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| Oak Creek Blues – 9×12, pastel – Tweaked Image |
I am about to start pulling work for my annual web-based Holiday Sale. As I get paintings ready, the problem of posting good images of the work raises its ugly head.
Other than doing paperwork, one of my least favorite tasks as a professional, working artist is the imaging of my work. Back in the old days, it was bad enough. You’d get out the photoflood lamps, buy a roll of tungsten film, bracket your shots, and with a bit of luck, you ended up with some slides that looked reasonably similar to the actual paintings. But these days, what with the differences between models of cameras and scanners, monitors and printers, it’s a lot tougher.
Recently, I decided I’d gotten pretty good with my digital SLR or, if the work was small enough, my flatbed scanner. With a few tweaks in Photoshop, I could get what looked to be an accurate image. (In the camera, I set a custom white balance and bracket my exposures; in Photoshop, I fine-tune the temperature and exposure.) Images uploaded to my blog and web site looked decent – or so I thought.
But at shows and galleries, people were remarking, “Your paintings look a lot better in person than they do on the Web!” Things finally came to a head this summer. Over the course of last winter, I’d been making my adjustments on my Dell laptop; but when I got to my other machine, a Dell desktop, at my summer studio later, all the images looked alarmingly warm and washed out. Prints looked just as bad, too. I had to run all those images back through the Photoshop mill to correct them. They look better now – but who really knows? Your monitor is different from my monitor.
I understand that there are calibration tools available to make the image on-screen look just like the original, and similar tools for printers. Photoshop uses concepts like “color profile.” (My Photoshop CS2 is set for color profile sRGB -IEC61966-2.1.) I’m sure there are other adjustments I could make, but I honestly don’t know what they would be. I’m envious of the painters who effortlessly take a snapshot and throw it up on the web, and get great results.
For comparision, I wanted to see how one of my images looked on different screens. At the top of this blog is an image that looks to me pretty close to the original. Below are some shots of the same image on a variety of monitors; plus the original scanned image and a shot with my little Canon Powershot. (I didn’t feel like dragging out the DSLR.)
So, I’d like some feedback from fellow artists. How do you get successful shots of your work – and are you sure that they do, in fact, look close to the original?
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| Tweaked image on Trina’s laptop – too blue, cool, but still better than my laptop below |
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| Tweaked image on my laptop (left) and big monitor (right); laptop is too cool, big monitor looks warmer and about right |
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| Original, untweaked image from Canon PowerShot – too cool; set on auto white balance and shot on a covered porch on a sunny day |
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| Original, untweaked image from Umax flatbed scanner – still too cool |
I don’t often blog detailed reports on the Paint Sedona plein air painting workshops, the reason being that I do so many of them. But I thought I’d give you an idea of what we do. I offer three different types of workshops: all-level workshops, retreat/advanced/mentoring workshops, and also special topic workshops. (You can get details on all of these at www.paintsedona.com.) This past week, we had an all-level workshop.
The all-level workshops are, in many ways, similar to the workshops I teach when I travel cross-country. We cover the fundamentals of plein air painting and go to some pretty spectacular places to try out the techniques I teach. Every day, we start in the studio with a short lecture plus a field demonstration, followed by student painting time and critiques. The critiques – I prefer to call the critique a “show-and-tell,” which sounds much less intimidating – may happen at the end of the day or first thing the next morning, depending on time.
The big difference between these workshops and the ones I teach cross-country is the size. My Paint Sedona workshops are limited to four students. Attendees really enjoy this small group size and the extra attention they get. Plus, I like the fact that a small group has a much smaller impact on the environment.
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| Oak Creek Blues, 9×12 pastel – $150+shipping |
This week, we painted a variety of scenery, from rocks to trees to water. We painted at Red Rock Crossing and at Schnebly Hill, on the Sedona Heritage Museum grounds and at Doe Mesa. Mornings started off cool but warmed up quickly. The cicadas down by the creek enjoyed the warmth, too, and sang the whole day we were painting at Red Rock Crossing.
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| Schnebly Hill Reds, 9×12, oil – $150+shipping |
I’ve included a few location photos from the week, plus some photos of my lecture notes.
Next time, I’ll write about one of my special topic weeks.
After another successful week in my series of Paint Sedona plein air painting workshops, I had some time to do a little painting for myself. But I had a partner. I was lucky enough to hook up with Carl Judson, founder of Guerrilla Painter and Judson’s Art Outfitters. Carl came down from Colorado to experience the Sedona Plein Air Festival this week.
Carl and his products have been an inspiration for me over the years as I pursued my “backpacker painting” concept. He designed the 9×12 Guerrilla Painter pochade box I use nearly every day when I go out painting in oil. When I heard he was to be in town, I made sure we had time to visit.
