The Frame in progress...what's the lesson???

Okay, I taught skiing in California for about 5 years or so, I teach painting now. Anytime that someone in the past asked me about wanting to start to ski or paint my first recommendation is... "Take a lesson! It will save you years, possibly, in your progression."

So why is it that I can't learn that lesson myself? (Notice how this is turning into my "excuse" concerning this frame?)

Oh what the h***! I'm going to share a little of the progress of how 'I' make a frame. I know of a master gilder who will probably call me up and ask me if I've been in the Turpentine bath too long again. He should. I should go take a lesson from him actually....hmmmmm?

I haven't done this very much but twice I framed my OPA paintings, that were accepted into the national exhibit, with 'Frames by Marc'. I still have the first one and it does not have cracked corners (almost every single one of the 'ready mades' I've purchased from the 'you know who' companies, have at least one split corner mitre). But it requires a lot of time and frankly, it's worth it.

I know that there are a number of painters out there who make their own frames, complete using traditional watergilding methods and all. My apologies and appreciation to them... I'm not. This is going to be basic metal leaf. I won't even be using a gesso or clay base. I use shellac and painting primers (sandable) for a smooth base to accept the leaf. Once it's primed, I paint on a layer of oxide red base coat, usually acrylic based, Wunda (acrylic) size and then the leaf. The finishing of the frame is a hodgepodge of 'stuff' applied to achieve the look that I want. Once that's accomplished, I seal the frame with... something... and it's done. In between is a lot of sweat, a few tears and some blood.

Here are the pics. First the raw materials showing them as they came and as the profile. Following that the assembled frame being sanded. I routed out the rabbet and the slope on the lip's upper surface by hand, with router. There is a lot of sanding to come...





Unless I want my house full of sawdust, I wait till the weather is above freezing and do this on the handiest workbench I have... the tailgate of my truck.





This is the one that I was referring to above. My 1999 OPA entry with the frame that I made for it. The panel has a slightly magenta smokey wash in it that picks up on the magenta in the painting, not all that visible here.

It's not all painting... is it?

Nothing to post today although there has been a lot going on in my studio. I've even been painting!

Today I'm continuing my effort to finish a frame for the last painting I posted "Minimum Maintenance'. I'm also working on some studies for future large paintings. This painting that needs a frame is 24x24 and it needs a frame that is better than what is in my budget. So... I'm making one myself. It's not the first time. The square format is hard enough to find in a finished corner frame with some sort of metal leaf finish. To go to a company that builds gilded frames would be nice but so costly that it's just not happening. So from some 1x4 poplar stock ( I can't find basswood here in that size length), a couple of basswood trim mouldings, a router and a couple of blades, a boat load of sandpaper, a jug of Wunda size, lot's of gold metal leaf and a laboratory of finishing chemicals, stains, paints and other assorted liquids and pastes... I should end up with a frame that fits 'this' painting and is better for it than anything that I could afford to purchase. There is something very satisfying about creating the final piece of the painting puzzle, the frame. At this point, I've probably at least stretched the linen, or mounted the linen on board, or primed the linen or board... had some part in the construction of the painting support that I'm painting on. Like my making of this frame, sometimes in order to have the materials that work best for us, we need to be verse ( and enjoy doing it )in how to make them ourselves.

I will post the finished frame when I'm done.

In the mean time, I was reading about cats on Colin Page's journal, where he has a picture of his cat standing on his shoulders while he's painting! Colin's 6'7", like a tree, so that makes sense! They like to have a good vantage point up high and it looks like Colin is it. ;-) ( Not making fun of ya Colin... :) That's a great photo.

Since becoming a cat owner a couple of years ago, never having had a cat in my life before, I've found it interesting how many artists have cats. It's really understandable if you think about it. They provide a comforting, but not needy, friend during the long hours of isolation that artists spend in their studios. Their way of being that, I think, is by just being themselves. No tail wagging, no tongues hanging out of the mouth with accompanying drool, no panting, no groans and moans (that are very loud anyway), no smells....no whining or barking. All of those traitss that our other best friends, dogs, are overrun with . Don't get me wrong, I love, love, love dogs. But... cats can be with you, but not be there, if you know what I mean. They're quiet, a good thing for concentration, they seem to like you 'not' paying attention to them while at work (until they demand it), and they come up with activities and antics that are constantly amusing and amazing. On top of that, if you're out for a day of painting, there's no need to be home in time to let them out for relief.



They can be easy to please yet insistent... Mine insists on my using walnut oil, but he doesn't need much more than a paper bag for entertainment! By the way, he's not laying on a wall, that's actually the flooring in my kitchen, from a long time ago.



Back to frame making....

Minimum Maintenance

"Minimum Maintenance" - oil on linen - 24x24 - © Marc R. Hanson '09

This is a piece about a road that I've painted in nearly all seasons and light, including at night. In the Rochester area it was a spot within about ten minutes of my house that I could escape to, park in safety and paint at almost any time. It is a 'minimum maintenance' road, meaning that the county doesn't do much other than take a look at it once in awhile. That was fine with me.

