I and two other artists will be doing live demonstrations of plein air painting techniques–free to the public. The demos will take place at the annual San Diego River Foundation “River Days,” celebration this Saturday, May 14th in the Mission Gorge Regional Park at Old Padre Dam. The demos happen 8:00am to 11:00am. Here are some “clickable” photos I took on a showery May morning to urge you to come out and see the beautiful setting of the park and learn a bit about how to create scenic art in the open air.
San Diego has some great places for a plein air painter to set up their easel and create fantastic landscape art. One of my personal favorite places to paint en plein air (a French term that is universally used to describe the process of painting at an easel in the open air to capture a sense of light and place) is at the San Elijo Lagoon Interpretive Center. There is a very well maintained trail and boardwalk that puts the painter in a beautiful setting with a minimal amount of hiking effort.
Here’s a video I took, early on the spectacular April morning of this plein air outing. You can see my easel, parked and ready to go–the 20×16 inch canvas, primed with a purple-grey undertone.
It really is such a wonderful place to paint, the problem is in selecting a composition from the many choices presented. An interesting sinuous pattern created by the meandering estuary caught my eye and I decided to park my easel to find a composition that included it.
I focused on a particular part of the view that I thought would make for a pleasing result…
Of course, I did’t paint exactly what is in the framing box above, because while it is a pretty view, it is a photograph and not a painting. As an artist painter, I have license to arrange and to subdue or emphasize elements to fit my impressionistic depiction as I choose to frame it on the canvas. It is this personal expression of omission or embellishment that makes painting an impressionist art, and not a craft. Another artist, standing next to me, would bring their own interpretation to the very same view and create an image entirely their own. Successfully finding this balance between representation and impression is the great joy and challenge of painting in the open air.
Here is how the painting looked when I decided to stop, take it home, ponder it for a few days and finish in studio.
…and here is the painting after several days of rumination and the finish in the studio.
San Elijo Morning ~ 20×16 in. oil on canvas by Ronald Lee Oliver
San Elijo Morning ~ 20×16 in. plein air by Ronald Lee Oliver
Nodes, nodes, cookies and nodes!
Filtered and foldered in pigeonholed rows.
Your data is clustered and therefore it shows,
your mindset is furtive and not one of those
We can safely pass over
without thrusting our nose
in the nooks and the crannies up under your hose!
Bend over and spread ’em–we’ll take a quick look
to ensure you’re compliant and go by our book.
It was a beautiful, early Fall morning for plein air painting in San Diego at the coast. The area known as Sunset Cliffs Natural Park has many places for recreation, among which is plein air painting. There is no limit to the choice of subjects found there. If you come to San Diego to paint, I definitely recommend this as a good place.
Here’s a pic of my painting kit on site. That’s a 16×20 on the easel. I like that size for plein air because it allows lots of freedom for brush movement, though it is a large space to fill in one session.
The “block in” stage after about a half hour of painting…
…and here’s a short video I made after I finished…you can see the light has changed as compared to my composition on the canvas.
Rapt in Solitude ~ 16×20 plein air oil on panel by San Diego Plein air artist, Ronald Lee Oliver
In the quiet, early morning at the river bed beside the still waters that remain after a long California drought, I park my easel in the sand bar at water’s edge. An egret with feathers as blindingly white as a snow drift in alpine sunlight, wades and forages with patience and resolve, searching for morning victuals. Suddenly it stops and peers down a long and lethal beak at some creature that stirs, just below the surface. For perhaps a minute, the bird is motionless, stoic and rapt in solitude as the ripples slowly recede and the surface of the water returns to glassy calm. The egret, unperturbed, with flapping wings, jumps and flies. I hear the air rushing through the feathers as it beats past and glides down the riverbed, beyond the dam, disappearing into the lush shade of the forest canopy.
My goal as an artist is to strive toward continual growth in my craft and the ability to express my appreciation for the beautiful places I’ve been so privileged to experience and enjoy. This artistic journey will end at my last breath, yet beyond this I hope my paintings will share some essence of the joy in spirit and gratitude I’ve been blessed with by our creator for this brief lifetime.
Read on, in the chronology of this journey below, or have a look at my online portfolio by using the menu at the top of each page.
