Start SOMETHING

Willie Study in watercolor and colored pencil...I posted this on facebook  
 a few days ago. A scribbled study for my student "A....", who took a good photo of Willie at a concert. I was showing her how to see color in her "tonal" photo......and have you heard
Willie's new song "What'll I Do"?.... CLASSIC WILLIE!!
Below, I mention a DIFFERENT painting of him...

One good thing I learned in my art was to just START something!..I might only have 30 minutes till the kids needed me. So I would START.... and when I had to leave, that little "start" would call to me..."HEY! Here I am...come baaaaaack"....Whereas, when I stayed up all night to finish something, then there would be such a feeling of "DONE", that it was hard to start something new, later! I once stayed up for 72 hours STRAIGHT, to finish a job for Willie Nelson...(a promo poster for one of his albums)

 My best efforts have been projects that had lots of little pieces. An idea written on a napkin. A doodle in a doctor's office scribbled on a magazine subscription card...these were taken home and tossed into an "idea box"...the 1980's version of Evernote was a shoe box :)  Eventually, the little ideas would repeat themselves and I would take the little notes out of the box to put together! SO! My advice is to "doodle" at it...START something...it will be calling to you!!! ..."come baaaaack"!

On Facebook, I am "Virginia Pedro Vaughan"

Based on Daniel

Based on Daniel

Here is a sketch from a lesson I taught this morning, while preparing some high school artists for a sketching trip to the zoo. It often makes artists uncomfortable to draw from life, because they think that the outcome is only "good" if the drawing looks like the model! I remind them that this is NOT a portrait...Daniel is my reference, but not the "story". I use him to see shapes of values, and to put parts together, but as a FAST SKETCH (this one took less than 5 minutes), I am not too concerned with the likeness....SOME of the parts (mouth, left eye...part of the nose) look like Daniels parts, but the whole only bears a distant resemblance! Given more time, I could measure and evaluate the proportions and have a better likeness, but for a reference sketch I want the students to bravely put down lines and shapes and values only!

Join me in a sketch class sometime!

 

 

24 - Webs on the Rocks

Webs on the Rocks__8x10 oil on canvas

#24 in the Birdseed Project

Working with high school artists is a lot of fun. I especially enjoy helping them see easy solutions to things they always thought to be difficult. Here, we worked with oil sticks (are those the same as oil pastels?)...see the first step at the bottom, the second step in the middle, and the final step at top.

This lesson was to demonstrate how to create "distance" with atmospheric perspective (compare the near rocks from the far ones?).I also talked a lot about "shapes of shadows", "drawing with light", "Color in the shadows" and a few other little lessons. TMI for these new painters, but enough to make them BRAVE...you ought to see their works!

 

Webs on the Rocks___State 2

 



Webs on the Rocks___State 1

High Plains Gathering

High Plains Gathering-state 2 ___24x24 oil on linen___for Passing America:The Great Plains
A few days ago I taught a one day workshop in Smithville, TX. THe group had worked with me a month earlier, and I gave "homework" for them to "START" a few canvases. TTHis time, I showed how to work up one of their "starts" to a larger canvas. The version below was state one of a large canvas I worked up from the small. This demo took about an hour (not counting my talking time....plenty of that!!!). The idea was to lay down the largest, simplest shapes of color. State two, above is the next step....I see things that I need to refine, before calling it DONE. This one is posted especially for the "gang" in Smithville....would love to know your comments and what you think I will probably do to call it "done" :)

Demo Before Morning

Demo Before Morning__6x8 oil on linen__$190
While posting this I got to thinking...I am not sure anyone in the workshop even saw it! The day was still darkish when I finished and everyone was already well into their own works. (I love that point in a workshop when the artists are suddenly brave and taking on the problems without "needing" me to get started!) We all got to the location VERY early...about a half hour before sunrise. According to NASA, this is called "twilight". I use their site to determine sun and moon phases ANYwhere I travel. This helps with workshops to schedule sunrise/sunset times...check out the site)...There will be another multi-day workshop in Fredericksburg this year. Sometime in Late Oct-Nov...stay tuned!
...And a word to my Smithville group: I looked at the noun today, and have decided the verb was MUCH BETTER....Y'all know what I mean...and so do my Fredericksburg friends. I will "post and tell" tomorrow!

