Maine Trip Article in American Art Collector

There is a great 8 page article in the February issue of American Art Collector about our painting trip to Port Clyde and Monhegan Island. It is chock full of paintings and photos from the trip. They included a bunch of the shots that I took of the guys painting, but I pop up in a few of them too.




This photo on the contents page is one I took of the group heading down to the ferry leaving Monhegan.

I think the Feb. issue of American Art Collector is on the stands now. You can also read a PDF of the AAC article on the Addison Art Gallery web site.

Addison Art Gallery in Orleans, Ma., will be hosting a show of our work "Paintapalooza", from Feb. 13th through March 22nd.
There is an opening reception on Saturday Feb. 14th.

There is also a show "Plein Air Painters", up right now through March 22nd at The Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis. There is one painting from each of the guys on the trip. There will be a reception for that show on Feb. 13th, the night before the Addison opening.

A few more from Maine

Here are three more paintings from the trip to Maine.
These were painted mostly on location with a few adjustments back in the studio.

I don't have a lot of time to write much about these right now, but I wanted to get some more of these paintings on the blog.



"Morning Light in Port Clyde", 11" x 14" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
Private Collection





"The Lindsey Lou", 11" x 14" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
$950. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner




"At the Pier", 11" x 14" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
Private Collection

Painting in the rain

You don't always get beautiful weather for painting.
However, if you travel this far to paint, YOU PAINT!

Our first day of painting was the only rainy day we had. Luckily I had just gotten an new Umbrella set up from Artwork Essentials.

Peter and I found Colin painting in the parking lot for the ferry to Monhegan and decided to set up next to him in the rain.
We were getting some blowing rain on our palettes, but it was not too bad that we could not go on.



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


The Laura B is one of the ferries that run from Port Clyde to Monhegan Island.
The misty fog on this rainy morning made for a real nice effect. I painted on this one until the fog lifted quickly and the scene changed so drastically that we could not go on. There were boats moored and an Island behind the boat and pier.
I put a few finishing touches on this one here in the studio, but it is pretty much the same as I came home with.
One thing I notice is that I make the cabins on my boats too tall. I adjusted this one down with the aid of a photo reference.


I was painting right along the water's edge and it was cold.
I know.
FYI, the EasyL umbrella comes with a little chord that you tie to the umbrella part and the extension arm part. The umbrella part is made so it can blow off in a gust and not knock over your whole set up.
That is a REALLY good idea.
Trouble is, I did not think that I needed to do that and this being my first day using the umbrella, it blew up and off, did a couple of rolls, and landed in the water. I quickly stepped in before it had a chance to drift too far away. Then I tied it on like it is supposed to be.

Since I was talking about umbrella set ups the other day. Here are some shots of umbrellas that some of the other painters had.



Peter Kalill painting the same scene.




Colin Page painting a house in the rain with his umbrella set up and his nifty landing vehicle that he uses to go plein air painting along the coast.




Eric Merrell, Peter Kalill and Colin Page under the tent


After abandoning our first location we took shelter in a tent left over from a party the night before. It was on a dock at the co op pier and had a few good views. I think there were 8 of us painting under there at one point.
The wind was whipping the rain around and I don't think it really kept any of us very dry.

I may post my painting from under the tent another day. I am still thinking about a few things.

That evening many of us had not had enough frustration, so we set up on the front porch of the house we rented and painted off into the woods. That piece is almost a complete failure, but you never know what might happen to it. I wish I had taken a photo of the scene I was painting, it would have improved my options on that one.



Jerome Greene sitting, Paul Schulenburg with the red cap, and my new EasyL Lite paint box and my EasyL umbrella.


I like this umbrella a lot. It is tall, so I can get it up and away from my face when I need to. I like the silver on the outside and black on the underside. That is a real plus in the strong Mexican sun because it helps cut down on the glare. It is the only umbrella I have ever used. So I can't really judge for sure.
Several of the other painters said they liked it better than the ones they had.
I had never used an umbrella before, but it really helped out a lot. I was always twisting my set up around trying to get the palette and painting in the same light. Now I can just set up where I want.

