Lake Swan - Fix It Friday #25!

Lake Swan, 8 x 10, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2020

SOLD

Can you believe I have been at this for 25 straight weeks? I can't! This series has been a great way to stay in touch while I've been working on larger paintings for my upcoming show in the fall. It has also provided a weekly marker to get me through the Ground Hog Days of quarantining! Fridays = Fix it. TGIF! 

BUT, as fun as it has been, I will be taking a little hiatus from the weekly post...

It's time to change it up. Summer is almost over and my show opens October 24th at the Davis Gallery here in Austin. The next two months will be busy with finishing works for the show, getting them framed, and marketing them! (You will soon start hearing from me about that!) I also have visits with my kids and grandkids planned. So... with great appreciation to all who have followed along with me and sent your encouragements... a heart-felt THANK YOU!!!

Here is Lake Swan, on Fix it Friday #25!!!

 

BEFORE

AFTER

CHANGES

Problem - The lighting in the scene was inconsistent with the lighting on the swan. (Everything in the scene needed more contrast and brightness to be agreement with the swan about the light.)

Fix - Added streak of blue to sky (it transformed yellow haze into a brilliant day).

Fix - Made water more reflective of the blue sky.

Fix - Popped the light on the loose reeds. Sparkle.

Fix - Added highlights on the distant shore. (That is Westlake Beach in the distance, local friends! You know who you are.) ;)

Problem - The water lacked structure so the surface didn't look flat.

Fix - Defined all reflections.

Fix - Reordered the water patterns to recede, making them larger in front, smaller and condensed in distance.

OBSERVATIONS

Throughout a painting session, it's always good to keep remembering where the light is coming from. It's also helpful to make sure the entire painting agrees about where, and how, that light is shining! :) 

I love the swans on Lake Austin. They have babies every year and swim around as a family. Although they never sit still enough or close enough, I constantly try to get pictures. And did you know this? Swans mate for life. LOVE that. 

Field of Cactus - Fix It Friday #24

Field of Cactus, 12 x 12, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2020

Texas cactus! It's beautiful, especially when it blooms and... it's very invasive. Once it gets started, it just duplicates itself over and over. If an "ear" falls off, stick it in the ground and it will happily survive, grow, and spread!! All that to say, my fix today is all about better depicting ranch land full of propagated cactus. 

BEFORE

AFTER

CHANGES

Problem - Layers of cactus were not "laying down" on the picture plane.

Fix - Created a definitive scale shift from front to back, making layers incrementally smaller as they move into the distance. 

Fix - Muted layers incrementally as they recede.

Problem - Field just didn't have enough cactus!! 

Fix - Added another layer of cactus at the fence line.

Problem - Overcast sky was lack-luster in color and interest.

Fix - Intensified the purplish color that was there and popped the bit of light. 

OBSERVATIONS

Working with elements in the landscape to push them into the distance is a great challenge. Today's fix was a wonderful exercise in doing just that... scale shift, atmospheric perspective, overlapping, and layering were all used here. 

Vineyard View - Fix It Friday #23

Vineyard View, 9 x 12, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2020

SOLD

Today's fix is from a Napa Valley trip I took a few years ago...

The day I chose this location to do some plein air painting, the sky was full of gorgeous clouds. When I came back the next morning, it was foggy but I blocked in my painting leaving LOTS of room for that glorious sky. I just knew it was coming. It never did. The fog never wore off. Best laid plans gone awry, and the painting stayed misty. Until now...

BEFORE

AFTER

CHANGES

Problem - Canvas looked "cut in half" at the horizontal center line.

Fix - Raised up the mountain tops slightly past center and added activity above the center line.

Problem - So much canvas devoted to the sky, but nothing going on.

Fix - Added a sky feature - clouds! 

Problem - Foreground field was disconnected from distant field layers. 

Fix - Darkened the foreground to a value more similar to the field beyond, and added "field markings" to make it feel like a continuation of tilled land.

