30 SECONDS IN THE STUDIO

You Might As Well!

(A message to my workshop students from a few weeks ago on Monhegan Island.)

|Good luck painting tomorrow and remember to sling some paint and have fun. A reminder from Charles Movalli for you. “No pattern, no painting” I pretty much live by these words!

I’ll leave you with some Robert Henri. If you don’t know the tiny little book, ‘The Art Spirit’, I highly recommend that you get yourself a copy and spend time with it. It’s one of the best publications about painting ever. It was said that listening to Robert Henri talk for 5 minutes would change your life. Can you imagine that!?

Henri stated: 

“Cherish you own emotions and never undervalue them.”

“The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable”

“Paint what you feel . Paint what you see. Paint what is real to you”

Henri is really talking here about subjective truth. Subjective truth is a philosophical concept attributed to the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. Subjective truth is how you as an individual sees or experiences the world. No one else can see or experience the world as you do. Not in a million years. Not ever. 

Be yourself out there when you paint! Have confidence in being you. Nobody else can be like you, so you might as well do it :)|

_____________________________________________________________________

I try to keep students fired-up in workshops. From our initial meet and greet just prior to the start of the workshop, through morning lectures and demos, one-on-one time and even with the nightly email that I send out to prepare them for the day ahead. The above wording is an excerpt from an email I sent Wednesday evening prior to them going off on Thursday for a full day of painting on their own and then back to the Monhegan House for an afternoon critique under the shade trees. Pam and I encourage them to paint at any location on the island that speaks to them and we ask them to incorporate the principles we’ve been teaching in the workshop as they work. A big part of a plein air workshop is, of course, to teach them how to approach outdoor painting and to help improve technical skills, but I’d be cheating them if I didn’t include the importance of being themselves in the process. We all see and perceive the world around us differently, and so we might as well embrace our individuality and let it flourish onto the canvas. Ultimately, it’s up to the individual artist to give themselves permission to let themselves be in the moment and since nobody else can be like you, you might as well do it!

Last October I received an email from the Gloucester Museum of Fine Arts inviting me to participate in their plein air painting competition in June of 2025. To be clear, this museum is in Gloucester Virginia and not Gloucester Massachusetts. I didn’t know that this other Gloucester even existed and so I was intrigued. I spoke with a few different artists who had previously participated in this event. Each artist I contacted spoke very highly of the event, the organizers and about how great the subject matter is to paint in the area. I emailed the organizers and happily accepted the invitation to join them for their 9th annual event.

Three days later I went into cardiac arrest playing golf. Having survived that event, as I was slowly recovering at home and building back strength from the initial trauma and then triple bypass surgery, I wondered if I would still be able to participate in this event or if I’d be pushing myself. I figured that I would be a little more than 7 months into a recovery that takes a good full year to do. As each month went by I was starting to think that I was feeling pretty darn good for someone in my position. I saw the Gloucester event as one of my goals to get back into the game and so I started making plans for my trip south.

It’s important to have goals. I started out in recovery with very small goals like getting myself dressed and showered daily and then to eventually be able to get through a day without constant napping :) Walking and exercising became a daily habit again and then driving myself to the studio to paint for a couple of hours etc.

Fast forward to mid June and I felt ready to drive myself to Virginia and to for the Gloucester plein air event. I have to admit that as ready as I was, there was some trepidation and doubt too. I had not been painting outside on a regular basis yet and certainly not for several days in a row, for most of each day, and with the added pressure of having to turn in 5 competition pieces at the end of the week. There was also the requirement to attend other side events during the week to meet potential collectors and to hang out with other artists. I just knew I had to pace myself and that I wasn’t going to have limitless energy. I also wondered how the Virginia heat would affect me. My true goal was to go to the event and prove to myself that I could do it. My main objective was to be able to say that I did it, that I had participated and turned in finished work. Beyond that I had no expectations.