I added these new shots of the umbrella broken down and the clamp. The strong clamp really sets it apart from some of the other umbrellas I've seen.

Painting of Eric Merrell

This is the piece that I was painting If you happened to notice the two seconds that I was in Jeremy's video.
The light on Eric and his set up that afternoon was great.
I adjusted a few things even though I did not have a very good reference shot to work from. I thought the color was a little cold, and after seeing the video, I realized that I should warm it up a bit, and get some of the warm grass that the sun was hitting in the foreground.
Here are the two together so you can compare the two and see what I changed.


"Eric Merrell Painting", 8" x 6" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
Private Collection


"Eric Merrell Painting" unfinished version, Frank Gardner © 2008


I also adjusted his face so it looked a little more like Eric.
His gesture is pretty much right on and that was not really altered.
The two areas of sky were confusing, so I lessened one of them.

Below is a detail of his face and arms. I was after the way he holds the brush and that roll of paper towels under his arm.



"Eric Merrell Painting", detail, Frank Gardner © 2008


Eric has a great umbrella that he works under. It is white with a black layer on the underside. It sticks in the ground, so it is independent of the easel and It can be tethered down with ropes if it is windy.


Eric's cool umbrella set up.

"Gull Rock"

One of the places that we painted on Monhegan was Gull Rock. After arriving on the ferry we hiked across the island and perched ourselves on some pretty high cliffs to paint.
Colin was up for climbing down the cliffs to paint at the bottom ( see photo below ).
The water is pretty cold here and the current strong. They say that you should not fall in, because there won't be time for anyone to rescue you if you do. Besides freezing to death.

Here is one of my paintings from this location followed by a photo of the view.


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



View of Gull Rock, Frank Gardner © 2008



Colin Page painting at Gull Rock



Peter Kalill painting at Gull Rock



Paul Schulenburg painting at Gull Rock

"Port Clyde Boat House"

One of my favorite things about getting together and painting with a group of artists is when a bunch of us paint the same subject. This boat house was painted by at least six of us on a couple of different days. Below is my version.
I really like the sky in this one and how it describes the light on that particular day.


"Port Clyde Boat House", 14" x 18" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
$1,300. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner

"On the Rocks"

One of my goals for this trip was to paint some larger paintings on location. I typically stick to smaller panels that I can slip in my wet panel boxes or Open Box.

This painting is a 16" x 20" canvas.
That is as big as I have painted plein air in a long time.

There are some great rocks along the Maine coast. This one was done late one afternoon.
One benefit that I can see to painting larger is that there is more room to play with the brushwork, and to get a greater variety of color into my masses.



"On the Rocks", 16" x 20" oil on canvas, Frank Gardner © 2008
$1,650. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner

plein air nocturnes

A bunch of us on the Maine trip went back out at night and painted some nocturnes.
Down by the Marshall Point Lighthouse seemed to be the place where most of that went on. It was pretty dark and not many street lights, but well lit by moonlight. That made the light pretty nice.
I have been wanting to try a nocturne painting for a long time, so I was psyched that the others were up for it too.
I had a clip on book light that I attached to my Open Box. Eric Merrell had a great idea where he taped some wax paper over his book light to diffuse the light a bit. I just put a piece of paper towel on mine and it did the same thing.
I was surprised how well I could judge the colors with just that little light that was shining on both the painting and palette.
I pre mixed all of my colors on my palette first to compare and adjust them to each other. Then I put them on the panel pretty quickly.



"Nocturne Shoreline", 6" x 8" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008

This one was along the shoreline with a two lone lights at a house in the trees. This was my first nocturne ever.




"Nocturne Shed", 8" x 6" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008

From the same spot I painted this little shed near the lighthouse.