Problem - Background mountain range was disconnected from previous field layers. 

Fix - Added just a "suggestion" of fields continuing into distant valleys, in order to make the valley feel expansive and cohesive.

OBSERVATIONS

Thank goodness I took some pictures of that first day with all the clouds! And thank goodness I still had them in my files! It took me awhile to revisit this one, but I'm so glad I did! It now looks like, feels like, smells like the lush valley vista that I was so compelled to paint on that California hillside!!

Creating Depth in a Painting - 5 TIPS!

Morning Reflections, 9 x 12, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2010

Available 

Dear Blog Friends,

I was recently invited to write a guest post for "Realism Today", an online newsletter for artists. It went live this week, and here it is in its entirety. It's long, but it has lots of good info! (Click the title to see it in its original context.) Enjoy! 

___________________

Creating Depth in a Painting - 5 Tips for Beginners 

Guest post for Realism Today by Laurel Daniel

One of the most common challenges for beginning painters is learning to establish the feeling of distance in a landscape. It is a hurdle I remember well from my own early efforts… scenes looking flat, backgrounds jumping forward, and no sense of visual space to travel into. With much study and years of practice, I have discovered a number of ways to create that illusion of depth I so badly wanted back then. Below are five tips that have helped me in my journey, with examples for each. They can be considered individually, but I think you will find their actual use is very interconnected. Hopefully, the ideas will help you “see” your subject matter better.

1 - Atmospheric Perspective
Atmospheric perspective, or aerial perspective, is a technique that uses modification of tone to create a sense of depth. Simply described, natural conditions like fog and light have a softening effect on distant layers of the landscape. This impacts a painter’s color and value choices. I like to describe them in these two ways… 

A) As objects move further away from the viewer: values become less contrasty, colors get weaker and cooler, and details become less distinct. 
B) As objects come forward and closer to the viewer: values have more contrast, colors get stronger and warmer, and details become sharper. 

In “Foggy Coastline” below, you can see this concept at work. Notice how each mountain range becomes weaker and cooler as it recedes into the distance. Conversely, the closest mountain range and people have greater contrast and more detail. The warmest/strongest color is in the sandy foreground.

Laurel Daniel, "Foggy Coastline", 9x12, oil on panel, plein air, contact artist

2 - Scale Shift 
With the term scale shift, I am referring how our vantage point effects the appearance of size. Objects look smaller in size as they get farther away from us. Using this size shift helps us further enhance the feeling of depth in our paintings. When working with this concept, it's all about comparison in the big picture. Observe the relationships between “like” elements in foreground, middle ground, and background (compare grasses to grasses, clouds to clouds, etc), and incorporate the incremental differences as they actually occur in nature. 

In “Morning Reflections” below, we see this scale shift with the grasses in ground plane and the clouds in the sky… both elements are larger in the foreground and get smaller in the distance.

Laurel Daniel, Morning Reflections, 9x12, oil on panel, plein air, contact artist

3 - Spacial Increments
Similar to scale shift where objects get smaller in the distance, the spaces between those objects also decrease. This is especially true for evenly spaced elements, like telephone poles, train tracks or orderly planted fruit trees in an orchard. Being intentional with this incremental change will not only give the illusion of depth, it will also keep the ground plane from looking flat. 

In “Fruited Valley” below, notice how the spaces decrease between the vertical rows of grapevines as they go back, and between the horizontal rows of trees dividing the distant fields. 

Laurel Daniel, "Fruited Valley", 24x30, oil on canvas, studio, private collection

4 - Overlapping Elements
Whenever a painter can partially cover one object with another, it gives the appearance of depth. Why? Because we can instantly identify layers, and layers create space.

In “Palm Tree Promenade” below, we view the ocean cove, mountain, and sky through the overlapping palm trees. This relationship (combined with a significant scale shift from foreground to background) establishes a great sense of depth. 

