Explorations and Demos in the Forest

I've been teaching some classes the last few weeks at work. The last one was a 5 day workshop for lighting td's where we painted outside at different locations around the East Bay. Great fun and an energetic group. When the weather got warm enough during the week, we painted several times down in Canyon, a small, almost invisible, community in a small redwood and bay laurel forest on Pinehurst Rd.

In most locations I would scout a bit, maybe discuss possible views, then set up and paint until someone asked for help, or my 'guilt-meter' kicked in, and I would start doing walk arounds. In some classes I have taught, a group of students have watched me paint, but in this one, they were all more interested in tackling the painting issues themselves. Either way is good, but I do like to try and solve something for myself, as well as whomever is interested. A few times I was inspired by the views others had picked and tried to hammer something out to get a sense of how to express it.

It is more evident that light is in motion in the forest than in a wide open, brightly lit environment, as the sun is coming into a shadowed realm in shafts and dapples that glide across the ground, rocks, tree trunks, and foliage, with no guarantee that another spot of light will conveniently take its place.

This was painted at the turnout to the Post Office in Canyon.
I liked the juxtaposition of the solid redwood trunk on the left with the explosive, dancing light on the sapling branches and foliage to the right. The background is composed of a shaded, fern covered hillside, and then a moss covered concrete retaining wall below, bordering a road and creek.



This is a more incoherent, rapid expression of a backlit mass of foliage against a steep, shadowed slope of ferns. Amazing light
and color, crazy to paint, but it was fun to try. I don't expect these kinds of efforts to make much sense after the fact, I just want to explore what is going on. The light was really moving.


A clump of redwoods with a lot of backlit spots and regions to explore. This part of the forest was carpeted in dried foliage from the tree. Still exploring how the edges of bright light behave against a shadowed space. Is it a bounce effect? Diffusion? Is it a rich, reduction of color of the key light?
Something's going on! Research continues....


We were painting on the banks of a very shallow creek, and I had been advising a student to paint a few of the rocks in the bottom of the creek that were easily seen in the reflections of the tree trunks, as that would make the water appear transparent. She joked that she would "..rather wash dishes than paint the rocks in the bottom of the creek!" This comment, along with another student's question about deciphering complexity in such a spot, prompted me to paint a quick study of the creek, and call folks over to watch. I was fired up, and was able to babble about laying down a middle value for a shadow, putting a few lights on top, then punching in the dark values for a depiction of the stream bank. The shaft of light hitting the water had slid off to the right in a matter of minutes, but I put it back where I first saw it, referencing the value and color by looking at where it currently was. The pebbles on the bottom of the creek were more of an afterthought after laying in the reflection shapes and colors. This was a quickie, but I was motivated to paint, and it made a huge difference. The level of energy one has at any given time really has an impact on the work. The right comments from students can really get you going!

2 From Pt. Reyes

2 weekends ago, I made a trip out to Pt. Reyes with Ernesto Nemesio and Sharon Calahan. The wind was a major factor the entire day. We hiked out to the lighthouse, as well as Chimney Rock, where we all went off trail to get out of the wind a bit, and paint a cliff. Next we drove to Drake's Beach and the wind came right with us, so we ended up huddled near a cliff, painting some rather suspect looking water at the back end of the beach. We drove around quite a bit studying other locales, finally ending up in Bear Valley by the visitor's center as the light was turning golden. Thankfully there was less wind in the valley, and I worked on a simple composition of silhouettes and grasses in the warm light. It was a good day.

Wildflowers, creeks, & the usual suspects

I've been able to take advantage of some of the better weather, as it has been landing on the weekends. 2 weeks ago I went up to Table Mountain to paint with Ernesto Nemesio and Sharon Calahan. It is an eroding mesa of lava above the town of Oroville. There were a lot of wildflowers strewn across the gently sloping plateau. Poppies seemed to prefer the southern slopes and hovered near rocks. Lupine stuck to the northern slopes, and a yellow flower that was quite small but made huge swaths of color, surrounded lava outcroppings and ran like rivers across some areas. We painted from mid morning until sundown.
Here's 3 pieces:


Mid-morning, looking south. I wandered around a long time before picking this. Its one thing to go look at wildflowers, another to figure how to compose an image with them. By looking up a small slope I could get an oblique angle to the ground to condense the colors more. Most of my wandering about was trying to find other elements that would line up with a good view of the flowers. I found some tree shapes I liked that added depth and scale, and the foreground rocky patch held some interest.


