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Racing in the Dark

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The Bird Watcher by © Lyn Boyer
9″ x 12″ – Oil on linen
Oil Painters of America National Wet Paint Competition 2020 – Award of Merit

Meet Bean, a diminutive black rescue dog with a randomly crooked smile. Bat Dog impersonator, she races the wind cape flying – when she’s wearing one, and in her mind, I’m sure of it, when she’s not. Bean races. In the dark.

As artists, we may on occasion run headlong into a period of personal darkness. Creativity slips through our fingers, we instinctively tighten our grip and plunge over an emotional cliff, watching the last vestige of inspiration fade like smoke. Darkness closes in.

THE DOOM WHISPERERS

What just happened? Our sextant failed us and we lost sight of our North Star. We lost trust in our instincts. We lost faith in the wind of our spirit and started believing the Doom Whisperers. They’re like orcs…small, truly ugly, and out to suck the joy out of you. Anything or anyone who makes you doubt yourself, including yourself, is brokering doom. If we fall for it we furl our sails, cling to the mast, and start playing defense.

WIN THE DAY

How do we win back the day? We have two choices. Wait it out. Or, learn the art of racing in the dark. I’m not into wasting life, so waiting it out seems like a less than optimal option. I’m opting for racing in the dark. So, how do we go about winning the day in the middle of a pitch-dark night. And I mean win the day literally. Win the return of light, creative inspiration, excitement, and forward motion.  The wisdom of a diminutive dog has taught me we can play offense even before the light returns. We can race in the dark.

LESSONS ON RACING IN THE DARK

During an Excellent Adventure at the mostly abandoned dog park, Amanda, Bean dog’s mom, donned a headlamp, clipped on Bean’s night beacon, and unclipped the leash. In the face of darkness, the beaconed Bean flew off into the night at top speed. Uphill, downhill, then circling like a drone creating sky art on the 4th of July. The Bat Dog impersonator then sped back to the safe harbor of Amanda’s headlamp before heading off to race in the darkness again.

That blow-out-the-carbs headlong dive into happiness, smack in the middle of darkness, suddenly seemed way more attractive than my own personal darkness, the creative malaise I’d been blindly stumbling around in. Either I needed to become a dog, or learn to approach life more like a dog. I set about to apply the lessons of how Bean, apparently a Yoda among dogs, transmuted darkness into light.

1. The Night is Your Friend

Our artistic careers will cycle through day and night. Success and Sabbatical. Get used to the nights. Night is a friend, not an enemy. We can learn to love night as well as day. The air is cool. The sky is full of stars. Night is mysterious and holds different possibilities than day. Night is not so crowded with other people’s thoughts and opinions. It gives us a chance to return to our own instincts. We can learn to trust our inner creative voice again.  We can find images floating at the boundaries of consciousness that want to be painted. Truly authentic creations, not images contrived to sell, win, or impress.

2. Count to Ten

If you feel like you’ve been plunged kicking and screaming into a creative night, give yourself a minute.  Take a breath. Count to ten. Grant permission to set your brushes aside temporarily while your inner eye adjusts to the darkness. It’s time for a bit of nuance. If we can overcome the paralysis and sense of dread being plunged into creative darkness brings we win the option of learning to race in the dark instead. Play in the dark even. Look up at your figurative night sky. Stars! Stars can guide us home. Use the nuance of your new night vision.

3. Rocks aren’t Bears

Use lessons you learned during your artistic daytime to help guide you during your artistic night. Bean learned while racing in the daylight that the rocks she would bound off racing in the dark were indeed rocks, not bears. When you are trying to navigate creative darkness, realize that something that appears to be a looming bear might just be a rock. It not only isn’t going to eat you, you might be able to turn the rock into a launching pad for an exciting new direction.

4. Find your Lighthouse

Part of Bean’s bravery came from knowing that there was a light to guide her home. The beacon of Amanda’s headlamp was the safe harbor to circle back to in the dark before launching out on yet another adventure.  It takes a bit more energy to race in the dark, so find your personal lighthouse. It will guide you into harbor.  Fill it with whatever things feed your soul and put wind in your sails. When a beacon lights your way, you won’t have to search for ideas. The ideas will find you.

