, 10x12

Friendship, Maine

How about two books on art that are well worth your time and cash....one is even free.

For years Creative Illustration by Andrew Loomis was out of print.  I had all his others and almost sprang $300 for a used copy....but didn't.  Then I heard it was being reprinted....and it's only $27 at Amazon.  Terrific book.

Another I didn't know about but found on Stapleton Kearns website (that's worth visiting also) is by Harold Speed, The Practice and Science of Drawing.  A gem of a book that spends as much time talking about painting as it does drawing.  I'm finding it reinforcing and thought inducing....which is always a good thing in my world.  You can find pdf versions on the web if you search for them and can get a Microsoft digitized version at the Univ of California Library HERE.  Did I mention FREE?

The marker drawing was done in the morning, then the truck showed up changing the view and I did a slightly different painting.  I think the drawing as a painting might have turned out better but either way the confusing detail of all those lobster traps was what I was enjoying painting.....between my flurries of swearing.

REMEMBER.  Plein Air Workshop is the last weekend in June.  Come on along.  Have some fun.

Pemaquid Point, 2 8x10's

Pemaquid Point 1, 8x10

Pemaquid Point, Maine.  A beautiful and fascinating rock outcropping jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean where, because the rock strata has been tilted allows you to stand touching rock with your feet 80 million years apart.  The whole formation is about 500 million  years old.  Each band catches the light differently varying the color and texture.

Pemaquid Point 2, 8x10

I got caught up in the colors of all those rocks finding things I never expected to be there.  The longer the look, the more was there.  I didn't get it 'right'....so I'll have to go back next year and try to bring back a truer feel of this exciting place.

I was painting with my friend Cathe Gill and my new Maine friend and painter, Mary Byrom.  Her blog and website are well worth visiting HERE.  She posts lots of pictures and is a very prolific and talented artist.

Angeline, 12x16

 

Yes, I know.  It has been a long time since last posting.  Nice to be back.

I have a stack of work that can be posted and more in process but I last told you that I would do some from the Maine trip...so here they start.

I began the 'Angeline' with a quick marker drawing one afternoon but had to leave for a couple of hours.  When I came back the sun was sinking and the tide had come in.  I plunged in anyway but an interesting man showed up and we began to talk....and I got distracted.

  

With the waning light I decided to return the next evening to finish....and the ship had sailed.....literally.   Fortunately I had finished most of the ship and a good deal of the background so I could stare out, imagine the 'Angeline' being there, and finish tying in the boats behind enough to come up with a good sketch.  Perhaps this will lead to a larger work this winter.

I like what is happening in the brushwork and the contrast between calm and indistinct shapes one one side and staccato brush marks on the other.  It imparts a kind of good energy to the piece.

Friendship

Friendship, Maine.  An inlet/harbor filled with lobster boats, buoys, sparkling water and fishermen who do it for an income. 

This drawing is also about another type of friendship.  If you look carefully you can see my friend Bob sketching almost the same scene.  He probably looks like a fire hydrant if you glance casually.  He's seated just below center in front of the closest dock....see him? 

Bob is a terrific artist.  He has a book out called 'The Simple Sketch' in which he shows you how to go out drawing with just a pen and a carpenter's pencil.  The results he gets are inspiring.  I'd give you a link to his book if he had a website (hint, Bob).

I never seem to get over how a blank piece of paper can be transformed into a recognizable place with just a few strokes of a pen and some tone.  The same goes for a canvas.

Think about it.

We take some hair and put it on a stick.  Then we mix some vegetable oil with some colored dirt and put it on a piece of cloth....and actually convince people that they are looking at a person, a scene, a bowl of fruit.  Magic.

If you went to the patent office with this idea it would be the joke of the year.  "Hey Harry!  Get a load of what this crackpot wants to do...,"

I have a few Maine paintings to share but they will have to wait until I get back from Montana. 

Waterfront, Portland ME

Old Town Portland Maine

Whew!  It has been a long time since the last post.  I've been painting and drawing along the Maine coast for three weeks and I expected I'd be able to blog....but ran out of steam every day from all the painting.  Besides, it was more fun to kayak in the evenings.

Two friends joined me, each for part of the three weeks I was there.  The 150 pieces of art we turned out was impressive to me.  I think it's amazing how much work can get done when art is the only focus.  Few of us can do that all the time but once in a while is great.

The last day there was spent in the studio of a friend of Andrew Wyeth.  Helga, from Wyeth's paintings, picks berries at this guys house.  It was an interesting morning and afternoon with lots of stories.

I have an ongoing painting class beginning this month which you can check out at the Winslow Art Center site.  There is also a Two Day marker workshop coming up sometime but it hasn't been announced as yet to my knowledge.

  I haven't done a two day marker workshop before and am excited about the possibilities.  I'm also excited because I have redesigned my painting classes and think this new approach will shorten the painting learning curve.  (That implies an end point to painting skill....there isn't one.  Art is one long road of always stretching for the next best expression.)

