Blog Move

February 27 2009
Please go to www.LorettaFeeney.com for all future posts. Thanks you.

Embracing the Process

Giving a demonstration the other day to an oil painting class, I concentrated on discussing an ongoing theme I keep seeing.

Maybe theme is the wrong word, maybe condition or stage is a more correct term.

I find with painting students and some that have been at it a long time are really hesitant to take a chance with their work. They hesitate to let any painting they do get away from them. Students expect their oil paintings to look great at the beginning and get better looking as the oil progresses.

This is where they are mistaken.

Art is a flowing give and take medium. You must take your oils and manipulate them on the canvas, move them around and let the paint work for you. In doing so, you can then start making adjustments. You cannot correct your painting till you get some paint on the canvas and you cannot get painting on the canvas while trying to maintain a good looking drawing in or start.

IN other words; your painting has to go through hell before it can become great and arrive were you desire.

The beauty of oils for the painter and it does not matter what type of artist you are… the beauty is working that paint, using this medium, manipulating your desired goal to your will.

Wiping out, redrawing, rethinking .

Some Colors can be Detrimental to your Painting

Feeney Class, Cape Cod Art Association

The first session at the Cape Cod Art Association went well last week. I gave my “Take the bad colors off your palette now,” lecture without too much feedback.

Paint companies are in the business of selling paints. They don’t really care if your work is improving or stuck in a Burnt Umber rut.  They just want you to buy as many different tubes of various colors as you can.

Now me, I’m all about mixing my own colors. Not that I am a great colorist but I do recognize problem colors and students that cannot let them go.  I went over some of these colors with my new students and could feel the good  mood deflate in the studio temporarily.

For the Student-

When you are buying your supplies in the future,  holding that tube of Sap Green in your hand wondering what route to take to improving your work, right now, … the challenging, satisfying… let me try mixing my harmonizing colors myself route, or to take your tried and true method and just squeeze any old tube habit?

Don’t be a sap.  Just because it’s in an art supply shop,  that does not mean it will help you create art.

Craigville Beach

Even though I live near  Craigville Beach, I never ever go during the Summer. There are other beaches I prefer on the North side. But I do spend a lot of time in the winter here.  I like it empty and barren.  The  feel of the off -season quiet appeals .

The other day I was at Craigville mid-day in the rain.  I could see paintings in several directions. Sometimes the light is right, the weather enhancing  and the art so obvious.  Sometimes as a artist you get around to painting a scene you have been watching for years without realizing it.  You know what size to paint it.  How to lay it in, and it all comes so easy.

Are You Afraid to Make a Committment?

No? You should be.

When starting a painting,  being afraid to commit is a very good thing.  That is right where you want to be.  I tell my students to take their time. What is the rush to get locked in?  It’s  good  not to be able to tell a figure from a tree trunk sometimes. While laying in a new Paris painting recently I really enjoyed the slow process of the emerging figures. Two weeks into the painting now and I still have a lot of room to make changes in the placement of basically everything while I get the mood and key established.

Soft edges and mystery, that is where it’s at. Flexibility at the easel translates to a strength of options.

Don’t commit too soon.

Paris Prints and Ghosts

It’s great to stay fresh and try new things, to experiment artistically.

After trying to get into Beverley Edwards printmaking class at the Cape Cod Conservatory all fall, I finally have taken a couple of classes with her and look forward to more. She has a nice laid back style of teaching unlike my classes and it creates a nice loose atmosphere for her students.

She is showing me the mono-type technique and I see great potential for experimentation for my future work.

First we paint on Plexiglas. I used my normal oil paints. This is a picture of my Paris painting on glass.

You can notice the glare off the glass. This surface lends itself ( to me) to paint slick, wetter; loose and free. It is fleeting.

Only the results will remain if they are up to par. We wet the papers and dry them just enough before pulling it through the 30 year old press.

I can see a lot of ways to ruin a nice piece and you have to be deliberate when printing.

