Don't Get Stuck in the Middle

Around and Up, oil, 8x10

This past week I held a one-day Composition Boot Camp workshop at my studio. The subject of my demo above had several elements that could easily get stuck in the middle. I teach a method for planning out your composition that addresses this, among many other objectives.

In "Around and Up," I wanted a variety of shapes going across the top of the painting, but I didn't want the shape between the two trees to end up dead center. I also didn't want the edge of the left tree to stop at the center. You can see in my sketch below that I placed those shapes in relation to the center and then followed this little "map" when blocking in my painting.

But even after addressing the placement of the major shapes of the composition in the thumbnail sketch, and then in the block-in, the challenge is then to keep it all in place as the painting progresses. If you've been an artist for awhile, you know all too well how things "creep" into the middle of your composition if you don't carefully keep them in their proper place. It's when your thought process shifts from placing the elements to further defining them, that those elements start moving themselves around from their original spot. In my demo above, I kept a close eye on those positive and negative spaces at the top to keep things in place.

Unless your painting relies on a strong statement in which center placement is part of the message being conveyed, you normally want to avoid it. Of course, something in your composition will need to fall across the center areas of the painting. I normally try to be sure no element of the painting is emphasized along the center (i.e., hard edges, sharp contrast, saturated color), and if it is, I'll subdue that area.

Below are a couple of other recent demos from a workshop I taught in Chattanooga, TN last week:

View from Highway 24, oil, 14x11

Evening Glow on Wyanett Creek, oil, 14x11

Upcoming Workshops:

The following three out of my next seven workshops still have room:

OIL Workshop - Dallas, GA - 1-day 

January 31, 2015 (Sat.)

Paulding Fine Arts Association

11 Courthouse Sq., 2nd Floor

Dallas, GA

$125 PFAA members; $150 nonmembers

Contact Peggy Cline at 770-445-4572 or peggycline@att.net 

Visit www.pauldingfinearts.org for more details.

PASTEL Workshop - Stevensville, MD - 3-day 

Workshop - February 6, 7 & 8, 2015 (Fri/Sat/Sun)

Demo-only option: - Fri., Feb. 6, 9 am - noon(ish), $45 (prepay), $55 at door

Chesapeake Fine Art Studio 

609 Thompson Creek Rd.

Stevensville, MD 21666

(about 40 minutes from downtown Baltimore)

$400

www.chesapeakefineartstudio.com

410-200-8019

OIL/PASTEL Workshop - Dahlonega, GA - 2-day 

March 19 & 20, 2015 (Thurs/Fri)

The Art Loft

Dahlonega, GA

www.artloft.net 

$285

To register, visit www.artloft.net.

Winter Greys

Happy New Year, everyone!

Last month in my classes at my studio we painted sunny snow scenes. This month we tackled a winter scene on a grey day, which provides a trickier challenge to identify correct color temperatures. Especially when working from photos, we tend to lean too heavily on cool colors, since photos don't always capture the warm hues correctly. Plus, logic incorrectly tricks us into thinking a that a grey, cloudy day should be communicated with mostly cool colors. . Sunlight is still there on a grey day, it's just more diffused and difficult to discern from a photo.

Snowy Driveway, oil, 8x10

Going Up, oil, 8x10

Heading In, pastel, 8x10

Many artists assume that the photos we take on days like this are too dull and grey to provide exciting reference for an eye pleasing painting. However, I look for whatever hint of color might exist in these grey areas and push that color just a bit. If I see warm against a cool, I might push that contrast some more.

The three pieces above were all demos from classes held this past week. I wanted to keep my topic consistent with all of my classes for this month, so I had a little fun changing up the view/composition for each of my demos.

For those of you in Georgia, I have workshops coming up in Paulding County the end of this month and Dahlonega in March. A little further north in the east, I'll be in Maryland in a few weeks and Rhode Island in April. Details below...

Upcoming Workshops:

OIL Workshop - Dallas, GA - 1-day 

January 31, 2015 (Sat.)

Paulding Fine Arts Association

11 Courthouse Sq., 2nd Floor

Dallas, GA

$125 PFAA members; $150 nonmembers

Contact Peggy Cline at 770-445-4572 or peggycline@att.net 

Visit www.pauldingfinearts.org for more details.