An evening plein air painting at San Elijo Lagoon 11×14 in. oil on panel
One of the challenges of plein air painting is working within a limited budget of time. The interplay of a moving sun and fleeting clouds make swift work integral to capturing the scene. A changing scene may force the painter to work from memory, which is not as accurate as direct observation. And after all, really, who has the stamina (or is it the lunacy?) to paint for hours out in the elements? Thank goodness, most of my plein air painting sessions finish in under two hours, before I can become dehydrated and sunburnt. I completed this 11×14 inch plein air painting of San Elijo Lagoon in about an hour and a half. Having a pre-toned (a neutral gray) substrate helped the work to go quickly because there was no “white space” to cover and the toned background filled in the gaps in the superseding paint layers.
My goal in painting in plein air is not to make a photo-realistic depiction of the scene but rather to suggest something truthful, with expression but that also looks good when framed and hung on a wall. Plein air painting provides the added benefit of being stretched by new challenges but also keeping the “chops” tuned for studio work.
The San Elijo lagoon and nature center is one of the great places in San Diego to visit at twilight. Either early in the morning or in the evening before sunset, hiking the well maintained trails and boardwalk there is a peaceful and fascinating experience. You will see the play of the wind on the surface of the tidal waters and the fronds of the grasses in the marsh. Reflections of light, dance, shimmer and change with each breath of wind. The silence is ocassionally broken by the cry of foraging birds or the sudden splash of fish jumping out of the water.
Padre Dam is the first Dam built in California by Catholic Missionaries.
San Diego has a past that is inextricably linked with the Spanish colonization and works of the Catholic Missionaries that established the first outposts of Western Civilization on the American continent. In Santee, California, about five miles from Lakeside, CA where I live, is the site of the first water collection system created by the Spanish Missionaries. Known as “Padre Dam,” it is now a ruin that is part of the Mission Trails Regional Park system. This dam provided water for agriculture which supported the established Mission de Alcala, about three miles to the West, where the missionaries and the indigenous people interfaced.
The dam, with its water and pools makes a picturesque subject and provides some green relief in this long period of drought we’ve had in Southern California. Even in the hottest part of this dry year, there is still a trickle of water that flows here in the San Diego River–a river that originates in the Laguna Mountains that rise to just over 6000 feet, some 25 miles to the East.
This plein air painting was finished early in the morning while the air was still cool and the shadows were long. The temperatures rose above 100 degrees fahrenheit later in the day and it was good to finish this 11 x 14 inch panel before it became truly miserable.
I painted quickly to capture the colors and light of the moment, as well as a sense of place.
Keys Creek Lavender Farms is a great place to plein air paint in North San Diego County. It is a difficult subject however because the landscape there is hilly and chaotic with lots of visual clutter, such as outbuildings and sheds. My first attempts at this painting were “wipeouts,” where I actually destroyed what I had painted in the background by wiping it off with a paper towel dipped in solvent. Eventually I decided to invent my own background (because I can do that, you know?) and paint something to suit the beautiful lavender which sloped down the hill in front of me in real life.
The above painting, “After the Rains,” was completed and signed in the field on Saturday, the 9th of May 2015. I painted this as my part of a plein air painting demo, where I was involved as part of a team of plein air painters from the San Diego Plein Air Painters Meetup Group. We were helping to commemorate the San Diego River Days Festival, which takes place each year, raising money and awareness about conserving the River and its wetlands .
This painting demonstrates a few principles of an effective plein air painting:
simplicity of design
balanced composition
colors and values true to the subject
atmospheric perspective
suggested (and not rendered) imagery
confident brush strokes
mystery
…the latter being that elusive quality that teases the viewers mind by allowing them to “fill in the blanks” and resolve the story of the image with their own narrative. There’s nothing more satisfying for the mind than solving a puzzle, so I’m a big proponent of “allowing the paint to be paint” and the brush strokes to suggest form rather than dictate it. This allows the mind to engage and play with the imagery and have a satisfying experience that provides new discoveries with each viewing.
Here’s a few pics of me at the easel, talking “plein air” during my demo.
