Oil Painting

You are all packed up and ready to travel with your painting gear. You’ve checked your list carefully. Tripod, paints, brushes, pochade box, palette knives, canvas, trash bag, paper towels, brush cleaner…CHECK…You’ve got it ALL and are set to go! Wait a minute, there is one more essential tool. It’s indispensable. The simple bungee cord with hooks is the most useful and versatile “tool” a traveling artist can have. It has served me well in numerous instances of the “unplanned”.  By unplanned, I mean the cursing under your breath kind of situation. After a long pause considering what to do – it comes to me. My ingenuity finally kicks in. I may have a solution for the conundrum at hand! The magical BUNGEE CORD! 

I believe the first instance of the bungee cord becoming an essential item in my process was during a plein air competition in Virginia. The scenery was stunning, but the rain would not let up. I had a tarp (another useful item!) and bungee cords in my SUV. I was able to put the back hatch up, set up my easel and extend the tarp over my easel using bungee cords to attach the tarp stretching from the back hatch to my easel. Since that time, I have packed them wherever I go to paint! It has saved the day more than a few times during my painting expeditions.  

On another occasion, my younger son borrowed my car, leaving me unable to drive. I still wanted to get to a particular location to paint. A bicycle was available, so I decided to attach a child buggy to the back of the bike to hold all of my painting gear and a large stretched canvas. I set off to paint at a nearby waterfront location, feeling rather proud of my makeshift plein air painting transportation. I arrived safely at my spot along the Chesapeake. I completed a painting that I was quite pleased with. How do I get it back home, though? The part of painting on location that can be trickiest is getting your completed painting back to safety without damaging the wet paint. I was concerned that biking back with a large completed painting without messing it up was not going to be possible. I eventually used the cords to thread them through the back stretcher bars and hook them onto the buggy so that the wet painting surface was facing out. I cycled home from that spot quite proud of my ingenuity. All who passed by could see the eccentric woman on her bike with the large painting trailing behind like a huge “I’m an artist” license plate. I rode the few miles back safely to my home. Thanks bungee cords!

July is the most sweltering month on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and that is when Plein Air Easton occurs. I found an unusual location to set up and paint a breathtaking view of a marshy stream stretching out in the distance. This view, however, was located right next to the local Target. The ideal spot to set up turned out to be a sidewalk with absolutely no shade. How would I get shade? I did have a beach umbrella but no base or soft ground to put it in. Fortunately, I had a very stable and strong easel that I weighed down with my gear and was able to bungee cord the umbrella to it.  The bungee cord held the umbrella in place at an angle, keeping the morning sun off of me as well as my canvas and pochade box.

While in Santa Fe, NM, I decided to paint from the top of a hill in order to get an expansive view. It was a very windy afternoon. As I was setting up, one of the legs on my tripod broke. The view was spectacular, and I felt committed to figure out a way to paint it. After a bit of contemplation, I used my bungee cord to attach the broken leg to the pole of an old building. This gave my easel some stability and allowed me to paint despite the windy conditions. While it was definitely far from ideal, I was able to complete two small paintings from that vantage point.

Most recently, I had an opportunity to paint in Provence, France. When packing for the trip I was careful not to over pack, as I had to watch the weight of my case for traveling abroad. The items that I was certain to include, however, were a few of my trusted bungee cords! I had traveled with my smaller tripod and pochade box, but didn’t have an easel large enough for the 47” x 47” inch canvas I was supplied with. After collecting potential items from the home I stayed in, I attempted to create something to support the canvas. I ended up using two-step ladders, a couple of plastic crates, and my two bungee cords to attach the canvas to the ladders, with the bottom of the canvas resting on the ladders. It turned out to be the perfect “easel”. Even with strong wind gusts, the painting and makeshift easel stayed in place!

I predict my bungees will continue to be useful in new and unexpected ways in the future. I recommend having at least 3 at your disposal, one smaller and too slightly larger. I certainly didn’t expect to feel moved to write an OPA blog about something like a bungee cord. After giving it some thought, however, I went ahead, and my hope is that it can save the day for my fellow artists. Do you already pack them? Perhaps you have an unusual “essential” that you take with you on painting excursions, or use in the studio? I would love to hear about it! Please leave your ideas in the comment section. Happy painting!

“If we don’t always understand animals, they always understand us.” – Rosa Bonheur

When I was 10 years old I painted my cat. Long into adulthood, my mother kept insisting it was the best painting I ever created. Half-jokingly, she compared all my works to The Portrait of Matros (my cat’s name, means “sailor” in Russian). The paintings she liked were praised as “almost as good”. My mom thought in that small watercolor, 40+ years ago, I captured our cat’s soul. 

