"The Rogue and the Misfit"

'The Rogue and the Misfit" was one of the paintings I posted while I was on my painting trip. I made a few adjustments before I framed it up that are worth showing. The color in the photo is a little more accurate also. I re-posted the original photo again so you can compare them both.


"The Rogue and The Misfit", 8" x 10" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
$720. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner


"The Rogue and The Misfit" before adjustments, Frank Gardner © 2008

There was no need to change much, but a few small adjustments in the right spots can make a world of difference sometimes.
Notice the slight difference in the black rigging on the back of the blue boat, the "Rogue". You can compare the position and angles to the piling of the pier, which was not adjusted. There were a few adjustments made to the buildings and trees on the left side as well. The blue barrels on the right side of the pier had a shadow color added and the "Rogue" also was darkened just a bit in the shadow. I may have drawn a crisper white line along the stern on the far side of the "Misfit" too.

I have been working on studies for some commission paintings, but I am not ready to post any of that just yet. Hopefully in the next day or two I can show you some of what I am working on.

"Rock Harbor Pair"

This was the first painting that I did on my trip to the Cape.
These two boats were tied up in Rock Harbor, in Orleans.
The day started out nice enough, but clouded up fast and got pretty windy. The tide was going out and dropped pretty fast.
For me at least.
Not used to that.
The light totally changed on me when the rain clouds moved in from behind me. I almost chased it but caught myself doing it and managed to hold onto the light of the earlier, sunnier skies.


"Rock Harbor Pair", 11" x 14" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
$950. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner

"Orleans Number Two"

This was painted on the beach in Orleans, Ma. on Little Pleasant Bay. I believe it was a wildlife sanctuary of some sort on this side of the inlet. There were just a few adjustments that I needed to make to it the next day.


"Orleans Number Two", 8" x 16" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
$930. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner



Detail of "Orleans Number Two", Frank Gardner © 2008

"Blue Skies, Blue Ocean"

This is one of the paintings that I posted during my painting trip. It is one of the ones that needed a little adjustment back in the studio. The rigging on the boats was slightly off, especially that one line on the left that was curving up when it should have gone straight or curved slightly in from the weight. The only other change was to darken the values of the shadow sides just a bit. You can tell if you look at the distant water between the two boats. That value stayed the same.
The color in the photo of the finished painting is more accurate as well.
I am much happier with the finished piece.
I'll re post how it looked when I stopped work on the dock, as well as the set up, so you can compare the two.


"Blue Skies, Blue Ocean", 11" x 14", Frank Gardner © 2008
$950. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner


First Version "Blue Skies, Blue Ocean", 11" x 14", Frank Gardner © 2008


The set up on the docks in Provincetown.

It was real fun painting out on the pier in Provincetown. It is amazing how fast the tide makes the boats go up and down.
The other great thing about painting boats is that they usually have names that make for good titles and I don't have to struggle too hard to come up with one. Yes, they are called the Blue Skies and the Blue Ocean.

"The Constance Sea"

The colors of this boat set against the colors of the sand and ocean really attracted me to this scene. The reflection was an added bonus. Those of you who have done plein air paintings of boats, or water, know that reflections come and go and change quite often.


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


The toned canvas was a wipe out from the day before. It worked perfectly in this painting since it was pretty much the color of the sand.

This boat, "The Constance Sea", is in Chatham, Ma.
After painting the "Little Dinghy" I turned around in the same spot. I even got to keep my bare feet in the same cool hole that I had dug them into for the other piece. Painting on the beach is great. The sun had dropped quite a bit and the light was just right.

"Little Dinghy"

The simplicity of this dinghy pulled up on the beach was what attracted me to paint this one.