Harbor Tourboat, 10x10

The quirky shape of this little boat was attractive to me so I spent a lazy afternoon doing a quick sketch of it.  Oil on gessoed museum board works well for fast work as the board tends to absorb the oils making it easy to paint over the top of other paint.  This board was coated with a red gesso that is peeking through in places.

Another drawing for a free painting is beginning soon.  You will be able to enter by commenting on any postings after I announce it.....but why not practice and make a comment now by going to: http://darrellanderson.blogspot.com/  and putting in your two cents.  You could even put in three cents if you wanted to....

Cathe Gill Webinar:  If you go to: http://www.catherinegill.com/webinars.php , Cathe and Beth Means give a free one hour lecture on Powerful Watercolor Landscapes, based upon their new book.  This is like getting a workshop for free!  (Be sure and click the icon for full screen mode so you can see it well.)

Room for One More, 10x12

Lost in one of the painting piles was this and another from the trip to Maine.  While here in the Seattle area isn't exactly boring, I do envy those painters on the East Coast and all the beautiful subjects/shapes they have available.  The grass is always greener....and I have wander lust.

This is from the Rockland area.  I'll post the other one soon.  

Rockland Pier, 10x12

With the workshop over and all that beautiful Atlantic coast to paint it was hard to know where to begin....but this seemed a natural.  Of course, as happens when working plein air, things change.  The boat didn't have more than two strokes of color on it when the crew decided that, with fish unloaded, it was time to leave.  I could have abandoned the piece or continued using what my visual memory retained.....the latter was the better choice.

All those boats, all those docks, all the picturesque towns.......did I paint any of those, well no.  Instead I was mesmerized by these rocks.   Flat lit on a fairly sunny day they proved to be a challenge in finding how to translate a jumbled mass of close tonal values to a two dimensional surface, but I enjoyed every stroke.  Notice how color notes repeat throughout the painting.  I keep telling myself, 'It's not what you paint but how you paint it.', and I rather like this one.

Maine Workshop

Finally I can give you a little taste of the Colin Page workshop I attended.  I actually couldn't put in to words why I signed up but it was just the rejuvenating experience I hoped it would be.  During the two weeks we were in Maine I painted 27 pieces.....most, however, were small 5x7 studies, some I'm sharing today.  Quite a few I took photos of and then erased as I needed the painting boards.

Day One was value study so we did black and white landscape pieces.  The one above was about 6x10.  Monochromatic paintings are far more interesting, I think, than you would expect them to be.  There is a painter in Seattle that wanders the streets painting Burnt Umber scenes that are knockouts.  Sometimes he'll add just a note or two of color to add a bit of a zing.....it works.

Day Two, dodging the raindrops, we focused on quick broadly stated color studies with very limited detail as you see below.   

On the Third Day the task was to push color as far as we felt comfortable.....OK, now we're talking....this is where I live:

Four studies were done on one 11x14 board, like something I used to do.  When first learning about painting I would take 1/2 inch masking tape and section a 20x24 canvas into 12 smaller areas and commit to painting all twelve in one day.  The best part was taking off the tape at the end of the day and seeing all those vignettes of the previous few hours.  Like little simplified photos.

Tomorrow I'll post some paintings I did after the workshop ended.

Camden Harbor

We are finally back from Maine.....actually well over a week but there has been so much to catch up with that blogging took a backseat.  I'm going to put out several over the next couple of days because it's off to paint across the mountains on Friday.

The Camden, ME harbor is a wealth of painting material.....as is all of the Maine coast.  The problem was not so much finding something to paint as it was narrowing the selection.  These drawings are good examples of that.

The area was so rich that even selecting a corner of the harbor I had difficulty focusing.  Here the shore was interesting, the docks were an attraction and those slanted buildings were also a pull.  (Why are they slanted....I don't know.)

In terms of a painting or a more pleasing drawing, just a section would have been stronger.   Here, for example,  is one of several possible simplified views that I think could have been developed.   Looking at this smaller part of the larger piece I find the shapes more interesting, more artistic and calming to my soul.  The larger piece is okay, it just doesn't have a focus....the smaller one does. 

Eastler Cabin, 6 1/2 x 9 1/2

Heading up the Maine coast to Prince Edward Island, and again on the way back, we stayed in this cabin that has been in the family of a friend since 1946. A peaceful lakeside place on twenty acres just a few miles from the coast. No shower. Had to go swimming to clean up. Ahhhhh.

You marker fans can pick out the three values pretty easily here. Imagine how I had to subdue the dark forested background in order for the cabin to stand out. It's easier if you follow the first 'rule' and quickly separate the dark from the light before going on to darker values. The same for painting.....use middle values to make a statement about the light and then, like a sculptor, carve out the painting with the darker and lighter tones.

Camden Kids

I wish I had taken the time on this trip to draw more people. Just a few lines and a bit of tone can suggest so much. These two were sitting on a stone wall overlooking a spillway. The cormorants sitting on the rock were waiting for a meal to show up. There is a visual triangle formed between her dark hair, the dark of the birds and the shadow accent of the rock that moves the eye around the work. Simple, quick and all it takes to put me back in that moment.