Up until my 50^th birthday, art was my passion but not a career. In the mid-90s, as a new immigrant with art education, no English, and two young kids, I could only dream of becoming a “real artist”. Learning how to use a computer and getting a full time job in a field of graphic design was a reasonable solution. I took my painting supplies out of storage when my twin sons got behind the wheel — what else could I possibly do with all the extra time I suddenly had? Yet my subjects were anything but animals. Flowers, still life, some figurative works, some landscapes, but almost never animals. I’ve experimented with different styles, trying to invent “my own”. For quite a while, I was playing with elements of cubism, bright colors, sharp angles, and geometrical shapes. I was exhibiting and selling some works, but this was not enough to make it anywhere beyond local art fairs. To completely change my career, or to say it better, to actually start my career as an artist — it took another cat.

My mother was trying to convince me I needed a small short-haired cat. I wanted a Maine Coon, the largest domestic breed with long silky fur. Rio came from a cattery in Ohio during the 2016 Olympics, hence the name. When my mom first saw my new kitten, she said, “It’s meant to be, he looks like Matros.” Needless to say, I was absolutely in love with my new fur baby. Two years later, Rio developed an orthopedic condition and needed surgery. Seeing the poor guy suffer was heartbreaking. I painted his portrait, Furry Beast, as my own art therapy. Immediately, I got a brilliant idea — aha, I’ll do pet portrait commissions to cover the cost of his treatment. I advertised on social media with zero results. However, a few of my friends saw my struggle and ordered portraits of their pets — and up to this day I’m incredibly grateful to them. The most amazing thing happened in the process. Something clicked. That was it. I was completely and totally hooked and in my element. I knew I was going to keep painting animals. 

The change in subject completely changed my painting style. Or it rather took me back to my original traditional good-old-Russian art training. I didn’t need to invent “my own style” anymore, it was naturally driven by my subjects. Faceted shapes and sharp edges did not work for soft fluffy animals. Instead, came bold expressive alla prima brushstrokes, painterly passages along with tighter details, and a need to describe form. I realized that using stylistic embellishments was a convenient way to cover up the lack of knowledge and technical skills in realistic representational painting. It made me work hard on honing my craft — watching other artists, taking workshops, and painting, painting, painting. 

2020 hit hard. Pancreatic cancer took my mom away from us right before the COVID shutdown. She had always been my greatest supporter yet most objective and equitable critic. I’m glad she saw my first animal paintings, and she approved. Her feedback on my Conspirators was, “Absolutely human-looking muzzles. They simply have smart faces.” She didn’t like my title though, she thought it was too descriptive and I should let the viewers come up with their own story.

I remember sharing progress shots of Girlfriends with mom. She said they looked sad. I argued that cows always look sad; they’re simply romantics. Later that year, this painting was accepted into the OPA 2020 Eastern Regional, sold before the official opening date, and selected as a finalist by the 15th ARC Salon. It was my first real success as a painter, a sign that, at last, I was doing something right. I only wished my mother could still be here to see it.

Cows became my most popular animals. Never tired of their faces, I’ve probably painted enough cows for a decent size dairy farm over the last couple years. My creative process behind it is almost always the same: as the snout begins taking shape, I start smiling and keep painting with a silly smile on my face while talking to an imaginary cow, wondering if psychiatrists out there have a name for my condition. I joked that the reason I love painting cows is because they accept their natural beauty — no cow has ever asked me to remove her double chin or to make her nose smaller, and they are also perfectly fine with their facial hair. 

My subjects are mostly farm animals and pets. Pets, I believe, deserve even more attention and recognition in art. They are there for us when we need them, they took us through pandemic, they keep us sane and for sure make us better people. When painting pets, my goal always is to understand and portray their personalities. For commissioned portraits, I ask my clients to share stories about their pets. For my own pieces, I like adding some narrative.  

Why Are You Still Home? was painted in isolation of April, 2020. During this sad and uncertain time, grieving for my mother, I needed all the cuteness and humor I could possibly get to make it through. A friend of mine came up with the title for this piece after I posted it on Facebook. 

I love adding a healthy dose of humor to my paintings. When I see people smile as they look at my works, it makes me happy. Of course the animals can be silly and amusing, but we all know they are also super smart. After taking care of my Rio recovering after his surgeries, I’m in awe of his resilience, persistence, and desire to survive. I have a huge respect for my subjects as there’s so much we all can learn from them. They always have a story to tell, and I’m trying to do my best transcribing their stories and capturing their souls.