"Little Dinghy", 8" x 10" oil on board, Frank Gardner © 2008
$720. Framed, available at Galeria Gardner

We had a wet finish to my week on Cape Cod. It cut down on some of our outdoor painting time, but it gave me a chance to make some slight adjustments on a few of the paintings back in the studio.
I completed nine paintings and had to sign and title them, get the frames all wired up and take some quick photos of the finished paintings. I left them all out there at my friend Jerome Greene's gallery in Dennis, so I had to have everything ready to leave with him on my way off the Cape.

Some Paintings from the Trip

In case you have been wondering what I have been up to, here is a quick upload of a few of the plein air paintings from this week. I'll just post sizes of these. When I get a chance to sign them and decide on titles, I will re post them all. There are more paintings,photos and stories to tell, but I don't want to put too much time into this right now. I am here to paint.


"East Dennis Marsh", 8" x 16" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
$930. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner


"The Rogue and The Misfit", 8" x 10" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
$720. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner



"The Wreck", 8" x 10" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
$720. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner



My setup and subject on the pier in Provincetown.



"Blue Skies, Blue Ocean" in progress, 11" x 14" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
$950. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner

"Church View"

You may have figured out where this wall that I have been painting the figures is, if you looked at one of the first posts on My Paint Box. It is at the end of this side street in Atotonilco.

In this painting, and this one, I wanted the figures to stand out against the simple design of the street and walls, so the church is left out. In "Church View", the church is the subject, not just the figure. There is a little more detail in this painting than in the sketch. I wanted to emphasize the beautiful design of the church, however a lot of the detail is still suggested.
This painting is based on a plein air piece that I did during my last workshop.


"Church View ", 11" x 14" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
Private Collection


Plein air sketch, 8" x 10" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008

I was happy with most of the painting done on location, but the design was rushed, and ended up being too cramped at the top. I had to squash down the main dome of the church to make it fit. Otherwise it would have run off the top of the panel just a bit, and that would not have worked design wise either. I thought about trying to fix this plein air, but it just could not be adjusted. It was easier to re visit the idea in a new painting. The sketch will not be for sale. It is one of those that are just a learning experience, good for use in the studio. Some of the proportions I corrected with the help of a photo. The values were off in the photo, so I followed the sketch on that.

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

"Fields and Yellow Flowers"

Here is one more painting using a pre mixed palette of colors.
This painting is from last Friday when I went painting with my friend Guy Corriero. I painted from a spot that was slightly elevated from where I shot this photo. That way I could get the receding fields read as larger shapes.


I focused on the stacks and middle trees and moved elements from the edges inwards for a better design on my 6x8 panel.


I sketched this design lightly with vine charcoal, then mixed.


A close up of the palette. The color of the yellow flowers is missing from this shot. That blue-gray pile near my cad. red and yellow was a missed attempt, but I later used it in other mixes.


With time to think about it, I changed my design a bit. Less foreground and moved it all to the right and a bit closer.


The finished piece. "Fields and Yellow Flowers", 6" x 8" oil on board, 2008
Private Collection


The scene again to compare to the finish.


Detail 1.


Detail 2.

I was happy with the result. There is a chance that I might paint a larger piece from this. I have a few ideas how I would change things just a bit, but I don't want to mess with this one and lose the freshness and spontaneity of the painting. I've learned that the hard way. I always think that I can just "fix" a few things, but almost every time I wish that I had left it alone.

"Drying Bricks and Kiln"

I did this little plein air two weeks ago. It is not the prettiest scene in San Miguel, but I think that it has a lot of character. The raw bricks are laid out in the sun to dry before they are put in this kiln to be fired.


"Drying Bricks and Kiln", 6" x 8" oil on linen, 2008
Private Collection


My setup, and the scene at the brick maker's.


All of these colors were pre mixed on my palette before I started the painting. I did not take a picture until I had cleaned off the palette to pack up.
There has been a lot of interest in pre mixing of colors. Thanks to everyone who has commented or emailed me about this.
I am working on a few posts, but they take a while to pull together. Stay tuned.

