Over the course of the last few years my style and technique have become increasingly intuitive. Oftentimes I’m laying paint down very clumsily for 95 percent of the painting, but just because it is haphazard doesn’t mean it is without intent. The values, colors and composition are more or less placed in accurately (with room to alter them slightly while I find the drawing). This is to build an interesting base of marbleized color and texture, and I also use this approach to find the shapes and design that feel organic and believable to the viewer. This “clumsy” approach is an homage to great Russian impressionism (Nicolai Fechin, Isaac Levitan), where above everything else, the values and color temperatures are rock solid. When viewed from a distance, a recognizable, understandable scene comes to life, but up close it is almost an abstract painting. It goes without saying most of my painting decisions are made from ten or more feet away and often in a mirror. If it reads from a distance, then up close will just be a treat for the viewer to appreciate after being captivated from across the room.

Coastal Brilliance, oil on canvas, 24 x 36" (60 x 91 cm)

Atlantic Shore, oil on canvas, 12 x 12" (30 x 30 cm)

After that energetic 95 percent, I slow down and carefully examine the painting as a whole to carefully add, alter or remove to make up the last five percent. Ideally, I do this the following day at the earliest so I make decisions with fresh eyes when I’m not as attached to what I put down previously. The last five percent can take many, many sessions. I will run ideas through Photoshop to see what is the best outcome. This is an indispensable tool. I can try three to five ideas in the matter of minutes, and know exactly what is the best by flipping through the layers and comparing.

 

 

California Coast, oil on board, 8 x 8" (20 x 20 cm)

 

Sunny Countryside, oil on canvas, 24 x 24" (60 x 60 cm)

 

In my demonstration I will be painting a still life using this process. This approach to painting can be applied to any subject matter, but a still life has a clear hierarchy of elements that make up the image. At the top, there needs to be an element with a very strong depiction of believability and reality. This is where most of the last five percent will be spent. At the bottom of the pecking order, things can be left totally abstract only to support the design and composition.  

My Art in the Making Peonies

 

Reference Photo

I took this photo of a vase of peonies last spring. This was one of probably 25 that I took at different angles and perspectives. It is important to take many photos of a subject. Later on you can go through them and decide what is the ideal composition. It helps to be able to compare them all to each other. I liked this image because the light and shadow were very organized, and I liked how the values were grouped in the light and dark areas. You can also see the warm bounce light in the shadows coming from below and the cool reflected light from the sky on the top planes of the shadows.

 

Stage 1  Abstract Start

I have been enjoying starting paintings over abstract starts. This is paint left over from my palette. I scraped in randomly after a day of painting, then let it dry completely before starting this painting. The value shapes and colors help me visualize a design, and it also helps the final painting to have little pieces of this abstract start poking through. It adds interest and depth.

 

Stage 2  Highest Chroma Colors

I started by placing one of the highest chroma colors in the piece. I wanted to get the reds of the flowers in at the start to be sure I got them as saturated as they needed to be while my palette was clean. You can also see how I didn’t completely cover the white canvas or underpainting. I like to roughly place things in and slowly finish off the forms as the painting progresses. This allows me to decide how painterly an area needs to be.

 

Stage 3  Values

It is important for me to get the shadow color and value of the leaves in to relate it to the shadow value of the flowers. It needs to be grouped with the flowers but a touch darker in value so the local color reads as darker. I’m applying the paint in a similar way at this point. I’m covering a lot of the abstract underpainting, but not all of it so I can decide later on how much of it poking through adds to the image and makes it more exciting and interesting. I also started to place in some lit leaf values. Again, grouping it with the other light values of the flowers but having some variety so it feels natural. The light hits the leaves differently depending on the angle.

 

Stage 4 Going Lighter

I mixed a lighter value to suggest the brightest parts of the painting. I have room to go lighter though. I will make my decision on what needs to have the brightest value closer to the finish.