Sunrise Scape

Sunrise Scape__6x8 oil on linen panel___$190
Another demo from the Fredericksburg workshop.

We arrived on locations at 6 am for our morning paintouts. This one was at the home of Bill and Nancy Bush and it was downright CHILLY that morning. We all reminded each other that later in the day we would WISH it was so cool....our afternoon temps topped out at over 100!

We painted all week with a limited palette of just FOUR paint colors, and the goal was to see the spectrum in each scene. The sun was just above the horizon when I painted this, so the spectrum was in the sky and not on the land, yet.....

To my class: I DID a few "oil changes" on this one when I got home, and I stayed true to the palette...Can y'all see the refining of shapes?...and the addition of the "pure color" we talked about?...I miss y'all!

The Shapes of Sunrise

The Shapes of Sunrise---A LESSON---painting is SOLD
I say that painting is easy! Like everything else it takes time and practice to get comfortable with all the variables. Variables such as what type of canvas? board? brush? brand of paint?...and then there's the KNOWLEDGE factor: does green and yellow make blue? what ratio of green to yellow? WHAT??? OH, I just wasted a bunch of green...
But after a while, you get better at it, or at LEAST braver! (I say that you ought to at least be brave when you try new things...this is also my driving philosophy when I am in a new town, and a rental car...I get lost a lot, but I do it with CONFIDENCE!)
I started the painting above with a class watching me. The lesson was this "painting is SIMPLY shapes of colors"...using a photo from my farm (September 30, to be precise) I made myself see the shapes of color. See below for this first step. Putting them in order first, I then COMPARE the relationships of the colors. For the finish, I make adjustments, and then "de-edge" some of the color shapes...
Now, that was a FREE lesson, but there's a little more to it...JOIN ME at one of my upcoming workshops, and I will share the rest! :) (schedule below)
WORKSHOPS:______________________________________________________________________
Jun 13-15 2011
Fredericksburg Artists School
Plein Air Color – Capturing the Impression Quickly ...or Painting and Sketching, Every Day (…and what to do with all those field studies!) http://www.fbgartschool.com/ for info and to register...hurry, it's almost full!

June 18- A one-day workshop, Smithville, TX... GREAT for beginners or "rusty" artists. Learn how to manage oil paints and the basics of painting quickly and impressionistically.

Oct 8-10
Workshop at Bone Creek, David City, NE ...in conjunction with the opening of my solo show

Passing America: The Great Plains in Lincoln, NE

April's New Moon

April's New Moon__16x20 oil on linen__for Passing America : The Great Plains, exhibit in the Fall

A few days ago I posted the location study for this painting. Click to see and read about it: http://vvaughan.blogspot.com/2011/04/april-moon-enidok.html When I do a small one that "works" for me, I enjoy using that small canvas as reference for a larger work. Since I have no photos of the scene I saw, I could only use the small canvas to refer to. This was fun and freed me up to make changes and play with the subject a little bit. Also, I gave it a new title, that makes the location more generic...just in case viewers cannot relate to Enid, OK...Now, hopefully, the scene will stir up something that others have seen before...something that brings back a good memory...

Texas Elevators

Texas Elevators__6x8 oil on linen panel_ for Passing America: The Great Plains

Saturday I posted a "drive-by" painting from my April plains trip...this one is from my late-February Plains Trip. it is a different view of the same location, not far from my home. I just realized this and am fascinated by the differences. The paintings were completed a month apart, so the change of seasons is noticeable. All the "art words" can be used to describe the differences: The COLOR, VALUE, CONTRAST, TEXTURE, EDGES, INTENSITY, Warm colors, Cool colors, COMPLEMENTS...ALL of these are DIFFERENT in each painting, giving each one it's personality, and specific "voice"...this is why a student artist should never have a formula! Rather, the artist needs to OBSERVE and simply match their paint with what they see! If you can match the color of something, and its relationship to the things around it, your painting will give the IMPRESSION of what you are seeing: its mood, season, temperature and all!
Happy Easter, everyone...I hope your weekend was blessed!