Keith Jarret’s Koln Concert was playing in the background the other day as I completed the dreaded task of clearing out my studio. I would so much rather be painting, but since I was moving soon, I had to start the process. As I listened to the jazz pianist maestro, I heard his famed grunts and groans during the recording of his most well-known concert. When I was younger, I thought these expressions came from a place of passion and rapture. After hearing a report on this performance, I now know these are sounds of pure frustration over limitations. It turns out, the only piano available had high and low notes that were not functioning. He was forced to play within a limited range, and the music he made put him on the map.

We all have limitations in our lives. Necessary tasks take away from the endless hours I wish I had to paint. My own lovely children (two boys, ages 12 & 13), have presented limitations in my life that I continue to grapple with. As my mother ages, I have a feeling she will replace my children as a force that draws me away from the easel. However, as I study oil painting more, I realize that there is freedom in limitations. The wisdom and revelations of the Zorn palette is a classic example. I will share here a very real application of limitations, and how it freed my painting to become more nuanced and focused.

During the waning days of lockdown, I decided to further my studies with a year of color theory with Skip Whitcomb (through the Tucson Academy). His research into the lost art of color schemes is invaluable. Concurrently, I was gifted a lifetime collection of oil paints by a former student who could no longer paint. Gazing at the rainbow array of paint tubes that I would normally never purchase, I realized Skip’s class came at the perfect time. How can I make sense of this variety? How can I be intentional with my palette so that my paintings don’t end up looking garish? Skip’s course and this gift gave me some answers.

As I progressed in the class, Skip tasked us with finding the colors that emerge from set color schemes: triads, complementary, double-complementary, split complementary, and so on. I discovered one of my favorite color schemes, a complementary plan of red and green: Cadmium Scarlet, Alizarin Crimson, and Transparent Red Oxide, across from Viridian and Cadmium Green. I completed the prerequisite color map using these hues. In Skip’s class, we used a variety of values to explore what a particular color scheme can produce. If it gives us what we need, we can proceed with a finished piece. The studio piece I finished with this plan is called Wildland Revival.

Fast-forward to this past spring: I got a call to join some friends for a painting trip in Southeast Utah. Wanting to field-test this limited palette idea, I brought the red-green collection of paints. I threw in a full range of hues, just in case I lost my nerve, or if they truly did not provide the needed range. My intention was to explore this red-green scheme to its outer limits, and it did not disappoint.

Just as that rainbow collection of paint tubes presented an overwhelming number of options, so too did the grand beauty of SE Utah give me too many paths to take. By limiting my palette and relying on the grace of color relativity, I was able to control the other wild cards in the landscape. My viridian began to sing of blue skies and cool shadows. The cadmium green offered warm yellow tones to complement the violet canyon walls. What could have been considered stifling became a way to explore the area in bite-size, digestible ways. 

Here are a few paintings completed on that trip, including Tapestry, which was accepted in the OPA Western Regional Exhibit this autumn in Dallas, TX.

Time limitations in my life have spurred a disciplined approach to managing my routine and blocking out my day. Geographic limitations, such as living far from a city center, force me to appreciate what the local landscape has to offer. And, by choosing a limited palette, I can focus on other aspects of a painting, knowing that there will be an inherent harmony in the end. As long as those factors meet my basic needs, I am usually better off keeping things simple. It’s amazing how much I discover within the confines of limitations. I become free from dependence on variety and surplus. 

My first career was as an art director for advertising agencies in New York City in the mid-1980s. Around that time, I took classes at night at the School of Visual Arts. These classes were primarily for aspiring art directors and copywriters, and focused on developing creative, original concepts with strong advertising messages. And as with painting, that was a skill that required practice, experience, and knowledge of what’s been done in the past. 

The title of my article, “What’s the Big Idea?” was actually the title of one of those classes. The class’s instructor did an amazing job of getting across to us—sometimes with humor, and sometimes more bluntly—that the best advertising begins with a very focused concept. 

This instructor and others (all of whom were full-time art directors, copywriters and creative directors at successful agencies) stressed that it’s vitally important to first zero in on one succinct statement, and then develop individual messages from that overall umbrella idea. This is basically how an ad campaign is developed. If the advertising relies too heavily on only catchy phrases or flashy graphics, the message isn’t as powerful as when there’s one specific, overall concept that serves as the driving force behind each individual ad. Clever wordplays, or even humor can sometimes augment the message, but a focused concept is always the most important.

If you’ve ever seen the movie “What Women Want” (a film that came out in 2000 with Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt) the plot is set in an advertising agency, and I think it is one of the few movies that accurately portrays the thought process that advertising creatives use to come up with a “big idea”. Maybe it’s done differently these days, but this is how we did it when I worked in the field. The comical premise of the movie leverages how much of that process of conceptualizing an initial idea is a mental challenge that has to come first before anything visual or written can be developed. Mel Gibson’s career-greedy character suddenly has the magical ability to read the inner thoughts of Helen Hunt’s character. In the movie, they develop an ad campaign concept for Nike directed toward women. Their concept is “No Games. Just Sports.” That concept would become the umbrella idea for the individual advertising messages from Nike to their female demographic. 