 

Stage 5 Adding Darks

I wanted to start getting more of the darks in so I can accurately judge how the relationships are working. I roughly place in the shadow of the vase then place in the warm shape of bounce light from below and then the cool light from above. I was careful to keep the values very close (just changing the temperature within the shadow shape). I mixed close to the darkest value for the background. I have a little room to go darker and will decide where those accents need to be closer to the end.

 

Stage 6  Building up the Background

As I continued to place in the background, I painted into the leaves and flowers as I went to give them an organic feel. If I just painted in the entire background at once the flowers and leaves would have an outlined look that is graphic and un-natural. Up to this point I have been using a combination of brushes and a palette knife. Variety with unity is always on my mind. 

 

Stage 7  Flowers and Vase

As I finished placing in the background, I was working on the drawing of the flowers and vase. I also added a few brighter leaves to tie in better with the rest of the light values. I got rid of 99 percent of that leftover saturated shape on the far right in the middle. It was competing with the flowers too much.

 

Stage 8  Tissue and Temperature

The big thing in this step was lightly hitting the whole thing with a bunched up tissue. I like to drag it across the painting throughout the process to pick up and drop down little pieces of paint that are unpredictable. This can knock down perfect strokes and give more of a labored-over look that I like. It adds variety in paint quality, which is always a good thing. I also added some temperature changes on the table and background. The values were good so I just played around with complementary colors. The table was overly red-gray so I added some green-gray shapes. In the background I added deep green next to a few of the red shapes in the flowers, and I added deep red/purple next to some of the greens in the leaves. 

 

Stage 9  Power of Association

After messing it up with the tissue, usually I have to go back in and build up some of the important forms. For example, getting the vase to turn accurately is important. I also wanted to make sure the largest flower really felt believable and natural, so I spent more time getting the forms turning there. I started to bring some information into the leaves too. They can mostly be abstract, but a couple of them need to clearly read as leaves to make the rest of them read properly. I learned to put a name to this from artist CW Mundy. We call it “the association factor.” If one leaf is refined, the other leaves will read as leaves even if they are totally abstract by the power of association.

 

Stage 10 Experimenting

Frequently I use Photoshop to help try out ideas without having to alter the actual painting. Here I took a quick photo with my iPhone and brought it into Photoshop. I digitally painted a leaf hanging over the rim of the vase. I want this painting to feel as natural as possible, and I thought having a leaf spilling over the rim would be more realistic.

 

Stage 11  Happy Accidents

Next, I went ahead and painted in the leaf with real paint. After I did this I accidentally knocked my painting off the easel. A bunch of little marks resulted (kind of like the tissue effect). I didn’t notice right away as it was the end of the day, and I was done for the time being. I signed it anyway.

 

Stage 12  Final Touches

The next day I noticed the marks that happened when I dropped the painting. I brought the image into Photoshop again to remove some of them and see what was necessary to finish it up. I ended up leaving most of them. I just felt the need to remove a few of the high contrast marks that were too eye-catching. I also noticed one leaf (above and to the left of the one I added over the rim) that was too broken and abstract from the fall. I gave it more of an edge on the bottom and had the top of it fade into shadow. I’m so grateful for dropping the painting because that leaf ended up being more realistic and by association, the rest feel more like leaves. That is something I probably wouldn’t have done if the painting didn’t fall. 

 

Stage 13 Finished Artwork Peonies, oil, 12 x 12” (30 x 30 cm)

I made those fixes with real paint and called it done. Now, I would like to bring it back to the start of the painting and explain how the initial abstract block-in helped with the finished product. I covered most of it, but in a lot of places it is the texture from it that helps the final painting. Mostly painted in one session, the texture of layers built up would have otherwise been impossible with an alla prima approach. I would also like to point out that where the underpainting does poke through, it adds little punches of color vibrations that guide the viewer around the painting. I was careful not to have too many because it could be overwhelming and break up the sense of believability.