This is the ghost= the second pulled print. It is noticeable lighter and fainter. we are using nice papers; not sure of the weight. I look forward to experimenting with potential papers.

This is my first print from my second effort. It is a painting made into a print of the popular Paris Cafe De Flore in the Left Bank.

Easel Tides

Scouting out the area on the back side of Sandy Neck for painting on location several times , I realized as the summer turned to fall it just got better and better. The day I brought my class there to paint was perfect. A little color starting. Crisp air, not too cold. They were up for the challenge. We set up with a variety of views to paint.

Now I did notice the tide was coming in but I just figured I would keep an eye on it. Starting my own study quickly so I could get an example on canvas for them. Within fifteen minutes I had covered my small canvas and went to start checking on the students. Make sure everyone chose a strong composition and had their easels set up sufficiently.

Quickly I realized the tide was not bad near me but it was swiftly moving in surrounding some cars and painters. “Everybody pick up and move out!” I shouted. “Quick quick.” I was impressed how fast everyone moved back up the dirt road to higher ground. They scrambled. I caught my breath and turned around to see that one student had forgot his easel and within seconds it was sitting in the salty water.

I went back and retrieved the easel and reset the class on safe ground nearby.

This gave me a chance to expound on the beauty of painting from memory. “Remember the clouds rolling past. Remember the distant dunes and the hint of color changes in the large marshland.” And they did.

All good studies produced from memory. Next time I could check the tide chart. Na, I would rather keep it exciting.

Wind

This is why I do not teach on-location classes that often.

As soon as I got to our site today the students were all over me asking, “are we were still painting outside today in these winds?” A mutiny on my hands. It was indeed windy.

I listened to my weather radio after class and it said the winds hit 32 Miles an hour or 30 knots this afternoon October 4,2008. It just came out of nowhere. But considering last week we canceled due to a tropical rain storm I was somewhat determined in the second week of our eight week class to get working in the elements.

So if I cannot get them to paint in the difficult elements, then I would show them it could be done, that it should be done. Because it is only on days like today that an artist sees the trees rocking, the clouds souring across the sky, coming from the southeast. The noise was what struck me. The leaves and branches battering against each other. Debris flying through the air. But mainly the clouds roaring overhead in big billows of layers in a hurry to the bay.

I compromised and said we would stay while I demo-ed some important things and then we head back to the Conservatory to paint inside the rest of our class time.

They were all over that.

I set up to do a simple demonstration and it ended up taking two paint boxes to keep my easel in place to work. I painted quickly explaining what I wanted to capture today. A day like this there are no hard lines, no hard edges because everything is moving in the breeze. It is all blurred. The landscape is soft in the movement.

I finished quickly getting a solid study done and they hurried off quickly, driving to the classroom.

But I cannot help thinking of the missed opportunity today for them. As a teacher I failed to get them to work in the tough circumstances. Failed to get them to take the risk of a fallen easel or of learning how to weight one’s easel against the wind and take the extra five minutes to secure the canvas for painting.

Because it’s only when you step up to the challenge, that art is rewarding.

Barnstable Harbor Painting Class

I brought my class to Barnstable Harbor on the North side of the Cape to paint on location.

The wind was coming in off the water on one of the last days of the summer of 2008. The sun was out and the students were game. I had everyone do two quick studies in the three hours there. Having them concentrate on getting in the flow of working outside and not worrying about making paintings today but just doing studies.

I told them today we are going to do little Hawthorne studies. “Do you know what that is?”

“No,” they said. Charles Hawthorne talked of putting one note of color against the next note of color. Getting the colors right and the painting will take care of itself. So simple, so true.

The stripers were jumping out of the harbor after the bait fish. We watched them just below the waters surface.

New Orleans Fountain

I am very happy New Orleans was spared for the most part with the latest hurricane. Seeing the footage on television just makes me want to go back soon, and I will. In the meantime here is the remaining painting available from my Pre-katrina holiday there.

If anyone knows which restaurant this is somewhere off of Bourbon Street I would love to know.

In the meantime I call it “French Quarter Fountain.”