"Lenhart Barn"

"Lenhart Barn" - Oil - 9" x 12" - $275

"Afternoon light shone on this barn across the road from Lenhart Airport near Canby, Oregon, and caught the top of the hedge to the right. The trees and shrubs, stubbornly trying to return to their natural state, added texture to the scene that seemed right in place with the aging structure."--- SFG

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"Farm Below"

"Farm Below" - Oil - 24" x 30" - $1800

"This farm near Virginia City, Nevada, is a great subject and I've painted it several times. This time I decided to include the old cars." --- SFG

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Work in progress...

The object of this exercise is to use the unusual vantage point from above and design an interesting painting with the unusual objects in it. This is the initial drawing. I've moved some of the objects around to better positions.

I have begun to lay in the darkest areas, the areas in shadow. I've judged their shape and may or may not keep them as they are.

Notice that I'm painting beyond the lines. Those are only guidelines. By painting adjoining areas beyond the lines, I can control the edges better, whether they are to be hard or soft. Here I'm working on making the mass of the building and trees in the middle of the canvas one big shape rather than individual spots.

Here you see all my dark areas are together and interconnected. In some areas they are a little spotty, but that also helps to move the eye through the painting. I may lighten the darks in the background just to move them further back.

I've now put in some of the lights in the painting. In some cases, I've chosen colors that make things recede, and in others I've just chosen beautiful colors.

Here the canvas is almost covered except the rooftop, which is the lightest area in the painting.

This starts the second session on the painting and I saw that the background and ground plane are too close in value. I scraped and darkened the hills in the background, keeping it gray and cool to keep it in the back. Also, the edge on the shed on the right was a little too hard, so I worked on that. Again, I needed a little more contrast in the sagebrush, as well.

Once all the major color areas were correctly related, I added details such as the power poles and the road sign and accents through the painting.

"Garden Riches"

"Garden Riches" - Oil - 6" x 8" - $195

(Contact www.artandsoulgallery.com)

"Inspired by the work of the early California impressionists, I painted my own version of a rich garden scene bathed in the light of the California sun." --- SFG

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"California Summer Fields"

"California Summer Fields" - Oil - 6" x 8" - SOLD

"This is a fine little work, a gem. The warm summer grasses contrast with the cool, greyed eucalyptus trees and make California the unique and beautiful place it is." --- SFG

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Work in progress...

The purpose of this demonstration is to show that the steps for doing a painting are the same, whether the painting is large or very small. This canvas is 6" x 8". In the drawing stage, you can see how I've worked out a composition. I've paid attention to the perspective and vanishing point and have used the high horizon line.

I am starting with a # 8 brush for this small canvas. Normally, I start with at least a # 12. I have blocked in eucalyptus trees. I will be aiming for that blue-green color they are known for. I'm using a somewhat dark mass in the background, that I may make into mountains when the painting is further along. The dark mass in the front is for balance. Notice how I am using an asymmetrical balance with several trees on the left and one on the right in addition to a large dark mass on the left (shrubbery) and less of it on the right. The lighter foreground area serves to lead the eye to the middle ground and balances the darks on the foreground right.

Here I've laid in that familiar golden grass for which California is called the "golden state." When I lived in green, green, green Louisiana, I thought "golden state" referred to the gold rush, but the name actually comes from these summer grasses. Also, it seemed odd to me, at first, that the grass is green in the winter and not in the summer. However, I've come to love these reversed seasons.

With the canvas fully covered, I will work to correct and refine the relationships of the colors. For instance, now that I've laid in the middle ground, I think that I will cool down and lighten the darks at the horizon line so that it stays back, in its proper plane.

Here I've worked to hit the correct color and value relationships. Notice the changes compared to the previous photo (these two photos are both too yellow. I don't know why my camera did that, but the battery was low.) I've also redesigned the patchwork fields for balance in the middle ground.

Here's a nice little image with clean color because I've used enough paint in each area. I noticed as I painted that I used very little medium. (I use only paint thinner when I need a medium. Modern paints have enough oil to bind securely.) Another factor contributing to its success are the simple shapes I created.

"The Right Path"

"The Right Path" - Oil - 9" x 12" - SOLD

"This winding path through the grasses and shrubs at Cherokee Cemetery near Chico, California, led my eye to the storage shed, not a very glamorous subject except for its surroundings. The springtime blooms assert the promise of new life." --- SFG

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Work in progress...