After a couple of false starts with painting, I was able to find my groove. The result? I was awarded one of the highest honors for an artist for the week by being recognized by my peers with the ‘Artists Choice’ award. I was also awarded ‘Best in Show’ by awards judge Bob Upton for my painting “Fish Shack at Perrin Creek” 12x16” (pictured above) Wow. To say that I was blown away is to put it mildly. I sold most of my competition paintings at the gala opening and was overjoyed by the success of the show for all the participating artists. Sales were great. The Gloucester Virginia community really supports the arts in a big way.

I loved the similarities between both Gloucester’s if-you-will. Just like its Massachusetts counterpart, Gloucester Virginia is surrounded by water with tidal rivers and ocean. Instead of lobster boats and other northeast fishing vessels, there is the oyster fishermen with their dead rise boats and the crab fishermen etc. There were marina’s galore to go exploring in, public and private residences filled with varying subject matter, like creeks, marshes, farm equipment and barns, outbuildings, animals and what-have-you. They have some wonderful historic buildings too. 

I’m a big fan of this event and because I won a top prize, I’m automatically invited back next year. The organizers of this event, Suzanne, Margaret and Pam who volunteer their time, do an exceptional job and seem to have cracked the code to creating a wonderful experience both for the artists and for their community. 

In September of this year, I’ll be participating in the Litchfield Plein Air event in Connecticut and then the Cape Ann Plein Air event in October. I’m not expecting the same great results but as the old saying goes. “You never know unless you try”.

Warm regards,

David & Pam

A plein air painter living in New England, looks forward to the change of seasons. It’s been a rainy winter here with not much snow, and so I’m ready for spring to arrive. Spring means ‘green’ and it appears that 2024 is really coming up green for us.

As we turn the corner into March, I have more golf commissions I am now working on. I love painting the variety of greens that defines a good golf hole. I’m back to producing more large paintings of the No. 2 course at Pinehurst Resort and I think it’s a most unique and special place. The golfing legend, Jack Nicklaus, was quoted as saying about Pinehurst, “If I had one golf course, from a design standpoint, one that I really love, it would probably be Pinehurst. There’s a tree-lined golf course where trees are not a part of the strategy.” Herein lies part of the magic and sense of place of Pinehurst. The trees may not be a part of strategy for the golfer, but they are an integral part of the beauty and elegance in the design of this Donald Ross masterpiece. The pines showcase each hole and are breathtaking to see and to paint.

 In late April, Pam and I will host an online weekend workshop ‘Painting Greens’. This abundant color found in nature confuses a lot of painters, but this workshop will concentrate on how to approach mixing a variety of greens in a simple and sensible way. This workshop has changed a lot of my students approach to landscape painting and the improvement and harmony in their greens is instantly noticeable. If you can’t attend this online workshop but want to better understand this subject, ‘Painting Greens’ is also a self-paced mini workshop on my website. The instructor-led version is sure to get all your questions answered and give you feedback on your efforts as you go. The timing of this workshop will have you fully prepared for painting spring and summer greens before they pop.

Speaking of a variety of greens, in September we are traveling to Ireland. Come take advantage of painting for a full week in this amazing location with daily painting demonstrations and instruction! We will all stay in the tiny, enchanting and picturesque village of Ballyvaughan where time slows down and everything feels just right…like putting on a pair of cozy slippers. Ballyvaughan overlooks Galway Bay and we’ll be taking you to some amazing places to paint nearby. It’s known as being one of the most fascinating places in Ireland and Europe. 

 I read that in the realm of poetry, green often serves as a powerful source of inspiration, evoking emotions, imagery, and symbolism. The color green, with its association with nature, growth, and vitality, has captivated the minds of poets for centuries. The same can be said about landscape painters. Since it’s my sincere intention to be a poet with a paintbrush, and with everything starting to come up green, I’m ready to be inspired! 

 Warm Regards, 

David & Pam

30 SECONDS IN THE STUDIO

Folinsbee Considered

Sometime in 2022 I acquired a book about the life and work of John Fulton Folinsbee. “Jack” Folinsbee was an American landscape, marine and portrait painter, and a member of the art colony at New Hope, Pennsylvania. He is best known for his paintings of the factories, quarries, and canals along the Delaware River, but he also spent a great deal of time in Maine and bought a farmhouse between Bath and Wiscasset in 1949. At this point, he embarked on a new aspect of his career as a marine painter. 

