Painting Changing Light on the Landscape

Croton Reservoir, June, 2010, oil, 9 x 12. Collection the artist.

After painting on location for about 16 years, I can finally get past the challenges of controlling the oil colors well enough to record what I see and, instead, I can focus on the momentary conditions of light, atmosphere, and mood. That makes the experience more satisfying and the paintings more appealing to observers.

Recently I went back to a foot bridge over the Croton Reservoir to paint a familiar scene, and I spent about 2 hours capturing the layers of greens influenced by the light and the distance. I knew from the moment I started the painting that the most important aspects of the scene were the way the sunlight cut between the first and second arc of trees and the clouds bleached by the hot, mid-day sunlight. Painting the land formations depended on balancing warm and cool greens (warm: ultramarine blue + cadmium medium; cool: Winsor blue + cadmium lemon), as well as the dark, middle, and light values; and recording the cloud pattern called for softening the edges of shapes painted with warm whites (titanium white with a touch of transparent oxide red) and blues (ultramarine and Winsor blue).

Lots of people stopped as they were biking and jogging over the bridge, and they made both stupid and profound comments. One woman asked if I had painted the picture, making me wonder if she thought I bought it a Wal Mart and brought it to the location; and a serious biker stopped to ask if I might sell the painting. The man didn't actually purchase the painting, but I was flattered that he thought my painting captured all the reasons he enjoyed nature.

P.S. Everyone who stopped to admire my painting was pleased that I eliminated the telephone wires crossing over the dam.

Suggesting Motion in Landscape Paintings

Schneider's Willows, 2010, oil, 9 x 12.

While photographing Bill Schneider's workshop on composition in his Illinois studio (www.schneiderart.com), I took a couple of hours to paint a large willow tree next to a pond in the back yard. I designed the arrangement of shapes to suggest the movement of a gentle breeze that was coursing its way across the lawn through the trees and causing the branches to brush along the surface of the water. I'm writing about Bill's five-day class for the fall issue of Workshop magazine (www.artistdaily.com).

Bill studied with Daniel Gerhartz (www.danielgerhartz.com) and has a large collection of his work on display in his home. It was fascinating to see so many of Dan's figure paintings in one place, and I was in awe of the way he uses a few strokes of thick paint to define the elaborate figures, costumes, and backgrounds of his paintings.

Thomas S. Buechner 1927-2010

Still Life by Thomas S. Buecher, 1998, alkyd, 14 x 11.

Portrait of Clare Doherty Deyo, by Thomas S. Buecher, 1998, alkyd, 14 x 11.


Portrait of Michael Lindsay Doherty, by Thomas S. Buechner, 1998, alkyd, 14 x 11.

I lost a great friend and mentor on Sunday with the death of Thomas S. Buechner. During his long and distinguished career, he had been director of the Brooklyn Museum, President of Steuben Glass, Director of the Corning Museum, and a board member of many foundations and art organizations. But I'm sure what Tom would prefer to be remembered as is an artist because he always managed to stay active as a painter of landscapes, still lifes, and portraits.

I first met Tom in 1979 when he took me to lunch in the King Cole Room of the St Regis Hotel so we could begin an interview that resulted in one of several articles I wrote on his work for American Artist magazine. We continued the interview aboard the Corning Glass corporate jet when Tom took my to his studio in Corning, and I never stopped learning from him over the course of the next 30 years. He introduced me to plein air painting, did portraits of my two children, sold me still life paintings, and gave me valuable advice about editing the magazine.

I often quoted Tom in my editorials, blog, and lectures because he said relevant and quotable things. For example, he remarked that "the older I get, the more attractive the subject matter becomes that is closest to the bathroom." And when telling me how to make small plein air paintings look important, he said "if you want it sold, frame it in gold." But aside from offering those amusing quips, he had a friendly way of challenging me to do my very best work. I'm sure he did the same with others.

I had lunch with Tom last fall and he said he didn't remember every saying the things I attributed to him, but he appreciated the mention and wanted me to continue giving him credit for such sage and humorous advice. I certainly will do that.

