I drove up the road just a few miles from my house yesterday, into the Okanogan Highlands. Got a couple shots on my camera that were interesting.
Would like to see what Kent can do with such images, or if he is even interested in anything which is not Texas.
> Would like to see what Kent can do with such images, or if he is even interested in anything which is not Texas.
Interesting photos, but until I run out of Texas scenes that need to be painted, I don't think I'd better start on any exotic places like those photos of the ski lodge you posted. I suppose we could photoshop in some agaves, catclaw acacia, and cactus to replace the snow and make it look more like Texas, but how about something like this that I drove past today, instead:
Although these photos may come closer to capturing the forlorn feeling of the snow photos which practically illustrate that famous Robert Frost poem about being stuck in the snow miles from a Starbucks:
Nice photos WV. I like the paint job, or lack thereof, on both houses.
I think the artist who did the cover art for The Hawkline Monster had your scenes in mind:
I like that photo Kent, and I appreciate the fact that you are only interested in Texas scenes. I just thought that your knowledge of Maynard Dixon skies might bring you around to painting Dixon-esque scenes of the Okanogan country... in which such skies abound every day. No worries, if I had your talent, I would paint those skies myself, but you capture it very well in your paintings. For now, all I can do is record it on camera. Just thought you might like the images. Be well, and keep painting.
> I like that photo Kent, and I appreciate the fact that you are only interested in Texas scenes. I just thought that your knowledge of Maynard Dixon skies might bring you around to painting Dixon-esque scenes of the Okanogan country...
Well, my opinion is that the key to painting the landscape or any place is actually to have been there and to have seen first hand what was there that was interesting enough to record. Being there was an important part of Dixon's work. If a person is using photos as a sort of sketchbook to refer to later, I don't think it's unreasonable at all to take five or ten photos of a scene and decide later which one really caught what stands out in recollection about being there.
OK Kent, I understand that Texas is the extent of your world. For a long time it was mine too. But if you ever want to have first hand experience painting somewhere else, you are always welcome here. I will take you up to the border where the cruel white water drowns the vagabond who sleeps too low. Just thought you might like the images, they are right up your alley in terms of sky and light.
was not looking for one-ups-manship from you Kent. just wanted to send you some possible inspiration and some images of light. Take it or leave it.
> just wanted to send you some possible inspiration and some images of light.
I appreciate the thought. Right now, I'm working on two canvases as time permits. One is from a survey I made two years ago in Presidio County. The other is from a ranch in the Hill Country where I've surveyed off and on for years. Nearly all of the things I paint are things I saw either while surveying or were generally somewhere that surveying work took me. The advantage to that is that it gives me time to study a scene in the light that differs with time of day and even in different seasons.
Right now, a good bit of Central Texas is this really bright green of early Spring as the pastures that had been dry thatch in Winter come back to life. I'm not particularly interested in painting spring pastures, but I've been looking anyway for the right combination of other things.
I don't always succeed, but what I want a painting to do is to evoke something beyond just a literal transcription of what the camera saw. For example, a couple of years ago I was driving through Shafter, the old mining town between Marfa and Presidio. It was the late afternoon and I had to stop and take a few photos of Shafter.
One of the photos was this one:
But what interested me about the scene was the old weathered ghost of a trailer beside an adobe house with the Tres Hermanas peaks behind it.
As you can see, some liberties were taken with parts of the photo that worked against what I thought was the tone or mood of the scene. Windows on the wall of the adobe facing the viewer didn't get painted in. The trees alongside the trailer got edited out. Both made the objects look a bit too currently inhabited.
Questions For Kent
How much time do you spend on a painting?
More than a Kent McMillan survey, less or equal?
Do you paint on site? from photos? or from the heart?
Do you use different media?
Do you pencil sketch first?
Well done, the results speak for themselves.
Paul in PA
Questions For Kent
I think he paints by numbers, I mean coordinates. 😉
Questions For Kent
> How much time do you spend on a painting?
> More than a Kent McMillan survey, less or equal?
> Do you paint on site? from photos? or from the heart?
> Do you use different media?
> Do you pencil sketch first?
I'm painting with what is called heavy body acrylic these days. Right out of the tube, it has the consistency of oil paint. Some colors can be thinned out with polymer medium to get semi-transparent glazes.
You don't ask about palette, but I use the following colors and nothing else:
- Titanium White
- Ultramarine Blue (Green Shade)
- Napthol Crimson
- Cadmium Yellow Medium
- Pthalocyanine Green (Blue Shade) and
- Burnt Sienna
It's basic, but versatile.
As for time, it varies with subject and size of canvas. Generally, I probably spend between 4 and 8 hours on an 11 x 14 canvas and twice as much on a 16 x 20. There are some painters who carry on the tradition of plein air painting that originated before color photography. Some painters make small paintings of the subject outdoors and take them back to the studio to use for reference. So far, I've been satisfied to use digital photos for reference.
As for the process of getting the image on the canvas, I spend some time editing the photo that I'm interested in working with and make a color laser copy of it at roughly the same size as the canvas. Then, I just start in with paint, working in an efficient order. For example, if the subject is behind a sky, it's easier to paint the sky first and then paint the object on top of it. With acrylics, the paint dries fast and you can paint over mistakes.
I don't use graphite pencils on the canvas, but just prefer to work with a brush, using a variety of brushes to make different sorts of marks.
Okay, WVCottrell, here it is
> I drove up the road just a few miles from my house yesterday, into the Okanogan Highlands. Got a couple shots on my camera that were interesting.
> Would like to see what Kent can do with such images ...
I've worked on those two images and here's what I've come up with:
It has that Pacific Northwest feel right down to where the spines begin. It's either that or this:
Now, to be completely candid, that last scene really wasn't of the Pacific Northwest. It was a part of a ranch along the Nueces River that looks just like the parts of Oregon I think you have in mind - if you edit out the cactus and the mesquite, that is.
Kent, How Much Tequila Does It Take
to get the hazy mountain look?
My legs are a little wobbly and it is only 8 AM.
Paul in PA
Here is SWMBO's Painting, watercolor, of one of them.
Kent, How Much Tequila Does It Take
> to get the hazy mountain look?
>
> My legs are a little wobbly and it is only 8 AM.
It sounds as if you're about to find out, then. :>