The book “Folinsbee Considered”is the most comprehensive look into the fascinating life and work of this great painter. I’ve been familiar with Folinsbee for a long time now, but this winter I picked the book back up in earnest and dove in headfirst. 

This publication has led me to explore in more detail, the work of many of his contemporaries; like Jonas Lie (Lee) Harry Leith Ross, Fern Coppedge, and Robert Spencer to name a few. I knew of all these painters, but now I am digging in a little more and seeing how they may have influenced each other in their work, particularly how Jonas Lie, Robert Spencer and Harry Leith Ross inspired and influenced Folinsbee a great deal. That said, “Jack” Folinsbee was indeed his own person and made it a lifetime journey to explore and find his own voice in American Art. He is truly genius. 

In our weekly critique classes ‘David Lussier’s Art Circle,’ I guide the weekly painting challenges, given as assignments to the groups at the end of each class, around both what the group will specifically benefit from, based on what is being turned in, and around the exploration of paintings by other past greats that we look at each week in class.  

We have been digging into Folinsbee a great deal. It is a wonderful way to be able to learn and be inspired. By exploring and taking it all into careful consideration, everyone is growing leaps and bounds in these group classes. For Pam and me it is both rewarding and challenging to be steering the ship constantly into uncharted territory. The energy, camaraderie, and work within these Art Circle Groups is nothing short of amazing. 

For me personally, I find that by challenging myself daily, much like I do with my students, I am forever in a state of flux and learning, and I am never just standing still. Hopefully, that is evident and seen in my work. It is paramount to a fulfilled life, to be always striving to learn more, and to make painting a lifetime exploration towards finding your own unique voice. 

 Warm Regards, 

 David & Pam

John F Folinsbee Catalogue Raisonné

We’ve been pretty busy visiting old friends during the pandemic.

Pam and I have visited a plethora of art museums and galleries online, since March of last year. When you really dig in and explore the painting images of past greats, you really do feel like you’re visiting with old friends. Each week, we search online for paintings by a variety of masters, to share the work with the group of artists who make up David Lussier’s Art Circle. Not only do we search and find images of great paintings, but we search websites to find large file images that allow us to zoom in and really see the work up close and personal.

It’s akin to standing a foot away from a painting in a museum and practically putting your nose to within an inch or two from the canvas. We do this in order to see the artists brushwork and paint quality. We’ve gotten called on this a few times over the years by security guards just doing their job. The act of being able to do this online is an absolute pleasure and you can study the work for as long as you like.

The list of great paintings that we’ve looked at and discussed is a long one. It’s inspiring to see how painters used their skills to compose their paintings, used color and made their marks in paint. It never gets old and you can learn a lot. Recently we looked at the Monterey Museum of Art and the paintings of E Charlton Fortune. An American Impressionist from California, She was well traveled, studied in Europe, New York and San Francisco and was very prolific. Fortune died in Carmel California in 1969. Her compositions are amazing and busy, but fantastically designed. Her brushwork and use of paint in general is exciting to look at.

There are numerous museums who are offering large file images online, of work that is considered public domain and there are many galleries who give the viewer the opportunity to enlarge and zoom in on some painting images. It’s fun to have a look!

Warm Regards,
David & Pam

Some Reflecting

The start of a new year always gets one thinking ahead to new plans and new ideas. Pam and are excited for it all. Today I find myself thinking about where I am at this moment in my painting career and how I got here. Where would I be today without all the early instruction and guidance from my teachers at Paier College of Art ? (pronounced like the fruit)

Paul Lipp, is still painting and was valedictorian of his class at Paier. A former marine, he had a rigid disciplinary style and introduced me to oil painting. I had an early habit of leaving a lot of white showing through the canvas in all my paintings. I was clueless about the meeting of edges. Paul Lipp corrected that one very quickly.

