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For this September blog I'm going to switch gears a bit and tell some of the backstory behind a painting that has just made its launch from the studio. Earlier this year I was contacted by Astoria Fine Art about whether I would consider participating in an event planned for the summer and fall featuring large scale paintings. They were asking for something from me in the 30x40 range or larger, with most of the show likely to be even bigger works of art and mostly landscape or wildlife. It had been a while since I tackled anything quite that size but I decided to take on the challenge. Although I'd forgotten about some of the logistics in dealing with a canvas that big (and indeed it was a challenge), it also turned out to be a whole lot of fun.

Since my preference is to paint objects life size or under, this meant that to start out I had to come up with a really wide and tall arrangement. Rather than a laser focus on one painting, my plan was to do a number of them --as many as it would take until I landed on one I was happy with --- so that morphed into needing several big arrangements. It turned out to be very fortunate that I dove head first into a series of large pieces because I was less intimidated by the format of the canvas and totally warmed up by the time an artist friend here in Taos offered to let me grab some bright red poppies that were blooming in his garden.

To begin on this arrangement, I tried to get as many of the elements in place as I could and a general idea of the composition the day before I went over to cut the flowers. The canvas was stretched and paints laid out. I knew from experience that poppies are one of the most ephemeral blossoms one can choose to paint. It does help somewhat to harvest them early in the morning and to singe the cut end before placing in water. Still, if they don't fall apart within a day they will definitely move, and not just a little, so I knew I had to get an early start and move fast. To provide contrast, behind the poppies I placed some white amaryllis that have somehow found a warm enough spot along the south wall of my studio to thrive in this mountain climate. I took as much care as I could at the start to ensure a solid composition, while at the same time mindful that the window for observing this set up as I had arranged it, was very limited. 

Along the back wall behind my easel is a large billboard sized poster I bought several decades ago at The Louvre in Paris. It depicts part of Monet's famous painting 'Impression, Sunrise' which is where the term Impressionism originated. I frequently use this poster as a background for my still life paintings, but most of the time it's only variations of the blue-green color that is visible. In this piece I did include an indication of the sun as part of the composition and came up with the title as a tip of the hat to Claude Monet; his influence, and his contributions to the world of art. On the shelf at the top of the wall to the left you can see the blue-green glass vase that was holding the poppies.

     Painting from life in this way has been described as a controlled crash. You go for it and hope for at least one miracle. The basic procedure was the same as with my smaller paintings and I headed first for the group of flowers in the center of interest just above the right outside edge of the blue-green vase. My objective that first day was to define as many of the flowers as I could, but also nail down some objects that were not going to be changing so I would have something to relate everything to in the following painting sessions. As things moved along, some of the poppies would dance into different shapes and positions and I would include them if they fit well within the composition. Typically, a speed bump or two will crop up but fortunately the momentum helped me resolve these fairly quickly and I was able to not be sidetracked from the vision I had. For all of its difficulties, this is what makes direct painting from life worth it to me. When it works well there is a freshness and spontaneity to the paint quality that's difficult to replicate when there is no limit as to how long you can work. In my experience a slow haste creates the best conditions for pulling off a painting that appears to have been 'blown on in one puff'.

      One thing that was very helpful with these larger paintings was to have an additional palette set out so I didn't have to stop and clean the mixing surface as often. Also I premixed a few pigments in light, middle and dark values so I could quickly load up my knife or brush with colors I'd be likely to be using in various mixtures. For this painting, those were mostly Viridian and Transparent Oxide Red, in keeping with the overall  complementary color scheme. I was also frequently backing away so that I could view both the painting and the entire arrangement at the same time.