Summer Nights

Over the last couple of weeks I have painted two nocturnes from memory, evocations of summer nights both past and present. While both of these paintings purport to depict East Texas, they also reside in childhood memories of warm summer nights and cool moonlight. As Thoreau said "the night is oracular."

A Summer Night

12 x 12

Oil on ACM panel

Moonlit Pines (still on the easel)

12 x 12

Oil on ACM panel

Nocturnes are intensely romantic images. In the 18th century they were often called 'moonlights'. The term nocturne was first used to describe a series of musical composition by Frederick Chopin in the 1820s. Within the next few decades literary circles in Paris embraced the nocturne, especially the Symbolist poets Rimbaud, Verlaine and Gautier. By the 1860s the motif of the nocturne as a lyrical form of expression that conjured altered states of perception was widely embraced across all the arts. Perhaps one of its best known proponents was James Abbott McNeil Whistler (1834-1903), an expatriate American artist living in London. Whistler, more than any other nineteenth century artist, reinvigorated the depiction of moonlit nights into a modern idiom. He appropriated the musical term “nocturne’ to describe his spare, murky depictions of nighttime along the Thames and in Venice. Whistler employed memory as a major component of his artistic practice, often observing a nighttime motif repeatedly before retreating to his studio to paint it.

Podcasts

Scatter Creek in Winter

Available at my Online Holiday Studio Sale

You have probably noticed that artist podcasts have become increasingly popular over the last few years. I enjoy listening to them in the studio. It gives you can opportunity to hear artists talk first hand about their work, how they make it, and life as an artist.

I have been a guest on a couple of podcasts. My interview with Danny Grant on the Studio Podcast was a really enjoyable experience. Danny was a thoughtful interviewer and we had a great conversation on several topics. In particular, I got to talk about my philosophy of teaching online and also about the importance of my daily walks and memory to my work. So have a listen and i hope you enjoy!

I was also interviewed on the Savvy Painter podcast. With over a million downloads worldwide, this podcast has a big reach! Check it out here.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

New Work- Chroma is In the Midtones

This painting was started a year ago- either at the workshop or just after. The underpainting sat in my studio unfinished. Last summer I used it as a demo piece for the "scumble with rag" video I made (the back trees). Then it sat around again. With the coming of spring I felt inspired to work on it again. I was particularly interested in working with some of the concepts we have been studying in the Color II class and which I discussed in this post on the Field Notes blog - obviously vibration but also the idea that the mid tones can hold more chromatic color.

I lightened the value range from what I might typically do and tried to keep the color rich in the mid tones, while keeping the lights a little darker and the darks a bit lighter, narrowing the range. I am interested in exploring this further and am working on two other pieces now which include these ideas.

 Spring Morning II

24 x 18

Check out Field Notes!

As some of you know, we recently started a blog  Field Notes over on the website for The Landscape Atelier. The plan is to post some great articles on drawing and painting the landscape, some art history and natural history stuff, video demos, as well as exhibition and book reviews from time to time. There are already several posts up that I think you would find informative. So,click on over and have a look!

New Facebook Page for The Landscape Atelier

Hi All! I have just created a new Facebook page for The Landscape Atelier. Lots of good photos of our great new studio, workshop pics, etc. So, please. click on over and Like us!

In addition, we have launched the new blog Field Notes, which is at home on The Landscape Atelier website. There you will find lots of great information on painting and drawing the landscape, art history notes, natural history stuff and much more!  So, please check it out, and follow us there. And, share it with your friends!

Happy Painting!

Summer Savings on Fall Online Classes!

Spring Suite #1

21 x 18

Hi Everyone! We are gearing up for a great Fall lineup of online classes at The Landscape Atelier as well as a three day workshop in October and a residency visit by several of our Atelier students. 

This month only sign up for two or three of the Fall online classes offered and receive summer savings! If you sign up for any two classes together you will save $100; if you sign up for three online classes together you will save $150! Our Fall lineup includes our newest offering Foreground Studies, and two of our most popular classes, Drawing & Painting Trees and Composing the Landscape.