Rudolph Zallinger, who could draw and paint the figure like there was no tomorrow, made you want to strive to learn anatomy. Zallinger painted the famous ‘Age of Reptiles’ mural for Yale University’s Peabody Museum of Natural History. The mural was 110 feet wide by 16 feet tall and took 10 years to complete. Rudy was a professor at Yale School of Fine Arts.

Dean Keller, made much sense of portraiture in the very short time he instructed our class and I quickly dove into the idea of becoming a portrait painter. Keller was a professor of art at Yale for 40 years and painted 160 portraits for the university. He also painted two presidents.

Joseph Funaro, who taught portraiture in my third and fourth year was a God send. A very disciplined and direct teacher, Funaro expected your best and he didn’t mince words when making a statement about what you had on your easel. In my third year at Paier, I developed a bit of an attitude towards art school in general and I was caught up too much in the social scene. I started to arrive late to Funaro’s morning portrait class and even missed a few altogether. One day he asked to see me after class and he basically told me that if I was going to be disrespectful by coming late or by missing classes, I shouldn’t bother coming at all. Ouch. Then I saw that he had pulled a few of my paintings from the storage racks and he proceeded to explain to me that he wouldn’t even bother with me, except that I had real potential. He pointed to a couple areas in my portraits and told me that they reminded him of Sargent. He encouraged me to buckle down and get to work. I was never late again to his class and it was the moment that I truly got serious about painting.

John Massimino is a skilled and prolific painter. He’s 92 years young and still going strong. I read an article about him giving a talk recently. As a teacher, Massimino would inspire you from the moment he opened his mouth. He had a way of speaking that was very animated with a lot of hand movements. Then he’d pause to look around the room in order to let his words sink in. On his face would be a grin that confirmed without a doubt, that he was passionate about what he was teaching. He made you feel like he was talking to you directly. He taught composition classes and to this day, I can hear his motivating talks and his unique way of getting his point across.

Robert Zappalorti is a photo realist painter. He paints trompe l’oeil and still life paintings that show a mastery of skill. He taught drawing at Paier and he was energetic and demanding in his approach. In my fourth year, one of our final drawing assignments in his class, was to take a Sears catalogue and choose a number of complicated items like a skill saw or power drill and draw them a bit larger than the image appeared and as exacting as possible. Then we had to turn these objects a quarter of a turn in our mind and draw them again from that imagined viewpoint. If that wasn’t already hard enough, we then had to turn them another quarter turn and draw them from this newly conceived angle. I think we had to do this with 8 items. He asked to keep mine as an example of getting it right for future classes to see. It was a great exercise!

Charles Sovek was a New York illustrator during his time teaching at Paier. He was a fun and energetic teacher who was always showing us new ways to approach things. He would bring in some of his illustrations, sometimes as they were being worked on and they were inspiring. His style at the time was realistic but in an illustrative and painterly way. I loved his classes even if he never pronounced my last name correctly. He was also working plein air on his own time and wrote his first book ‘Catching Light In Your Paintings’ while I was at school. A lot of the painting examples of figures in the book, came directly from his classes or from the painting time that he would generously spend with students after class. The models in the book are my fellow classmates. He also brought in the landscape paintings that were part of the book and he had a show of the in one of the galleries in the school. All of this planted a seed. Whenever I look at one of Sovek’s books on painting, I am right back at school like it was yesterday.

The photo realist painter of the highest caliber, Ken Davies was the dean of the school when I attended my four year program there. He was influential in helping me and other fellow students in our last year of the program to put together a rock solid portfolio. I was an illustration major and I would meet with him to discuss and plan each idea that I had. It was intense. I remember the discussions fondly. He has a brilliant mind. His advice was always carefully thought out and well intended. He wasn’t one of my instructors per say, but he did help me to build confidence and helped me realize that the portfolio I was building was unique and that my painting ability was strong.

Paier College of Art played a big part of who I am today. The four year program taught the principles needed In order to begin to really hone the craft of painting. It taught me that discipline was vital to success. 