"Things don't always go smoothly" Or, "An attempt at a save"

Sometimes unexpected things happen when you are out painting. I had a string of curve balls thrown at me during the workshop. On the first day I broke my palette knife while mixing. Never had that happen before. It was my favorite knife that I had had for more than 25 years :(
I had another as back up in my paint box in case I lost one, but I never thought that I could BREAK one.
I also broke a brush handle while painting. I had never done that either.
On Wednesday I gave a jump start to someone with my car and when we went to go home mine would not start. I was able to find someone to jump us at least.
And so on.
The big bummer was when my open box m blew over while I had stepped away from a painting in progress to check on the students.

AND IT LANDED BUTTER SIDE DOWN! :(

I was disappointed about the painting, but hey, you just have to roll with the punches.
I realized a few days later that the pochade box had split. Fixed that with some wood glue.

I had a pretty good start in the fifteen minutes or so of painting that I did get in, so it was worth trying to save this one in the studio.

A few of you asked to see a picture of a pre mixed palette along with a painting. Thanks for the request, I love hearing what you want to see.
I was thinking more of my class than the blog last week so I don't have many shots of the pre mixed palette to show you. Here is one, and I have one other that I will work into another post.
I will go out painting next week and I'll be sure to get a few photos of the pre mixed palette for you.


I sketched the main lines and masses of my design on the linen board and then began mixing up the main colors.


This is the palette with most of the block in colors mixed.


What the painting looked like after I wiped the dirt off. I wiped the upper third while wet because there was just too much dirt to leave much of the paint. Then I rubbed the rest of the dirt off after the paint had dried. It is usually best to wait until the painting has dried before trying to get off any dirt that has blown onto a wet painting.


"Trees and Fields", 6" x 8" oil on linen, 2008
Private Collection

This was finished in the studio yesterday. I would have preferred to finish it on site, but after if blew over, I could not continue painting on it. I had roughed in a horse that I decided to paint out. I'll have to save that idea for another painting. It was drawing too much attention, and I felt locked into that lower left corner. I was more interested with the fields and trees leading into the distance.

More stuff from the workshop last week

"Jane and Elizabeth painting the three stacks and fields."


Everyone in the group was really into a good rhythm by Thursday. To make the most of our time, I began setting up with them to paint, instead of doing a demo while everyone watched and then painted. They still got to watch my process, and listen to me talk, but we got more done. Every fifteen or twenty minutes I would make the rounds and check out everyone's progress.
We painted in Atotonilco in the morning and had lunch there. By the afternoon it was getting pretty windy and hot, so we decided to move on to a greener spot. That is one benefit to working with a small group. We were very mobile.
We headed to a place that I really love to paint. I don't like to bring large painting groups there, but since there were just four of us it was just right.

We had a steady head wind here, but the view made up for it. You can see that we were all pretty close together, so I could paint and talk at the same time. I usually do that anyway, but this time I had someone to listen :)



"The four easels grouped close together."


All of the colors and values in a painting are relative to the other colors around them. One of the main things that I teach in my workshops, is the pre mixing of colors on the palette first, before any painting is done. Mixing colors like this has many advantages.
First I decide on my composition and lightly lay in a few lines of vine charcoal on my canvas. As I mix my colors, I have time to think about my design. If I could have made a better choice, there is still time to adjust when I begin to lay down the paint.
I usually pre mix five to seven shadow family colors and five to seven light family colors, or more, depending on the scene. I'll chose the darkest shadow color/value and the lightest light. Also the lightest shadow color. No light color should be darker than this. I'll mix colors to represent the main masses. Sometimes I will break those down into subtle color changes of the same value, or I may wait and do that later in the painting stage. I go back and forth between my mixed piles, adjusting and comparing. What does one color look like COMPARED to the others?
It is almost like having a little painting on the palette. I get to see how the colors that I chose relate to each other.
Once I have the majority of color choices mixed and adjusted for hue, value and chroma (or saturation) I can begin to paint rapidly. There is only a limited amount of time when painting the changing light, so with a lot of my mixing and left side of the brain stuff out of the way, I am free to dive in with the right side of my brain and just paint.
I will discuss pre mixing some more in upcoming posts.

