Tuesday, July 8, 2008

"San Miguel from Above"

Things have been real busy around here. We are trying to wrap up a lot of projects and take care of business before we leave on our summer vacation on Thursday. Things on the blog will slow down for about three weeks. I'll try and post a few times, but it is family vacation, and we are going to try and just spend some time together and leave work behind as much as we can.

Here is my latest painting. It is a street scene looking down over San Miguel, one of my favorite views of town. It's painted from a photo I took in March, so there are a few of the purple jacarandas in there.



"San Miguel from Above", 14" x 11" oil on board, Frank Gardner © 2008
Private Collection


This time our travels will take us to Lake Winnepesaukee in New Hampshire to spend time with my family. We've planned a few surprises for Erin too. I'll talk about later ;o)

It has been raining SO much here this past month. Summer is our rainy season and things are really green and overgrown.
I need a little sun.
I'm not complaining mind you, we can use all of the water that we can get around here.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

More Commissions

These five make a set with "Nicho" from the previous post.

My clients are moving and wanted a set of four little paintings that would remind them of their house.
I tried to paint scenes that were meaningful to them, but I also wanted them to be good paintings in themselves.

With commissions, I often like to offer a choice to my clients. I am a little more comfortable if they get to choose what they like. I realize that I don't always hit them out of the park, so it gives them an option to get what they want, instead of just accepting what I paint first. So I painted six.

They liked them all.


"Arrival", 8" x 10" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
Private Collection



"White Roses", 8" x 10" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
Private Collection



"Interior Courtyard", 8" x 10" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
Private Collection



"Kitchen Window", 8" x 10" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
Private Collection



"The Bench", 8" x 10" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
Private Collection

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

"Nicho" quick demo

My idea called for a special color to tone my canvas.
I took some leftover paint from one painting, added to it a bit to adjust it, and toned a linen panel with it.
It dried for a day, then I marked out my drawing lightly with vine charcoal.
Started painting with the lights this time.
Had my mid tone already.
Then added details only in the center of interest.


"Nicho" start, 10" x 8", Frank Gardner © 2008



"Nicho", 10" x 8" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
Private Collection

I kind of like how it looks in the top photo as a finished painting itself, but it did not fit well in the series like that.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

"Saint Paul's"

Commissions can be hard because you are dealing with trying to paint someone else's idea. Even if the clients are as easy going as mine were on these paintings, you worry if they will like what you come up with. You worry if they have an idea of what they want and you may not even come close. Do you have things that you ask or ways that you go about balancing the clients idea with your artistic integrity?

The request was to paint the local Episcopal Church, Saint Paul's. I must admit, it is not the most interesting church facade in town to paint. It is kind of an odd pink and the client did not really like pink. Aside from that, they left it to me as to size and composition.

To work out my ideas I started with several pencil studies. Just simple value plans trying to work up an interesting design.
From there, I took the one that I thought showed the most promise and did a small oil study to work out color and alter the composition just a bit. I was combining two photos to get the design I wanted. Sometimes combining two photos can be harder than just using one.


"Saint Paul's Study", 6" x 8" oil on board, Frank Gardner © 2008
Private Collection

Looking at the small study, I felt that the facade was too pink. The pink that the client did not care for, and that the whole thing needed to be warmed up a bit. My idea was to stick to cooler colors for a calming mood. so to warm it up I switched to a burnt sienna toned canvas.
By letting some of that show through, I could use the same cooler, calming colors, and achieve a warmer, more inviting result.

Thinking that some of you might be interested in how I went about this one I snapped a photo after I blocked in most of the shadow colors. There is only one light family color, the light green to the left through the branches. I tried to link most of these shadow colors into one big design with a center of interest around the doorway. There is a general mid value shadow color and a few darker accents.


"Saint Paul's" in progress, 14" x 18", Frank Gardner © 2008

Next, I cut the silhouette of the church, doorway, architectural details of the door frame, sunlit grass, sky holes in the tree, with the light family colors. I spent some time adjusting back and forth between shadow and light colors after that, but the main job was done. The tweaking was to soften edges, adjust colors, cover the tone of the canvas where it was distracting. With a canvas toned with such a strong color you have to be aware that those orange bits are going to draw attention. If they are too many left in the wrong places it can really mess you up. If you get too picky and cover too much, you've lost what you were trying to achieve by using it in the first place.


"Saint Paul's" , 14" x 18" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
Private collection

Here is the finished painting.
I am happy with how this one looks along side "Good Company". They may or may not hang near each other, but they are the same size and the large trees and the way they are painted tie them together nicely.