Planning for Light

Scouting a location

This is a location that I have painted many times. Watching the weather, I knew that there was a snowstorm coming and that the morning after would be crystal clear. The sun would rise in a cloudless sky which will yield some wonderful color and opportunities for a wide color palette. 

Predawn

I knew the sun would rise at 7:18 AM which meant that I would have to be in place by 6:45.  Since I would be at the location before any sunlight, I know it will be cold. Dressing warm enables me to be comfortable and makes it easy to wait for the light. 

Getting to a location early, I can be in place with my camera, setup and be ready to go. I also clear the ground where I am standing so that my feet will not be cold. I look for composition with a dynamic array of shapes. Now I just need to wait for the light. In the photograph above, there is the slightest hint of warm light hitting the main tree trunk in the foreground. It is the warm light of the sky, just before sunrise.

Sunlight peaking through

The sun is rising and poking it's way through the tree line directly behind me causing a spotlight effect on the distant hills and some of the trees in my subject. I'm really liking the golden light in the distant hillside through all of the branches. The light changes very fast and within a matter of minutes we will be in full sunlight.

Full Sunlight

The light is now everywhere bouncing and reflecting with a strong play of very warm light against the cool shadows. An interesting observation, the more sunlight, the flatter (graphic) the picture. Everything being lit equal brings all the sun struck branches to the forefront. In the previous picture, there is much more depth because of the layering of light. 

The sequence from predawn to full sunlight was less than 10 minutes. You can see you need to know where you're going to be when the sun comes up. You haven't got time to search for your location. An old photography adage, you get more by waiting then you do by moving.

Now all I have to do is make the paintings. I'm planning two 60x84 inch canvases, pre-dawn and full light.  I don't paint exactly what I photograph, it's always about what I feel and what I want the viewer to experience. The photography is the inspiration, the painting is the art.

In My Glory

Went out this morning after the snow and was rewarded with a magnificent array of color. I will be posting more about how to wait for light.

Anniversary Show

In the Shadows, January, oil/panel, 20x16

This is a new painting that will be featured at the Travis Gallery's 20th Anniversary Show this April. What I enjoyed about this painting was the broad treatment of shapes and very scrubby textures painted in a very bold manner. It captures the energy of what was before me on that day -- the bouncing light off of the snow and all of the reflected light on the tree.

Wet Paint - New Growth, After the Burn

New Growth, After the Burn, oil/panel, 12"x16"

This white pine has been the subject for several paintings. On this day, I came upon a very strange sort of scene. The ground and surrounding areas had been burned off. The charred bark of the tree was most interesting in its subtle and delicate range of dark tones including warm blacks, cool blacks, reds, oranges and even lavender were all represented. Proving that all color is present in neutrals; whites, grays and in this case black.

In this detail, there are a variety of edges from the branch that's coming toward the viewer with its sublte modulation of warm and cool tones to the branches coming off the tree moving back into the picture plane. This affect is achieved with the lightening of value, neutralizing of color and softening of forms.

In this detail, I wanted to show how the the tree is made to merge into the ground by suggesting the dark of the tree beneath the ground cover and softening its form as it moves away from the tree.

I've included this detail to show how really abstract the ground plane with grasses, leaves and twigs can be suggested with a variety of brush strokes -- sharp edges, soft edges and lost edges -- and little flecks of color and value changes to focus the eye.