I do not have just one method for how I start the painting part once I have my color piles. Sometimes I use a toned canvas. Other times I prefer the white color of the oil primed linen. Sometimes I block in big value masses first then break those up into smaller bits. Other times I'll paint the lines of a more complex scene with a mid value gray or even sienna type color and then go from there. Once in a while I'll start from my center of interest and work my way out. I think an artist should have many tricks in their bag to chose from. It is much more exciting to go with your emotions of the scene and vary how you approach the painting rather than just being a slave to a set formula.

Below is my painting from Thursday afternoon.



"Three Stacks, Afternoon", 6" x 8" oil on linen, 2008
Private Collection


We went back to the same location on Friday morning. Three of us decided to paint the same scene again, this time with morning light from the left. I like painting in series like this, with different light effects, so I was glad that they were up for it. I zoomed in my composition a bit on the three stacks of corn stalks, and eliminated the sky and the plowed field in the foreground.

below is one of my paintings from Friday morning.



"Three Stacks, Morning", 6" x 8" oil on linen, 2008
Private Collection


The farmers don't like you going out in their fields when they have crops in or have just plowed, so we chose a broad view. I think that it was easier to simplify and see the big masses and aerial perspective better from here anyway. We were elevated just a bit above the field. I have always loved how Van Gogh would chose a slightly elevated view of fields to catch the patterns like this.

I pushed everyone to keep working fast, and they were good sports about it. I had them work for about an hour and a half on the first piece Friday, and then we did a "sprint" of about 45 minutes, or less, for the last painting of the class.
After a late lunch, we put all of the paintings from the week up in my gallery and talked about them. A lot of the pieces had been quickly tucked away as we kept moving on to new paintings, so it was nice to be able to see them all together and share thoughts and ideas.


"Scott hard at work."

Plein Air Workshop - Demo Painting

"La Capillita", 8" x 10" oil on board, 2008
$720. Framed, Available at Galeria Gardner

This is one of the demo paintings from my five day plein air landscape painting workshop last week. The week went really well. The group was small and everyone put in a lot of effort. I would say that the group as a whole was the best that I have worked with yet. There were no whiners or slackers, and they eagerly tackled each of the exercises that I put out for them.
I will write more about the class and post more photos soon. For now, here is a quick one hour sketch that I did using a neutral toned smooth board. The tone related well to the scene, and I left a lot of it showing through in the finished painting.
Below is the view with my painting almost finished.

Top Ten Books on Oil Painting- March Workshop

This is a list of Ten Books on Oil Painting that I recommend to students in my workshops.
I am only going to be offering one five day workshop in plein air landscape for oil painters this winter.
There are a few more arrangements to make before I list the dates and enrolment info, but it will be the first or second week of March '08. Monday through Friday. Five full days of painting landscapes around San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
If any of you are interested you can email me at frank@frankgardner.com. I will be posting the dates and more information here soon. Class size is limited.

I have read each of these books many times. My copy of "The Art Spirit" has been read so many times that it has fallen apart and is now just loose pages gathered together.
Emile Gruppe is one of my all time favorite artists and his book "Gruppe on Color" is the most cherished book in my oil painting library. His books are out of print but they are worth buying used.

1. "Hawthorne on Painting" Hawthorne - Dover
2. "The Art Spirit" Robert Henri - Harper and Row
3. "Gruppe on Color" Emile A Gruppe - Watson Guptill
4. "Gruppe on Painting - Direct Techniques in Oil" Emile A. Gruppe - Watson Guptill
5. "Brushwork - A Guide to Expressive Brushwork for Oil Painting" Emile A. Gruppe - Watson Guptill
6. "Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting" John F. Carlson - Dover
7. "Composition of Outdoor Painting" Edgar Payne -Payne Studios
8. " Landscape Painting Inside and Out" Kevin Macpherson - North Light Books
9. "Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light and Color" Kevin Macpherson - North Light Books
10. "Alla Prima" Richard Shmid - West Wind

I decided to limit my list to my ten favorites. Do you have other favorite books on oil painting techniques?