Choose the two class or three class option when you sign up. Then, as you check out you will be offered the chance to leave a comment. If you are signing up for two classes just type in the names of those classes.

These classes will fill quickly. Take advantage of Summer Savings today! Click here to register.

Close to Home

Spring Morning

18 x 24

I have just returned from two different sketching trips to Colorado and also teaching a workshop there near Telluride. I love Colorado and I have a whole sketchbook full of ideas that I am looking forward to painting over the nest few months. But close to home is, as always, the real source of my inspiration. Right across from our property are acres of land owned by a neighbor who generously allows me to tromp around in all seasons. This painting was started this spring during the workshop at The Landscape Atelier and completed in early summer. 

New Website for The Landscape Atelier

 

While I have been shockingly unproductive in the studio since the Lennox Woods Show opened on March 29, I have been busy teaching and doing lots of things that have needed to be done for a long time. Years, in fact, in some cases! One of those things was to create a stand alone site for The Landscape Atelier. It is still a work in progress but it's up, so click on over there for a visit!

New Studio & New Home for The Landscape Atelier!

About this time last year we started thinking about a new space for a studio and for The Landscape Atelier. The south side of the historic square in our little town was being renovated, and a 4000 square foot, north facing brick storefront was available. The building is close to a hundred years old and in its time it has been a grocery store, a clothing store, movie theatre, and most recently a flooring store.

This is what is looked like in April 2013.

Now, almost a year later our new space is almost ready! It includes an exhibition space, studio, kitchen and full bath.

We are really excited to welcome our first group of students to our new space in March!

Working on the "big boy"

One of the most exciting things about painting for my solo show next spring has been the opportunity to work in large formats. I have learned so much about how to go about this, mostly by trial and error. These days my studio is a jungle of easels and paintings, but I cleared away some of the clutter to show how I started this large painting, 72 x 96 , aka "big boy" which will be the centerpiece of the show.

I have described in another post how I use sketches, drawings, memory and imagination plus a study to start the process. A grid is made on tracing paper over the study and proportional squares placed on the larger canvas in charcoal. In this first image you can see the 18 x 24 study (which is at the underpainting stage) on the right, the grid in the middle, and big boy on the left with the charcoal grid laid in. All images can be clicked on for a larger view.

 Here is the grid. The main shapes and lines in the composition are traced in pencil after the grid format is drawn in in pen.

Here is the 18 x 24 study (unfinished).

Here is the underpainting more or less complete. This took about two days of work.

Up on my little stepladder working on the underpainting.

The Landscape Atelier

Backyard Magic

36 x 30

Private Collection

As my regular readers know, I teach a series of online drawing and painting classes. I started doing this almost five years ago and the number of courses and students has steadily increased. In addition to a number of painting courses, I have added classes in drawing, field sketching, color and most recently, art history. During this time, I have become interested in creating a course of study for landscape painters which would provide the same sort of focused training and commitment to core skills that we see in the classical ateliers springing up today. So, the idea of The Landscape Atelier was born.

This year my spring workshop was run along these lines and later this year we committed to leasing a space on the square of our little town which could serve as a home for The Landscape Atelier. Because the backbone of my teaching takes place online, I knew I wanted to incorporate both online and in person teaching in this course.

I am happy to say that I will be kicking off the Atelier program next year offering focused, intensive training in landscape painting. This program will have both a full time and part time track and consist of online group study, individual mentoring and critiques, more in depth and intensive content, and a one month residency (which can be broken up into shorter stays). The full time program can be finished within three to four trimesters and the part time program over a longer period of time. Because I will not be handing the Atelier students off to assistants, I can only accommodate a few students in this program, and each student's program will be individualized. Students can start the program at the beginning of any trimester. The first trimester will start in January 2014.

There is more information about this here .

Last Light in the Woods- Lennox Woods

This painting began as a monochromatic study for a larger (48 x 64) work which is still in progress. During last month's workshop I took it out to demonstrate some glazing techniques and then decided to finish it - albeit in a different palette, season and light effect than the large piece. 

Last Light In the Woods

18 x 24