I received a letter just a few weeks ago from Tom and he made no mention of the lymphoma that was bringing his rich life to a close, but then he wouldn't. I'm assuming he wrote to a number of people over the past few months as a way of saying good bye without really saying he was leaving. Instead, he thanked me for recognizing him as an artist and publishing articles on his use of alkyd paints and mediums, how he used photographs as source material and avoided the mechanical look of the photograph, traveling efficiently while painting supplies, and a number of other topics. He also urged me not to become a bitter old man now that I am semi-retired but, rather, to focus on the new opportunities before me. I will try to do that, always remembering that many of those opportunities were provided to me by the friend whose voice I will continue to hear and whose paintings I will continue to enjoy.

Painting Rushing Water

Continuing my efforts to paint bodies of water, I set up my easel along the creek by the home of my friends Jack Beal and Sondra Freckelton. I drew outllines of the major shapes with thin oil color mixed with Wingel alkyd medium on a 9" x 12" panel, designing the composition to suggest deep space and layers of atmosphere. I then blocked in the major shapes with more thin oil color mixed with Wingel, and then refined those shapes with paint mixed with a small amount of linseed oil.

Landscape Painting in Oil: Plein Air on the Croton River

I used my HD Flip camera to record the progress of a painting I did along the Croton River over a two hour period.

8 Tips on Painting Landscapes in Oil

The view from above the Hamilton/Appel home in upstate New York

Tip 1: Draw the composition with a blue/purple oil color mixed with fast-drying alkyd medium.
Tip 2: Paint from the top to the bottom of the canvas, and from the background to the foreground of the space so the layers overlap coming forward.

Tip 3: Warm the horizon line by painting a mix of titanium white, yellow ochre, and quinacridone red to create the sense of distant light and to separate the layers.

Tip 4: Paint distant forms so they have less contrast and more blue/purple; and lighten those colors at the bottom of each horizontal band to separate the layers of space.

Tip 5: Toward the end of the painting process, add linseed oil or painting medium to the color mixtures to slow the drying time.

Tip 6: After painting an area, soften the edges of the shapes by gently rubbing them with a clean, dry brush.

Tip 7: To paint highlights, mix the colors with alkyd white (often called "fast-drying white") or a stiff medium (stand oil or sun-thickened linseed oil) so they sit on top of the blended colors.

Tip 8: Make sure to have a diagonal shape that leads viewers into the paint, and zig-zag the flow of shapes to take viewers through the entire picture.

"Hamilton/Appel Home," 2010, oil, 11 x 14. Collection the artist.

Talking about the painting process in terms of "tips" may be overly simplistic and obvious, but it's a handy way of sharing some of the advice I've received from artists I've interviewed over the years. In my experience, that advice helps record a lot of information in a short period of time (2 + 1/2 hours, in this case), it helps convey the sense of atmosphere and space in a landscape, and it helps capture the beauty of the location.

Painting Waterfalls No. 1

The subject in a state park on the border of Massachusetts and New York.

Step 1: The major shapes blocked in in shades of purple and gray

Step 2: Adding a poster-like display of the local colors.

The completed painting: Bash Bish Falls in May, oil, 14 x 11.

I've started painting a series of waterfalls because there is something so appealing about the subject, and because I want a more romantic, atmospheric look to the finished paintings I'm softening edges before the paint dries. I'll add hard edges as I get close to finishing the paintings while leaving some areas soft and gestured. I'm adding linseed oil to the paint mixtures to slow the drying time and therefore allow me to blend the edges after I've blocked in the major shapes.

I did a plein air sketch at one of the most popular waterfalls in the region, Bash Bish Falls, a natural phenomenon on the border of Massachusetts and New York that was drawn and painted dozens of times by the likes of John F. Kensett. I mixed M. Graham's walnut alkyd medium into the oil colors because it is a high-gloss medium that dries more slowly than other alkyd mediums. I wanted to be able to blend the oil colors throughout the painting process and mediums like Galkyd would have caused the paint to dry too quickly. I finished the sketch in about 90 minutes and took photographs I can use to develop a larger studio painting of the scene.

I'm also working on waterfall paintings in my studio that are based on photographs I took in Hawaii and at the New York Botanical Gardens. I'll post those when they are finished.