Talking about pre-painting considerations.Pointing out the Perspective of Clouds
Gray, gloomy days are a real challenge for the plein air painter. Capturing the light is what plein air painting is all about and when that light is not cheerful, colorful or dramatic, it can be difficult to find inspiration. This plein air painting was painted at the mouth of the San Diego River, early on an overcast, gray May morning. Luckily, there were some dramatic moments where transient shafts of light momentarily peeked through the thick, cloud layer, illuminating the vegetation and meandering course of the river. These hints of color and bright reflections provided the impetus to capture that tonal difference and bring this image to life. I knew this day would be gray, so I decided in advance to “embrace the gray” and make the best of a challenging situation. It helped that I had previously toned my panel with a neutral gray that would support the composition. That’s the nature of plein air–one has to adapt and make the best of the view and the weather in a given place. Here’s the result of my effort that morning…
I’ve done a few paintings in the last weeks that I’ve yet to post on this blog, so here they are. These were painted on site around San Diego County, mostly with the San Diego Plein Air Painters group , of which I’m a member. I’m also a member of the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association — LAPAPA, as well as the Southern California Plein Air Painters Association –SOCALPAPA and the San Diego Museum of Art Artist’s Guild — SDMAAG.
Batiquitos Looking West ~ 11 x 14 in. plein air oil painting by artist Ronald Lee OliverBatiquitos ~ 12 x 12 in. plein air painting by artist Ronald Lee OliverOsprey Rock ~ 11 x 14 in. plein air painting by Ronald Lee OliverCoronado Anchorage ~ 11 x 14 in. Plein air painting by Ronald Lee Oliver
February 14th, 2015 in Southern California. The air temps got up to over 90 degrees in the inland areas. I headed West, early this morning to paint at the area in Point Loma known as “Sunset Cliffs.” It was already warm and not the least bit cold as I painted at the top of a cliff, near waters edge above the surf below…here’s a short video of the beautiful conditions and the painting I made. 11 x 14 inch oil on panel.
…and here’s an example of how it would look in a nice “New Rustic” solid wood frame by Randy Higbee galleries…
This is my “go to” frame to compliment my plein air paintings…
There is a phenomenon known as “the artist’s curse”–a state of perception in an artist of their own work as inferior and somehow lacking. It is a virus of self-doubt instilled by the ever-present voice of the inner critic who notes with a jaundiced and magnifying eye only the flaws, imperfections and shortcomings in the execution of a piece of work. The inner critic measures the latest attempt against past successes, other artists master works, or impossibly high aspirations. It can lead an artist to destroy perfectly wonderful pieces of their labor in a pique of self loathing and doubt. I think it must be something like the pathological state of postpartum depression in a mother who has delivered a child.
To combat this disease I believe it’s always best, as an artist, when completing a fresh work to pause, wait a while and put the voice of the inner critic on “mute.” To let a painting “rest” for a time. To avoid the temptation of tweaking and making “little fixes” here and there. To avoid the nagging thought that, “if only I do this…or that…to this painting, it will be better.” The state of final “finish” is arbitrary and elusive for each work and it is in this hyper-critical state of emotional attachment as we near the culmination of a painting that we can succumb to excessively analytical and even pathologically delusional perceptions of our own work. It is the time when we most risk the fault of “over working” our piece. Many a fine painting is ruined in the finish–most often by acting upon the infected perception of the inner critic. Ironically, it is this sycophantic voice that prods us to “fix” which leads us to ruin and thereby causes us to hate and even destroy the works that somehow do not live up to our expectation.
It’s better to put the brush down and leave a canvas in a semi-finished state that conveys some truth, than to fastidiously pick at little details until the spontaneity, mystery and truth have been thoroughly abused. By allowing the mind time to rest and detach from the passion of the moment–by muting the inner critic, we may return to comprehend with fresh, unprejudiced eyes, the beauty we’ve been fortunate enough to transmit and share with the world.
I plein air painted at Ramona Grasslands with the new portable palette I recently crafted in my workshop. It was the “maiden voyage” for the palette, which I based on the Jim Coulter palette system–a clamshell design with an adjustable mast to hold various sizes of panels or canvas. If you’re not DIY inclined, you can see (and buy) Jim’s version of this plein air painting system, here…
I chose to make my own, larger than any available from Jim because I like lots of space to mix and lay out my tools of the trade. It worked out well and even though a large palette, it was not difficult to hike in the half mile with everything I needed to paint.
Chromatic single pigments and earth colors.