This month I was featured in Southwest Art’s online magazine with an article called My Process-My portfolio. I was interviewed by phone for just about one hours time. The resulting article is just a few paragraphs long with a few images to accompany it. Short and sweet. 

Here is the link to the article.

My Process-My Portfolio

A White Christmas

Here in New Hampshire, we recently experienced our second real snow fall of the new winter season. The snow seems to be early this year, but I'm OK with that. I'm thinking about how exciting a winter storm can be. New fallen snow blanketing everything outside is truly a wonder to behold. Its rather easy to think about the negative aspects of winter snow storms, like cleaning the cars, shoveling and snow blowing the driveway etc. But, if I let myself be filled with that same awe and wonder I felt as a child every time it snowed, I can easily rekindle my love for this season. I think of the song 'White Christmas', written in 1942 by Irving Berlin. Each year I find myself hoping for a White Christmas and I think this year we have a real shot at it. My favorite version of the song is the one sung by Bing Crosby. Did you know that it is the world's best-selling single with estimated sales in excess of 100 million copies worldwide? Wow! I guess I'm not the only one :)

From a painters standpoint, snow is pretty fascinating stuff. Snow turns any scene into a paint-able one. The blanketing of snow upon the surfaces of each element in the landscape, unifies all the parts into interesting patterns and shapes. The science part of the color of snow is also pretty fascinating in itself. We think of snow as being white and there is a scientific reason for that. Snow is made up of ice crystals and light gets scattered and bounces off the ice crystals in the snow. Snow reflects all colors and all the colors of light add up to white. So in general, we see white snow. In reality though, surfaces of built up snow do absorb some light. My theory is that the compactness of the ice crystals produce this effect. That is why the painters trained eye can actually see the nuances of warm pinks and violets in sunlit snow. Extremely subtle oranges and yellows are possibilities too. The shadows of snow appear blue and purple because the color of the sky is reflected into these shadow areas. It is always fascinating for me to paint snow outdoors and to be on the lookout for the slight variations of color within all that 'white' snow.

A heartfelt snow painting is a special kind of work. A snow scene lets the viewer step into the unique beauty of the winter landscape. For anyone who grew up with snow as a regular part of their winter routine, there are plenty of great memories that lay just below the surface of our adult selves. There were all those snow days off from school, along with weekends that were spent building snow forts and sledding down the fastest hill that could be found. This activity evolved to cross country and downhill skiing as we got older. But you don't have to ski to know the beauty and wonder of snow; you just have to experience it. A walk through a snow filled neighborhood or park is an exciting and aesthetically pleasing experience. I think a well painted snow scene strikes a chord within us and ties our present self to those childhood memories.

We are happily all settled now and I want to jump back into blogging on a regular basis. The seacoast area of New Hampshire and Southern Maine really inspires and it is my sincere desire to inspire others as we continue to teach and explore all the possibilities and nuances of plein air and studio painting. I hope you enjoy My Painterly Approach. ~David

Lessons On The Road

I first saw the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming at the age of 22 during a cross country adventure with a couple of high school friends. We camped in Big Horn National Park for a few days and I have always remembered vividly, how the Wyoming landscape and sky stretch on forever, and how the mountains rise up majestically and reminds oneself that God really does exist.

This June, I flew to Big Horn for two weeks of painting with a group of artists from New England. I have always wanted to return to the area with my paint box in hand, and so when I was asked a year ago about this trip, I knew that I had to go. It was an exciting adventure and painting Wyoming was a new challenge that I approached with a keen sense of awe and wonder. The hour and a half drive from the tiny airport in Gillette to Big Horn where we were staying, quickly reminded me just how big the west is and how it would take several lifetimes to experience it all and a few more lifetimes to capture just a small amount of it on canvas. My revisit to this part of Wyoming is all part of a bigger plan including a show in the future involving all the artists who participated. I’ll expand on this in more detail as soon as the plans come together.