This is my reference photograph taken on a beautiful spring day in the old Cherokee, California, cemetery. Purpose of the demonstration is to show how a busy subject must be simplified. Just as I would when painting on location, I squint to see the masses.

After I'd completed the drawing, I started laying in the dark shapes. You can see how I cropped the left hand edge of the photo. This moved the small building to as better location as a focal point.

Here you can see how I've connected the areas of similar value. This is an important technique that succeeds in simplifying this subject that could too easily be broken into so many small areas that the forms would be destroyed. If I painted each small value change at this stage, I would lose the relationship of the shapes and confuse the viewer.

I've still got big simple shapes in this flat design. The edges do more to define the objects than any detail.

Here's the canvas completely covered, including the sky. I've held onto the connected shapes, even extending them all the way across the canvas. Notice the light area for the spirea that stretches all the way across, even though it's very soft and vague on the right hand side.

The last photo shows the painting with the signature in place. The painting went really quickly because I started with the big, simple shapes and controlled the edges as I went. I darkened the tree to divide the sky space in an interesting way. Once all the shapes were well established, I could pay attention to variety in my brush strokes and colors. These were laid on top and add interest for the viewer.

"Summit, Trinity Wilderness Area"

"Summit, Trinity Wilderness Area" - Oil - 14" x 11" - NFS

"Our annual trip to the Trinity Wilderness Area is one of the highlights of the year. This view is of the east slope of the white granite range so obvious in that area. This uplift is always uplifting!" --- SFG

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"Wilderness Meadow"

"Wilderness Meadow" - Oil - 12" x 16" - NFS

"While visiting a friend's cabin in the Trinity Wilderness Area in northern California, I painted a series of works depicting its fabulous scenery. This view is of the meadow just north of the cabin, where they mill the trees from their property for use in building on site. The dry creek in the foreground is the headwater of the Salmon River." --- SFG

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"Arroyo Hondo Morning"

"Arroyo Hondo Morning" - Oil - 30" x 36" - $3800

"Near Taos, Arroyo Hondo has all the best of the area when you visit on a spring day... those layers of colored rock poured from God's bucket, shimmering cerulean skies, and the swollen river that attracts sportsmen, drawn, perhaps unconsciously, to the beauty surrounding them." --- SFG

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Work in progress...

You'll see in this series of photos of the drawing stage that I am being more careful than usual with the drawing. Since this is a commission of a specific location, I am going for more accuracy in order to present the site as it is. I started with placement of the bridge, paying attention to these horizontals and how they divide the canvas.

I'm doing a lot of measuring, checking horizonals and verticals to see what's above or below what, to see whether a point is halfway up, a third of the way up, and so on. As I worked, I realized that one of the trees was landing smack dab in the middle of the canvas. You can see faintly, where I placed it originally, and then moved it to the left.

As I drew in the complicated shapes, I worked more as I would in a charcoal drawing and shaded each smaller area to make myself more aware of its value (degree of light or dark) in the composition. When I start painting, I must preserve the big mass of the bluff in shade behind the trees and the bridge, and also describe the intricate pattern of the shapes within that shadowed area. Careful control of value and temperature will accomplish that.

Because this is a larger canvas, I must be more deliberate, not as impulsive and wild as usual, because it's easier to lose the overall placement that I've worked so hard to verify. Since the shapes are large, I can still vent my energy within them.

I started with the darkest area in the shadowed bluff and related all the other colors and values to it. I want the shadow to read as a whole, but with color variation within it that delights.

Also, I connected the other shadow areas like the shadow side of the large tree on the lefthand edge and the cast shadow that leads down to the water.

Similarly, I must make the lighted areas of the scene connect and relate in value to each other.

TO BE CONTINUED...

"Arroyo Hondo Morning" (cont'd)

Lastly, for this stage of the painting, I put in the lightest areas, such as the newly leafed springtime trees, the horizonal slope at the top of the bluff with its distant trees, the light-reflecting water, and the sky. Once these are correctly related -- I've spent the most time on this aspect of the painting -- all I have to do is correct anything that's not quite right.

As you can see, my palette is a mess. The only color I premixed was the first shadow color of the bluff. (It's still on the palette knife.) From that all-important starting point, I mixed each of the shadow colors, usually with some of the original color in it. You can also see the dark greens and blues of the shadow areas of the lefthand tree. When I was ready to do the lighted areas, by mixing next to a previous color, I could better judge the temperature and value of the new color. A good example are the yellow-greens on the upper right edge of the mixing pile.

