Painting under artificial light

Because most of the students who take my classes have day jobs, I teach a still life class on Tuesday evenings from 6pm-9pm. This means that I have to use artificial light, instead of the beautiful natural light coming from the north-facing skylights. To replicate the effect of natural light, I have a series of full spectrum lights installed above and parallel to my skylights. This allows the light to come in at the same (or approximately the same) angle as the natural light from the skylights. Sometimes I choose to turn all of the lights on, but I have the option of just using the middle lights or the end lights, too. In general, I have many still life arrangements for the students to choose from set up on the east and west sides of the studio and the students are in the middle of the room, so any of the lighting possibilities work, and we try them all to see what looks best. It all depends on the effect we are trying to get on the arrangements.

Before teaching in the evenings, I generally never painted under artificial light, but these lights and the high angle make it an acceptable alternative, and we have gotten some nice results. With artificial light the shadows are harsher than with natural light, but knowing this, one can soften these.

Camping & Painting

September 15, Jack & I drove to Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island in Maine, which is about an 8 hour drive from Vermont, to do a little ocean painting. We camped out 2 nights, one in the pouring rain, but we did manage to do a couple of plein air sketches before driving back on September 17. We would have stayed longer, but I had hired a model for the Open Figure/Portrait session (which we host twice a month).

Cadillac Mountain is accessible by car and has numerous walking paths around the summit for a spectacular view of the water and surrounding areas. We hiked out along the path and set up our equipment. It was really windy and cold, which meant hanging on to the easel and paper towels, so they wouldn't blow away. To my amazement, they were tons of tourists who kept stopping by to say hello and take our pictures.

Here are my 2 sketches, along with a shot of our campsite in Bass Harbor. The top photo is of Jack by the tent. We were the only tenters at this time of the year, so we got a prime site with a platform (good for when it rains...and it did...quite a bit). The second photo is the sketch I did by Otter Cliffs in Acadia. The figure in the painting is Jack. It is a 10"x12" oil on linen. The bottom photo is from the top of Cadillac Mountain, and my sketch is 11"x14" and is also an oil on linen. Both of these sketches were done on site on Thursday.

More Changes

Jack has changed paintings before. Some have radical changes and some have subtle changes. Here is a radical change. The top photo is the before picture. On this painting, he completely repainted the sky, making it much more dramtic, and he also changed the cows.

Making Changes

Recently, My husband Jack asked me to retrieve one of his paintings ("Framing") from one of the galleries that shows our work, because he wanted to make some changes. He had been thinking about them for a while. The painting was actually started in September 2008, right before he started painting the large vertical landscape. Both this still life, "Framing" and the "By the Upper Brewster" first hung in Southern Vermont Art Center in June 2009.

I looked through some old photos to see if I had any showing Jack working on this still life, as well as a photo of how the painting did look before the recent changes. I did. So, I hope that you find this interesting.

After thinking about this painting for some time, he decided that it needed a little "something", and I think his additions are fabulous.

The top photo shows the painting the way it looks now, with the addition of the sticky note and label on the box of screw eyes. The photo under that shows the way the painting looked previously. It was framed originally in a black frame, and now it has a plain, weather-beaten green one. The photo under that shows the start, and the one below that shows him painting, where you can see a glimpse of the set-up.

Prismatic Palette Painters

Frank J. Reilly was another artist who studied with Frank Dumond. He also started his own art school, the Frank Reilly School of Art, that continued the tradition of a controlled prismatic palette. Students would mix a very exact palette of value scales. One of the artists that joined us in the June landscape group, Randy, came from this background. Dumond's influence on plein air painting is huge.

Fran Hoyt studied with Frank Dumond in the 20s and 30s, and continued to paint and teach the Dumond palette to serious students for decades. Gil Perry studied with Fran, and he also painted with our group this June.

It was so much fun to meet and paint with other artists who use the prismatic palette.

