The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. Funny thing is, this isn’t even my full blog! I rarely post to WordPress, preferring instead to post to my Google Blogger blog: http://mchesleyjohnson.blogspot.com/
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,700 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 28 trips to carry that many people.
We plein air painters, especially the ones who try to make a living of it, are sometimes too focussed in our interests. It’s like a diet of all chocolate – addictive, nourishing in its own way, but maybe too much of a good thing. Well, here’s a little fiber for you. I want to introduce the poet Robinson Jeffers.
Jeffers was a popular poet back before World War II. He built a home in Carmel out of stones he hauled up from the beach. During the war, he fell from favor because he was against it. But lately he’s experiencing a revival as a poet for environmentalists. He was very much grounded in nature and the landscape, which is why I recommend him to painters. If Jeffers had been a painter, he probably would have been a plein air painter.
We took a tour of a home he built in Carmel – Tor House – and its accompanying tower, Hawk Tower. Tours are given only on Fridays and Saturdays, with no more than six people. The house and tower are very special, because they have all of the original furnishings and in the spot Jeffers left them. It’s amazing to see the tower, which Jeffers built singlehandedly. The tower had a room for him to write in, a room for his wife Una to hang out in – she had asked him to build the tower for her – and a room for the twins to play in.
We’ve been having some beautiful swells and crashing waves these last couple of days. I’ve taken lots of photos and even some video of the waves. (The best way for a painter to get a good shot of a wave for painting is to take a video and then step through the frames to find the one frame that has the best wave.) With that in mind, here’s a poem Jeffers wrote about waves.
November Surf
Some lucky day each November great waves awake
and are drawn
Like smoking mountains bright from the west
And come and cover the cliff with white violent cleanness:
then suddenly
The old granite forgets half a year’s filth:
The orange-peel, egg-shells, papers, pieces of clothing,
the clots
Of dung in corners of the rock, and used
Sheaths that make light love safe in the evenings: all
the droppings of the summer
Idlers washed off in a winter ecstasy:
I think this cumbered continent envies its cliff then….
But all seasons
The earth, in her childlike prophetic sleep,
Keeps dreaming of the bath of a storm that prepares up
the long coast
Of the future to scour more than her sea-lines:
The cities gone down, the people fewer and the hawks
more numerous,
The rivers mouth to source pure; when the two-footed
Mammal, being someways one of the nobler animals, regains
The dignity of room, the value of rareness.
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| Look closely to see the student at the bottom! |
This past Saturday I taught a one-day plein air pastel workshop for the Arizona Pastel Artists Association. One of the problems with large plein air workshops is finding adequate backup space. Even if the weather is predicted to be perfect, the forecasts themselves aren’t necessarily perfect. So, you need a backup space. This space is also handy for lectures and critiques. We found a great space at Crescent Moon Day Use Area, right under the feet of Catheral Rock. We had our very own group picnic shelter and restrooms.
For this day, they weren’t forecasting perfect weather. In fact, they were predicting clouds and showers. The morning started somewhat ominous. As I drove toward Sedona, I saw heavy-bellied clouds dropping showers over Bear Mountain and the Mogollon Rim. But we ended up having a great day. The sun broke out and shed a warm light on Cathedral Rock. Beautiful, puffy clouds ornamented the blue sky. We got some really nice paintings out of the day.
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| One of my demos, a 5×7 |
I want to announce a special painting retreat for the week of March 26th. This program is only for intermediate to advanced painters or professionals. Participants are expected to be comfortable with painting outdoors and their chosen medium. Painters may work in any medium, but I’ll be working in oil or pastel.
For the retreat, group lodging is included that has cooking facilities so participants may make their own meals. Artists are expected to stay at the lodging to ensure an “immersion” experience in which painting is talked about in casual conversation, and impromptu demonstrations, outings or group critiques may result.
This is not a workshop with formal instruction, but I’ll demonstrate daily and offer end-of-the-day critiques. I’ll also guide you to some of Sedona’s prime painting spots.
Price is $1000, which includes six nights lodging (arrive Sunday, depart Saturday). Food is not included, but we’ll have a kitchen. The retreat is limited to four participants. (Spouses and non-painting partners may be included, depending on the lodging.) If you’re interested, please let me know right away. I need to have four committed by Thanksgiving in order to secure space. I hope you’ll join us!
Teaching Schedule - http://www.michaelchesleyjohnson.com/html/schedule.htm
Paint Sedona workshops – http://www.paintsedona.com/
Paint Campobello workshops - http://www.paintcampobello.com/
Also, the REAL blog, where I post regularly: http://mchesleyjohnson.blogspot.com/
I’m back from a week in lovely St Andrews-by-the-Sea, a little oceanfront resort town that’s located in a quiet nook of New Brunswick in the Canadian Maritimes. The weather was typical of the Maritimes – sunny, warm days interspersed with a scattering of moody, wet times – but everyone had a great time and got some good paintings. This was my sixth summer teaching for Sunbury Shores Arts & Nature Centre, and I’m looking forward to another week in 2012.
Below, I’ve included a couple of the pastel demos I did; I’ll post some of the oil demos later, once they dry a bit more.
I had a good turnout for my reception at Sunbury Shores. Comments were very favorable for the new work I’ve been doing, especially the large pieces. We even sold some work! The show is up until September 7. If you’re in the area, please stop by: www.sunburyshores.org.
Here are some photos from the week, plus the pastel demos.
I thought I’d post a couple of the pastels I did in the last week or so. The first one, “Banjo Bill Morning,” was done about seven miles up Oak Creek Canyon, early in the day. Although spring is quickening in Sedona – the mulberries are blooming – it’s slow in coming further up the canyon. You can still see some of the late-winter browns and yellows. Still, there’s a bit of green starting to show up in the water, thanks to the intense sun.
The second one, “Mitten Ridge View,” was painted at one of my favorite spots. I’ve shared Schnebly Hill with many students and painters. This is a somewhat different view, looking at Mitten Ridge over a small canyon.
This week, now that the workshops are done for a bit, I’m spending time in the studio getting re-organized. Today I went through my pastel stock and refreshed my Heilman “backpack” box; poured the Gamsol out of the brush washer so I could scrape out and discard the mud at the bottom; and took an inventory of paint, panels and pastel paper. I think I’m going to be in good shape.
Visit http://mchesleyjohnson.blogspot.com for all my blog posts.
Lilacs are giving way to lupines, and so we enter lupine season. If you had to present only one image emblematic of Downeast Maine and the Canadian Maritimes, it would have lupines in it. I’ve seen species of lupines in Arizona and New Mexico, but nothing compares with the ones we have here. They are a beautiful flower, and you’d think they’d look good on your dinner table, but alas! They don’t last long as cut flowers.
In the field, we’ll have them only until the end of June, if that. So, when the weather is good, it’s important to hustle. Yesterday, I was torn between mowing the lawn – we are almost at the point of needing a machete – and painting lupines. I decided I could do both, if I painted a small one and didn’t take too long.
What colors does one need for lupines? In the 6×8, I used my basic Gamblin palette. Nothing special, just a cool and a warm version of the three primaries. In the 12×12, though, I added two colors: Thalo Red Rose and Dioxazine Purple (both Grumbacher paints.) When you’re painting florals, you can’t mix the clean, rich secondaries – you need to use tubed color.