The colors seen on the palette, laid on a piece of grey masking tape for friction (to keep them from sliding around) and ease of cleanup, from left to right, are:
cremnitz white
unbleached titanium
Primary magenta — R
cadmium red light — O
Primary yellow — Y
phthalo green-yellow — G
Primary cyan –B
ultramarine deep — I
dioxizine purple –V
yellow ochre
transparent red oxide
Payne’s grey
Mars black
…I also used a bit of “asphaltum.”
The panel was toned in advance with transparent orange.
Following are some photos of the easel, “in the wild,” where I bravely set my tripod over the opening to a den of vicious and possibly rabid squirrels. You can see the bucket I use to carry all the necessities, too. Those long, black nylon bags hold the tripod and my umbrella kit (which I didn’t need but brought along just in case). They both have shoulder slings, as does the palette box,which make all three quite easy to portage to the painting site.
RLO portable palette at Ramona Grasslands.
I chose to paint a view of the largest oak tree in the grasslands. You can get an idea of the massive size of this old oak, compared to the heavy-duty, park picnic table nearby. You can also see here the beginning phase of the painting where I’m establishing the shape of the tree.
Beginning block in of plein air subject.
…and finally, in this next photo you can see where I chose to stop painting. I was having a difficult time resolving this one. As I say to myself, “you can’t win them all,” and this one was giving me fits so I decided to pack it in and call it a day. I’ll take time to let it rest and then return to it in the studio to see if I can make better sense of it. I didn’t scrape it off entirely, which I would do if it was a total failure, so I think there is still a painting here, waiting to be finished, signed and framed.
Sometimes it’s best to stop and reflect…
Here’s a skewed (to avoid glare) iPhone pic of the painting…
An example of a stopping point in a plein air painting work in progress.
Here’s an update after some studio work on this painting…
I was surprised and pleased when an agent from Dick Blick informed me they wanted to feature an image of my painting, “The Watering Hole” in their Winter 2015 print and multimedia flyer.
Of course I agreed and also put in a plug for their “Masterstroke” brushes, which really are good quality sable brushes for the price. I think it’s a fair deal–I get the benefit of some free (relatively) publicity and they get to feature a wonderful work of art to promote the sales of their brushes.
Above is an image of the ad as it ran in the flyer, along with the “Plug” from yours, truly. 🙂
If you’d like to see a time lapse video of me painting “The Watering Hole,” you can click on the play button below, which will play the video directly from my YouTube channel.
Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say On a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day That’s the island greeting that we send to you From the land where palm trees sway…
I guess after all I was not so naughty this year that I wasn’t able to make a Christmastime excursion with my beautiful wife, Jackie, to the Hawaiian Island of Maui.
This wasn’t a “painting only” trip, so I only made time for two 11 x 14 in. panels but they were both lots of fun to paint. Even though the Trade Winds were fierce during one of the painting sessions, I managed to finish with no mishaps.
Though probably not the wisest thing to do, I diverged from my usual painting methods on this air travel trip and was winging it (no pun intended) with a color palette and paints I had never used before. To lighten the load and simplify things for flying, I chose to go with a five color palette and used water mixable oil paints for the first time.
It was really surprising how well it all worked out!
Flake White Replacement (non-toxic and creamy consistency)
Each morning of painting, I pre-mixed a very vibrant chromatic palette from the three water mixable “primaries” which produced some very convincing greens, oranges, and fuchsias, as well as deeper purples. I was careful not to “overmix” the paint piles, leaving striations of broken color in the mixes. A sealable “Guerilla Painter” 9 x 12 in. palette tray kept the paint fresh and protected inside my pochade while exploring for a suitable view to paint.
This color palette worked very well and much to my relief, there was no problem mixing the “oil” paints with the water miscible paints. The Cobra paints especially were surprisingly “creamy” in consistency and were very easy to mix and move about on the panel. While painting, when I felt I needed a little more “flow,” I used a mixture of my standard recipe medium, transported in an eye dropper bottle that consisted of equal parts stand oil, turpentine, and dammar varnish. I brought no solvents because they must not be flown over (TSA will confiscate) and it is an extra trip to the hardware store to get some when you arrive and then there’s nowhere to conscientiously dispose of it when you leave.