Lavender Layers

Lavender Layers__6x8 oil on linen panel___$150 wet!! ...sketch included

Yesterday's post was a painting at this same location, the lavender fields at Becker Vineyards in Fredericksburg, TX. Just as this is not a banner year for our bluebonnets, it looks like the lavender crop might be sparse, too. But then, maybe lavender plants peak later in the spring....for now, the plants are not very big or lush, but I like the scruffy colors in the foliage with just hints of blooming flower. Sometimes a BEAUTIFUL, thick growth of blooms can look too "fantastic" in a painting...bordering on "cartoonish"...like yesterday, I painted this from my sketch, (below). See the difference in composition?

Deere in the Lavender

Deere in the Lavender__6x8 oil on linen panel___$150 wet! (sketch is included)

Does two years in a row count as a "tradition"? I say "YES", and my friend, artist Pat Haberman and I have a tradition to go out and paint the bluebonnets on my birthday....OK, so my birthday was LAST WEEK (but we were both busy)....and there were only 17 bluebonnets in the Hill Country this year (a terrible contrast to last year's bumper crop)....so we went to the Lavender farm at Becker Vineyard... (OK, so it's too early for the lavender, but NOT BY MUCH!)...AND, it was too windy to get out the full plein air gear, so I sketched this (see below), and went home to paint it from my notes....more and more often along my Plains journey, I am finding myself very comfortable painting from memory...there's something nice about being able to "make it up", and my many years of plein air study has given me some understanding about light and color...So, I painted the one above, working only from this sketch, because I forgot to bring my camera...The paper is wrinkly because I had a death grip on it because it was so windy!

HP Bluebonnet demo

Bluebonnet demo__6x8 oil on linen__$190 wet! Thursday evening I presented a short workshop in Austin. I began the lesson with a demo, using a photo I took last year. I had pre-mixed my palette ahead of time, but I prefer the "direct" approach, mixing paint as I go along. I remember watching a demo before I was a full-time painter, and wondering "how does he know how to mix those colors?" (I learned that it takes a lot of brush mileage before you can do it instinctively)...So, for this class of less experienced artists, I had the colors prepared for the first demo, and they could focus on seeing the painting process...later in the evening they got to wrangle paint for themselves as we did one of my "Chicken Clinic" paintings together....In REAL LIFE, there are NO bluebonnets this year! What a contrast to LAST YEAR~! Thank you to ALL the workshop attendees! What a successful event thrown by Hyde Park Baptist School at their Quarries Campus. Jillynn Shaver had it perfectly planned and the only bad part was that it was too short! We all had fun painting (and EATING, and visiting, and looking at the other art there!)...I HOPE that I passed along a few bits of info to a full class of 12 or 13 painters! EVERYONE had a great outcome ...probably because we ran short on time and many had to "wing it" to finish. They finished their backgrounds "solo", and some ended up with a background color that I liked more than my own, so I changed mine when I got home! (see my "finish" below)

HP Chicken Clinic___10x8 oil on linen panel__demo $250...click image to see detail

Lefty Joe

Lefty Joe___8x10 oil on linen panel___For the Whelan Family

Joe is one of our great lefties, for the Round Rock Dragons (5-A High School baseball in Central Texas).

Joe and my son have played ball together since they were pre-teens, and Joe's dad, Mike was probably the best coach my son Sam, ever had. Mike built Sam's confidence like no one else has, and I know Sam will never forget that. We lived on our farm back then, but when we had to decide where to live when the farm sold, it was this family that embodied the sweet spirit of Round Rock, and were one of the reasons we wanted our son to grow up here! We often wish Mike would STILL be coaching all those SAME boys, and we wonder how great they'd be if that was the case...(this is the stuff that moms talk about in the stands!). In fact, many of the boys who were on that team are now the MEN on this Round Rock team!...

The team had been together a few years before Sam got there. So he had to come in and be the new kid for a time. There was one boy they all called "Murph". After a while I learned that his name was Ryan. I supposed that his last name was Murphy. After about a year, I learned that when Ryan was new on the team, and told Coach Mike his last name, Mike "heard" the name as "Murphy", and called him "Murph" (probably because there was another Ryan on the team). This nickname went on for awhile until I guess Ryan's mother asked why they were calling him "Murph"...It was then learned that his name was WINFREY, but he was too polite to correct the coach, and has lived with the nickname "Murph" for all these years....love it!!

