Summer Plein Air Tuesdays: 1/6

Day 1 of 6 of plein air painting sessions and the weather was wet and damp again. The rain started early and later there were 50 km winds that had developed by lunch. Easels and canvases were falling all over but the group of nine persevered.

Rockliffe Pavillion (close-up)
(Acrylic)

The rain location again was the Rockliffe Park (which I have written about previously). I decided to locate myself in a corner of the pavillion and paint a view with a gentle, red  sloping hill, stately  pines and an interesting curved path.

I did a thumbnail sketch and decided to include the pavillion's concrete column and wooden roof as a frame for my composition.

The thumbnail sketch

The winds, rain and changing light created a challenge that I struggled to overcome and I grew more unhappy as the painting developed. The transparent palette that I chose was a mistake.

My easel (after two hours)

So I made a decision to rework it at home. I abandoned the transparent palette (except burnt umber) and used Ultramarine Blue PB29, Cadmium Yellow PY35, Cadmium Red Med PR108 and Titanium White.

I made a decision to only spend two hours on the remake which I ended up liking so much more than my original effort.

My two hour rework of the original plein air painting
 (with a different palette)

During our lunch break, David offered a demonstration and within one hour had created a brilliant painting of the iconic Rockcliffe pine tree.

Our plein air instructor David W. Jones
giving a lunch time demo

I am hoping that our next outing will be less challenging and that the weather will be more pleasant than the past two Tuesdays!

Update: July 8, 2015

David Jones generously shared the names of the oil colours on his palette:

• Cerulean blue 
• Cobalt blue 
• Ultramarine blue 
• Cadmium Yellow Middle/Medium 
• Cadmium Orange 
• Cadmium Red Middle 
• Alizarin Crimson 
• Sap or Chrome Green 
• Viridian or Phthalo Green 
• Yellow Ochre 
• Titanium White

He purchases his oil paints from Stevenson's Paint, a Toronto company that produces "Artists Quality" paint at "Student Quality" prices. David has used them exclusively since 1978.

Here is their website: http://hwww.dlstevenson.ca/

Stevenson Paint

Ottawa Urban Sketchers

Really grateful to be urban sketching with this group of super talented Ottawa artists!

Ottawa Urban Sketchers June 2015

Ottawa alley sketch #1

Ottawa alley sketch

Ottawa alley sketch #2

Awesome Ottawa Artists:

• Colin White http://www.colinwhite.ca/
• Tomas Pajdlhauser  http://www.tomaspajdlhauser.com/sketch/
• Liam Mooney http://jackpine.co/
• Mathieu Trudel https://www.flickr.com/photos/trude_514/
• Anthony Parravano http://www.anthonyparravano.ca/
• Stephen Frew https://stephenfrew.wordpress.com/

FemArt: 500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art in Three Minutes

This is an old video uploaded to YouTube on April 2007 but so lovely that I though I would republish it today.

Set to  Bach's Sarabande from Suite for Solo Cello No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007 performed by Yo-Yo Ma, this video was nominated as "Most Creative Video 2nd Annual YouTube Awards",

Phillip Scott Johnson uses 90 portraits of women from famous painters to seamlessly show their changing features as time elapsed. It was created using Abrosoft Fantamorph 

Enjoy!

Links 

• For a complete list of artists and paintings visit http://www.maysstuff.com/womenid.htm 
• High resolution version: http://www.vimeo.com/1456037 
• Creator's contact information: philipscottjohnson(at)gmail.com

USk: Sketching Kits

It's Friday and there is so much going on in Ottawa this weekend: New Art Festival in the Glebe, Ottawa Jazz Festival, and Glowfair (etc) so I thought I would share a picture of my urban sketching (USk) kit that travels with me wherever I go.

A sketchbook, a pencil, an eraser, a sharpie, a compact set of watercolours, and a Pentel or Koi water brush is my basic urban sketching kit.

My minimal sketch kit today at Jazz Fest

If you "google" the phrase "urban sketching kit" you will see a wide assortment of kits ranging from the minimalist sketching kit (like mine) all the way to a full backpack loaded with a variety of materials.

