Hard As A Rock

Rocks can be the downfall of a seascape, if they are not right it really shows, after all there are only 3 elements in a seascape, rocks, sea and sky, such a stripped down design means all of it has to work well, no fudging allowed.I'm not a huge lover of rocks, not like some, so I've had to do a lot of work, maybe some of it will be of use to other artists. Stapeton Kearns has a lot of good ideas on his blog, Here are some Ive gleaned from various books the best one is by Curtis, How to Paint Successful Seascapes. He suggests you start very thin and scribble the forms in. I use a lot f Spike of Lavender, or you can use turps or OMS ( odorless mineral spirits) and a tiny bit of paint I usually use a warm tone of Greenish Umber and Venitian red. Do not put any white into this color. Its very much like water color very liquid. Then with a synthetic flat or brigth brkush I scribble the mass, I let this set up a bit then go in with a darker tone and put in the shadows, all rought blocked in. Then I stop let it dry and work on the water, tthe same way very thin color, brushstrokes showing. This allows me to see the developing compostion of the two and if adjustments are needed, its so easy at this point to lift off color with a wet brush or a rag and wipe back to the canvas. Here is a small study with that process just finished, I will let this dry a couple of hours before starting on the impasto painting

Fatal Attraction

Many seascape painters are happy to paint the rocks and crashing waves, I like that, other painters put in the view of the sea as a little piece in a landscape, I occasionally do those too, but my real affection and passion is for the small luminous moments that only last about 15 min. and are so subtle no photo can begin to capture it. Fog, mists, last bits of light after the sun has set, all these attract me more than the more iconic views. I say fatal attraction as they are exceedingly hard to paint,
the American Tonalist painters were the most successful.( will do a post on them later) Its very easy to just go for the flash and overdo it so it takes a sensitive brush and hand. Values are very close and color temperature( how warm or cool a mix) is critical. Also as plein air one only has a very short window of time. The only solutions is to try the same thing over and over until you accumulate enough memory and experience that you can work very quickly. Back in the studio I rely on that memory and my current method of making voice memos on my iphone to go with the photo, this reminds me of what I saw and I have less tendency to copy what the camera saw.

              The Land and Sea and Sky Are  One.    7x9" oil on shellacked paper

This is my first attempt, a studio work, on a very particular light that happens infrequently. There must be overhead clouds, mists and some clearing on the horizon to see this spectacular effect. It seems impossible when it happens and stops everyone in their tracks. Here at North Salmon Creek Beach there is a lot of wet sand to reflect it.  I will need to paint this many times to capture all the subtle color and edge changes, but I really enjoy the challenge, and I'm very pleased with this first try. It took me two days of mixing to discover just the right color of that lit cloud.  Of course this tone only lasts a few min. before it deepens more. I also love the seamlessness of the sky becoming sea becoming sand. It will take many paintings to master.

Brushwork where to start

I've mentioned before that all my university art school training was in abstract art, and until the last 7 years that's mainly what I did. Seascape is the best place for an abstract artist in representational work. The place where both collide like the sea on a rock. 
Todays topic is brush work. We've all heard the term, and I even have the book Brushwork Essentials which gave me some idea there was such a thing. Only lately have I begun to get it going in my own work.  Paying attention to it in yours it can help you to create higher level work.

First notice that each of us has a different "touch" our unique signature, we don't want that to change but to grow, on the other hand we want to make it conscious, to make our hand do what we intend, and not wander off unattended dabbing away. So the first step is to notice that you ARE mindlessly dabbing because you don't know what to do, or your mind has taken a side trip into the past or future. What to eat for dinner, or any other of the 60,000 thoughts they say we think each day. When you notice mindless dabbing just stop painting, redirect your mind to the thing in front of you, find your place and begin again. Staying present is easier if you use physical cues, the sound of the brush, movement of your arm, and then let go, your body knows how to paint if you let it. But slow down, you are not Bob Ross sloshing across the canvas( unless you want that rush of just slapping things on, it's ok sometimes, but seldom gets really great results in brushwork) You are the conductor of the music, choosing violins, here a crashing symbol there a pluck of the harp string, bringing out the music, you are not some dude on a platform waving your arms around, looking like a "painter" but not producing music. 
For the finest example of this watch a Richard Schmid vid. Here he is after decades of work still breathless with the beauty of a single brushstroke of just the right color in the right place. So inspiring, and watch how carefully he places each touch, no dabbing away there, yet still freely done, taking advantage of "accidents" ( room for the subconscious and right brain to work)

Next work make being aware of dabbing away your first priority, start to place your strokes and colors put them down and leave them, stop scrubbing one color into another ( except for the first lay in if you do that) and place them side by side, if you blend do it after they are down...See if that wakes up your work and starts to make not just objects but a beautiful surface as well. 

Breaking Out

This post is mainly for all the intermediate  or  better painters out there, and collectors who want to understand the painting process

When one paints more and more especially on one topic, you will begin to repeat yourself and begin to make a formula of how you work. What was unknown when you started is now known in the left brain as information and you start to paint from what you know. To be an artist is a skillful blend of what you know and the unknown. If you let what you know start to take over, your paintings will become more and more trite formulas. Unless you are a Kinkade type painter who makes millions of painting the same thing over and over, even he got bored out of his skull and hired others to paint his works. So how do we counter that trend?

The book Your Artist's Brain by Purcell is good place to start. It will tell you exactly how and why it happens.  Then finding ways to access your more unconscious side helps. Here are some ways you can trick that systematic left brain in to letting go more.  One way is to make little abstract compositions first, with no subject in mind. No bigger than 3x5 inches, in say 3 colors finding one that pleases you, and using that to plan your work. Robert Bateman the very realist wildlife and nature painter does this, then figures out what animal will fit that composition... Other ways are the informal divisions, not the classic thirds or even Golden section.  Painting upside down sometimes shakes things up. Changing two of your main colors on the palette, limiting your palette to 3 primaries and white, or if you are a colorist, painting in monochrome, or vice versa. Switch mediums. And for the last really big box buster. Take one painting and go for broke, not just nice, or OK but either really great or completely busted. Do to it everything that goes against little fixes...get a big brush, scrape it off and repaint parts completely, turn it upside down and work on it as an abstract shape. In short go from the gut and see what happens. And then PAY ATTENTION as you are working to see the effects of what you are doing, brushwork, color changes all the things you know. 

You and the painting are dancing partners, you are feeling your way along and listening to what the painting is telling you, not just your mind. If you are dancing with someone you don't push or shove them around, you have a dialog going until the two become one.  You are in the moment painting not following along just in the mind but completely alive and aware in that moment, what is really happening, feeling your hand and the brush connect, the movement and sound all of it, really present Now.