Meeting Notes, October 20, 2016


At today’s meeting Eunice, Tedd, Mike, Nancy, John, Stephanie, JoAnn, Vicki, Annie, Thomas, Susan, Jeanie, Tim, Harry, Loretta, Mary, and me Celeste.

Today’s table topic: Visual depth in representational painting. Can you make suggestions for depicting near and far in all painting; landscape, still life and figure?

Celeste: It is true that no matter what you are painting you have to indicate what is closer and what is farther away. Of course, you have to use perspective and you have to use color recession. I brought in three paintings where I seemed to have achieved pretty good depth.

John: I would agree that perspective, size and color are important. The more intense colors are generally in the front and less intense colors are in the background.

Stephanie: In landscape color intensity is a big issue. There is more detail in the front, less in the middle ground and even less in the background.  In still life you also need variation in intensity. A good way to show depth in painting is with an indication of scale. I am showing two recent paintings where I believe I was able to imply depth.

Joanne: After the Strada easel I felt I was better at making composition decisions. The challenges I’ve been in lately have given me opportunities to practice atmospheric perspective. I am showing you a painting where I overlapped elements to indicate depth and also a recent plein air painting.

Vicki: We all know these rules, but it is great to revisit them and talk about them. Atmospheric perspective is necessary in landscape painting. (That is the cooling off of colors as things recede). I am showing recent plein air paintings.

Annie: I pass on this topic

Susan: When I first went to Hipbone Studio I took a figure sculpture class. I learned so much from that and it informed my paintings. I learned a lot about how things look and are “in space”. I am showing you today a painting that was commissioned. You remember that I also painted the Rose Festival Queen this year. I painted her wearing her crown and when I did this painting of fish I was struck by how similar the silver in the crown was to the silver of these fish. One painting teaches you how to paint another. I won’t be here for a few weeks because I’m going to teach a workshop in Hawaii. (Applause)!

Mary: I really like that you have these topics. It makes me think about past paintings and future paintings. In regard to depth, I know that doing value studies is very good. I am showing a studio painting and painting I did in Anton Pavlenko’s class.

Jeanie: I have been working on big paintings. Pass on this topic.

Nancy: I have to continually work on this issue. The near and far is so important. I have been painting in the lavender fields and every time I am there it is always sunny. Recently I did an experiment where I painted the lavender in the rain! I am showing you the results. I am also showing you a painting I did at the Beaverton Quick Draw.

Loretta: When I started painting I reversed perspective. I had sort of a dyslexia about it. I eventually got it together! I know that during the Renaissance they painted blue veils in the background to make things go back into space. Value, temperature and size are the important components to describe depth.

Eunice: I have been working on my series. I will have something to show soon. Cooling off colors is important in color recession.

Tedd: What I think about: light in the back, dark in the front.

Mike: The way I achieve depth ….is to throw it into the recycle bin. (laughter)!
I have had art conversations with youngsters…I point out to them that they should just look at things. I will say look at the trees in the background there-- what color do you think that is? And look at these trees here in the foreground what color do you think these are? It is all easy to understand when you really look.

Tim: Here are three of my recent paintings.

Thomas: What we are doing is creating an illusion on a flat surface. You have to situate things onto the picture plane --that is your job. “Ways to Achieve depth”:

1.     Overlap elements
2.      Vary scale or size of elements
3.     Convergence also referred to as perspective
4.     Atmospheric color shift  (observe the distance-- are you after a red blue a cobalt blue, a cerulean blue? it will be a struggle with the wrong one..and don’t fall into the trap though of thinking that it’s always blue.
5.     loss of contrast and contrast
6.     edges
7.      Chroma and strength of hue
8.     Thickness of paint (thick opaque paint will always appear closer).

I have brought in a Jennifer Mcchristian painting. It is a great example of near and far. Cezanne, of course, threw everything I just talked about out the window and did it his way. I would recommend a book called “Changing perspectives of Pictorial space” by Dunning.


Announcements:

 Congratulations Thomas Kitts for winning third-place in the Cape Anne plein air event

 Thomas Kitts at the Brian Marki

Oleg Ulitskiy at Art on the Boulevard

Congratulations, Jennifer Diehl, Aimee Erickson, Brenda Boylan, James McGrew Laguna beach plein air

Watch for and participate in upcoming daily painting challenges on facebook.

Medley Tea is looking for artists contact them and send them an email with samples of your work

ReMax artists reception Sunday noon


Remembering Mark Larsen at Mt Tabor 

Next meeting Thursday, October 27 suggested table topic:  "Interiors" have you ever painted an interior as subject matter? What has been your experience? Let's Discuss!

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