For some of the lightest tones, I plopped some white in the middle of a pile of the darks in order to mix near the light tones just to the left. Then I adjusted the white with the yellows I added in the middle of the pile. Most importantly, I had enough paint there that I could mix and load the brush with plenty of color. Remember, load that brush!

By now, I'm elaborating on the shoreline, trees, and the pattern of cracks and highlights on the bluff.

And I'm correcting and adding detail to the bridge and detail to both the light and shadow areas of the bluff.

I kept the painting around the studio and made some changes. I added a dark area to the water, lightened the shadow side of the foreground rocks and gave more depth to the yellow trees. I'm pleased with the end result, but the photo was in warmer light. Will correct ASAP.

"Returning with the Long Shadows"

"Returning with the Long Shadows" - Oil - 11" x 14" - SOLD

"This dramatic sky was my first objective, but I wanted to add the drama of the long shadow in the foreground. I added figures to make it more dominant and am pleased with the result." --- SFG

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"Florida Palm Parade"

"Florida Palm Parade" - Oil - 11" x 14" - $400

"There is so much rich color in palm fronds that it is a delight to paint them when I visit my daughter in Gainesville, Florida. These are located at her business in Archer." --- SFG

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"Sky's Color Dance"

"Sky's Color Dance" - Oil - 6" x 8" - $150

"In this series of cloud paintings, this is my favorite. It catches the drama, structure, and color of the subject and has an effective composition. I also enjoyed the texture of the paint itself." --- SFG

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"Fields Near Taos"

"Fields Near Taos" - Oil - 9" x 12" - $175

"One of the things I enjoy about painting on location is 'pushing color.' If an area has a hint of a color, I can call the attention of the viewer to it by making the area more clearly that color. Since artists like me see more color than the unpracticed eye, onlookers often say 'That color really is there." I think, 'That's my job.'" --- SFG

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"Forest Spirits"

"Forest Spirits" - Oil - 6" x 8" - SOLD

"Inspired by my new book about Nicholi Fechin, I selected a photo I took near Taos and used a spirited approach for this small work. The subject is quite abstract and I used color accents to move the eye through the work." --- SFG

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"Stoney Brook Inn" - Oil - 11" x 14" - Available through The Book Gallery.

"McCloud, California, near Mt. Shasta, is a charming lumber town that has seen rebirth recently. The Stoney Brook Inn sits at the north end of main street and is sheltered by surrounding conifers and broadleaf trees. It made a delightful subject." --- SFG

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Work in progress...

This painting is due for a show in 3 days. I must paint directly and surely to keep the sparkle. Then I'll shove it into the warmth of the attic space in my studio so it will be dry enough to deliver. (Remember, it's often 100 degrees here in the summer, so I cannot paint on location for this one. I have a strong sense of self-preservation!)

My drawing lays out the general shapes of the building and I've paid attention to the design of the trees in the background, which are too monotonous as they are. I've added the snowy slope of Mt. Shasta, which actually lies more to the left, just out of the picture frame, since it is a major part of the environment.

I've laid in the darkest darks. Only the accents will be darker. I pay attention to the design of each tree, making sure there are a variety of shapes and the distribution plays like musical notes...irregular beats and spaces. Also part of the dark are the shadowed porches, though they won't be as dark as the trees in the end.

Since the front of the inn is in shadow, these tones are still part of the darks of the painting. Also, I've established the value of the cast shadow at the lower right as one of the darks.

When I teach, I always emphasize separation of light and shadow. If you establish a roadmap of the darks from the start, it is much easier to see where they fall. Remember, nothing in light can be as dark as the lightest area in shadow AND nothing in shadow can be as light as the darkest area in light.

For this step, I've painted all the areas in light. Can you see that all of them are lighter than the lightest dark? If not, squint!

Oops. As I've begun to add detail to the front of the building, I realize that my drawing is off on the peak of the higher roof. Also, I don't like the tree branch just right of it, too. Correcting both take just a moment and I mustn't fuss over them. I also feel the need for a softer value change in the lower left corner.

In the final version, those problems have been solved and I've added sufficient detail to the fence, brick entry posts, steps, balustrades, and other trim. The raking light that falls on the building front and the sunlit, dappled light on the roof are included.