Summer Flight

Summer Flight, 8x10, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2021

Available

Oh, the glad freedom of summer! Don't we all look forward to those lazy days? (It's not just the kids.) Here in Texas, school started back up this week and it feels like summer is over.... even though it will be hot for months. There is always something about that first day of school that signals an end, AND a new beginning. I like the new beginning idea better... may it be a good one!!

Join me at a workshop in GA! Click for info:

Nov 3-5, 2021 - Autumn En Plein Air - Anderson Fine Art Gallery

Judy's Hydrangeas - workshop demo with process shots

Judy's Hydrangeas, 8 x 10, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2018

Workshop Demo - Sold

I just finished teaching a workshop in St. Simons Island, GA. It was an plein air class, and we had pretty much perfect weather. I love it when that happens! We focused on "garden vignettes" and tried to capture a sense of place, as we considered the basics of painting outside. Each day we met in a different, private (and very beautiful) garden. This is my demo of one little corner at Judy's house from the first day... Thank you, Judy!

Compose/Block-in large Shapes and Values          

Mass-in Upright Planes – Shadow Family 

Mass-in Upright Planes – Light Family

Mass-in ground plane and details.

Break up background mass to add light. Add spectral highlights.

Workshopping in Georgia with a great group of students!

Many thanks to all!

Garden Cuttings - and a process demo

Garden Cuttings, 8 x 6, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2017

SOLD

In a recent still life workshop, I promised some of my students that I would post a process demo to reinforce our sessions. It is so easy to be intimidated by a blank canvas, and I find that it really helps me to take a systematic look at my subject matter. First I look at the overall silhouette, then I study the darks and lights, and compare, compare, compare. How does the cast shadow compare to the form shadow? How does white in the shadow compare to black in the light? 

Below are shots showing my basic process of taking those observations from my eyes and head and getting them onto the canvas...

Rough sketch for placement and composition.

Using a mix of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna.

 Block-in of large masses, indicating a range of 3-5 values.

Still using the dark neutral mix of ultramarine and burnt sienna.

Mass in the dark family (including cast shadows and form shadows).

Maintain simple shapes and avoid detail at this stage.

Mass in the light family, keeping simple shapes and avoiding detail.

Break up large masses with subtle shifts in value (within value families).

Last - Add pop with spectral highlights and reinforced darks.

Misty Shore - Workshop Demos

Misty Shore (full color demo), 6 x 8 oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2016

SOLD

This weekend in Austin, the sky was overcast and on the verge of raining, at all times. And don't you just know that I was teaching a Plein Air workshop? Wouldn't it be nice to know these things when scheduling, so the sunny, blue sky weekends could always be chosen? Well, it really wasn't so bad. We got a lot of painting in, despite the fact that we were poised to seek shelter at all times. 

One really great thing about overcast days is that the light never changes. We were able to do value studies in the morning followed by full color paintings of the same scene, with the same light and same values, in the afternoon. These were my demos of that. 

Misty Shore (value study demo), 6 x 8, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2016

Students working hard on value studies...

Workshop Wrap-up

Pear Demo, 6 x 6, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2016

NFS

This weekend I taught a still life workshop that focused on the relationship between color and form. My students were hard working - they listened, and experimented and trusted me. :) It was so much fun in every way! It's never enough time. 

This little demo kicked off our time together... a lesson on process AND on building a painting using the "7 Elements of Art" - line, space, value, color, shape, texture and form.

  

Line and Space

Value

Color and Shape

Texture and Form

Here are some classroom out-takes... see what I mean?? Very focused!!!! 

Value Studies - Process Shots from Workshop Demo

Jekyll Beach Value Study, 6 x 8, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2016

Workshop Demo - Anderson Fine Art Gallery, St. Simons Island, GA

Last weekend I taught a workshop on St. Simons Island, GA. The focus of the workshop was color and value in the landscape, and we drilled way down to understand those concepts. On the first day, we took a break from color and painted value studies. Below is a review for my students and for anyone who would like to try it!