PASTEL Workshop - Stevensville, MD - 3-day 

Workshop - February 6, 7 & 8, 2015 (Fri/Sat/Sun)

Demo - Thurs., Feb. 5, 5:30 - 8:30 pm, $45, $55 at door

Chesapeake Fine Art Studio 

609 Thompson Creek Rd.

Stevensville, MD 21666

(about 40 minutes from downtown Baltimore)

$400

www.chesapeakefineartstudio.com

410-200-8019

OIL/PASTEL Workshop - Dahlonega, GA - 2-day 

March 19 & 20, 2015 (Thurs/Fri)

The Art Loft

Dahlonega, GA

www.artloft.net 

$285

To register, visit www.artloft.net.

OIL/PASTEL Workshop - Newport, RI - 3-day

April 24, 25 & 26 (Fri/Sat/Sun)

Newport Art Museum

76 Bellevue Ave.

Newport, RI 02840

$365 NAM members; $420 non members

401-848-2787

www.newportartmuseum.org

See my workshop page on my website for details and complete schedule through 2015, or email me with any questions.
www.barbarajaenicke.com

A Merry Christmas to All!

Just a quick end-of-year holiday greeting and thank you to all of my blog readers! I wish you a Merry Christmas, or joyous holiday however you spend this time of year, and a fantastic New Year with plenty of productive time at your easel. Thanks for reading my posts, and I look forward to sharing with you some more in 2015.

Happy Painting,
Barbara

Way-back Wednesday - Week 3

Time for my final two Way-back Wednesday paintings. Although I'm realizing that by the time my blog posts usually show up in your inbox, it could be the next day. In that case I suppose we can call it a Through-back Thursday promotion. In either case, if you'd like to purchase one of my favorite but slightly older little pastel studies for $85, here are the last two I'm offering...

Uphill Light, 8x10, pastel on mounted sanded paper
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

Fading Fast, 8x10, pastel on mounted sanded paper
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

Both of these little studies were painted on location in Albuquerque, NM in June 2013 during the week of the IAPS Convention. I'm excited to return there this coming June 2015 and hope to do some more plein air work!

Let it snow!

After spending a week in snowy Minnesota over Thanksgiving and stockpiling my snow scene photos, can you guess what our subject matter was in my December classes at my studio?

Below are my demos from Wednesday, Thursday and Friday classes held this past week.

Last Light on Wyanett Creek, oil, 11x14 (cell phone photo)

Wyanett Creek, oil, 8x10

Snow Glow, pastel, 8x10

All were done with a fairly limited palette, using very similar warm and cool hues in each of the value groups. Both the oil and pastel demos used warm underpaintings. Much of the snow in each of the three paintings is in shadow, which called for mid-range value grey-blues. The warm underpaintings allowed the greyed color to still contrast nicely and have some vibrancy, yet still read accurately in the shadow areas. An early stage of  "Last Light on Wyanett Creek" below shows this warm/cool contrast...

In the two oil demos, tube colors used were cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, cad yellow, yellow ochre, terra rosa, alizarin crimson, transparent oxide red, and titanium white.

Sorry for the bad cell phone pic at the top. I shoot my oil paintings outside, and with the days getting dark so early, I ran out of time today to shoot it on my good camera. There's a little glare in the top right. Need to reshoot. But first, it's on to Christmas cookie baking!



Upcoming Workshops:

PASTEL Workshop - Stevensville, MD - 3-day 

Workshop - February 6, 7 & 8, 2015 (Fri/Sat/Sun)

Demo - Thurs., Feb. 5, 5:30 - 8:30 pm, $45, $55 at door

Chesapeake Fine Art Studio 

609 Thompson Creek Rd.

Stevensville, MD 21666

(about 40 minutes from downtown Baltimore)

$400

www.chesapeakefineartstudio.com

410-200-8019

PASTEL Workshop - Bonita Springs, FL - 3-day 

Feb. 25, 26 & 27, 2015 (Wed/Thurs/Fri)

Center for the Arts of Bonita Springs

26100 Old US 41 Road

Bonita Springs, FL 34135

$350/members; $400/nonmembers

www.artcenterbonita.org

239-495-8989

OIL/PASTEL Workshop - Dahlonega, GA - 2-day 

March 19 & 20, 2015 (Thurs/Fri)

The Art Loft

Dahlonega, GA

www.artloft.net 

$285

To register, visit www.artloft.net.

