Mondays and Underpaintings

The Journey Onward, pastel, 10x8

I just began teaching a three-week series on underpainting techniques at Spruill Center for the Arts in Atlanta, GA on Monday mornings. This week I demonstrated the method I normally use, which uses an alcohol wash brushed over a thin layer of pastel.

Sometimes I use a more monochromatic approach, but for this demonstration of "The Journey Onward" I used several vibrant, warm colors in the underpainting, which I thought would appeal to this particular group of students. This class is titled "Pastels for the Paintbrush Painter" and is geared toward artists experienced in a medium such as oil, acrylic or watercolor, which uses a paintbrush. The class is meant to make use of their current skills "paintbrush" painting skills in our underpainting stage, and then introduce the application of pastel to that initial foundation painting.

Below are some progression shots of how this one came together. Something I pointed out often during the class was how soft and vague I keep all edges in my underpainting, which I've found to be crucial to avoid an overly stiff look to the landscape. My apologies for forgetting to snap a shot of the very first stage before I wet it down.

Next week we'll address a watercolor underpainting, and an oil stain underpainting the following week.

Going with the Flow, Part 2

From the Top, pastel, 10x8

For the second part of our series on "moving water" in my pastel classes, we studied a tall waterfall that travels down a much farther distance than the subject we painted last week. Some of the same basic observations from last week still applied (i.e., the center most, or more concentrated, area of the waterfall is lighter in value and warmer in temperature than the edges), but from a composition standpoint, we found that the placement of the water in this particular scene was important.

Since the waterfall here is more of a rapid trickle, rather than a "Niagara Falls" type, the angles and "thicks" and "thins" of the water movement are important in order to depict that the water is falling from one ledge of rocks to another.

The treatment of the edges are also key. The further the water free falls without obstruction, the softer the edges become.

The bright splash of blue in the sky was a fun element to add. Under normal conditions, the sky is a lighter, less intense color where it meets the land at the horizon. However, since this scene has the viewer looking upward a great distance, a deeper, more vivid blue sky is seen there. For color harmony, I made sure to work some of that vibrant blue into the rocks, which worked nicely to perk up the otherwise neutral colors.

"From the Top" was my demo from this morning's class. Below are some progression shots of the demo, which began with an alcohol wash over about six Rembrandt pastels.

From Pastel to Oil

Afternoon Refuge, oil, 14x18
Juried into the 2013 OPA National Exhibition

This week is Spring Break in our area. And with my son home from school and many of my students out of town, I had the week off from teaching pastel classes.

So for this week's blog post, I thought I'd mention a bit about my work in oil. For the past couple of years I've been working about equal time in pastel and oil. Although with teaching pastel, it probably ends up with a little more time spent with pastel. I worked in oil many years ago, but for about 12 years, I worked almost exclusively in pastel, and so it become like my "first language" in art. When I tried to go back to oil after those dedicated pastel years, it was like learning a new language. I knew what I wanted to say with the painting, but it was a different thought process to figure out how to say it.

Well, I'm happy to say that I finally feel like I'm gaining ground with my oil work. I was thrilled as can be to learn that I had a painting accepted into the Oil Painters of America (OPA) 2013 National Juried Exhibition, which will be held this year in Fredericksburg, TX in May.

If you'd like to see the entire OPA exhibit, it's posted online here: http://www.insightgallery.com/title.php?ititlenum=4189

I plan to continue working in both pastel and oil, and hope to at some point be equally skilled in both. I've received many requests to teach oil. However, I feel like I still have much to learn in this medium, and still work out many of my paintings through trial and error, and experiment with various approaches to a painting. But teaching classes in oil is certainly a goal that's on my radar screen. Right now I do have a couple of workshops scheduled in July and September which focus on composition and are not medium-specific, so they're open to other media besides pastel. So if you're a pastel artist wanting to take a short-term "Composition Bootcamp" workshop with a paintbrush-toting friend...check out these workshops!

Going with the Flow

A Little River Music I, pastel, 8x10

We began a series on moving water in my pastel classes this week. I've been putting off teaching this topic, since I haven't painted very much of this subject matter in the past. But I decided it was time, and so I had to do a bit of homework before teaching this class. This involves pouring through every resource I have that would show great examples of artists who excel at painting this subject matter.

As I studied some worthy examples, I made two key observations of falling water:
1) The lightest value of the water is in the center of the waterfall area, where the mass of the water is most concentrated. The thinner areas, especially where some of the rock/ground from behind shows through, are slightly darker in value, although in some areas, this value shift is very slight...but important to capture!
2) The color temperature is warmest in that same area where the water is lightest in value. This is because the water is the most reflective of sunlight where it's most concentrated. The thinner areas surrounding the more concentrated part are cooler. Just as with snow, a combination of warms and cools is necessary to convey the water's reflective quality.

Also regarding the mix of warms and cools, darker versions of the colors already used in the water can then be used in the darker rocks in order to harmonize your color. The sections of the rocks catching direct sunlight reflect warmer light, and areas facing away are cooler in temperature.

Below are a few progression shots from my demo of "A Little River Music I," my demo from Wednesday's class. I began with a mostly monochromatic underpainting, but added a few colors chosen based on ultimate placement of warms and cools.

Shown below is "round two" of this class, done for my Thursday class. I decided to change up a the color palette a bit by adding some warmer blues and a touch of orange into the mix.

A Little River Music II, pastel, 8x10

Workshop Schedule Update

Among the Birch Trees, pastel, 12x9 

I've just finalized details on some upcoming workshops I'm teaching. Following directly below are my  pastel workshops. The workshops listed at the bottom focus on composition and are not medium specific. 

