Colorado!

I am in Colorado on a two week sketching trip! The mountains are beautiful and the air is cool, but I still seem to find myself in the woods, whether it's an aspen grove or stands of huge ponderosa pines. Here are a few drawings. All are charcoal on toned paper.

Velatura

Moonrise Over the Pines

36 x 30

“Trenta, quaranta velature!” (Translation: glazes, thirty to forty)
Titian

Velatura- don't you just love that word? Go ahead, say it a couple of times...doesn't it just roll right off your tongue? I've been doing some research on terms that were used in the Renaissance to describe what we refer to as glazing or to indirect techniques in general. Velatura seems to be used here by Titan as a synonym for glazing. But, other information indicates that this word referred to a milky or translucent glaze made with opaque paint rather than transparent paint. So, a scumble, right? Well, maybe. But, the distinction, at least among some writers, seems to be in the consistency of the mixture- a velatura being a more fluid glaze like consistency and a scumble being a dryer mixture. Whatever it was, Titian is said to have put it on with his fingers.

What comes through loud and clear is that all of these techniques were used in various ways, combinations and with great inventiveness in order to achieve desired optical effects and create form. For example, in Titian's case he used methods used in the earlier Flemish school, those developed in Venice and his own unique variations of those. Later, Rembrandt did the same, combining directly painted passages with voluptuous layers of both transparent and thinned opaque paint.

I started this painting as a demo back in April when my workshop group was here. Since then, I've worked on it off and on and added many layers- glazes, velaturas and scumbles. I've also used passages of glaze impasto- something I've been unable to find an historic term for, although Rembrandt used them. Whatever you call it, I love the look it creates. These details give a good idea of what the surface looks like and the soft, atmospheric look it creates. It also shows how much the larger image "tightens" up in the photography.

Velatura. Say it slowly...

Finding A Balance

In the Pines
24 x 20
detail

I like to think that mystery plays a big part in my work- like a character in a novel. Not surprisingly, my painting process reflects this. The layers of glazes and scumbles obscure some the initial information in the underpainting and create areas of visual uncertainty. But I have also found that I crave some beauty in the surface itself- areas of deep dark mystery surrounded by suggestive passages of paint. Enough form to satisfy our lizard brain's powers of recognition but not enough to destroy the playground of imagination. It is a difficult balance, and I am always veering off one side of the road or the other.

I have had a wonderful response to the announcement of the Little Everglades Ranch Florida workshop next spring, with many taking advantage of the Early Bird Special for those who register this month! Also, just in time for summer, the online course The Painted Sky returns next month. Details here.

Recycling

Remains of the Day

24 x 36

As I was painting this piece, this title kept popping up in my mind. Even though I've used it before ( a small painting which sold last year in London), it just seemed right for this piece. So, I'm recycling it!

Trees

Pine Tree Study
Vine charcoal on Hahnemuhle paper

I started teaching my online class Drawing & Painting Trees this past Friday, so trees have been much on my mind. Here is one of my favorite poems . Enjoy.

The Trees

Do you think of them as decoration?

Think again.

Here are the maples, flashing.
And here are the oaks, holding on all winter
to their dry leaves.
And here are the pines, that will never fail,
until death, the instruction to be green.
And here are the willows, the first
to pronounce a new year.

May I invite you to revise your thoughts about them?
Oh, Lord, how we are all for invention and
advancement!
But, I think
it would do us good if we would think about
these brothers and sisters, quietly and deeply.

The trees, the trees, just holding on
to the old, holy ways.

Mary Oliver

Road Through the Pines

Road Through the Pines

8 1/4 x 9 1/4
Vine Charcoal on handmade Twinrocker paper
Available at Deborah Paris Fine Art

I've been working away on the paintings for my solo show next month at M Gallery in Sarasota. But, I'm still finding time to continue this series of drawings.

I've also added a new class- The Painted Sky- to my offerings of online classes this spring. Its all about learning to paint beautiful, atmospheric skies. More information about this class can be found here.

Sunset Pines

Sunset Pines
11 x 14
Available at Galerie Kornye West, Ft. Worth, TX

This is one of several smaller pieces in the Little Gems holiday show at Galerie Kornye West on December 4. If you are in the Metro area, stop in and see me!

Just 4 spots left in Section II of the Painting the Luminous Landscape online class in January. Info and registration here.

Update: Class is FULL

Another Word For Feeling

Evening Pines #2
9 x 8 oil on linen
Available at Deborah Paris Fine Art

I frequently tramped eight or ten miles to keep
an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch,
or an old acquaintance among the pines. ~Henry David Thoreau

This week has been a bit chaotic- house guests, a painting deadline for a show and other personal business to attend to. But, I didn't want too much time to pass before acknowledging all the interesting comments to my last post. I think many artists can identify with that feeling that a shift in the work is underway. Another point that was mentioned several times is the role of emotion in painting. I used to think that painting was mostly an intellectual exercise, in pursuit of an aesthetic concept. Now, I understand that it could not have held my interest and captivated my imagination so powerfully, if that was all it meant to me. George Inness, the great late 19th century American landscape painter, believed that the power of painting is in its appeal to the emotions. Edgar Payne, an early 20th century landscape master said "knowledge precedes execution." I think they were both right. Just as the poet selects a perfect word, phrase or form to reveal meaning, everything we can learn or understand about our craft, our materials, and our subject is brought to bear to convey our passion for the things we choose to paint and for painting itself. As artists, we need both our reason and our heart-I know I do.

"Painting is but another word for feeling." John Constable

Evening Pines

Evening Pines
10 x 8
Sold

East Texas is referred to as the Piney Woods. Tall, elegant stands of loblolly and long leaf pine can be found just about everywhere here. I am particularly fond of them, not only because they are visually interesting but because they remind me of north Florida (where I grew up) and south Georgia (where I spent some time in school and on horseback). I have in mind to do a number of larger paintings of pines and this little piece is a start on that project.

Gratification-Delayed

Winter Greys
6 x 6
Private Collection

Yesterday I took a drive of about 60 miles round trip over to the vet's to pick up medicine for Sophie (our oldest Corgi). Its a trip I take about once a month and I always look forward to it. Although the landscape along the way is very similar to where we live, it does have more of the tall pines this area of Texas is known for (more about that later). Yesterday,the fog was thick and I was fascinated by the variety of greys- from the violets and blues in the distance to almost maroon/wine colored greys in the near trees. By the time I got home, I had an entire painting composed and painted in my head.

I have never been a patient person. I tend to want what I want, when I want it. Instant gratification- a birthright. As my husband says of me in former days, before we came to the Bubble, "you were in a hurry". So it is probably a great cosmic gotcha that I have adopted a mode of painting that requires me to paint, wait, paint, wait, paint, and wait some more. Which is why I am posting a painting today done this time last year and not the one I started yesterday.



Deborah Paris Fine Art- Small Gems -Big Art in a small package

Piney Woods Sunset

Piney Woods Sunset
8 x 10
Contact me if interested in this piece.

This part of Texas is referred to as the Piney Woods. I love the look of a pond through these tall pines, particularly at sunset. This painting is also a study for a larger work.