Wasatch Plein Air Paradise 2019

12" x 16" Oil on Panel

The Midway Art Association is holding it's annual plein air competition right now. Painting for the main competition began last Saturday. Paintings for the main competition had to be turned in yesterday, but smaller "paint outs" and "quick draws" continue through July 4th.

12" x 16" Oil on Panel

I've entered three paintings (all painted this week) into the main competition, but unfortunately won't be in any of the "paint outs" this year due to other commitments. The show runs through July the fourth (except Sunday) and is free to the public. All paintings are for sale. For more information about the event, contact Midway Art Association.

14" x 11" Oil on Panel

A Late Summer Path

9" x 12" Oil on Panel

It's early September. Fall is less than three weeks away, but daytime temperatures are still in the 90's (F). High in the mountains maples are beginning to turn their autumn red color. Meanwhile, down here in the valley, it still feels very much like summer. 

The painting shown above was painted west of Springville, near where Hobble Creek empties into the lake. Tall grass lines the pathway, and yellow flowers seem to reflect the color of the summer sun. Willow trees and cottonwoods wear their darkest summer green. Grasshoppers hopped about in abundance. Barn swallows flitted and darted through the air in preparation for, I imagine, their yearly migration south. It was a great day to go for an afternoon walk down a country road!

Phthaloranosaurus Rex, or How to paint with Phthalo Green

9" x 12" Oil on Panel

Well meaning people can sometimes cause problems.

A friend of mine owned some oil paints from a while ago when he had an interest in painting. Apparently, the muse wandered away from him years ago, and he no longer had interest in, nor use for the paints. He knows I oil paint, so he just dropped those waif-like paints off at my place. Now, there were among those paints some colors I use, like white, black, yellow ochre, and a couple cadmiums. There were a few colors I don't normally use, but can find a place for, such as thio violet. There were a few I don't know what to do with (Dioxazine purple - what the heck?) But red flags went up when I saw those two trouble-making colors, phthalo green and phthalo blue.

I've tried phthalocyanine (phthalo) paints before, years ago. They're inexpensive, lightfast, and strong colors. But "strong" might not be the right word for them. More like obnoxious, overbearing, overpowering, even totalitarian. They can overrun and conquer your entire painting, giving an acidic blue-green cast to the entire work. I've spent a lot of time knocking back the strength of phthalos to get them to the earth tones typical of landscapes instead of the overly assertive colors phthalos want to be. After trying phthalo green and phthalo blue once, I've replaced them with viridian green and cobalt blue.

But now, here they were again. Phthalos. Try saying that out loud without spitting all over your computer screen. I didn't want them. I wanted to throw them away. I thought about taking the caps off the paint tubes and tossing them out the car window as I sped down a busy highway. Then later I might go back to see what color the highway had become. But no, I decided to give those two annoyingly brilliant colors one more try.

A palette which includes phthalos needs strong checks and balances, and I already had a good counter color - cadmium red. Not only is red the complementary color to green, but cadmium red is a dirty mixer, and can even be useful in toning down phthalo blue. In the painting shown at the top of this post, the sky was painted with phthalo blue and titanium white, toned down with cadmium red, ultramarine blue, and maybe touches of a few other colors. The trees in the painting were done using phthalo green, with cadmium red - a lot of it - and cadmium yellow to tone down and warm up the greens. A mix of thio violet* and ultramarine blue, with a little yellow, were added to phthalo green for the darkest parts of the trees. Again, small amounts of other colors made their way into the painting's trees, but I don't remember all the details.

I was happy with how phthalo green and phthalo blue worked in this painting. A few more examples of paintings I've made using phthalo colors can be seen in this post and this post. I think I'll keep those two tubes of paint and use them. At least until they're done - then I'll happily go back to viridian and cobalt!

As I drove away from my painting spot, I saw in another direction a huge plume of smoke from a wildfire in the mountains. It kind of reminded me of what can happen to a painting if you don't keep your phthalocyanine under control!

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*Instead of alizarin crimson or quinacridone red.