From Wyoming, I flew into Denver and then on to Boston. My car was waiting for me there and I had packed it three weeks earlier with everything I’d need to compete in the Plein Air Richmond event that would be starting in two days. It is interesting and rather time consuming to prepare and pack for two big painting trips simultaneously. It took almost a week of preparation to have things ready for both trips. Some supplies would be shipped to Wyoming and some would be packed into the car. I wondered when I arrived at each location if I had forgotten to pack something important. After a quick days rest from a rather long day of flying, I began making the long drive to Richmond Virginia. After 13 hours of driving, I arrived in Richmond in time to get my panels stamped at the Brazier Gallery for the week long competition and then met my host family for a wonderful little dinner and some nice conversation.

To go from painting the wide open spaces of Wyoming to painting the urban scenes of downtown Richmond is a rather odd transition and a complete change of mindset. In Wyoming it was a daily occurrence to be painting while deer, wild turkeys, prong horn and the most adorable long eared bunny rabbits, kept watch of what I was painting. In Richmond, I was zooming in and out of heavy traffic and trying to locate parking as I searched out the painting spots. It’s a wonderful location, just a very different environment. Plus now I was painting under the pressure of the event. In Wyoming I was just immersed into painting each day for the sake of exploration, with a ‘let’s see what happens’ kind of approach.

There’s a lot of history and beauty to Richmond that makes it quite special. I don't usually paint urban scenes, but Richmond supplies a lot of great subject matter and it was easy to immerse myself into the idea. The James River runs through the city and with lots of parks and pedestrian bridges, there was plenty of inspiration all around. I found myself attracted to the view at the top of this post. The old Main Street Railroad Station building, combined with a contemporary modern part when it was renovated in 2003, was quite striking. The old train car and the red tenement style building added to the diversity of old and new and I had to paint it. There was variation within all the reds that leaned towards purple in the train car and orange in the roof of the old train station. I found that these slight variations bathed in warm sunlight was integral to the feel of the painting. The transparency and overall blue-green color and value of the sky reflections in the windows of the newer building was super important to the essence of the painting. The heat of July in Richmond reached critical mass during the week of the event and I painted this with the sun at my back in temps that reached 103-105 degrees with the heat index. I was also standing on hot reflective pavement. I painted it from 7:30-10:30 AM, over a two day period. I held a 20x24 inch canvas panel over my head with my left hand to keep the sun off my panel and head. I was thrilled when the painting was awarded second place in the plein air event.

When you're on the road, you do what you have to do to get your work done and you take away what you can from each moment. I try to learn from these moments and with each painting. As the saying goes, nothing learned is nothing gained. In Wyoming I woke up at 5:30 every morning and skipped breakfast and coffee to paint the mountain views by 6:15before the sun came around and lit the mountain in full light. It took a couple of days to realize this. I would eat a protein bar as I worked and saved breakfast until about 10:30. In Richmond, I ate breakfast first so that I'd have the energy I needed to paint in the heat and humidity and I began working by 7:30-8:00 AM. Immediately after Richmond, I met a good friend and painter in Front Royal Virginia, by the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and we explored and painted an area that neither of us had been to before. It was interesting to paint these mountains in comparison to the Big Horn Mountains. Overall, they were far enough away that the atmosphere created by the heat and humidity of July, made them appear as a magnificent blue haze. The lesson on the road here was cemented quickly. We simply looked for scenes where we could emphasize the haze to a great extent and therefore made the most out of our subject matter.
 

Making use of the elements and principles of design allows the painting to become more than just the sum of its parts.

This is the stuff that makes up a painting. Every painting needs to be composed. Are you a painter who spends time thinking about the principles of design to best compose your paintings or do you more or less wing it and go with what looks good? I firmly believe that a lot of good paintings can be made stronger with a little more thought given to the arrangement of the composition. By the way, I am completely guilty of just winging it sometimes!

Edgar Payne wrote in his book, Composition For The Outdoor Painter; that an artist should 'mix brains with paint.' His examples of different compositional armatures in the book are outstanding and clearly demonstrate a thinker behind the brush. His use of these armatures within his paintings make his work stand out above a lot of landscape work. When a painter thinks about these compositional ideas along with the principles of design, they have a really good shot of simplifying their subject matter to the essentials and can begin painting the relationships of objects, along with relationships of value and color that add strength and unity to the painting. In other words, they PAINT a painting rather than copy or render things. 