Late afternoon poppies nestling near a small bluff. I painted a couple of rocky views like this.


End of the day. More rivers of color, everything getting hit by warm light.

It was a long day, and a 3 hour drive back to the bay area, but worth it. Nice to be out painting again.

This last weekend Ernesto and I drove down to Pinnacles to try our luck with the wildflowers again. Different terrain and we mainly observed clumps of poppies in a rocky floodplain on the east side. Near the end of the day we drove up to one of the trailheads, and hiked up about a mile or so and painted a few quick views before sunset.


Chalone Creek runs across a rocky plain with clumps of poppies scattered about. I spent a long time on this, and really struggled to get the main masses corrected and refined enough to make sense, and it is still not as 'relaxed' as I would wish. I think the water is too broken up, for one thing. It was much more of a drawing and composition problem than I figured on. Needs work!


After taking a break in the shade, I tried painting what looked like a clump of rosemary growing in the middle of the extremely shallow creek. I was attracted to some of the twig arcs, the trapped shadows, the colors of the water reflecting the sky, and the rich ochre of the creek bottom. Perhaps not enough to hang a painting on, but sometimes I'll just see if I can make sense of the 'triggers' that compel me.


At the end of the day, after hiking up the trail a ways, and realizing we were losing all our light, we finally had to pick something and get to work. These last two were quickies, which was a relief after banging on the creek painting for several hours.


All the foreground light was gone, but the next range of hills remained in light for awhile. This was about a half hour's work or less. Fun to paint with no expectations after 'warming up' all day.

Lastly, here's a few 'usual suspects' painted on the route to work, a eucalyptus trunk in front of a thicket of foliage that had some interesting color on the far side of a shadowed space, and a view of the steep slopes on the east side of the Caldecott tunnel at the end of the day.

Warming Up

The days are getting longer, and we've had some warm and dry stretches in the past few weeks. I'm finally coming out of my hibernating shell to work again outdoors. Here's a few recent studies done on a weekend, or on the way to work in the morning.
These types of subjects are a familiar set of patterns and problems to resolve, but can be as humbling as a first bike ride after laying off for many months, when one is a bit slow and rusty.


It's a challenge to try and break these kinds of views down, as I don't know how to simplify enough yet, and get beguiled into painting the details... that clover and weed combo, that oak leaf and branch thang, ooh, the dappled light, etc...
Consequently, its somewhat overworked, and/or too busy, but I got enough things right to give me ideas about how to tackle this type of subject more effectively next time...



"Broccoli" in the a.m. The hills in shadow at this time of the year can be a minty green, as the sky color mixes with the grass. There is more than a hint of lavender in some of the shrubs, and the eucalyptus always feel 'red' to me in comparison.


Painted from a bank parking lot in downtown Orinda that has a very nice view of the east side of the Berkeley hills. Great views can be found in unexpected places.
---------------------------------

Workshop Update:

In other news, both my summer workshops are filled, and there is a waiting list, so my thanks to everyone who signed up! I'm looking forward to teaching them.

-----------------------------------

Art Auction for Japan

In response to the earthquake and tsunami that has devastated parts of Japan, a Pixar colleague and friend, Dice Tsutsumi, has already helped put together an art auction, and is setting up a second one at the end of April that Pixar artists can contribute to. Please read his blog for more details, as well as the opportunity to contribute to some worthy non-profit charities to help.

Upcoming Summer Pastel Workshops

Morning demo at the Sierra Nevada Field Campus, 2010. Photo by Ann Malmlund.



