Poppies in the sun

I liked painting this. For once no rain and no wind. The only problem is that the photo seems to have lost the greens. I'll try again under different lighting conditions and see if the result is more balanced.
I've only got four more days at home before I head up to the North Island. I will be away about ten days and I expect that the poppies may well be gone by my return. I'll paint them while I can, regardless of the weather. Heh.
Oil on panel. 6x8 in.



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Maitai River. Demonstration

Today I met a group of students at Branford Park, by the Maitai River, Nelson.
The river is very low at present, so we gathered down on the shingle river bed and painted there.
The purpose of the demonstration was to show the potential of a limited palette with careful mixing, and to demonstrate the use of a neutral mixture as a base colour.
The painting is oil on panel, 8x10 in. It took about a bit over an hour to this stage.


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Poppies in the wind

Today I just had to paint my wild poppies again. Because I'm a plein air landscape painter the opportunities to paint lovely saturated reds come along seldom enough. Usually I have to wait until autumn brings it's bright red apples and blazing russet foliage. But these poppies are an unexpected joy. Snow last week. Wild flowers this week. The wind was a bit of a challenge today. Lovely bright sun, but a gusty breeze. I found that the shadows were much heavier today too. What do you think? Should I have waited for another drizzly day? Grin. Oil on 6x8 panel.


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Location:Maitai,New Zealand

Front coming, Rabbit Island

One of those late spring days that starts out well, and then becomes interesting. This is a small 6x8 panel, and that was all I thought I would have time for, as the front came in over the Western Ranges. In the event I had time to spare.


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Riverbed Daisies

It's funny how when painting outdoors new subjects pop up unexpectedly. I haven't painted flowers either inside or out, for years. Suddenly I see them everywhere. This month our valley has lovely little clumps of wildflowers everywhere you look. I painted "Poppies" a couple of days ago. Now while wandering down by the Maitai River this morning I was struck by this little posy of daisies among the river stones. I know that some months ago this dry branch of the river was two foot deep in fast flowing water. It will be again in a few months time. But for now these brave seemingly fragile little flowers are tenacious enough to thrive. Like a lovely woman. Delicate, beautiful, but tough. Underestimate them at your peril.
Heh.



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Coastguard vessel, Port of Nelson

This is Nelson: Rain yesterday. Today, a cloudless sky, but a blustery wind. To paint this I had to find a sheltered spot behind a shed. Even so a freaky gust caught my palette when I put it down for a moment and flipped it upside down onto the pavers. Bother. It a took quarter of an hour, half a bottle of turps and a lot of paper towels to clean up the mess. All sorted in the end, and I think that the painting is worth it. It is the first painting of the second week of the challenge. What do you think?


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Wild poppies in the rain.

So what to do on an unexpectedly rainy day? It started to drizzle at lunchtime and I had already decided to paint in the afternoon. I finally decided to give up on the Port of Nelson and instead paint the wild poppies peeping over the vege garden fence.

Painting in the rain does require some adjustment in technique. For instance I don't take my wooden half box, and I use a Cotten paint rag rather than paper towels.

Generally, the rain and the oil paint form a kind of emulsion. So long as it doesn't get too sodden the water evaporates from the painting back in the studio and it all settles down as usual.




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On location in the garden between showers...



For Serena and the boys xxxx


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Maitai River, reflections.

This is a good time to paint the little river that runs through our valley. It is running very low at present, so I could stand on the stones of the river bed and get some interesting reflections.



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For Tony.

Hi chum. Painted for you today. Down on the hard, behind the boulder bank. A real Nelson painting. I might add a couple of seagulls, but it is essentially there. The day started off a bit cloudy, and the tide was full in. By the time the painting was almost there, I had a very nice foreground to complete it.
Cheers, Ross.



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Japanese garden in the rain

One of the plein air painter's little challenges is what to do when you wake up to a rainy day.
Obvious answer is to find some shelter, and paint from there. Over the years I have painted under bridges, in barns and public shelters, trees can be ok if the drizzle is light, and shop awnings if the shop is closed for the day.
One of my favourite locations is Miyazu Park, a Japanese garden in Nelson. It has a selection of cosy nooks, and usually striking views. Very intimate landscape though.