Laurel Daniel, "Palm Tree Promenade", 8x8, oil on panel, plein air, private collection

5 - Practice, practice, practice!
Look for examples of these principles when selecting subject matter for paintings. I think you will find that searching with this in mind will also provide a jump-start with analyzing, composing and blocking in your chosen scene! If you can see it, you can paint it! Practice with a purpose. 

In “Half Light” below, all of the ideas are at work… see if you can find them: atmospheric perspective, scale shift, spacial increments, and overlapping elements. 

Laurel Daniel, "Half Light", 15x30, oil on canvas, studio, private collection

Beach Reflections

Beach Reflections, 15 x 30, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2019

Painted for solo show, "Beaches, Birds, and Botanicals"

SOLD at the Anderson Fine Art Gallery

Another title for this might have been, "Breakfast on the Beach" as this is another great hunting ground for egrets and other shore birds. When the tide comes in, they gather around larger tide pools and forage for trapped fish and insects. Mornings seem the best time... they are intent on their work until something startles them, sending them up and away.

Upcoming:
Fall Plein Air Workshop: Contemporary Austin Art School, Nov. 8-9, 2019 - Register Here

Morning Blessing and Capitol Glow - upcoming show!

Morning Blessing, 24 x 24, oil on canvas, L. Daniel © 2013 - SOLD

Capitol Glow, 18 x 18, oil on canvas © 2013

These two paintings will be in my upcoming show...

Landscapes: Interior-Exterior 

Opening October 5, 2013 at the Davis Gallery in Austin, Texas.

The show will include landscapes of nature (my usual) AND landscapes of daily life (I've branched out to include interiors, exteriors and cityscapes). Painting for this exhibit has been a stimulating time of artistic stretching and personal discovery for me. I have been pretty much hibernating for these last few weeks and months to get the work done. Sometimes shutting down all distractions is mandatory. :)

After much thought about how to share these paintings with you, I have decided to reveal two images at a time - each from a different category. I had fun pairing them up and hope you will enjoy seeing their commonalities and differences. Please stay tuned!

Plein Air Southwest Salon 2013 - Exhibit in Dallas!

Spring Bloom, 9 x 12, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2013, $725

This weekend the annual Outdoor Painters Society exhibit opens in Dallas, Texas. I am pleased to be showing these four paintings and to be participating in the Quick Draw on Saturday morning. If you are  in the area, please come by for the activities. It will be an exciting weekend!

Plein Air Southwest Salon 2013

Juried Outdoor Painters Society Exhibit

Southwest Gallery

4500 Sigma Road, Dallas

April 6 through May 4

Reception April 6, 3 to 7 pm

Quick Draw - April 6, 10 to 12 am - Dallas Arboretum

Summer Morning, 9 x 12, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2013, $725

Tasting Room, 8 x 16, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2013, $775

Glowing Pavilion, 12 x 9, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2013, $725

Salon International at the Greenhouse Gallery

Blue Dusk Reflections, 18 x 18, oil on canvas, L. Daniel © 2012 - SOLD

The Salon International 2012 show opened this weekend in San Antonio at the Greenhouse Gallery. I was blown away by incredible paintings in all genres... landscapes, cityscapes, portraits, still lifes... it's a fabulous show. I am thrilled and honored that this piece of mine was juried in. The show runs through May 4. If you live anywhere near San Antonio, please stop in. You won't regret it.

Spring Bloom - plein air demo

Spring Bloom, 9 x 12, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2012

Last Thursday, I painted at a beautiful park in Marble Falls that had field after field of bluebonnets. It was breathtaking, really. A friend of mine took some pictures of my painting in progress and sent them to me so that I would be able to share process notes with my students. Below each image is a brief explanation of what I am thinking about as I develop the painting. Enjoy! 

Here I am on location, facing my subject and blocking in the scene. 