Another interesting thing about creating these two paintings is that I used one single brush the entire time! I brought my brush wallet but became so engrossed in the painting process and not wanting to waste any time in capturing the light that I worked only with a single, quarter-inch “bright” hog bristle brush. I held a paper towel sheet in my left hand and wiped the brush clean between different colored passages. I was able to make a surprising variety of marks with the stiff but springy little bristle bright. The only other implements I used to apply or mark the paint were my finger and in some few instances I removed paint with a cotton swab, which are essentials that I always pack when I paint en plein air.
All said and done, I had a great time in Hawaii and having the opportunity to paint made the trip just that much more special.
I’d like to say to any reader who chanced here and happened to read this far…
Here we know that Christmas Will be green and bright The sun to shine by day And all the stars at night Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii’s way To say Merry Christmas to you!
Varnishing a finished painting is a vanishing art.
Many if not most contemporary artists don’t bother, preferring to sell their paintings with a matte finish. Some don’t like to wait for the paint to dry before the application of varnish, especially since the historical recommendation is to wait six months to a year beforehand. I varnish my paintings 3 to 4 weeks after they are dry to touch. At that time the paint surface has oxidized and polymerization of the paint has stabilized (there are many studies on this, which I’ve read). Molecular cross-linking, a form of drying will continue internally, under the paint film and then under varnish, for decades. I don’t paint with ridiculously thick and deep impasto layers and I also use a medium, mixed with my paints to accelerate the drying oxidation/polymerization process, so I’m not concerned with areas of my paintings cracking or needing a prolonged drying period before varnishing.
I use a traditional dammar varnish–using the same recipe artists have used for centuries–which I make myself with easily obtained ingredients–dammar crystals and turpentine. Dammar crystals are the hardened sap which is gathered from dammar trees in the tropical forests of India and the South-East Asian peninsula and archipelagos. Here’s a Wikipedia link:
It’s gathered in much the same way Maple syrup farmers tap the trunks of Maple trees to gather the sap, only dammar crystals harden on their own and do not need to be cooked down after harvest.
Dammar crystals, when burned also make a heavenly incense and if you’ve ever been in a Roman Catholic church on a Holiday or Feast day, you’ve probably smelled the scent of burning dammar crystals (it’s often a blend of dammar with frankincense and myrrh, or a host of other aromatics). If you get your nose close to the surface of one of my paintings, you can actually get a sense of this fragrance.
To make the varnish, the dammar crystals must be dissolved in a solution of pure gum turpentine (about 2 to 1 turp to crystals), which is in essence the sap of pine trees which has been distilled down to the volatile aromatics and terpenes. I usually make a batch of varnish in an empty, glass pint-sized jar with a tight, screw-on lid. It takes a few days of occasionally shaking the jar vigorously until all of the crystals are dissolved in suspension. Then, the solution can sit for a day or two until any unwanted particles of bark, dirt or dust settle to the bottom of the jar. Decanting of the pure varnish is then done to another clean, glass jar, leaving the residue behind.
Diamond G Forest Products makes an Excellent Artist’s Grade Turpentine…
That’s it! These two ingredients, both derived from tree sap, together make an excellent, clear varnish which will not only protect the surface of the paint from damage and pollutants such as dust and smoke but is easy to clean and even remove if necessary.
Dammar varnish will yellow slightly, over time (decades) but this can actually give a painting a warm and subtle tone that can in some instances (especially landscapes) enhance the atomosperic aura of the painting. If ever the painting needs re-varnishing, the old varnish is removed with turpentine alone and another fresh coat of dammar varnish is applied. This should be done by a professional conservator or at least with great care not to remove the paint layer below the coat of varnish, because turpentine will dissolve the paint, even if it has been dry for centuries! Cleaning the surface of a varnished painting can be done with a mild solution of Castile soap and distilled water, using a soft cloth and a gentle touch.
Protecting the paint surface and making it easier to clean aren’t the only benefits of dammar varnish–It also enhances the depth of colors and accentuates the contrast between the light and dark tones in the painting. It provides a translucence, a luster and depth that is the completing step that really makes a painting come to life.
I think finishing a painting with dammar varnish is the right thing to do and shows the artist cares enough about his work that he wants to enhance, protect and preserve it for future generations.