I took him out to Red Rock Crossing to paint. But rather than paint the iconic image of Cathedral Rock looming over Oak Creek, we chose to stay in the shade under the sycamores. Carl did a beautiful little painting of some of the local flora.
When I saw his pochade box, I was surprised it wasn’t a Guerrilla Painter box. “Well,” he said, “it’s the antecedent to Guerrilla Painter. I must have painted over a thousand paintings with it.” One thing I noted is that it doesn’t hold a standard size panel. “I usually paint 7 1/2 x 10 which fits perfectly in my envelope-style filing system. Since I don’t sell my work, it doesn’t matter if I don’t paint in a standard size.”
Carl does a lot to support plein air painters and to promote the craft and travels widely in his mini-van to do so. I hope to paint with him again in a future encounter.
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| Sculpture at Old School Gallery near El Morro, New Mexico |
After 3907 miles, 23 days and four workshops, we finally arrived in Arizona. The odometer on our little Subaru Outback hit 119,000 miles somewhere between Ramah, New Mexico, and Sedona. Thanks to our stops to teach workshops, it didn’t seem like all that long a trip. The longest part was the push after the last workshop; the best word to describe the stretch of I-40 through Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas is “ugh.”
New Mexico, however, was a delight. We lived there for several years, and it’s always a joy to go back. We stopped for the night at El Morro Cabins & RV Park and took a hike at El Morro National Monument. The oaks and grasses are full of beautiful, warm fall colors.
Now we’re unpacking and reorganizing for the winter. Also, the first Paint Sedona (www.PaintSedona.com) workshop begins today. I’ve got a full schedule of these workshops for the winter, so if you’d like a winter getaway, now’s the time to sign up. I’ll post a few pictures from this week’s workshop over the weekend.
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| El Morro National Monument |
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| Why I love New Mexico |
I just finished up a plein air painting workshop in beautiful Blue Ridge, Georgia. It was sponsored by the Blue Ridge Mountains Arts Association, and for the two days of the workshop, we painted in and around Blue Ridge itself. Blue Ridge is a quaint mountain town with a railroad depot, picturesque buildings, trees in full fall foliage, and lots more for the painter. For the workshop, I had students coming from Birmingham, Alabama; Columbus, Georgia; and, of course, from northern Georgia. I think they were all pleased to see that autumn was in full swing in Blue Ridge.
Two days doesn’t sound like a lot of time to teach the principles of plein air painting, but we accomplished a lot! I did a short lecture each morning to make sure the students got the most important information, followed this with an outdoor demonstration, and then gave the students time to paint under my eye. (I’ve included a field shot of my oil demonstration here.) We finished up each day with a “show and tell” of the work done. Everyone remarked after the workshop what a great time they had and how much they had learned.
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| Fall foliage tree demo – 9×12 oil – SOLD |
A special treat for me was seeing the current exhibitions the BRMAA is hosting in the historic courthouse it occupies. Currently showing is the Southern Appalachian Artist Guild‘s annual national exhibition, plus a show by my friend, Marsha Hamby Savage, who paints in both oil and pastel and creates beautiful, moody landscapes. Both shows will be up for some time, so I suggest you drop by.
I’m pleased to say that next year I will be jurying in work for the Southern Appalachian Artist Guild’s 2013 national show, and I will also be the judge of awards. To coincide with the judging, I will also be teaching a workshop in Blue Ridge for the BRMAA. I’ll have more details on all of this later.
As I write, we are finally west of the Mississippi and in Little Rock, Arkansas. Next stop on our journey – Amarillo, Texas; Ramah, New Mexico; and finally, Sedona. My next post will be from beautiful Red Rock Country!
Our final day in the workshop was a gorgeous one. We started off with the valley’s first hard frost of the season. The frost made the fields of teasel, goldenrod, milkweed and asters even more lovely. But needless to say, we first spent a little time in the studio to give the world a chance to warm up. I demonstrated how I handle color harmony and dominance in a painting, and I explained my concept of “contrast pairs.” Also, the students asked a number of engaging questions that included how to get better at painting. What makes the most difference, I explained, is practice! I know we all hear that, but it’s a fact. I also gave some suggestions of books to read and painters, both living and gone, to study.
We enjoyed Chicory Lane Farm so much the other day that we decided to return today. The Farm’s many acres have so many opportunities for the plein air painter. Some of the students chose to focus on barn buildings, others on the natural scenery. I don’t get to paint buildings very often, so I chose to illustrate how to do a 30-minute “quick study” while also illustrating architecture and color temperature concepts. (That’s a lot to cover in 30 minutes!) The barn is an interesting design, and I think my sketch would be worth exploring in a larger format some day.
After an afternoon at Chicory Lane, we headed back to the studio for the final “show and tell” and goodbyes.