Block-In - Using a dark neutral of french ultramarine and burnt sienna,

I use a line and mass block-in technique to roughly set down the scene.

I check placement and drawing before moving on.

Dark Upright Plane and Distant Plane - 

I observe the dark uprights as they recede into the distance, 

and determine how they will change as they move from foreground to background.

I mass in the large shapes with the best average color and value 

(and ignore all temptation to indicate detail.)

Ground plane - This is tricky because the ground plane is both receding 

and very light in value, which leaves a smaller range of color to choose from.

I begin to lay in passages that will travel from foreground to background, 

making value and chroma adjustments as they recede.

More Ground Plane passages...

Again, I choose the best average color and value for each passage

knowing that I will add highlights and lowlights later on.

Sky plane - I mass in the sky where the lightest lights are.

The value of the sky is a very important key to the rest of the painting. 

Although I often mass in that area last, I am thinking about it the whole time. 

Once all the large masses are in place and values are working correctly, 

I go back in to break them up and refine them with subtle value shifts. 

Final Nuances - Here is the final piece 

after all the refinements have been completed. 

(There was an equipment change for this last image - it was shot 

at a much higher resolution which explains the higher definition.)

Many thanks to Cindy DeBold for her photos!!!

Show in Dallas opens Saturday!

 

Quiet Creek, 12 x 9, $725 framed

I'm so excited and proud to be juried into the Outdoor Painters Society's annual show, Plein Air Southwest 2012. If you are anywhere in the Dallas area on Saturday, please come to the opening reception and say hello. I would love to see you and promise that you will be able see some gorgeous artwork. This is a group of incredible plein air painters! 

Plein Air Southwest 2012 Juried Exhibit

Outdoor Painters Society at the Southwest Gallery

4500 Sigma, Dallas, Texas 

Opening Reception April 7, 3-7 pm

Runs through end of April

 

Autumn Symphony, 8 x 16, $775 framed

 

High Falls, 12 x 12, $775 framed

L.Daniel © 2012

All three paintings available at Southwest Gallery

Lily Dance

Lily Dance, L. Daniel, 6 x 8, SOLD

This group of dancing lilies absolutely sparkled in the morning sunlight. They were a little parade-like, I thought, all decked out as they were. This would be another in a series that I could entitle, "Other People's Gardens"...  a favorite subject of mine. :)


See more Small Works

Rock Island - Adirondack Trip

Rock Island, L. Daniel, 12 x 12

I just returned from a fabulous week of painting at the Publisher's Invitational in the Adirondack Mountains. It was a wonderful gathering of over 80 like-minded plein air painters from all over the US (and one person from Russia)... brought together by Eric Rhoads, publisher of Plein Air Magazine. We had a bit of rain and overcast skies, but it didn't deter any of us. We painted every hill and dale, creek and waterfall we could find. In the evenings we shared stories and inspirations - an incredible time all the way around!!!!

Sylvan Glow - a study, a larger piece and a friend

Sylvan Glow Study, L. Daniel, 6 x 8, SOLD

This glowing tree in St. Simons Island, GA was so captivating that I had to paint it twice. The top piece was first. My challenge was to capture the glowing quality of the foreground tree as well as the glowing road behind. AND it included Spanish Moss to just make things more tricky. :)

It was a study in temperature. Observing the relative warms and cools was important to getting it to work. Several days later I went back in the same kind of light to try it again (see larger piece below). This was a very helpful exercise to really understanding the light and color. 

Sylvan Glow, L. Daniel, 12 x 16

Available at the Anderson Fine Art Gallery 

in St. Simons Island, GA

Alyson Tucker and Laurel waiting for ferry on Sapelo Island.

This is my fabulous painting buddy from St. Simons Island, Alyson Tucker (and me on right). We have fabulous painting adventures whenever we get together, and this year was no different. We painted almost every week day I was there, and I SO appreciate that she is always ready to go anywhere, anytime! Thank you for a great visit, Alyson!!!! 