For my artist friends....have you ever been asked to paint something for someone and it just comes together so WELL that you wish you could keep the painting?? If I were to advertise myself as the baseball player painter, THIS little painting would be the one I would use in the ad...I LOVED painting it!

Now a Coyote

Now a Coyote___6x8 study on linen panel...for my coyote son!...but I will paint others!!

I have mentioned a few times that my son is being recruited to play college football. (see highlight film, and turn up the volume!) Well, he has finally made a decision to accept a great offer from Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina, KS. It is a great fit for him and closer to home than some of the schools in Texas that looked at him!... Jokingly, I told my son that I liked this school immediately after looking at their web site. They have a cool logo and mascot: Coyote

Now, get this...on the day he decided for sure I was returning home from an appointment, and there in the middle of the road in our quiet suburban neighborhood was a beautifully grooomed, well-fed, healthy mature coyote...a REAL ONE! I flew to our house (4 doors away), got my camera and went back to find him waiting for me! A few of my pics are below...OF COURSE I thanked God for the little "sign", and was wondering what would have happened had he decided to play for the Tigers??

Also below are two stages of this study in progress...and a few words about my process...

State 2: I filled in some color and value shapes to get started on the relationships of contrasts. This stage is a visual impression of what I think I see, "color-wise". Cools, warms, and what I call "Punctuation Marks". See state 1 below...
There should be a state 3 and state 4 before the finished one above, but I forgot to snap pictures, and worked too fast :)

State 1: My sketch was on a linen panel that had some old paint on it (nose area)...I just ignored this and sketched around it, starting with the HIGHLIGHTS. Keeping the color thin...State 2 is above. photos below...

See Mr. Coyote in the shade by the fence?

He turned to get a better look at me... I have never seen a healthier looking coyote in the wild!

Poser...

Uphill from Here

Uphill From Here__6x8 oil on linen panel__a "drive-by" for Passing America... exhibit, Oct., 2007

I think I will work on this one a little bit, now that I see it "in print". (A good way to "proof" your work is to look at a picture of it, a few days after it's done, when your eye is "removed" from the process of MAKING, and can view it less "personally").
Sorry that the picture has some bad glare on it! I shot it in a hurry today and only took one picture (another lesson....ALWAYS take several pictures...)
I painted this one on the way to Kansas...I only glimpsed the scene for 10-15 seconds as we drove by, and it made an "impression" that I wanted to paint....The best thing I like about this "drive-by" painting is that I happened to see the same scene on the way back! I wasn't looking for it, but there it was, and I noticed that, though I simplified the impression, (took out a few buildings and fences) it was VERY CLOSE to the actual scene!
One last lesson for you artists...your IMPRESSION of something is FAR MORE VALUABLE as ART, than copying a careful rendering of all the details! Any good technician can copy accurately, but only YOU can communicate YOUR personal impression!!!

Single

"Single"___12x6 oil on linen panel___sorry for the bad photo (my glare and blur technique)!
This is the only photo I have in my camera tonght...something I promised to send via e-mail to a collector I just met at the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition in Charleston, SC. I hope they look at my blog, because for the moment I forget who they are! I am sure I have it written down in my show stuff, which is packed and on the way home...but I am "stranded" in Charleston with my daughter.
If you are a skier, you understand the title of this little painting. While standing in line at the ski lifts, the lift attendant will holler out "SINGLE" to let skiers know there is ONE available seat headed up the mountain. Most skiers travel in pairs and ride together, but the ones that ski alone get paired up on the lift to make the lines move faster....unless the lines are short, then the single skier gets to ride in solitude...like my little guy in the painting!
I'm Embarrassed to say that I accidently botched our return flight plans. It is a strange feeling to show up at the airport and have them tell you that your flight is for Monday, MARCH 21. Oh sheesh...This is a NEW botch for me (I thought I had done ALL of them by now)!! So, we checked into a hotel by the airport, rode the bus to town, and tromped around Charleston all day!....so much for my show profits!!! Delta Airlines will NOT get anymore of my busness, by the way, thanks to a snarky lady in Cincinnati named...
...d a n g ....I forget...sheesh...