"Nocturne Rocks", 6"x 8" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008

This last one was of some waves crashing on the rocks. This one is pretty simple, but I like how it came out.
The pre mixing really helped me to keep my values in check. I also tried to remember that you don't really see to much detail at night and resisted the temptation to throw in too much.

Painting Trip Update

I am in New York now, on my way back to Mexico.
The painting trip was great. It was so much fun to get together with so many painters and hang out for more than a week. We did a lot of painting and had a lot of laughs.
There are a lot of things to post, but I only have a photo of this painting so far.
I painted this from the cemetery on Monhegan Island. I really liked the way the buildings were arranged and the light. Great light out there on Monhegan.


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



Here is a photo of most of the painting group getting ready to boat ride back from Monhegan Island.
Back row standing left to right: Jeff Bonasia, Paul Schulenburg, Eric Merrell, Casey Baugh, Jeremy Lipking, Logan Hagege, Ernesto Nemesio, Glenn Dean,
front row left to right: Frank Gardner, Eric ?
Missing from photo: Peter Kalill, Colin Page, Jerome Greene.

I'll have another post about the trip soon.
If you are interested in reading more, Colin Page has posted a little about the trip on his Journal.

Colin Page

And now for something completely different.

Working on some larger paintings has cut into my blogging/ posting time, so I am going to post about someone else.

Colin Page is a painter who's work I admire. He lives in Maine and paints mostly from life. Colin paints a lot of plein air landscapes and some excellent still lives and interiors as well.
I first ran into Colin's work in Maine, while up there painting with some friends, and I saw several of his paintings in a gallery.
Last fall, I found his web site and on line journal and we have become friends through the internet. I hope that we can get together this summer somewhere on the east coast and paint.
I would like to introduce some of his work to those of you who may not have seen it before.


"Lobster Boat Color Study" 10" x 12", Colin Page


One of the things that I like most about Colin's work his use of color. He does not hesitate to throw in some bright yellows, greens, purples. Like in this piece with the yellow sky.
He is also pretty prolific which is really the best way to improve painting skills. I tell him he needs a kid or two to slow him down a bit to give the rest of us a chance.
His brushwork is loose and confident, and the draftsmanship is right on the money. I have yet to watch him paint, but I can tell that he jumps right in there without a bunch of aimless poking around. He puts down a stroke of paint and just leaves it alone.


"Trawler with Gulls" , 12" x 16", Colin Page


His journal is kind of like a blog, but you can't post comments. However, you can email him by clicking on the contact information on his web site. At the bottom of each post there is a link that will take you to a previous post or you can use the archive list along the right. There have been a few good posts lately that deal with beauty in art and what makes great art different than just average art. See here here and here.


Still life , Colin Page

He shows his paintings in quite a few galleries on the east coast. Here is a link to some more of his work at the Dowling Walsh Gallery in Rockport, Maine where he will be having a show in June.


"Red and White Buoys", Colin Page

"You can never achieve perfection" Emile Gruppe

So how does one know when to stop?
I often tell students that I would rather see something painted slightly wrong, but with confidence, than something painted to perfection but with a look of labored fussiness. It's just that I don't always practice what I preach.

There were a lot of really great comments and thoughts on my last post. Thanks to everyone for sharing your thoughts and opinions on this. I'd like to borrow a few bits and pieces from all the comments to share here.

"Fuss over the details."
"messed up something that was just fine."
Seems like a lot of us have been there, done that.



"Second Wind, Spruce Head", 11" x 14" oil on board, 2008
$950. Framed, Available at Galeria Gardner

Stepping away from the piece to come back with fresh eyes seems to be a common way to try and control the urge to over work.