Mix a strand of 5 grays, plus black and pure white (7 values total). 

Make sure the grays are distinct from one another.

Get started with a sketch of simple shapes to compose the scene. 

Divide the landscape into 5 values, using John Carlson's Theory of the Planes...

Working dark to light, use first gray (darkest) in foreground uprights found in rock shadows, second gray in middle ground uprights (trees), third gray in distant uprights, fourth gray in ground plane (water) and fifth gray (lightest) in sky.

Values come together as they recede... darks get lighter and lights get darker. 

(Note: usually the lightest light will be found in the sky, but in this scene the white sand reflecting the sunlight was brightest.)

Use subtle value shifts to indicate highlights in each plane.

Save pure white for highest highlights (rock light), and pure black for calligraphy and darkest shadows in the foreground.

Mix a strand of warm values using yellow, black and white.

Mute each value in this strand with white (muted strand not shown, sorry!)

Use warm values to indicate how temperature behaves when color is added.

Color intensifies as it comes forward, and it weakens (mutes, cools) as it recedes.

Hard at work, mixing and identifying values...

Many thanks to a wonderful group of students, you all did GREAT!

Hidden Corridor - Demo

Hidden Corridor, 7 x 10 workshop demo, L. Daniel © 2012

My workshop on St. Simons Island was called "Garden Vignettes En Plein Air", and it involved painting in various private gardens around the island. A garden is such a personal space and it's always a pleasure to be invited "in". This is the demo I did on the first day. One of my participants and fabulous painter, Claudia Hammer, took the following pictures that show my process. Thank you Claudia!

I began by blocking in my composition using a mix of French Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna.

Once my composition was established, I focused on all the darkest darks in the upright planes (everything vertical: bushes, trees, pottery, etc). Since there is no sky in this piece, the ground plane had the lightest lights which I saved until last (the actual ground, the tops of the hedges, everything parallel to the sky). 

The day began with an overcast sky, but the sun popped out just in time. It lit everything up and cast some great shadows through the garden that I was able to include in the painting. (I love it when that happens!)

After all the areas were massed in I painted back into them, breaking them up with subtle value and temperature shifts. At the very end I added the highest highlights. Btw - the marks below the painting are just little side demos that happened while I was painting and explaining my process. :)

Hidden Corridor, the final demo piece, 7 x 10, L. Daniel 

Shadow Shimmer

Shadow Shimmer, L. Daniel, 6 x 8
SOLD

Last Thursday, Plein Air Austin met up to paint in the country. My goal for the day was to use thick, juicy paint; and the simple shapes of this shed and its shadows were a perfect subject for that goal. I am enjoying pushing myself in the area of paint application... if you click on the image, you will be able to see the thick paint up close. More of this experimentation will be showing up in my next few posts. :)

Spring Workshop Info:

Garden Vignettes En Plein Air, May 17-19, 2012, St. Simon's Island, GA

Contact Mary Anderson, Anderson Fine Art Gallery, 912-634-8414

Workshop Announcement - come paint with me!

Back Gate, L. Daniel, 6 x 8 with 3" gold frame, SOLD

More work available at Anderson Gallery

This spring, I am offering a plein air workshop on St. Simons Island, GA. 

If you are interested in joining in, here is the information:

Garden Vignettes En Plein Air

May 17-19, 2012

Thursday-Saturday, from 9am-4pm 

Anderson Fine Art Gallery

St. Simon's Island, GA

$375

Workshop Description: Develop oil painting skills through painting en plein air at a variety of private and public gardens. Emphasis will be on catching light and shadows, seeing color, achieving depth with perspective, editing and simplifying forms and capturing a sense of place. Each session will include a demo and a critique.   

To sign up:

Please contact Mary Anderson

 Anderson Fine Art Gallery

912-634-8414