Sunday, November 9, 2008

Artist Umbrellas

Eric Merrell has written a great post on his blog about artist umbrellas.



I mentioned my new EasyL umbrella in a post last month, but Eric really goes into a bit of the history behind artist umbrellas and reasons for using them.

In his post, Eric shares a lot of good thoughts.
Among other things he mentions "color relationships". That is something that I always try and get across in my workshops. The way that one color looks COMPARED to the other colors around it.
Eric has a lot of good ideas on color and painting. It is worth a scan through the other posts on his blog if you are not familiar with it.

So go there now.

8 comments:

mike rooney studios said...

frank
noticed it was cloudy alot on your trip. what are your thoughts on painting on cloudy days. do you hate it like me or doesnt it matter to you, and how do you think they sell compared to sunny day paintings?
of course you were already there so sure... paint, but i mean when your at home.
thanks

Mike said...

After watchin that video, I feel like the biggest pussy goin'! I was howling with laughter while I watched it. Whadda Mess! And the meat eating hordes of skeeters!! Sheesh!

Thanks for puttin' us on to it, Frank!

Am curious if you know where the heck Erik Merril got that umbrella. I have been lookin for a big one like that! Seriously.

Frank Gardner said...

Mike R. It was cloudy some of the time on the trip, but it was mostly sunny. That is one thing about Maine. The light is good even if it is cloudy, there is kind of a silver overcast light up there that is nice.
I don't dig painting totally overcast days here quite as much.
I'd just assume paint in the studio if it is nasty out.
Not like Jeremy and Tony who are obviously "Real Men" and will go to great lengths to paint in horrible weather.
As far as selling the cloudy day paintings vs. sunny, I could not really say. Most of my stuff is of sunny days, but I've sold plenty of cloudy day paintings too.

Frank Gardner said...

Hey there Mike B.
Yeah, I feel like a light weight after posting about my light rain up there in Maine. I can't weight for our first snow storm of the season down here in Mexico, so I can show those guys a thing or two.
I don't know where Eric got that umbrella. I think it is called a yarka or something. You should post him a comment on his blog and ask him.

Anonymous said...

First it's Eric, and now you too with the umbrellas!!! Sure if it's raining out, why not? But on a sunny day... forget it!

I will admit to being awfully opinionated, never having used an umbrella on my plein air set up. But I'm gonna be hard pressed to drag more crap out with me when I paint.

Colin

Frank Gardner said...

Well the sun barely shines up there anyway Colin, so I guess you have a good point.
Your paintings look great even without an umbrella.

Eric Merrell said...

Hi Frank,

Thanks for your post here and the thoughtful comments. The history et al made for some fun research and background for the ideas.

I bet Jeremy and Tony wish they had brought mosquito-repelling umbrellas with them to the Sierras!

Frank Gardner said...

Hi Eric, my pleasure. I bet a lot of my readers would enjoy being regular visitors to your blog. You have some interesting thoughts.

Yeah, I hear that they edited in all that rain, hail, lightning and mosquitos later in their comfy studio, but I don't know, I 'm just sayin', that's the word on the street : )