This started out so different than what it looks like here that I'm amazed at it myself. It started as a blue sky, popcorn cumulus day with green fields. The kind of day that you'd expect to see a French impressionist out painting! As I had a layer of paint down and was deciding what it was that I didn't like about it, I realized that it was too 'pretty' of a day. At that point I started going through my field studies to see what I could come with in the way of a color scheme that was more interesting to me. I found this one to use as reference for the sky. Once I was happy with that idea, I was able to key the rest of the painting to that sky. That's how this one worked. I'm pretty happy with it from the standpoint of color and the textural side of things. This photo just does not allow you to see that... dang photos anyways. There are about four or five layers of paint scumbled, overpainted, one or two scraped off, and dry brushed on to this painting. This is where I feel my painting is going, worked until there is a richness to the surface that has to be seen to be appreciated. It's not a heavy, trowled on, applied in one session sort of texture... it's more subtle than that. If I want the alla prima, at the moment, urgent sort of quality, I'll head outside. But in the studio I really enjoy this kind of building of the surface look of the paintings.

Here's the sky reference piece. From last July, "Friday Evening" - 11x14 - oil on linen - © Marc R. Hanson.


I'm going to ad to this post. Some questions have come up... thank you... about the kind of surface I'm looking for in my paintings, studio paintings that is. I don't know if these closeups will really show what I'm getting at, but it's worth a try!

All of these close up shots are of about 4" - 6" of the actual painting's surface. If you enlarge these, they're probably about twice life size. But I think that you'll see that I'm not as interested in 'pounds' of paint for the sake of weight alone. I'm more interested in an opalescent mixing of scumbled passages, dry brush, semi transparent glazes. I like the interest in surface appearance that working like this gives the finished piece. When I head to museums to visit the masters, this is what intrigues me most about their genius.

I forgot that I had this one ready to add to this discussion the other day.












These are sections of other studio paintings of late.

2009 Workshop Schedule

I have set my workhop schedule for 2009. This link... 2009 Workshops... will take you to the information for each one.

Here are the locations and dates-

April 17, 18, 19 - 'Pastels in the Studio' - Stillwater, MN

May 22, 23, 24 - 'Landscape from Life' - Taylors Falls, MN

August 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 - '3rd Annual Taylors Falls Landscape' - Taylors Falls, MN

(More details soon on this New York workshop)

August 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 - 'Landscape Painting at Tilly Foster Farm' - Brewster, NY

Hope to see you at one of these!

Cotton Candy Winter Day

"Cotton Candy Winter Day" - oil on board -14x18 © Marc R. Hanson '09
Painted about 95% with palette knives. A few strokes of a Langnickle here and there for weeds, tree branches, to soften a knife stroke, and that sort of thing.

Well I was out last week painting a dried up dirt field with no snow, a little bit of ice in the furrows, a 16x24 painting. Started out nice and I had an old chocolate lab from a nearby farm for company the entire time, as long as I'd reach down and scratch his brick of a skull every once in awhile. I was loving working large on site, and on this board that I'm back to now. The problem is that it was so nice to be out on such a calm, sunny, winter day, that I didn't care as much about my choice of what to paint as I just cared about being out "painting".

Consequently, despite putting in a couple of days back in the studio on that one, the idea...concept... just wasn't there. I mean a painting full of dried up dirt??? I just couldn't wrap my "spirit" around that one.

So a couple of days ago I was thinking about how beautiful our winter had been until recently. By the way as of this morning, it's back to white, we had a fair amount of snow. But I was thinking about a few weeks ago when Kami and I were out in the country side on one of the most beautiful days that I think I've ever seen in winter. It reminded me of scenes from the old movie 'Dr. Zhivago' and those scenes of Omar Sharif and Julie Christie riding the sleigh, or hiking on foot in the Russian winter. With that in mind, I spent a couple of days in the studio working out this painting from that experience and thought.

We experienced a winter wonderland for sure that day and I'm sure that it's going to be a source of inspiration for images for us both for a long time to come.

Here's the trailer from the movie, "Dr. Zhivago", 1965.

Fenceline

"Fenceline" - oil on board - 8x10 © Marc R. Hanson '09

It's a good thing to leave the painting equipment in the car... just in case. I had no plans to paint outside today, but on the return from an errand this afternoon I was struck by the silver quality of the light. Temps weren't bad, but the wind was up so I opted to paint from the car. Truthfully, I love this time of year. We're almost completely snow-less now, just enough to throw in a little bit of a pattern atop the landscape here and there. The subtle colors of pre-spring are very rich once you sit for a few minutes and adjust to what ever it is that you're looking at. It seems that the color emerges 'only' for those who are patient enough to sit and observe! It's good to be an artist...that's our job.

However, the range of color is limited and so was my palette for this one. I used White, of course... Ult Blue, Perm Red Med, Yellow Ochre light, and Ivory black.

155th Ave. Afternoon

"155th Ave Afternoon" - oil on board - 8x10 - © Marc R. Hanson '09

Yesterday was nice as, anyone here in the midwest knows. So I painted in the morning with my bud Kami, and then in the afternoon with my bud, Marc...(Me).

The morning was beautiful and both of us had good results. I'm sure that Kami will post hers on her website and blog within the next couple of days. The one that I painted in the morning won't be up until I take a better photo of it.

This one is from my afternoon painting. Just a muddy gravel road with melting snow and ice. The light throughout the day was what could be called 'creamy', due to the warming temps and moisture in the air. "Sublte" was the word for the day. I liked the patterns of shapes that the topography and vegetation formed, and the subtle color of this time of year. Thanks for looking in.