Pastel Workshops:
"Interpreting the Landscape in Pastel" - Move out of the copying mode and into the interpretive mode! Workshop exercises will address selecting a color palette, developing a strong composition and simplifying busy subject matter. Each day begins with a demonstration and then plenty of individual help at the easel for the remainder of the day.

Leland, Michigan - 2-day workshop
Leelanau Community Cultural Center at The Old Art Building
111 S. Main Street
Leland, MI 49654
August 19 & 20, 2013 (Mon/Tues)
$195 members
www.oldartbuilding.com
To register, call 231-256-2131 or email info@oldartbuilding.com

Northern Wisconsin - 4-day workshop
Dillman's Art Workshop Retreat
3305 Sand Lake Lodge Lane
Lac du Flambeau, WI 54538
This is a resort facility where you can also enjoy gorgeous scenery, boat rides on the lake and other outdoor recreation right there where the workshop takes place. Workshop fee also includes a welcome reception the evening of Sept. 22. Affordable accommodations in the resort are available through Dillman's. 
Sept. 23 - 26, 2013
$410
Call 715-588-3143 for more information or register online at www.dillmans.com.

Charlotte, North Carolina - 4-day workshop
Piedmont Pastel Society
McDowell Arts Center
Mathews, NC
Nov. 4 - 7, 2013
$325/members; $351/nonmembers
Register online at www.piedmontpastelsociety.org.

Littleton, Colorado - 3-day workshop
Terry Ludwig Studios
8113 W. Brandon Dr.
Littleton, CO 80125
Jan. 24, 25 & 26, 2014
$325
www.terryludwig.com
303-795-1232
For questions and to register, contact Barbara directly at barbarajaenicke@msn.com.


Other Workshops:

"Composition Boot Camp" -  Push yourself beyond the "typical" composition. Bring your own landscape photos that you normally work from and we'll put them through an intensive composition workout. Through numerous quick studies, you'll move, stretch, crop and basically push the limits of basic landscape subject matter and get that "wow" factor into your compositions. Oil/acrylic painters and pastel artists who work in a representational style and are already familiar with their medium are welcome.

Atlanta, Georgia - 1-day workshop
Spruill Center for the Arts
5339 Chamblee Dunwoody Rd.
Atlanta, GA 30338
Sat., July 27, 2013, 10 - 5
$100
To register call 770-394-3447 or visit www.spruillarts.org.

Dahlonega, Georgia - 2-day workshop
The Art Loft
Sept. 5 & 6 (Thurs/Fri), 2013
$225
To register, visit www.artloft.net.


Please email me at barbarajaenicke@msn.com if you have questions about any of these workshops.

Shadows and Stuff, Part 2

The Mountains Are Calling, pastel, 10x8

This week I continued with the shadow series in my pastel classes. The Mountains Are Calling was my demo from my Wednesday class.

The shadows in this piece travel across three quarters of the painting, providing good opportunity to notice how the edges of shadows become softer as they travel away from the object casting them. They also become lighter in value as they travel away. When working from photos, shadows also generally need to be lightened overall. Photos tend to make the shadow values the same as the object casting them, when, in reality, they're slightly lighter (even at the darkest/closest part) than the object.

Below is the reference photo for comparison...

For a better composition, and to lengthen/increase the drama of the shadows, I raised the area where the shadows meet the trees.

Following are a few progression shots. It was important to block in the shadows with VERY loose, soft edges. I find it easier to sharpen the few edges closest to the trees later in the process than it is to soften edges that were rendered too stiff in the early stages. The first one is just after the alcohol wash over a few Nupastel/Rembrandt pastels.

Shadows and Stuff

The Farm at the End of the Road, pastel, 8x10

In my morning classes this week we started a series on shadows. For this week's subject matter, we concentrated on making the shadows the focal point rather than other elements within the landscape that are typically chosen as focal points (i.e., barn, path, trees). In this painting, the viewer's eye is draw in by the shadows and led to the barn in the distance as a secondary focal point.

Since shadows have soft edges, I couldn't use hard edges as a method to draw the viewer's eye, which is one way an artist can do this. Instead, I had to use something else from my "artistic bag of tricks." In this case, I used vibrant color in the shadows and in the colors around the shadows.

Below are a few progression shots of "The Farm at the End of the Road." And following below that are some demo shots from my Tuesday night class this past week.

In my Tuesday night class, we did "The Five-shape Landscape" exercise, (which you can read more about in recent previous posts) in which we began the painting with five distinct abstract shapes. Below are some progression shots from this demo...

Winter Trees Waiting, pastel, 8x10

Elaborating on Dull, Winter Colors

Almost to the Top, pastel, 8x10

This week in my classes we worked with grey winter landscapes (not snow scenes) and focused on taking what little color we had to work with, and elaborating. Many people find it odd that the gray, winter landscape is often my favorite type of landscape to work with. I find it to be a fun challenge to take those grays and push a little extra color out of whatever small amount of color I find present.  I basically elaborate on the faint color that's there.

I start by choosing an initial color palette of the grayed colors that I see. Then I found slightly more saturated hues of those colors and place them in key areas of the painting where I want to viewer's eye to linger. I'm still primarily using the local color, but just squeezing a bit more vibrancy out of it.

Since I had a couple of similar reference photos of the same landscape, I painted a different demo for each class this week. (I usually use the same photo for both classes, since my students can opt to attend either day, and I like to keep the topic exactly the same for each class.)

Above is my demo from my Thursday class. Below is Wednesday's demo.

Perfect Day for a Hike, pastel, 8x10

Following below are a couple of progression shots of each. For each, I used an underpainting of just three colors and an alcohol wash. The warm hue used in the underpainting helped to balance the majority of cools used in the color palette.