May you find creative adventures and the fun of racing in the dark!

– Lyn

NEW RELEASE – Liliedahl Art Video | “No Fear Oil Painting”™ – A Guide to Creative Brush Handling | with Lyn Boyer – Music by Dave Curley

www.lynboyer.com
www.interplayartists.com

The Role of Color Temperature in Painting

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When I wrote my book on painting with a concept, I listed five key elements for creating a  workable, harmonious painting: Values, Edges, Paint Quality (integrity of the paint), Agent  (you as the painter guiding the work), and finally, Color/Temperature. It’s the last element I’d like to explore here. 

When I began to paint, I saw local color first and foremost. It’s easier to see than values and edges. Beautiful reds, blues and yellows naturally draw the eye much like impasto  (opaque) paint will. Color, or the lack of color, has an inherent emotional feature. 

It’s generally accepted that color begins and ends with the Color Wheel. I never saw the relationship to the color wheel and the painting problems that were before me. Many teachers use it as an absolute truth to be rigidly followed. But, the color wheel is NOT an absolute truth. It only represents a theory. Theories are not absolute-they are grounded in principles but don’t contain the truth in an ultimate way.  

A theory merely points us in a direction.  

Included is an image of my palette used when I teach. To help students, I list below each color whether I view it as a warm color, or a cool color. To me, the neutrals, including Naples Yellow, are all cool; the yellows are warm with the exception of Lemon Yellow, which appears cool because it has less warmth than the other yellows on my palette. Likewise, Cadmium Red Light is the only red that appears warm. Alizarin and the other Cad Reds appear cool.  

Cadmium Red Light mixed with black and white (both neutrals)  Notice the neutrals achieve two things: the value of the Cad Red Light, a warm red, is changed and the temperature. (The temperature of the red is made cooler.)

The Blues are all cool with the exception of Ultramarine Blue. It’s the warmest Blue in the family of blues meaning it reads warmer than the others because of its mixture when produced and those materials used to create the paint Ultramarine Blue.  

Think about Cerulean, Thalo, Cobalt, King’s Blue…..they are very cool when used next to UM Blue. In a warm set up or composition, I would use UM Blue to complement the other components of a warm set up. 

Yellow Ocher is an interesting color. I paint with it to warm a background or turn an edge (cool).  It seems to absorb whatever temperature is placed near it. It’s an opaque paint so it has the quality of a neutral or cool hue. But, if painting a white cup, you could mix some yellow ocher to develop a shadow plane. It won’t drop the value too much but can assist the shadow in anchoring the object. Painting with black as a shadow for white objects is too abrupt or harsh. To me it reads “dead on arrival.” 

Two Pears by M Kathryn Massey OPA 
9″ x 12″ – Oil

As we grow as painters, we begin to develop our own language and that language includes color choices. We become more sensitive to how temperature plays a role in our work. For me, I reach for a color based on its temperature and what is needed by the painting. What do I  mean? 

Let’s say you are painting a portrait. The subject is Caucasian and fair. Most of the flesh you paint will be colorless. But, there are moments on the face you want to come forward and show the topography of that particular fair model. Conversely, there are moments in the picture that will need to recede, or turn back. 

Cad Red LT is warm and it will read closer to the viewer. Cad Red Med/Cad Red Dark will recede more than Cad Red LT. Why? Because the Medium and Dark have more blue in them when they are produced as a color. Blue is a color which recedes. 

The principle here: Warm colors appear to advance; Cool colors appear to recede and give the painting a sense of air space and time. You must decide on the color structure of your painting EACH TIME you go to the easel.

A Word About Neutrals. 

Commissioned work in progress.  
Cosmo by M Kathryn Massey OPA
14″ x 11″ – Oil
Notice how little color is seen thus far in the painting with the dog being black and white; both cool, neutral colors.  

