Clay and Julie Speer will continue the gallery in the same vain and are making a seamless transition, but Dan and Walter will be missed as dear friends and family.

After cutting the boards to size I cut the canvas 1/2 in. bigger so it can be trimmed. I dampen the bush to make the glue spread easier but don’t add water to the glue, it weakens the bonding strength. Spread the glue evenly on the board then press the canvas on the board. Use the rolling pin to roll out the air bubbles.

I usually prepare a number of panels the same size then stack them and place a larger board over all of them and place a 10 pound dumbbell to weigh them down.  I generally let them dry overnight then with a sharp utility knife I turn them over then trim off the extra canvas. If the corners come up I apply a small amount of glue with a small brush and press down.

For panels larger than 16 x 20 use 1/4 inch panels and gesso the back to prevent warping.

Cathedral of Mantes by Corot

“Corot”  by Madeleine Hours gives a nice overview of Corot’s life, how he started his career (he was 26 years old when he asked his father’s permission), and who influenced him.  The book also goes into some detail about his technique and work habits which is always interesting.

When you change your palette to shake up you color sense it reminds you that painting is not about matching color or tone or using the same color recipe for skies or fields of grass.  It’s about being able to express what you see through color, using a scheme of colors to express mood or drama in a painting.

My palette is limited so when I change it I’m really switching primaries.  So instead of my usual cadmium yellow, cadmium red, alizarin and ultramarine blue, I can use yellow ochre, indian red and black, that changes the mood of painting considerably.  Another would be indian yellow, permanent red rose and pthalo blue, a much more vibrant almost sweet palette.  A change in palette forces you to see you subject in terms of temperature atmosphere and mood instead of predictable color schemes.

But painting larger outside, 20 x 24, or 24 x 30 allows me to push the limits of what I know technically.  It also forces you to just paint the heart of your subject matter because there isn’t enough time to approach it like a studio painting.  It’s not always successful but keeps me from looking at everything the same way.

There are two different ways to approach painting large outside, one is to make a note of the time of day and return two or three times until you finish.  The other way is to get the composition and planes blocked in, enough color notes on the canvas, then return to the studio and finish without loosing the sponteniety of painting outside.

For example, a mountain being lit by the setting sun will look intense and full of sunlight only if I reduce the saturation of the surrounding sky, trees and foreground with grayer, cooler color.  With a limited palette of red, yellow, blue and white, I can pick one color and add a small amount of the two remaining primaries or just one, add as much white as I need to achieve the right volue, then make sure the surrounding areas use enough of all three primary colors to become neutral or gray.  These gray colors need a predominant color but enough of the other two primaries to really knock them down in intensity.

It’s easier to remember and compose large, flat patterns of dark and light and the results are different from painting from life and a lot different than painting from a photograph.  I’m forced to push value and color to make a statement from what I remember.  I can’t use detail because I won’t remember any.

Painting from memory works best for me when the lighting is more dramatic.  Sunsets are a good practice.  They’re too short to paint from life and photographs never do them justice.  The other benefit is that using your memory helps prevent altzhiemer’s, so use it while you have it.

There’s a little more time right now to paint for the sake of learning (although every painting is practice) and not have to solely keep up with the deadlines of  shows and galleries.  If you’re one of those whose sales have slowed down, now is the time to make more painting trips, try a different medium and spend more time drawing, because when things begin to pick up again your focus will change back to the rush of business and meeting dealines again.  It’s always hard to appreciate a slow-down, but when you look back on this you’ll appreciate the time you took for more development of you skills.

After deciding on one, I complete three different color studies to come up with different color schemes.  The next step is a detailed charcoal value drawing and then the final painting.  This process helps me to see studio painting as a process with a purpose behind each step.   It also develops discipline in planning, forces the meto think more about composition rather than what is presented in a photograph or plein air sketch, and it helps me to think outside the box with color.