Sapelo Lighthouse

Sapelo Lighthouse, L. Daniel, 8 x 6, SOLD

This lighthouse on Sapelo Island, Georgia looks like a toy, don't you think? Not only in my painting but in real life - I think it's something about the red and white stripes. While I was painting, another visitor to the lighthouse took the picture below and emailed it to me. It lets you see the story book quality of the scene... thanks MC!

See more Small Works

Coast Guard Lookout

Coast Guard Lookout, L. Daniel, 12 x 12

St. Simons Island has a wonderful, historic Coast Guard station that sits overlooking the ocean. It was built in 1936 and after many years of service was refurbished into a maritime museum. Sitting right next to the main public beach, it is also a major landmark for meeting up and the location of much summer fun. :)


I have some other fun news... yesterday, I had a visit from a blog friend, Kathy Cousart! She was traveling through the area with her husband and they stopped by to see us. This was the first time we ever met in person (though we have exchanged many a communication through email and our blogs). It was pure delight! We visited, talked plenty of "art" and instantly felt like old, old friends. It's a wonderful, small world. Thanks for visiting, Kathy!!!

Me and Kathy Cousart meeting up in Georgia!!!!

Hill Country Color - 5 x 7 Art Splurge Show

Hill Country Color, L. Daniel, 5 x 7

This is my second donation to the annual "Five x Seven Show" at the Jones Arthouse in Austin, TX. Though I am not in town to enjoy the opening weekend myself, I recommend a visit to this fun and fabulous exhibition if you are around.

Annual "Five x Seven" exhibit and fundraiser

Arthouse at the Jones Center - downtown Austin

Hours: Mon-Tues closed, Wed 12-11 pm, 

Thur-Sat 12-9 pm, Sun 12-5 pm

Exhibit runs through June 12

This is my other donated piece in the "Five x Seven" show:

Golden Splinters, L. Daniel, 5 x 7

Golden Splinters - 5 x 7 Art Splurge Show

Golden Splinters, L. Daniel, 5 x 7 

This weekend was/is the ever popular "Five x Seven Art Splurge" in Austin. It's a big fundraiser that benefits the educational programs at the Jones Center Arthouse and the above painting is one of my donations. For the second year in a row, I had to miss the big event because I am still in Georgia. I guess it's a small price to pay, but I do love this annual show and party. The exhibit includes hundreds of 5 x 7 artworks of every shape, style, medium and color; and all displayed anonymously. On the first night nothing can be purchased until a buzzer goes off at 9 pm. Each work costs $150 and it's a huge grab fest - competitive art buying at its best. SO MUCH FUN!!!

If you are in Austin, the show is open all weekend.

Hours: Saturday 12-9 pm, Sunday 12-5 pm, Mon-Tues closed, Wed 12-11pm.

Exhibition will be up until June 12.

Sneak preview of my second donated piece in case you go

(will post officially tomorrow):

Hill Country Color, L. Daniel, 5 x 7

Island Alley

Island Alley, L. Daniel, 12 x 9

As kids, we used to play in the alley behind our grandparents' home in Wisconsin. There was always an intrigue about being in that "in between" place separating the backyards. (And I remember there were always hollyhocks growing there.) This dirt alleyway has that same kind of draw for me. This is not the alleyway of my childhood, but I have been wanting to paint it for a long time. :)

Lighthouse

Lighthouse, L. Daniel, 12 x 9

Available at the Anderson Fine Art Gallery 

in St. Simons Island, GA

In addition to being an important ocean beacon, this lighthouse is a famous landmark on St. Simons Island. It's the subject of Eugenia Price's locally beloved novel entitled "Lighthouse", which tells the story of the man who built it in post revolutionary Georgia. The station was finished in 1810 and is made of tabby (a mixture of lime, sand and oyster shells). I love to imagine those early days on the island; and this lighthouse saw it all.