Now, after nearly 30 years from when I moved on from my advertising career, I’m realizing that my most successful landscape paintings are those for which I first identify a distinct visual concept. Since I love to paint light in the landscape, my concept usually revolves around light in some way. My goal however, is to pinpoint a very specific visual idea regarding what’s special about the landscape, and how I’m responding to it. Whatever idea I choose to use, that idea becomes the driving force for how I handle each area of the painting, so that the painting as a whole will clearly convey the original big idea. Some areas of the painting will simply serve a supporting role to the main concept. 

For example, if I were to identify light skimming the top of a snow-covered rocky slope as my big idea, I would address the overall composition, and each supporting area of the painting so that it best showcases that light skimming the snow and rocks on the slope (as I did with the painting shown at the top of this article). The composition may also have trees and grasses, and the sky peeking through the trees, but those elements would be edited so they support the central theme.  If instead my concept was to feature the light peeking through the trees, I would create a very different composition that emphasizes that area as the star of the show, with alternative portions of the composition edited to supporting roles. 

To further explain, I’ll show examples of my paintings and describe the big idea behind each:

Big Idea: Radiant light reflected from the rocks and water. I set up the composition for this piece purposely to showcase the patterns of strong light and brilliant blue sky bouncing off of the rocks and water. It’s tempting to define more of the distant area on the other side of the river, but that part of the composition plays only a supporting role so was kept at a minimum.

Big Idea: As stated right in the title, the passage of light. Sometimes the title comes first before I pick up a brush, which helps me stay on track with my concept. This painting’s message revolves around the pull of the sunlit pathway into the trees, summoning the viewer to follow the light and explore further into the landscape. Notice that I continued the light into the distance, but edited it quite a bit to keep the initial passage of light as the main idea.

Okay, so painting concepts aren’t usually as clever as advertising ones (although some certainly can be). And it may seem like my painting concepts are fairly obvious. But when an artist looks across an overwhelming view of a landscape, a distinct painting idea (what to emphasize about the landscape) may not be readily apparent. There are often many different directions the artist can take regarding how to portray a portion of that landscape. The point I hope to make here is that the more you can focus a visual idea, the bigger the impact your painting will have.

I paint outdoors regularly so that I can gain a genuine understanding of my subjects. But many of my own favorite pieces that I feel have a strong visual message resulted from long hikes during which I took many hours to absorb what’s particularly striking about the landscape I explored. Sometimes I bring a small painting kit for mini color studies on these hikes, but more often it’s quick pencil sketches and detailed notes that accompany my reference photos that I bring back to the studio. With this approach, I can hone in on a certain magical element that stuck with me during my outdoor experience. Then back in the studio, I take my time to carefully explore studies that clearly convey that specific observation.

Big Idea: Magical evening light reflected on the mountainside. The colors on the mountain are quite elusive to photograph but breathtakingly magical in person. For this scene, I relied on careful notetaking with color charts along with sketches on location during an all-day hike. I followed that with multiple studio studies. Besides recording the color information firsthand, absorbing the brilliant visual effects throughout that day contributed to how I expressed my response to the subject.

Big Idea: Delicate branches showcased by strong backlighting.  On location, an array of possible compositions presented themselves to me. Some of those compositions would have had me use the long cast shadows as the main idea. However, for this painting, I used the backlighting to feature the delicate edgework of the lacy branches, both in front of the light and within the resulting deep cast shadows. 

Big Idea: Way up high. This one is all about being way up near the top of this mountain, and that feeling one gets when standing on a mountain high above everything else and can see for miles. The arrangement of the grass and snow patterns, and their converging sizes, as they lead toward the sliver of light in the sky all contribute to that feeling.

I have to admit that sometimes when I’m painting outside with my full gear, I can get caught up in the technical particulars as I’m racing against the light. Again, it’s only when I nail down a specific visual idea and use the short window of time wisely that I produce what I feel is a successful field study.

Big Idea: Colorful shadows in the rock. Although I often like to focus on the light hitting the rock structures when I paint at this locale, the large shadow mass here had such varied yet subtle temperature shifts, that I focused on nudging the range of color temperatures to show off those shifts. I kept all else in the composition secondary to this main idea.

Thinking back to my advertising days, I remember poring over the most creative, award-winning ads of the time, aspiring to reach that level. And now, of course, I do the same with the work of my favorite painters. In both fields, I realize that the work that packs the biggest punch always starts with a big ole solid idea!