I'll be giving two pastel workshops this summer, both during the month of July, one in Northern California at the Sierra Nevada Field Campus where I taught last summer, and one down at the Idyllwild Arts Center, also in a mountain environment. The dates
and duration of both workshops can be found on their respective websites listed below. I really enjoyed doing this last summer, and look forward to seeing some familiar folks up in the mountains, as well as meeting some new ones. I've been teaching a class about light and color at Pixar for about ten years, and that is the genesis of the workshop, combined with what I've learned from painting outdoors for over 14 years.

The region around the Sierra Nevada Field Campus is like a mini-Sierra buffet of beautiful scenery. There are numerous small lakes in glacially carved granite basins that are very accessible by car, or an easy hike. Accommodations are available at the campus. The campus itself is composed of large tents on platforms spread along a sloping river drainage, with a large dining hall/classroom building. Hot showers and bathrooms are provided. It is rustic but quite comfortable. The class sizes are limited to 12, to allow for plenty of one-on-one instruction.

Sierra Nevada Field Campus

Regarding the Idyllwild campus, I've yet to visit it, but I was invited to teach there several months ago and researched it a fair amount before committing. The arts program has been running for 60 years, Ansel Adams has taught there, and some very talented contemporary artists, such as Ray Roberts and Peggy Kroll, among many others, will be teaching summer classes. The campus is located in a town at 5,200' elevation in the San Jacinto Mountains near Palm Springs. I'm going to head down there in a few months to scout some painting spots. Here's a link to some virtual tours of the campus environs. Rest assured, there will be plenty to paint!

Idyllwild Summer Workshops

There's plenty of useful information on both websites, but feel free to email me if you have any other questions. My contact info is listed on my profile page.

Group show opening in San Francisco

The group exhibit of 4 Pixar artists that I've been a part of at the Holton Frame Studio is traveling across the bay and will be opening at the Northpoint Gallery in San Francisco this Wednesday night. As the show has sold well, we've all had to contribute a few more pieces for the new venue. Here's a work that I painted last fall off the side of Redwood Rd., looking into a tangled mass of bay laurel, eucalyptus, blackberry vines, as well as the trickling headwaters of Redwood Creek.

Watershed
8.25 x 12.25
Pastel on Canson Paper

It is interesting to have contemporary work by living artists who paint landscapes hanging in a room surrounded by 19th century work of the same subject. We are from different centuries and spheres of influence, yet certain aspects of nature and light are constants in both. I'm tempted to say the 'epic vision' has been replaced with a more personal viewpoint, but that is not entirely true. One aspect one can observe from local landscapes of the past is the immense amount of growth and development around the bay, well exemplified by a painting by Thomas Ross of Fort Point and the Marin Headlands, painted in the 1870's, some 60 years before the Golden Gate Bridge was completed. It is comforting to see that the Headlands remain entirely recognizable 130 years later.



For a more intimate viewpoint from the past, there's one beautiful example by Jules Tavernier shown below:


The opening reception is from 5-7 this Wednesday evening, and I believe all the 'living' artists, Sharon Calahan, Ernesto Nemesio, Dice Tsutsumiand myself will be there. Perhaps the rest will be there in spirit! Hope to see some familiar faces.

Group Show Opening Dec. 4th in Emeryville

Posted below are some recent pieces for an upcoming show at the Holton Studio, that opens this Saturday, Dec. 4th in Emeryville
I'll have a total of 6 pieces in the show. You can browse the gallery website here to see all the artist's work.
The reception is from 4-6 pm on Saturday, and I'll be there, so come on by.

I have been fortunate to work and paint with the other artists in this show, Sharon Calahan, Ernesto Nemesio, and Dice Tsutsumi.
Several of us have been together on trips into the back country of the Sierra wilderness over the last 5 years. We've also periodically met up before and after work in the east bay hills to paint, though there is no consistent schedule, as we're all busy with our day jobs on different projects. I can't speak for everyone else's personal motivations, but I will say that self-directed study in the arts has certainly benefited me, both personally and professionally. Its a lifelong pursuit, and unlike athletic pursuits, one can paint until you drop dead. In that regard, my heroes are Pam Glover and Rembrandt.



Inlet Wall
11 x 13
Pastel on Canson Paper



Limantour Sunset
10 x 14
Pastel on Canson Paper



Summer Aspens
11 x 14
Pastel on Canson Paper