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.

Brunette

10" x 8" Oil on Panel

A short post, and another two and a half hour or so oil sketch from one of last weeks portrait sessions. A fun model to paint. Colors used for this portrait were the usual: cadmium yellow, cadmium red, ivory black, and titanium white.

For more about portrait sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "portrait", "sketching" or "drawing".

Down in the Valley and up by a Mountain Lake

9" x 12" Oil on Panel

A couple more paintings made in the last little while share this post. The first one was painted west of town, near the lake. My interest was in the distant ridges, and in the clouds passing overhead. Some things in a landscape, like shadows and clouds, move. Moving things are a little more challenging to paint from life. Clouds move even faster than cast shadows, so they get painted first. Whether painting cast shadows or clouds, a quick lay-in starts the process off, then memory is used to finish it. 

9" x 12" Oil on Panel

The second was painted at an alpine lake, nearly 10,000 feet elevation in the Wasatch Mountains. The lake is in the Albion Basin, and is a popular destination for hikers of all ages. Social media and ease of access have made it perhaps a little too popular. The trail is only about two miles from parking area to lake. On this particular day there were so many people winding their way up the trail to the lake that I felt like I was joining a pilgrimage rather than going on a nature hike. The lake and surrounding mountains are nonetheless beautiful. I set up on a rocky point that juts out into the water. From there I painted a group of trees near the shore and across part of the lake.

While painting, I noticed that there were several salamanders swimming around in the lake near me. They are young tiger salamanders, about five or six inches long. A new discovery for me! I haven't seen salamanders in Utah until now.

There were also lots of brightly clad tourists around the lake. Here I was out in "wilderness," and never before have I had so many people standing around me watching me paint! I was glad the rocky point I was on was was relatively narrow, which allowed only so many spectators at a time.

Salamanders can swim in the lake, but according to a sign at the top of the trail, people aren't allowed to. Yet, the cold water of the lake is irresistible to some, and a few people jumped in and began swimming. Several, especially children, waded near shore. Before long, a man (I presume he was a ranger) stood high on a rock on the other side of the lake and yelled at the swimmers to get out of the water. "Can't you read the sign? No swimming!" A uniformed ranger then walked around the lake brusquely telling anyone who had so much as their toes in the water to get out of the water.

The weather that day was wonderful. It wasn't until late in the day that clouds moved in, blocking the sun. Shortly after finishing the painting, I began the hike back down the trail. Peak season for alpine flowers is past, but the meadows the trail wound through were still richly speckled with color. Lupine, paintbrush, aster, and other wildflowers of all colors brightened the meadows along the way. A deer browsed near meadow's edge by a stand of evergreen trees.

Mutton Chops

7" x 5" Oil on Canvas Panel

Our model for the portrait session last Thursday was fun to paint. I arrived a little late so I had to set up way over on the side, as all the spots in front of the model were already taken. Because of that, I only got to paint one mutton chop, not both. That would have been twice as much fun!

This little painting was made, as usual, with just three colors, plus titanium white. Cadmium yellow and cadmium red were used, but instead of ivory black I used a Holbein color called "blue black."

For more about portrait sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "portrait", "sketching" or "drawing".

Down in the Valley and up on a Mountain Ridge

9" x 12" Oil on Panel

Here are two paintings made recently in the July heat. The first one is of marsh willows near the lake. The temperature that day was over 100° F. The paper towels I use to wipe paint off of brushes became damp from sweat running down my arm as I worked. 

When I first arrived at this spot, some ducks in a little canal (shown in the painting) were startled. The ducks, which included a few adults, some half-grown ducklings, and some very young ducklings, took off up the stream. That is, all but the littlest ducklings, who seemed unalarmed by everything. The group of little fluffy yellow ducklings paddled around through the duckweed apparently unconcerned by my presence. I kind of enjoyed their company.

9" x 12" Oil on Panel

One way to beat the summer heat is to head up into the mountains. The second painting was painted on a granite ridge way up Big Cottonwood Canyon in the Wasatch Mountains.

I'm not real familiar with Big Cottonwood Canyon, so after parking in a ski resort parking lot I just picked a trail and began hiking, confident I would find something to paint. The steep trail wound up past big stands of aspens and evergreens, and through alpine meadows covered with dazzling wildflowers of every color. I came across several scenes that would have been worth a painting, but I could see a couple trees high up on a ridge and kept pushing on to reach them. Storm clouds moved in, but I set to painting anyways. 

As I painted, I noticed that about a hundred and fifty yards or so down the slope from me, a moose lay at the edge of a meadow near a thick stand of evergreens. The moose's ears were constantly flicking, no doubt against mosquitoes like the ones that were beginning to bother me. Other wildlife I saw that day were a couple mule deer in their red summer coats, and a golden-mantled ground squirrel that briefly ventured out onto the granite boulders I was painting. 

The storm clouds never dropped rain nor produced any lightning. The storm of mosquitoes, however, was becoming nearly intolerable. By the end of the painting I was killing mosquitoes two or three per swat. Unfortunately, my insect repellent was with my sunscreen, forgotten and left back in the car. In spite of that, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, and the wonderful beauty of the alpine meadows and granite peaks and ridges. I'm definitely looking forward to more painting trips up into both Big Cottonwood and Little Cottonwood canyons, next time with insect repellent, of course.

Yellow, Red, Black and White

10" x 8" Oil on Panel

A few more from the weekly portrait sessions. As mentioned in the posts title, these were painted with a limited palette. When painting plein air landscapes, I usually use some kind of split primary plus green. For studying portraits at the weekly sessions, I limit colors to a modified "Zorn" palette;  usually yellow ochre (or cadmium yellow), cadmium red, ivory black, and titanium white. I probably won't always use that palette for painting people, but it serves it's purpose for now.

10" x 8" Oil on Panel

The first two portraits shown here are the most recent ones. They were painted with only yellow ochre, cadmium red, ivory black, and titanium white. The last portrait was painted a month or so ago, and I don't remember the exact paints used.

10" x 8" Oil on Panel

The last portrait is of Micah Christensen. Micah is an art historian and lecturer who's work takes him to places all over the country and around the globe. He was good enough to sit for us one Thursday evening at Casey Child's studio. This portrait could have been better, but rather than hold still, Micah talked for the whole three hours. I was OK with that because of what he had to say about artists of the past, the art world of yesteryear and today, and what the future could hold for the visual arts. I was happy for the opportunity to listen to him while I painted. For more information about Micah Christensen, click here. While you're at it, be sure to check out his lectures, articles and other presentations about 18th and 19th century visual arts at The Bearded Roman.

For more about portrait sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "portrait", "sketching" or "drawing".