Neutrals are used to change both the value and the temperature of a color. In principle, Black,  White, Grey, and Naples Yellow are used to cool down a color OR, to change its value.  Because they are cool, when mixed with any other color they will immediately cool that color  AND change its value. This is why I view color and temperature as married. I don’t understand them as being separate. Temperature changes are paramount to good painting.  

We don’t know these more advanced ideas when we begin to paint. How can we?  In closing, a few thoughts on color: 

-If you are having trouble incorporating a color into your work, take it off your palette for a  month or so. See if you can achieve what you need without it. 

-Each family of reds, blues, greens, yellow, blacks, etc., are warmer or cooler within the family of that color. Determine for yourself which is warmer and which is cooler within the family of color. 

-Using both cool and warm temperatures in the same painting will make more color disharmony and tension. (Think Vuillard) 

-A still life up, a model, an interior, etc., will be either warm or cool as a concept. Use the paints that will depict your concept. 

-Use a neutral to turn an object away from the viewer so the illusion of dimension is realized.  Do not use pink, red, yellow, orange for instance to turn an object as it goes into shadow. The illusion won’t work. Use cool grey, blue, or violet to help with your conceptual illusion. 

-If you break any principle in painting, know why you are breaking the principle.

-There are no mistakes…..only better choices.

Melon with Grapes by M Kathryn Massey OPA
20″ x 16″ – Oil

How Do Your Paintings Sound?

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Leveraging All of Your Senses to Create More Impactful Paintings

The importance of a strong composition is well known to painters. Once a good design is selected, we make choices and adjustments using our toolbox of techniques to create a  successful outcome. Some of these techniques include imagination, values, edges, paint application, color, line, and harmony. There is an underutilized technique to consider adding to your painter’s toolbelt: leveraging the dynamic senses of sound, feel, smell, and taste. 

After selecting a composition to paint, I ask this question: “How should this painting sound to  best reinforce the composition?” Adjusting the question by inserting other senses (feel, smell,  taste) identifies additional sense-based choices to consider adding to the composition. Answers to these questions are prioritized and worked into the artwork, as appropriate. 

Having a musical background, sound is a sense I gravitate towards. To reveal my approach, let’s  review a recent example of how I answered the question, “How should this painting sound to  best reinforce the composition?” The example is titled “Paris Rain”. It is shown below.

Paris Rain by Mark Daly, 2020
30″ x 24″ – Oil

I’ll discuss five sense-of-sound answers that I chose to incorporate into “Paris Rain.” Similar to edges, there are harder and softer sounds. As such, I consider intensity and variety. I also take into account pitch and location to determine how and where to visually portray sound in a  composition. 

1. Swirling Water Flow (softer sound, close to viewer) 

The first subtle sound that was added to reinforce the composition is in the lower-left quadrant of the painting. The runoff of rain, as it flows down the sidewalk and into and around the drain,  adds a rainy day swirling sound to the scene. This is a softer sound. It offers variety to harder sounds. 

2. Slapping Windshield Wipers (harder sound, nearest vehicle shape to viewer) A second, sense-of-sound addition to “Paris Rain” is the windshield wiper on the Mini Cooper vehicle (located center left). This was done with a single upward brushstroke. It brings a  distinctive slapping (harder) sound to the scene. It connects the viewer to a sound that occurs when it is raining. The wiper blade was added to only the largest vehicle shape (closest to the viewer). The mind fills in the blanks through association. It “hears” windshield wipers on the other vehicles after seeing the one on the Mini Cooper. 

3. Swooshing Vehicles (varying background noise) 

The third sound included in the painting is the swooshing of the approaching vehicles. The choice of vehicles communicates varying noises. These range from the low-frequency rumble of the bus to the high pitched whines from motorcycles. They add authenticity to a rainy day  European city experience. 

4. Raindrops Hitting Umbrellas (harder sound, close to ears) 

The fourth example of intentionally adding sound to enhance the picture is the tilted, wet umbrellas. We all know the close-to-the-ear pitter-patter sound of rain hitting a tightly stretched water-repellant fabric. The visual cue of the angled wet umbrellas engages you in the scene. It connects you to a personal experience—the sound of rain beating on an umbrella a few inches away from your ears. 