Results from a google search for "Urban Sketching Kit"

I am a huge James Gurney fan and thought I would post him talking about his favourite urban sketching materials.

Watercolor Materials for Urban Sketching with James Gurney

Hope to post some of my sketches at the end of the weekend. Happy sketching.

Urban Sketching Links 

• Urban Sketching: 20 Dos and Don’ts when Getting Out There By Róisín Curé
• Urban Sketching boards and Urban Sketcher boards on Pinterest

Urban Sketcher Tools 

• Nina Johansson: Drawing Tools  
• Citizen Sketcher: Sketching Gear 
• Urban Sketcher Lapin’s secret material 
• Larry D. Marshall: Urban Sketcher's Kit 

Let's Do Some Summer Urban Sketching

There is a world wide community devoted to urban sketching . You can find urban sketchers on flickr and facebook and Twitter.

There are world wide sketchcrawl days and even an urban sketchers manifesto!

Urban Sketchers (USk) History

From the website:

"Urban Sketchers is the brainchild of Spanish-born illustrator and journalist Gabriel Campanario, a staff artist and blogger at The Seattle Times. After seeing an increasing number of people sharing their location drawings in the blogosphere, Campanario started a flickr group in November 2007 as a showcase of urban sketches. A year later, he decided to expand the flickr initiative with a by-invitation group blog where correspondents would commit to posting on a regular basis and also sharing the stories behind the sketches."

Gabriel Campanario,
the founder of Urban Sketchers and
author of The Art of Urban Sketching,

"In a short period of time, the Urban Sketchers blog and sister flickr group have become popular online outlets for people to share their location drawings. Thousands visit daily for inspiration or to travel vicariously through the visual dispatches from hundreds of contributors on six continents."

Nina Johansson is USK correspondent
and lives and works in Stockholm .

"Drawing a city isn't just capturing it on paper, it's really about getting to know it, to feel it, to make it your own," says Nina Johansson, a correspondent in Stockholm."

"To better serve this rapidly growing community, Campanario and other blog correspondents established Urban Sketchers as a nonprofit organization on December 6, 2009. The nonprofit aims to organize educational workshops and raise funds for artists' grants and scholarships."

Check out the urban sketchers FAQ here: http://www.urbansketchers.org/p/faq.html

Ottawa Urban Sketchers?

About one in every twelve Ontario artists resides in the City of Ottawa (4,600, or 8%). Those numbers represent folks who make their living from creating.

We know that EVERYONE is an artist. There are many more artists working at other jobs and finding time to do some art in between. With so many artists in Ottawa, wouldn't it be great if there was a community of urban sketchers?

There are Urban sketcher chapters in  Kitchener-Waterloo, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Wouldn't it be great to build a community here in Ottawa!

Sign Up for the
48th World Wide SketchCrawl 

If you live in the Ottawa area and love to sketch, consider signing up for the 48th World Wide SketchCrawl - July 25, 2015 - Ottawa

Summer Plein Air Tuesdays

I was all set to write my first of six blog posts about my summer "Plein Air Tuesdays" in Ottawa, however, I am sad to report that our first date was cancelled.

Initially, it was the weather that dampened our enthusiasm.

Ottawa weather forecast June 16-29, 2015

But we planned to have our inaugural session at one of our rain locations - the beautiful Rockcliffe Pavillion in Ottawa! It's a beautiful open-air gazebo sitting high on a bluff overlooking the Ottawa River just east of he prime minister's residence. It was constructed in 1917 and is a "recognized" Federal Heritage Building because of its historical, architectural and environmental values.

Source: Wikimapia

As it turned out, the rain actually held off but the class was cancelled nonetheless for reasons beyond anyone's control.

Because I was fully packed and ready to go, I thought I would devote this blog post to writing about my plein air supplies.

My General Supplies

My french easel and backpack loaded and ready to go!