Prismatic Palette Painters

When Frank Mason passed away in June 2009, students who had studied in his landscape painting workshops, continued to go to Stowe, Vermont. Some of us continued to meet, using the same format (meeting 2 days for field study and 1 for a general crit). In some ways, it was a tribute to a great teacher, in addition to being inspired by working alongside of other artists coming from the same tradition. Many of these old students had studied with Frank in different decades, and we all shared what we had learned during our years of study with him.

The prismatic palette, and its use in landscape painting, originally came from Frank Dumond (Frank Mason's teacher), and many of Dumond's students went on to teach this palette, as well. Arthur Maynard was another Dumond student, who opened his own art school, the Ridgewood Art Institute. In turn, Arthur's students, like Frank Mason's students, continue to teach this tradition. So, some of the artists that continue to come up to Vermont to paint together for the month of June include artists who studied with other branches of the Dumond Family (not just Mason students), but who understand and continue to use this palette.

The box that you see in many of my photos is the landscape palette in a vertical format. The colors that you see are in steps, or gradated tones (values), and they can help the artist quickly "key" or "pitch" a painting to create an illusion of light. This palette helps to establish atmospheric perspective, establishing space and depth in the painting.

This year, we met at some of the old "spots", shared many new "spots" and had Saturday crits, followed by pot luck dinners, at different host's homes.

Prismatic Palette Painters

Frank Mason taught at the Art Students League from 1951. I studied with him from 1973-1978, and I also studied in his month-long plein air workshops in June. In his landscape class, the students met with him for outdoor painting with instruction 2 times a week, usually one sunrise and one sunset class. The third class of the week was a big crit, where students brought plein paintings that were done during the week (which Frank hadn't seen). He taught by "showing" the student how artistic principles work, so yes, he painted on your painting. Painting is visual, and it is best to teach it visually, so the student not only could hear the teacher's instruction but see it. Students would follow Frank around to the different easels, watching and listening as he transformed each piece. Often, the "crit" or instruction you needed was on another student's painting, that "Aha" moment.

Prismatic Palette Painters

I have an interesting painting lineage. I studied with Frank Mason at the Art Students League and in his outdoor landscape painting workshops in Vermont. In Frank's class, we mixed a Prismatic Palette for landscape painting. The bottom picture of me (1982) is from one of Frank Mason's landscape workshops, which he held every year in Stowe, Vermont for the whole month of June. Frank Mason learned this from his teacher, Frank Vincent Dumond (top photo), and I continue to use it and teach it in my classes.

Landscape workshop June 2010

With 2 painting session per day, the student's paintings improved. By Friday, they were really beginning to understand atmospheric perspective, and they were starting to "pitch" and simplify by "massing" their big value shapes.

One of the rainy days, we painted under the shelter of a big gazebo, and on the other days, we painted at various locations around Cambridge and Jeffersonville. With a small class, Jack and I got to paint, too. We went around and helped each student individually, but we also had students follow us around to observe the other crits. Watching us re-mass, explaining, as well as showing, "why" and "how" certain colors work to bring a sense of atmosphere and depth to a painting, really acelerated learning.

Landscape workshop June 2010

Here are a few more pictures from the workshop. I will add more later.

5 Day Plein Air Workshop - June 2010

We started this year's class along the recreation path in Jeffersonville. Jack did a small demo in the morning to explain massing and to encourage students to do small thumbnail sketches.

Open Studio Weekend - May 29-30, 2010

Winslow Art Studio participated in the 18th annual Vermont statewide Open Studios Weekend that was held May 29-30. For 2 days all participating studios are open to the public. People make a day of it and wander from one studio to another, enjoying the art. I decided to do some painting demonstrations, so on Saturday I painted a portrait and on Sunday I painted a still life. A small, but steady stream of people came in and watched on both days.

In addition to the demonstrations, I had prizes. Maryellen won my painting, "Fresh Veggies", and 4 other people won a free class. My granddaughter helped pick the winning names.

We had little snacks and pastries, as well as plenty of pretzels for all. The pretzels were a huge hit, especially with the grandkids!