Lorraine Sketch

Lorraine Sketch from the Rockport Workshop____5 minute sketch with oil on linen

Monday and Tuesday I taught a workshop in Rockport, TX. Our focus was capturing impressions QUICKLY. I worked in color in the morning demo, then gave some instruction on "seeing" to sketch fast...it is a favorite topic of mine. Maybe because as a young artist, I am sure I was the slowest artist in the world: very deliberate and obsessed with PERFECTION.

Yes, I was perfect ... :) ....NOT!

But my detailed drawings were pretty dang close to the photo I copied line for line, value for value...and the eraser was my friend!

I am very glad I spent so much time being technically accurate. It trained my eye! A very young artist NEEDS THIS, because they have very little experience in ANYTHING. This is why they are generally impatient with verbal instruction in large doses. They prefer to DO IT, rather than analyze it! I reassure my adult students that they HAVE experience, even if they are new to art! Experience like GEOMETRY, science and physics...these go a LONG way in helping define certain art principles!
My group this week learned a few things in our sketch sessions. I hope they are PRACTICING! :)

Trout Ready

Trout Ready___8x6 oil on linen panel__available at Southeastern Wildlife Exposition, Feb 17-20, 2011

SEWE is in Charleston, SC. It is my FAVORITE SHOW each year, for so many reasons! For the next few days I will depart from my Great Plains project posts, and show off some of the small works I am taking to The Southeastern Wildlife Exposition in a couple weeks. Of course, as my blog buddy, you have the first chance to claim it, if you are interested in a purchase. Please e-mail me! vvaughan8@yahoo.com

For you artists, below is a conversation with an artist pal Robin Cheers. We had a chit chat, today...everyone can relate to it! If you look at Robin's work you would never guess she EVER struggles with ANYTHING!

R...instead of painting, when I have a real painting to do, I do other things, look for the perfect image to work from, change my mind, etc.
Here is the reply...and a DISCLAIMER: It is ESPECIALLY for my WOMEN artists!
V....Every artist does that!!…some days it just rolls out of us, and then when we REALLY Want to do a good one, we fall into a “hold” or “circle pattern”…hovering and agitating and hearing voices that say “what do you think you are doing…??”
One of the most amazing things I have noticed about SOME artists (usually a man) who picks up the brush and BOLDLY slaps on the paint and thinks that each stroke he makes is brilliant and presents a loose, high contrasty thing and immediately sells it!!...with cockiness!! They just don’t seem to anguish like we do…but they GET AFTER IT AND CONQUER IT! We tend to try to “love” our paintings into quality…they aim to “CONQUER” it, and end up with stronger works many times!

Hmmm….as I type this I am thinking I should go “CONQUER” something right now!

Bahia Dusk

Bahia Dusk____6x8 oil study on linen panel______$190 for CHRISTmas!
This holy presidio looks especially sacred at night, when there are spotlights trained onto the facade. Before the sky got too dark we stayed and painted studies there a few weeks ago when I was there with artist friends Barbara, Caro and Susan....I didn't finish this one out thee, but made notes of color onto the canvas and just now got around to finishing it. It's good to do this, because once you are away from the visual "standard" of having the "model" right there before you, yu can BE A PAINTER, and complete it the way you FEEL....not trying to hold to the standard of "the truth" that your eyes see.
So there you have my lesson: Lower your standards, forget about "truth" and do what you FEEL. ....PLEASE only apply this to art, and do NOT raise your kids this way! hahaha
Merry CHRISTmas!

Fishing_Colorado, fishing, sketch

Fishing___Sketch #23 from my Colorado Sketchbook...auction of the whole sketchbook soon!-


This man was fishing in front of our place last month and stood here for a while, so I think he was untangling his line...kind of how I fish...

It is a fairly "quickie" sketch and I made sure to do HIM first, since I thought he would move ...it turned out that he stayed a while and I had more time on his part of the sketch than I bargained for...but the LESSON here is to START a sketch or plein air paintig with the thing MOST LIKELY to move...save the background for last since it will stay put....usually :)