5. Splashing Footsteps (moderate sound, near viewer) 

The fifth and last example of adding a visual sound clue is less obvious. It is the anticipation of the large figure’s foot (center right) about to step on to wet pavement. Raising the left foot adds more audible drama. The viewer anticipates a slapping, splashing sound. The dark foreground reflection of the figure deliberately leads you into the painting and to this foreseen sound. 

These five sense-of-sound choices (among others) are designed into the painting along with value, edge, paint application, color, line, and harmony decisions. As shown in the image below, the sounds are spread around the center of interest. Collectively, they reinforce the main idea of the composition (the emotional experience of a rainy day in Paris). They help to create a more convincing, successful scene.

Variety of Sounds Spread Around Center of Interest

Another way to look at the power of these audible cues is to delete them. Imagine the painting without the swirling water, slapping windshield wipers, swooshing vehicles, pitter-patter rain on umbrellas, and foot about to splash a wet surface sounds. “Paris Rain” would sound different. Its impact and emotional connection with the viewer would be reduced. 

Let’s look at another example of leveraging senses but in a different location and season. Winter cityscapes provide opportunities to have the viewer feel cold and warmth. Below is a recent example titled “Art Deco Building in Winter”. On the one hand, grey clouds, heavy clothing, blowing flags, and snow-lined buildings all reinforce the feel of the painting’s winter-based composition. On the other hand, a feeling of warmth emanates from the lights on the streetlamps, store windows, cab, buildings, and glowing globes above the fence. These visuals provide a welcome contrast to the cold features. Through the sense of feel, the cold and warm elements amplify the compositional intent.

Art Deco Building in Winter by Mark Daly, 2020
30” x 24” – Oil
Exhibited in OPA 2020 Eastern Regional. Semi-Finalist in the 15th ARC Salon Competition. Best Building Award in the PleinAir Salon 10th Annual Competition (August, 2020)

The last painting example, “A New York Treat,” demonstrates the senses of smell and taste. Portraying smoke rising from chestnuts roasting on a NYC side walk vendor food cart adds smell to the painting. It helps connect the viewer to the memorable taste of chestnuts that are sold under colorful umbrella-topped carts found along the streets of New York City. 

A New York Treat by Mark Daly, 2019
12” x 9” – Oil

As painters, we are not confined to a two-dimensional world. There are ways to add dynamic impact through all five senses. Before starting your next painting, be open to new possibilities to expand your toolkit. Ask the question: “How should this painting sound (feel, taste, smell) to  best reinforce the composition?” It will set your paintings apart from others. It will make a  more emotional connection with your viewers. 

Reflected Light

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Detail from The Last Rose by Elise Zoller
Oil

Edward Hopper once said, “There is a sort of elation about sunlight on the upper portion of a house”.  I would add – particularly a white house.  Because there is nothing white about white.

White takes on the color of everything around it, the blues and purples of the sky, the gold of late-day sunlight, the putty-colored roof below an eve, a grey pavement, the vibrant green of the trees and grass surrounding it.  It takes time to notice this.  As painters, that’s our job, to spend time and to notice.

Quality Cleaners by Elise Zoller – Oil

Reflected light is a secret marvel, when you begin to see it.  A front porch is the ideal spot to watch light bounce around.  So are overhangs, fences, and interior ceilings.

Late Afternoon by Elise Zoller – Oil

As the genji knife huckster says, “But, wait, there’s more!” One of my early painting teachers had us cut out construction paper shapes and assemble them to represent our faces in a mirror.  His goal was to have us notice big blocks of color and start thinking that way as painters.  What I noticed was the color under my chin, an orange gold, reflecting the wood floor.  I spent weeks afterwards furtively looking under people’s chins and analyzing the color variations. I wanted to know how the colors of their faces and the surfaces or clothing under their chins mixed to create those unique hues. 

