Meeting Notes, August 6, 2015

8/6/15

Present: Eunice, Tim, Stephanie, Dave, Lola, Carrie, Annie, Betsy, Bill, Jim, Marty, Teresa, Susan, Charles, Leslie, Judith and me (Loretta).

Today's Topic: What mistakes have you made and what have you learned from them? 

(Responses are posted anonymously.)

The first biggest mistake I made when painting an urban scene was to invert the perspective. My instructor pointed it out to me and, when he did, I immediately saw the mistake and now I pay more attention to perspective.

Most of my paintings are mistakes. I don't know if I'm learning from them, but I keep going even though sometimes it's hard to do so.

I've made mistakes over and over, especially when dividing the canvas into interesting combinations. For some reasons, even a high horizon starts dropping lower and lower. I don't find natural light and colors very interesting, so I'm exaggerating the colors now, looking for more contrast.

What we're doing is hard. I'm constantly learning. Fix it or go onto something else. Learn from the mistakes and then go forward. I changed to Rosemary synthetic brushes, which helped a lot. I'm learning to enlarge paintings from small Plein Air paintings.

I realize that I make many mistakes but don't have a clue about them. I've learned more re composition. I've just tried the Zorn palette to simplify and study values more. Pre-mixing colors also helps a lot. Someone once told me, "Don't be afraid to do something badly."

I don't make mistakes! (Laughter) I noticed that I drew too small.

I'd do a painting and then looking at it the next day, it seemed like I was on drugs (laughter), and that the painting was all wrong. I go back and make correction after correction. I do a lot of copying to learn.

Portraits are particularly difficult, especially around the eyes. I should've changed from watercolor to oil sooner than I did because oil can be corrected more easily than watercolor.

Tough question. I painted a portrait of my dog. A friend said it was a good painting, but the painting was rejected in a juried show. My significant other said it was a reproduction in oil and that no art was involved.

I'm "Mr. Mistake." (Laughter) I painted a still life in a studio setting and thank God nothing sharp was around! (Laughter) I thought it was too garish, but another artist there said that it was beautiful and that I should stop and not touch it anymore. The exact likeness wasn't important after all.

Where to start? There are mistakes and then there are Mistakes. When outside, I always squint my eyes re values, and values need contrast. Values are more important than color. As for "Happy Accidents," I remember putting down a long brushstroke on a canvas and liked it so well that I started painting around it and then remembered the goal of making changes and refinements, and then leaving it alone. These days, I'm having the most fun painting backgrounds.

Re mistakes: just keep going.

I've left too much time between paintings. Value and color are important, as well as relating things.

Of my 25 mistakes, one is over-rendering. Paying attention to values will make a successful painting. Local color can be pretty boring, so I'm using lighter colors.

I consider all my paintings mistakes. I don't care at the beginning if there are mistakes. I finish the painting anyway.

I wanted everything to be perfect, but I was told that, "You have to do a lot of bad ones before you do a good one. And, each time you do a bad one, you'll be closer to doing a good one."

Thanks Tim for taking the photos of the paintings today, and thanks Eunice for your support.

Upcoming Events:

Hood River Plein Air competition/exhibition reception is tomorrow night, 8/7/15. 

Susan: I'm creating my own event. Alpenrose Dairy will be celebrating its 100th year next year and I talked to someone there and suggested I put up an exhibition of my work relating to the dairy during the celebration. Looks like that's a go.

Dave: The Museum Rental Sales Gallery told me that Gillette wants one of my paintings to put in an ad they'll be doing.

Leslie: I'm taking a workshop with Don Bishop this coming Saturday and next Sunday. The workshop is 3 to 4 hours; cost is $60.

The friends of easels meets on Mondays in the Gorge. You can always just show up with them.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/tuesdaygorgepainters/?fref=nf

Susan Kuznitsky, Brenda Boylan, Anton Pavlenko and others giving demos and classes at OSA:
http://www.oregonsocietyofartists.com/brushmarks/brushmarks.pdf

For more announcements/events/groups/paint outs: our facebook page:

Pacific Northwest Plein Air starts next Monday follow the blog and Facebook:

(Plein Air Reception, Friday, August 7, 6-8pm)

http://pleinairhoodriver.blogspot.com
https://www.facebook.com/pnwpleinair

Art in the Heart August 7

Plein Air at Washington County:


August 22 is a paint out at Villa Catalana email Burl if you're interested. villacatalana@gmail.com

Today the Thursday drawing club met at Village Coffee because Medley Tea is closed due to repair. 

 Thanks, all for your ideas and sharing your paintings! 

Next week, Thursday, August 13: Suggested table topic: Strong abstract design that "underlies" your painting (as a foundation)...do you have experience with thinking/designing "abstractly" ? What does this idea mean to you? Let's discuss!

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