"Light from Above" Plein Air

Untitled Plein Air, 11" x 14" oil on linen 2006

These are two paintings done on location at the same spot on different days. The top piece is more about the fields, trees and what is going on across the fields, so I pushed the sky way up to the top of the canvas. I like the way that this painting turned out, but I have kept it in the studio to use as reference. I have had a larger version or two of this scene on my mind for a while.

The painting below was the inspiration for "Light from Above", yesterday's post. The effect of the sunlight coming through the clouds did not last long. I thought that the sky in the plein air was less dramatic than I had remembered, so I reworked the idea in the studio from memory and using the sketch. In the 11" x 14" studio version I added some darker colors to the surrounding sky and ground to really make the light coming through the clouds pop the way it was on that afternoon. The fields of alfalfa were really amazing looking, so I worked that color a bit too to try and get it right. You can also see that I moved the trees around some to suit my needs. They are spaced more like they are in the top painting.


"Light from Above" plein air, 8" x 10", 2007

"Hunter Gatherer of Light and Color" Part 2: The Light

When I am out painting on location one thing I try to capture is accurate color. It is really LIGHT that I am trying to catch, since an object's local color will look different as the light changes. It is the LIGHT that I want to use to convey my feelings about the particular scene that I decide to paint.
For part two of my "Hunter Gatherer" series of posts on plein air painting I am going to show two little plein airs that I worked on yesterday. I have been spending a lot of time in my studio or at the gallery and have not been able to get out and paint as much as I would like. I finally was able to make time to go painting yesterday morning. I decided to post these as is, before I did any re working or whatever is going to happen to them. I don't always come away with something to frame from my days painting on location. The experience of being out, looking, observing, absorbing is what I get out of it even if the only the only trophy I bring home is a wiped down canvas.


Work in Progress #1, 8" x 10"


Photo of scene #1

Let me say that I was not real happy with the way number one was coming out. I was a little rusty. That light was changing fast and I decided to stop working on this one and move on. I would rather stop at this point than try and "chase" the light and muddy everything up. The tree was going to be my focal point, but I totally blew it and did not get the tree blocked in correctly. I also was trying to add too many little bits and pieces of stuff and did not spend enough time working up a good composition.
What I did come away with were some nice colors and an image burned in my mind from having looked at this scene for about an hour studying it. When I look at the painting and the photo of the scene, I realize that I at least got my values accurate. The photo will help me get the drawing of the tree down. One thing that is hard to get from a photo are the subtle color shifts like in the hillside on the left side of the painting. The colors from my plein air sketch are more helpful to me than the colors in the photo.



Work in Progress #2, 8" x 10"

The second painting that I worked on is a little more finished. I took the time to block this one in a little better with a bigger brush before breaking down those big shapes into smaller brush strokes. Again, the color is kind of bleached by looking toward the strong Mexican sun, but it was the subtle shifts in value and accurate color that I was after. I really like painting this tree and how the mountains rise up behind it. The little trees in the foreground gave me a darker value to play off against the bigger tree. They are real important in helping with the sense of depth.
I am going to try and work with these today I will post later about what happens.


You might be able to gather from my posts that I really love being out in the Mexican countryside. There is usually action of some sort around. This is the time of year that the fields are being cleared. Corn stalks were being gathered yesterday where we were painting and it seemed like a constant flow of burros, horses and pick ups full of cornstalks.
Here are two photos of a friend, Marie, painting the same scene as #1, as loads of cornstalks go by. There really are burros under those first two loads.