• a collapsible stool for full days of painting. 
• an umbrella for protection from the sun, or rain. 
• a backpack that has water in sealed containers (if not near water), hand wipes, insect repellant, sunblock, my Tilley hat, sketch supplies, spray bottles, paper towels, garbage bags, lots of bungee cords (to strap umbrellas, hold papertowels etc)  

My Palettes

My two palettes

Palette #1: Liquitex Heavy Body

• Hansa Yellow Medium PY73 WARM 
• Napthol Red Light PR9 WARM 
• Quinacridone Magenta PR122 COOL 
• Indanthrene Blue PB60 WARM 
• Phthalo Blue green shade PB15 COOL 
• Burnt Umber PBr7 WARM Phthalo 
• Green yellow shade PG36 COOL 

Palette #2: Winsor & Newton*

• Ultramarine Blue PB29
• Dioxazine Violet PV23 (*Golden)
• Cadmium Yellow PY35
• Cadmium Orange PO20
• Perm Alizarin Crimson PR177, PV23
• Cadmium Red Med PR108
• Ivory Black  PBk9

For the planned grey rainy day, I had chosen palette #1 so that I could experiment with these three grey formulas:

Three "Rainy Day" Grey Formulas 

Titanium white added to:

Burnt Umber PBr7 + Indanthrene Blue PB60 

Quinacridone Magenta PR122 + Phthalo Green yellow shade PG36 

Napthol Red Light PR9 +  Phthalo Green yellow shade PG36 

Sketchbox tools

Portable Painting Easel

I have two french easels and this is my smaller, newer version that was a gift from my family. It is not as worn as my older, larger french easel. I thought about purchasing the newer lightweight tripod easels,but I actually love old french easels and doubt I will ever change.

My french easel and collapsible stool
(attached by a bungee cord)

Backpack

My backpack is quite heavy to carry with every pocket bulging. But it makes walking and climbing and descending so much better with free hands. I witnessed a scary tumble at the Kilbear plein air outing last fall because someone was descending a rocky path and had no free hands!

My bulging backpack!

Between now and next Tuesday, I hope to venture out with my ready-to-go supplies.

Weather permitting?

FemArt: In Appreciation of Emily Carr (1871–1945)

 Emily Carr in San Francisco,
(age 21 or 22, c1893.)
Photograph:Royal BC Museum, BC Archives

While researching 1945 newspaper archives online today, I came across this lovely article about Emily Carr in the Windsor Daily Star. She had passed on earlier in the month of March and writer Valerie Conde paid her tribute.

"Canadian culture suffered a serious blow this month in the sudden death of Emily Carr, famous Victoria painter and writer who won belated recognition as one of the Dominion's most original and important artists."

Emily Carr was 73 when she died and it "was not until she was 60 that public opinion began to appreciate the value of her work"

I have gathered pictures of Emily with her beloved pets and animals, two of my favourite Carr paintings,  and I have also included the rest of the 1945 Windsor Star newspaper article below.

Source: The Windsor Daily Star - Mar 24, 1945

Emily Carr raised sheep dogs to make ends meet
Photo Source: The Guardian website
"Prince Pumkin, Lady Loo, Young Jimmy, Adolphus the cat, Kitten, Chipmonk, and parrot & self in garden at 646 Simcoe St., 1918", (Emily Carr and pets), 1918  British Columbia Archives  C-05229

Arbutus Tree c. 1909

 Indian War Canoe (Alert Bay), 1912

Sources & Links

Newspaper article: The Windsor Daily Star - Mar 24, 1945

Photo of Emily Carr: Emily Carr House

Emily Carr at Dulwich Picture Gallery – in pictures

Emily Carr Quote: Painters Keys

Emily Carr with her Dog, 1930
Source: McMichael Website

Emily Carr is interred in the Ross Bay Cemetery in Victoria

The History of Plein Air Painting

I was delighted to find a plein air painting video (embedded below) online today. It tells the history of plein air painting in forty minutes. The documentary focuses in large part on America plein air artists and I especially enjoyed the history of the Hudson River School.

I will devote an entire blog post to the historic Canadian plein air artists at a later date.