OIL/PASTEL Workshop - Newport, RI - 3-day

April 24, 25 & 26 (Fri/Sat/Sun)

Newport Art Museum

76 Bellevue Ave.

Newport, RI 02840

$365 NAM members; $420 non members

401-848-2787

www.newportartmuseum.org

See my workshop page on my website for details and complete schedule through 2015, or email me with any questions.
www.barbarajaenicke.com
barbarajaenicke@msn.com

Way-back Wednesday - Week 2

It's 11:30 pm on Wednesday night and I just realized I almost forgot to post this week's Way-back Wednesday post. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm offering two pastel paintings a week for three weeks this month for $85 each. They're older paintings (okay, they're really not so "way back"...only a couple of years old) that are among my favorites but just haven't sold.

Following below are the next two paintings. Next week I'll post the last two.

Rum River Glow Study, 8x10 pastel on mounted sanded paper
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

Wintry Dusk, 8x10 pastel on mounted sanded paper
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

Way-back Wednesday - Week 1

For artists who sell their work, it's odd sometimes when your favorite pieces don't sell, but other pieces you think are not as strong DO sell. Of course, art is and always will be somewhat subjective. People like what they like.

As older work starts to pile up in my studio, I go through it and sometimes purge some of the pieces I now feel were indeed weak. Like most artists, I have stacks and stacks of paintings that have never been been shown anywhere, and I would never consider attempting to sell them to anyone anywhere. But we all know that those "dud" paintings are necessary in order to eventually produce the ones that do make it out of the studio.

Well, as I'm realizing it's again time to purge some of my small pieces that I normally sell online, I was going through some older work and picked out some of my favorites that have never sold. I'd like to offer a two of these pieces each week for the next three weeks leading up to Christmas at a reduced price. All of the work would be 8x10 or 9x12 pastels from approximately 2 years ago, and available to purchase for $85 each (for either size) plus $12 shipping (and tax for GA residents) through Daily Paintworks/PayPal. And yes, these are among my favorites that I feel don't deserve to go in my "purge" pile!

I'm only promoting this through my blog to my faithful blog readers; not on Facebook or anywhere else. I appreciate all of you who continue to read my blog!

Here are the first two pastel paintings offered for this week:

Freshly Picked, 9x12 pastel on prepared gatorboard
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

Holiday Prep III, 9x12 pastel on mounted archival paper
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

Keep away from the edge.

Morning Glimmer, oil, 8x10

I taught two classes in oil this week at my studio, and the focus was on painting subject matter with lots of sharp edges and lines. The tendency is to paint this type of subject matter too stiff, and we end up with certain elements within the painting having that 'cut out and pasted on' look.

My students know that I'm all about starting with big connected shapes. And sometimes I'll set things up to include a variety of hard and soft edges as I'm getting my block in started. But for this exercise the challenge was to try and keep all the beginning shapes from having hard edges. (Or at least as little as possible.)

My block in and one further progression step for "Morning Glimmer," my demo from my Friday class, is shown below.

The light coming from behind the trees is more effective when carved out of the big shape rather than drawing in the individual tree trunks and branches. After setting up the three sides of the barn shape in the underpainting, I then chose only the necessary edges to include.

reference photo for Morning Glimmer

Below is my (not quite finished) demo from my Thursday class.

The demos shown on my most recent blog post (especially the oil demo) are also a good examples of blocking in without stiff edges.


Upcoming Workshops:

PASTEL Workshop - Stevensville, MD - 3-day 

Workshop - February 6, 7 & 8, 2015 (Fri/Sat/Sun)

Demo - Thurs., Feb. 5, 5:30 - 8:30 pm, $45, $55 at door

Chesapeake Fine Art Studio 

609 Thompson Creek Rd.

Stevensville, MD 21666

(about 40 minutes from downtown Baltimore)

$400

www.chesapeakefineartstudio.com

410-200-8019

PASTEL Workshop - Bonita Springs, FL - 3-day 

Feb. 25, 26 & 27, 2015 (Wed/Thurs/Fri)

Center for the Arts of Bonita Springs

26100 Old US 41 Road

Bonita Springs, FL 34135

$350/members; $400/nonmembers

www.artcenterbonita.org

239-495-8989

See my workshop page on my website for details and complete schedule through 2015, or email me with any questions.
www.barbarajaenicke.com
barbarajaenicke@msn.com