Speaking of which, here is the other Maine painting that I started last October, but just came back to with fresh eyes to make a few adjustments. It is of the same boat, "Second Wind", that I wrote about before. Some old wooden lobster boats in Maine have a sail in the back that allows the captain to do all of the labor by himself. Steer and haul pots. Amazing! He is swinging into the same dock as in the last post to unload his pots at the end of the season.

O.K., back to the main point. I told you I get distracted.

Seeing the finished painting in your mind, before you start, is also a good idea. You need to have some sort of idea of what you want to achieve right from the get go.

Here is a good quote by Emile Gruppe, from "Gruppe on Color".

"When I paint outdoors, I've always liked to let the paint do some of the work. I go for the big effect; and when I get it, I let the rest go. Of course, I can still remember my father telling me "try taking it a bit further." But I always felt that if I did, I'd ruin the spontaneity and excitement of what I had in the first place. After all, it's possible for a thing to be well drawn and so systematically developed that the essence of the subject is lost.
Here's the important difference between tight and loose painting: tight, meticulous work can be copied- even a reasonably clever student could do it. But loose, spontaneous work is full of accident and inspiration. And great paintings done in this manner can never be duplicated- the painter himself doesn't know how he got some of his effects. All he knows is the he was outdoors. Something happened to him. He saw differences; he felt the shadows and the textures- and put them down. Such painters see their pictures even before they begin them- as if in a dream. The subject hits them hard. When they finish, the picture is better than nature, but never as good as what was in their minds eye. They worry about it, of course- but they also know that you can never achieve perfection. There's never and end to things. It's like the universe: where do the stars end and heaven begin?"



Two more things that I pulled from the comments on the last post.

"Wasn't it Picasso who said, "A painting is never finished--it simply stops in interesting places." "

"Everyone else has to judge the painting without the benefit of our internal dialogue and the hindsight of seeing the better versions that happened before we finally stopped."

Very good points.

I think that in the end you just have to be happy with where you leave off on the painting. If I am not 90% satisfied with how the piece looks I will cull it out and not frame it and show it. That 90% is an estimate. I shoot for 100%, but I realize that I sometimes have to settle for a little less.

That's it for now.
Thanks!

I get distracted sometimes

"End of Season, Spruce Head", 11" x 14" oil on board, 2008
Private Collection

I get distracted sometimes.
I am learning to use what could be considered a fault as a strength. In my own little way.
Example. This year I have had relatively small windows of studio time in which to paint. Sometimes I will start a painting then run out of time for that session. When I get painting again, I often prefer to start a new painting, since I may not be in the same mood or lack the focus needed to finish the work in progress. Hence, I have a lot of works in progress.

This painting was like that. I started this painting back in October. I worked on it for one session of about four hours. There were a lot of nice loose strokes that I was happy with, but it needed to be refined. There were times that I wanted to finish it up, but always felt a bit disconnected to it and I knew that I would mess it up by trying to make it perfect.

I finally got myself in the mood to wrap this one up last week. I think that by waiting and taking my time on the "finish" that I was able to leave a lot of the loose stuff that I really liked and bring it to a point of finish without killing the spontaneity and freshness of the piece.
You can click on the images to enlarge and see what I mean. Loose strokes, shapes and colors, suggested detail, just enough, but not too much. I don't want to spell it all out. There is a fine line between enough and too much.


Detail, "End of Season, Spruce Head"

O.K., so how does the being distracted help me? My tendency in painting is to want to keep going, trying to make it perfect, and in the process I kill the suggested detail that I like so much in a painting. I don't know how many times I have pushed a painting just a little further only to regret it. My distraction becomes an ability to stop painting, step back, and then either call it done or have the smarts to just add minor corrections or strokes to solidify forms etc.. More on this in a future post.