"Outside The Lines" narrator Walter Fari says, "What started a hundred years ago when men and a few women took their easels outdoors to paint has turned into a huge world wide movement today."

Quote from Plein Air documentary

Enjoy this inspiring documentary on plein air painting. (From the Publisher's of PleinAir Magazine.)

Ottawa Plein Air Painting - Summer 2015

I have been bitten by the "plein air painting" bug. I love that plein air painting takes me outdoors for hours at a time and that my painting skills are challenged. I love that you must paint very quickly to catch the light.

Me carrying my plein air gear last fall
(Source: Top blog posts from 2014

My Plein Air Teachers

I have been blessed with the amazing generosity of some great plein air painting teachers in my life:

• Miss Kertesz at Caledon Hills in the fall
• John Alexander Day in Ottawa
• Helen Walter and Keith Thirgood of Wilson Studios at Killbear
• David W. Jones in the Ottawa Valley

I have registered for my first ever "Plein Air Paint Out" this August (2015) and I am both nervous and excited.

Links from the video worth visiting:

• Anastasia Dukhanina 
• paintoutside.com by PleinAir magazine

"Value Does All The Work - And Colour Gets All The Glory"

Below is a quote that I have pasted into the front of my Strathmore toned paper sketch book as a reminder to never skip the basics:

"Value does all the work
and colour gets all the glory"
(author unknown)

Patterns: focus light, focus Dark, light "baby" and light "mama".

Group 1 Value Patterns grid

I created this little grid in my Strathmore toned paper sketch book to remind myself to play with the value pattern configurations. The value patterns are the "bones" of the painting.

Often when I am feeling quite lost, or if my painting is losing what I was aiming for, a quick review of my value sketch is incredibly helpful and quickly puts me back on track.

My art journal: Practice sketches

My art journal: Practice sketches

My art journal: Practice sketches

My art journal: Acrylic sketch based on value sketch

Links to Other Artist's Pages

• Color Theory - Tonal Value (***)
• Book: "Your Artist's Brain - Finding interesting value patterns in your photos"
• Book: "Watercolor Simplified - Value Painting from a Sketch"
• Artist David Kessler; Value Studies: The Artist's Essential Tool
• Artist Jim Oberst: Artist Tip #18 - Design Guidelines: Value Patterns, Part 2
• Artist Linda Blondheim: some tips about using Notan to find values
• Blog: Making A Mark: Composition - why tonal values and contrast are important (***)
• Blog: Making A Mark: Sally Strand's Val -U - Viewer
• Blog: Watercolorists of Whatcom: Tonal Value Pattern
• Blog: Life Plein Air: Observation 7: Value Values

(***) My favourites

Tools from my sketch kit

Welcome Halfway Month of the Year - June!

Art journal illustration: water colour and ink
Cindi Moynahan-Foreman

I love the above quote from L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables: 28 A June Evening.

I also love the following quote by Aldo Leopold:

Aldo Leopold: author, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist.

More quotations for the month of June for poetry lovers, gardeners, artists, walkers, etc

The Essential "Fallow Times"

I have just realized that my last blog post was March 31, 2015. Two months ago!?

Excerpt from my art journal
(mixed media)

Thankfully, it was not the last time that I opened my art journal(s) to sketch.

"My Guest House" April 2, 2015
Art journal (graphite and water colour)

My art journal pages for the last two months have been quite scant. This happens to all artists every now and then for a number of reasons. In my case, these past two months have been periods of great transition and all my energy was needed elsewhere.

Artist Quote: Catherine Stock

After reading a review by ParkaBlog I decided to purchase, "Daily Painting: Paint Small and Often To Become a More Creative, Productive, and Successful Artist"


This book is fabulous and I cant wait to get started!

It has only been in very recent times that my lifelong practice of daily creating has been put on temporary  hold. And that's okay.

Artist Quote: Emily Carr

Artist Quote: Georgie O'Keefe

I feel the "fallow times" drawing to an end. Now I must go and sit with Carol Marine's inspiring book and a cup of tea! And see what happens next!

My Art Journal: "Me and My Bookshelf"
(water colour and ink)