I enjoyed teaching a workshop so much in this location that I’m hoping to come back in the not-too-distant future. Thank you, Karl and Green Drake Gallery, for a great week!
Below are some photos from our last day. By the way, Karl painted an impromptu portrait of me in the field, which I now own. I’ve included it among the images.
Trina and I now are off on the next leg of our trip. My next report will be from Blue Ridge, Georgia, where I am teaching a plein air workshop for the Blue Ridge Mountain Arts Association.
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| MCJ Study – 8×6, oil – by Karl Eric Leitzel |
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| 6×8 oil barn study by MCJ |
Fickle fall weather drove us inside until late morning. However, this gave us time in the studio to talk about some important issues. I showed how easy it is to create a sense of distance and depth in a painting with a few, simple color adjustments. We also talked about some business items for the professional painter – framing pastels, dealing with galleries and how to get your name out in the world. I finished up the morning with an indoor pastel demonstration on how to paint trees.
The weather turned sunny at lunchtime, so we headed out to an abandoned railroad trestle spanning the Penn River. The trestle has been incorporated into a trail – part of a local “rails to trails” project. We had a few anglers join us; while we painted, they fished. We had wonderful light effects to capture, and I think each of us enjoyed painting the radiant glimmer of water. I did an intimate closeup in pastel of one of the trestle supports and the water beneath it. We ended up the day with a “show and tell” in the studio to discuss our work.
Tomorrow, Saturday, will be the final day for the workshop, and it looks like we’ll have excellent fall weather.
In the meantime, here are a few more photos from today.
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| Pastel tree demo (9×12) – Santa Fe comes to Millheim! |
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| Atop the abandoned trestle |
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| Trestle & Light Demo (9×12, pastel) |
After a crisp start to the morning, the sun quickly warmed up the valley around Elk Creek. But first, we met in the studio, where I reviewed some of the concepts I shared the day before, and then I talked more about color palettes and the choices available to the plein air oil painter and pastelist. I also discussed the relationship of value to color, and how best to handle the relationships of cool and warm colors in the landscape. (The students have been bearing up well under my lectures, especially since my talks are accompanied by good coffee, chocolate chip cookies and humor!)
Once things warmed up, we drove off to a beautiful farm (Chicory Lane Farm) not far from town. The farm is actually a conservation area with trails, expansive tracts of wildflowers and – best of all for plein air painters – views. We were scattered in a ring around the central house and barn, and that made for a pleasant walk as I went from easel to easel, offering help. I also did an oil demonstration of the barn and silo before turning students loose to paint. At the end of the day, we headed back to the Green Drake studio for critiques. Really, these critiques are more of a show-and-tell session in which we share our efforts, and I used the paintings to illustrate concepts we talked about earlier in the day.
That evening, Trina and I met Karl Eric Leitzel, founder of Green Drake Gallery and Landscape Artists International, and his wife, Linda, for dinner at the Elk Creek Cafe. Some of our students were there, too, enjoying the evening’s music. I had to leave a little earlier than I’d hoped, as I had to proof a galley of an article of mine for The Artist’s Magazine and also get started on interviewing the winners of a well-known art competition. (Sorry, but you’ll have to wait until the winners are officially announced!)
Below are two of my demonstrations. The first is my studio pastel from the first day and the other, the plein air oil from today. (Both 9×12.
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| Sold! |
We are now ensconced in the very comfortable and historic Aaronsburg Inn, just a mile down the road from Millheim, where I am teaching a workshop through the Green Drake Gallery. As we drove to our destination, we knew we’d found some incredible territory for painting. Brooks, rolling hills, farm fields, old barns and homes – there’s not much this area doesn’t have! We even saw cornfields being cut by the Amish with horse-drawn corn binders. This evening as I type, I hear a horse clopping by, pulling a carriage.
A cold front is moving in, so today we had a bit of rain, a bit of wind and considerable cloudiness. After giving an introductory lecture on plein air painting, I followed with an indoor pastel demo. Once we’d finished with lunch, we headed out to an Amish farm to sketch before a shower appeared. Tomorrow, the weather is supposed to improve dramatically, and we’ll get out to explore more of the landscape.
So what did I cover on my first day? I talked about why painting from life is better than painting from photographs; how to get a more fulfilling experience by having a goal when you go out painting; showed how four values are all you need to “describe” the landscape; and, since this four-day workshop is a compressed version of my five-day workshop, introduced the topic of color and palette choices. (Normally I start this on the second day.) After the demonstration and student painting periods, we headed back to the studio where we share our paintings and talk aboult them.
I’ll post a few photos of the area and the workshop over the next few days, and I’ll also write about what goes on in one of my workshops.
A Plein Air Painter's Blog 