Detail, "End of Season, Spruce Head"

Painting on location is different. I have a limited amount of time before the light changes. This is good when I only have a short amount of time to paint anyway.
How many of you have done this? You come home from a painting session outdoors, on the spot. You look at your painting in the studio and think, o.k., with just a few more strokes I am going to make this painting sing. Ah ha, those strokes end up ruining all of the freshness and spontanaity of the plein air and you want to throw it across the room. I don't know how many times I have yelled expletives as I act like a lemming jumping into the sea, I ruin a nice painting even as I know that I shouldn't do it. I feel like a moth to a flame. Julissa, my wife, just shakes her head and says, "I told you not to touch it."
I feel so stupid, and in my quest to prove myself, put even more stupid strokes on the piece. I have a lot of them stacked in my studio to prove this.

I feel myself getting distracted as I write. There are so many little side tracks to take here. Time to stop for now, as I don't want to bore you. The next few posts might have a common thread of what is "finished" when it comes to painting. I am really interested in hearing what other artists think or do, when it comes to finish. When to stop, what is enough, how much is too much?

"Hunter Gatherer of Light and Color" Part 1: Values

When I am out plein air painting I consider myself a "hunter gatherer". I am looking for bits of information, value relationships, light, color etc.. I "hunt" these things and I "gather" them.
In this post I will talk about gathering of values.

These images are from a painting trip to Maine that I took with some friends. I actually got a lot of painting done which is good, because I don't like to leave my family and travel thousands of miles to come home empty handed. It was my first time painting in Maine and it really took me out of my comfort zone of painting blue sky and things that, for the most part, don't move. Some days I got up to six paintings done. Other days did not yield as many, but I feel that even on the frustrating days I came away with something useful.

I will try not to ramble on here, I hope that these sketches speak for themselves, but I will try and give brief descriptions of why I am choosing these particular sketches to share with you.



"Misty Maine Sketch", 11" x 14" oil on linen, 2006

The weather was changing constantly it seemed. In this painting all I had time to get down were the basic value relationships of the main shapes. Then the sun came out and completely changed everything. By going for the important stuff first and not getting caught up in the details right off I got some solid relationships down and even though it is an "unfinished" painting I think that it stands on its own and is actually a nice piece. It gives a little insight into how I start a painting.
Since the light changed drastically, I set this one aside and started on another painting. To keep working on a painting when the light has changed so much would be a mistake.

Two of the most frustrating things about this trip turned out to be two of the best learning experiences of the trip. Here is what I mean.
#1 Boats move. Even when they are moored the turn and shift, especially on windy days.
#2 Maine lobster boats have a unique shape, their lines are not the same as other boats, and I needed to learn this.



Pencil Sketch #1

I don't do that many pencil sketches before I start a plein air painting. I am usually too caught up in the moment and want to get right to it. However, these boats were giving me trouble. Boats turning on their moorings and the changing light of partly cloudy days was getting me frustrated. At times I just had to take a step back and do some pencil sketches. I was trying to capture the lines of these boats in simple sketches of three or four values. On the left are three views of the same boat turning. On the right are also three views of one work skiff. I drew what I could and when the profile changed I moved on to the next sketch. These were just a few seconds each. I tried to get the basic shape down and added some values when I had time.



Pencil Sketch #2

Here are some more drawings done very quickly. In a few of them you can see how I adjusted my original lines. There was a man who rowed a boat out to the work skiff to turn on the water pump. In the drawing in the middle you can see the boat alongside the skiff. In the drawing on the right he is talking on his cell phone. These are just quick gestures, but valuable nuggets of information for future paintings.



Pencil Sketch #3

Here are some more examples of working quickly and hunting and gathering of values. It is not the details that were important to me but the relationship of a value compared to the values around it. Most of these have just been three or four values. The white of the paper being one, then a light gray, a medium and a dark. Look at the sketch at the top left. There is not a lot of "drawing" of the boat. It is really just a collection of shapes of different values. When these spots are put together in the right place it reads as the little boat against the dock.

I hope that some of you found this interesting. I'll talk about other things that I hunt and gather when I am out plein air painting in a future post.