Making good use of the elements and principles of design allows the painting to become more than just the sum of its parts. 

By utilizing the principles of design when organizing a painting, it allows the artist to still explain the big truths about nature but it also allows the artist to use his or her inventiveness in the final product.

In the coming year, I plan on making the use of these elements and principles of design a focus in my weekly painting classes and also in my plein air workshops. I'm in the process of also making it available as an online class.

Interested?

Below is a very quick sketch done in class showing an example of working from a photo reference and strengthening the design using the elements and principles. I rearranged shapes, changed sizes and pushed the compositional movement towards a radial design with a strong diagonal movement.

I personally wish that there were more painters in this world who spent  more time thinking about what they are trying to say in a painting along with giving more thought to composition, color, type of light etc instead of just copying everything before them. Or worse, and we see it a lot; painters who essentially just copy themselves over and over and over again. I've f

ound myself doing it at times. It's actually rather easy to fool ourselves into believing that we are seeing things with fresh new eyes and approaching each painting with an emotional investment, when actually we are just on auto pilot. We reach for the same green, we make the same marks, the trees have to look a certain way, water is done like this etc etc. We start to paint from habit instead of painting from instinct and emotion. What results are formulaic paintings or paintings that look like everybody else. There are a lot of those paintings floating around. 

This is not a rant but an observation. 

For me personally, when I find that I am not emotionally invested in a painting, I take a step back to ask myself why. The painting experience is about having a conversation with my subject matter and therefore, expressing something that might not be readily seen in the painting but felt. Paintings that evoke an emotion from the viewer are the paintings that matter. Without that connection, a painter is just recording things on a canvas. Robert Henri said that the world doesn't need another 'pretty' picture and is he ever right. 

The Fleeting Glimpses & Memory project has made me have to think harder back in the studio about that emotional connection that I felt looking at the subject. Even color notations that I made on location took on a whole different meaning back in the studio. The notes gave me a starting point, but the actual color mixes that eventually were applied to the canvas were more about trying to recall the feeling of the color and were never exactly as they had been written down. I think all good paintings tend to evoke an impression or sense of place beyond just stating the obvious. Wouldn't it be an amazing feat if a painter could thoroughly intoxicate the viewers senses with this intangible quality.

Here are photos of paintings 11 through 19. The images are also posted on my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/David-Lussier-Plein-Air-Painting-Workshops/397547803746

and also on my Dailypaintworks gallery page http://www.dailypaintworks.com/allartists/#/artist=lussier,david&mode=search

Days 7, 8, 9 and 10

If there is one thing I've learned doing this painting project, is that my schedule is extremely full and fitting an extra painting into my day for thirty days in a row is just not going to happen easily. I'm enjoying the project immensely and have decided to get my thirty paintings completed as my days allow. (This will keep me from becoming a nut case!) :) 

It's been interesting looking at night scenes at all different hours. The night sky is so vastly different from one night to the next. Everything becomes a factor; the time, the immediate weather and the phase of the moon. It makes perfect logical sense, but it has never been so obvious until I really started looking and thinking about it. Every time I write down some notes about color and value, I am surprised by the various combinations I am seeing. It seems endless. At times it is strikingly different and yet so very subtle.

As I continue with the project, the weather is also changing. We are losing all the snow and that is going to have me looking at different subject matter etc. I'm excited about some ideas that I have and as the weather warms up and the days get longer, I am going to try to do some of these on location. The knowledge that I am gleaning from looking and trying to memorize the evening light is opening up my mind to thinking about color in new ways.

I'm still posting the painting images here and on FaceBook. You can click on the Daily Paintworks widget located in the right column of this blog to be taken to my gallery of all the paintings being done for this project on the daily paintworks website.

Day 7 - 'Ice Melt'   9x12

Day 8 - 'Ten P.M.'   9x12

Day 9 - 'Burning The Midnight Oil'   9x12

Day 10 - 'Night Lights'   9x12