Detail from The Four of Us by Elise Zoller – Oil

Next time you walk down the street, notice how the light bounces between the planes of buildings and their surroundings.  Get out your paints and start mixing.  And, as Hopper also said, “Appreciate the beauty of a simple white wall”.  Or, the front-porch-like overhang of a chin passing by.

Front Porch by Elise Zoller – Oil

Cultivating the Creative Habit

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Being creative is hard, being creative every day is a near impossible thing. I can sit in front of my canvas for what seems like hours unable to begin, completely distracted by the little things in life that we all have to deal with. Recently, I’ve been thinking about what I do (and can do better) to keep my mind in a good place artistically and not have to wait for the eureka moment of inspiration to hit before I decide to pull out my box of paints. I would like to share the idea that both creativity and our attentiveness are both finite resources that we as artists must spend carefully. I’ve never liked the idea that Creativity is a trait that only those with natural talent possess, rather it comes from a combination of hard work and the desire to improve. The following are some of the things that I do to develop Creativity as a habit.

Cobalt by Dustin Adamson
Oil on Panel – 2020

Source book

With platforms like Google and Instagram, it is so easy to tumble down the rabbit hole and be pulled in so many different directions creatively that I can feel distracted for hours. I think this is because my attention span is a finite resource that I can easily exhaust by viewing art digitally. 

Since I have a short attention span when it comes to anything digital, I find that having something tangible is the best way to focus myself. With that in mind, one of the first steps of any project is the creation of a source book; a collection of images that inspire me. I search for inspiring images that I can print a hardcopy of and collate into different binders that fit different themes and ideas that correspond to different projects. The process of organizing images into different binders helps me to think about what I want each project to say and the best way to express that.

In a Brown Study by Dustin Adamson
Oil on Panel – 2020

Beginning the Workday

Creativity is the artist’s resource and it requires careful nurturing and cultivation, the same as any other skill would need. Every day I look forward to picking up my palette and setting out my paints, acclimating to the beautiful colors and the intoxicating smell of the linseed oil. I mix my value string for the day before each session and that moment alone is what helps me slough off the distracting thoughts of the day and put myself in a good place mentally for the rigors of painting. Thinking of creativity as a habit, beginning the workday with a simple routine is a good way to get the ball rolling.

Example of a color study for an interior, 2019

Color Studies

Painting can be a hard and complicated process, so at every turn, I try to simplify that process. For myself, painting becomes difficult when I get to the middle stages of the project without having a clear idea about what I want the finished work to look like. This is when I start to paint in circles and rely on tricks to get out of it like more chroma or more texture, sometimes it works but sometimes it doesn’t. All I know is that this is the point when I realize if a work will be scrapped completely or be deserving of a frame.

One of the ways that I keep from stalling during the midgame is I make myself a roadmap. Starting off each project with a color study allows me to explore different color relationships and compositions in a very experimental and immediate way. It hurts way less to toss a failed color study on oil paper than an 18×24 inch canvas. The study is not about drawing well or putting any detail into it, it is about trying to distill what the artist sees into a composition. When things do go awry, and in my experience, there will always be those moments, I can always look back to my studies and see what jumped out to me about why I chose this subject to paint.

Example of the artist’s value string

Value String

After developing a color study, I have a general idea about how to mix my value string, a single local color that is then broken down into incremental values from light to dark. In my personal experience, having a value string removes the obstacles between observation of nature and my brush gliding along the canvas. If I know that the project I’m working on will take a while to finish, I will sometimes mix a large amount of each value and store them in empty paint tubes that you can get from the art store, this really saves on time and waste.

Ruminations by Dustin Adamson
Oil on Linen – 2018

No matter how things are going in your day to day life, maintaining the habit of creativity will help keep you anchored. Being kind to yourself and your finite creative and attention resources will truly help you from being pulled in a thousand different directions while fraying at the seams. You don’t have to do any of the previous things to be a good painter, rather having a simple pre-painting ritual like listening to music and drinking a cup of coffee works wonders if it clears your mind of the distractions and gets you focused on the canvas in front of you and the brushes in your hand.