"Second Wind"

It was one of those frustrating days that plein air painters sometimes have. We had staked out our location the evening before and returned the next morning ready to go. McLoon's Wharf in Spruce Head, is classic Maine, a few little red shacks where lobster boats unload their catch and lots of colorful fishing boats moored in the little harbor. I had visions all these great paintings that I was going to do in my mind. In fact, it was hard to decide which one of these masterpieces I was going to paint first. I settled my sights on one of the red shacks, pier, boat, some water, sprig of land in the background. I was going to get it all.
Well that didn't work, and that is how I got that nice toned canvas on "Second Wind".


"Second Wind", 8"x 10" oil on linen, 2006. Private Collection


I realized that my first try of the day was a failed painting after about ten minutes. Maybe five, but I kept hoping for the best for the other five. The positive side here is that I recognized that it was bad from the start and that no amount of picking at it was going to change that. So, I wiped it down and regrouped.
I went for a simpler composition. Instead of trying to get all of Maine into my 8"x 10" painting, I went for one lobster boat that had just pulled in to unload some traps, and just a slice of the pier. It was an old wooden boat, a classic, the kind with the sail in the back. I went at it with gusto after having loosened up with the first try. I blocked in all of the important stuff, got the lines of the boat down, added some pilings of the pier and the little boat that was tied up behind it. Then I worked the reflection of the sky in the water down along the right side.
O.K., now it was time for all the details. Or not, the owner of the boat walked over to have a look. "That's real nice" he said, "you got the shape down just right with so little. Looks just like her. Sorry to tell you this, but I gotta move the boat." I had about three minutes before he got back down into his boat and pulled out. I double checked a few shapes and made sure I had that bow line right and off he went.
I ended up being real happy with the result. I had captured just the important stuff, a good color harmony, and not a lot of fluff that may or may not have added to the piece. I hadn't had time to fuss over it and mess up all the good painting I had done in about fifteen or maybe twenty minutes. The name of the boat was "Second Wind" and I had gotten mine.

That High didn't last long. The rest of the morning continued to frustrate me. I walked around a lot. Checked out my buddies' paintings, snapped some photos. I Really could not decide what to paint next. Have you ever had that feeling? So I decided to do some pencil sketching. Some of them came out pretty nicely. Here are a few pages from my little sketch book. They are loose, just little value studies. I tried to get the gesture of the working men down and the lines of the lobster boats. I don't get to see many of those in Mexico. It really was a pretty good morning after all.

"Cold Camden"

"Cold Camden", 6" x 8" oil on board, 2007
Private Collection


This is a new studio painting from a photo that I took last October in Camden, Maine. It is starting to get a little cold here. At night. Well, alright, not as cold as what some of you have had, but cold enough to remind me of my painting trip to Maine last October with some painting buddies. We stayed and painted in Port Clyde, but took a day and went up to Camden to visit some galleries and paint the harbor. So, inspired by this "cold", I have been doing some paintings in my little back patio here at the gallery using photos from that trip. This is the first one, I'll post some others later.




Detail, "Cold Camden"


I used a burnt sienna under painting on this piece because of all the "cool" colors ( blues, greens and the white) I wanted it to look cold, but not be too "cool" in color temperature. I left little bits of the sienna showing through here and there. Your eye mixes those in and gives the painting the feeling of the sunny day. Notice how that lobster boat in the back is just a few little strokes and how the green is "bluer" to the left and "yellower" to the right. That emphasizes where the light source is, to the right.




Detail, "Cold Camden"


In this detail I wanted to show how simply the background is painted. I don't want anything back there that will take away from the center of interest, the worker in the boat. Just a few quick strokes to show what's back there, a schooner and a building. Like Hawthorne said, "Only the owner of the house will count the windows".
The edges back there are softer too making the worker in the boat draw your attention. On this scale I could not put in too many details, but I wanted to play around with a lot of subtle grays in the shadows, like in the worker's sweater and pants.