Another problem of painting in the rain is that the light does not change much, so there is a danger of carrying on too long, and starting to noodle: putting in way to much detail, and losing the composition. I think I managed to stop in time for this painting.

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Maitai valley in spring

Really I don't know what possesses me at times. Spring is a difficult season at best, and to choose to paint back lit foliage, contra jour, is simply asking for trouble.
As it happens, it all worked out in the end, but mainly because I was lucky in that the declining sun gradually spread a lovely translucent shadow over the shingle banks.
Oh well, that is what happens sometimes when you are out painting. All,the little ducks line up in a row. (Don't look for ducks in my painting. It's a metaphor) grin.
However, I think I'm going to have to add lemon yellow to my palette if I'm to continue to paint back lit willows in spring.


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Why I don't like to paint from photos

This is the tree I painted. Too much irrelevant detail, not enough soul.
In all honesty, I much prefer my painting, and in a funny sort of way, it is more "real".


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Our orange tree in spring

After all that colour mixing last night I found this orange tree in bright sunlight irresistible. After all my recent travels it was a pleasant change to find inspiration in our back garden.


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Neutral colour chart

This was the chart that they were working from. It is based on three simple primaries: cadmium yellow pale, alizarine crimson, and ultramarine blue.

From these the secondary and tertiary colours are mixed. Then the three primaries are mixed to produce the perfectly balanced neutral in the centre circle.

The ring of colours surrounding the central neutral are the primary and secondary neutrals, eg between red and the central neutral is the red neutral.
The ring is comprised of red, purple, blue, green,yellow, and orange neutrals.

So why bother?
Because it is about training the eye and the hand through experience.
Remembering the old proverb,"knowledge is the awareness that fire burns. Wisdom is remembering the pain of the blisters."

It is one thing to know that yellow and blue make green, but only by constant mixing can one become aware of the huge range of potential greens available even from such a simple palette.

Now that this post is finished I'm going out to tackle the lovely spring greens in our valley.
Cheers.


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Mixing neutrals

Last night my class were mixing neutrals. This is a group of experienced painters who are preparing themselves to paint en plein air this summer.
The demands of direct painting out doors are challenging. Not the least of which is being able to mix the correct colour quickly and efficiently, without thinking about it. I have found over the years from personal experience that working with a limited palette where you know the colours intimately is both very effective and reassuring.
I know that this colour mixing is very useful, but I was also delighted to see how much they enjoyed the exercise. Total concentration on the task at hand.



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Posting photos

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Ok. It's done. I'm now sitting up in bed with a cup of tea, and after a couple of hours sleep. Finally found out the problem. Basically blogger will not enable you to post photos on iPad. You need a special app. Which I have downloaded.
So reassuring that it is not operator incompetence. I hope that subsequent challenges in the year to come are sorted so readily.
The photo was taken on location above the Cobb Valley. The first serious plein air painting after I returned from the UK. Our country is so beautiful but so different from ye olde England.


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Location:Maitai Valley Road,Maitai,New Zealand

The daily pleinair challenge

This blog has come about rather as a surprise, at least to me. I have been travelling away from home a lot this year. Both down South and in the UK. Every day I travelled I painted. I enjoyed it so much, I began to wonder why it is that I don't paint every day at home? I have decided to spend a year painting every day. Starting today, but my actual year will be from January 1 to December 31 2015. This gives me about six weeks to get used to the idea of painting and blogging every day, and frankly, to see if I can actually do it. Living at home with all the distractions and obligations of daily living, and still managing to meet the challenge.

At this stage I feel very confident, but I'm also realistic enough, and have lived long enough to realise that life is never that easy. Stuff will happen, things will go wrong. Methods will evolve, and equipment will change, and I will adapt.

The first challenge of the day has emerged: how to add an image to this post. Hmm.

I'll get back to you later today. This is altogether to complex for 4.30 am. Need to sleep on it.

Cheers.