Oil Painters of America Blog Post!

I'm sharing a link to the Oil Painters of America's blog today.  I would like to thank my good friend and great artist, John Potoschnick, who writes a wonderful blog in which he shares the art lives of other artists, through his very well thought out, and interesting to answer, questions.  Click his name/link to visit his website.  There is a link to his blog on the menu bar of the site.

LINK TO THE ARTICLE ON 'THE OIL PAINTERS OF AMERICA' BLOG.

 'December Ducks' a 9x12 plein air gouache painting.

January 2, 2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

'Reservoirs' - oil - 30x40 ©2012 Marc R. Hanson

'A view of the Colorado plains, looking south towards Longmont, CO from Yellowstone Rd, a few miles north of Longmont.  Unfamiliar, but interesting to me, is the abundance of reservoirs, in this part of the west, that dot the landscape.  The number of ducks and geese that I watched floating around the sky this fall, while out painting, was impressive to say the least.  These reservoirs play a huge role in supporting the large numbers of birds living and passing through this area.  The topography of this area is one of an undulating pattern of ranch lands and wild lands, and of course the ever increasing 'suburbia lands' developments.  As I drive around, I am at once high and overlooking the lay of the land, and then soon back into a low lying riparian habitat.  This view is from on one of those plateaus, looking across the mix of landscape that I find so interesting.  All I have to do to change everything, is look to the right and into the face of the Rocky Mountains, and all that has to offer me as a painter!'

I woke up on the morning of the first day of 2013 as a resident of a new state, for the first time in over 33 years!  As soon as the coffee took hold, I spent some time reflecting on what the recent past has meant to me, and on my excitement about what the future holds.  A typical New Years' day activity for many of us, I'm sure.

I'm grateful for all of my past, for my present, and for the future to come.  I'm living in a place of incredible beauty, only a portion of which I've even laid eyes on, and am healthy and eager to dig in and make 2013 even more interesting and rewarding than 2012 was.  

Best wishes to you all for a new year blessed with good health, happiness, peace, love and Art!  

Let's make 2013 A Year of Art!

Marc

Longmont, CO

Seasons' Greetings!

The weather here is still balmy, perfectly nice for being outside painting.  Instead, I've been in my studio, painting some of the rare 'inclement' weather that brushes past us once in a while.  And thoroughly enjoying doing that.  

I want to extend my best wishes to all of you for a very Merry Christmas and a New Year full of love, health, happiness and Art!  

Merry Christmas!

Marc

Two recent pastels painted in the studio of the surrounding area near me...

 'North Of Yellowstone Rd' 

Pastel - 10x16 ©2012 Marc R. Hanson

'Horse Ranch' 

Pastel - 9x12 ©2012 Marc R. Hanson

Painting Around My New Home...

I'll be honest, it took me awhile to quit wiping off paintings, and to feel comfortable with my new surroundings here in CO.  I try not to accept anything less than what I feel very good about in my painting.  I've thought a lot about it, there were many factors to acknowledge, that had me scratching my head at my painting for a while.  They're all interesting to me.  This post is my idea about what I've been going through since moving here.

There is one thing about painting, above all others, that keeps my interest alive and energized.  Including all of the good and bad, that comes with being an artist.  It can be, in part, the following 'things'.  But they're not the major underlying motivation for me.  It is not the particular subject that I'm painting, it's not the physical act of applying paint or pastel, it is not only color, it is not only design, it is definitely not money or the benefits that other 'jobs' hold.

The one thing that keeps me painting is the intimate insight that you develop when you work long enough with your subject.  It's such an immensely satisfying, internal reward, and it is why I paint, above and beyond any other reason.  When you have that, everything that you do in a painting, is guided by it.  That is the quality that I hope to bring to my art.  

In painting the landscape, in my opinion, you Must become intimately familiar with the mood of the land, the smells, sounds, climate affects, the weather patterns, the way the sky above changes the look of the dirt, trees, rocks, and water.  You must sense what the land is about every single time you head out to paint. 

That doesn't mean that you can't be out there painting if you're not in tune with what I'm discussing here.  Yes, you can make images all day long, and I do this a lot.  But to give those images more than just a rendered surface, you need more than a good hand and a good brush.  

Everything that I put into a landscape painting, that I am proud of, has an underlying force that comes from how well I understand the raw essence of what it is I'm painting.  It's the kind of intimate knowledge that gives the weapons, clothing, art and accoutrements of the First People, the native Americans, such an amazing life force and connection to a wilder land than exists today.  They lived it, breathed it, ate and died on it.  That's the kind of understanding that I'm talking about.  It is Spiritual. 

I used to paint birds in a natural history style.  In that case the accuracy of the biology of the animal or bird, and their environment, was critical to the viewers of those paintings, and to me in painting them.  I'm not talking about that in this case, I'm talking about a much deeper and yet bigger picture than that.  

I lived in Minnesota for 33 years, fished, hunted, xc skied, hiked, and painted it on a near daily basis.  I became very familiar with what the land there was telling me.  Not to be mystical, although this is a bit of a mystical sensibility, I felt the land, much as a farmer does, because I had so much experience being out in and on it.  

As a painter, that sensibility came into my work, via my own internal editing, desires and artistic choices.  I painted many, many 'rendered' images, not pieces of art, along the way.  Learning has a much higher volume of failures than successes in any field.  I look at those failures as teaching tools.  "Why didn't I catch the mood of that day?"... "Why did I get caught up in the type of tree instead of what those trees mean to the shape of the land that they're growing on?"... "Why is this painting so boring to me?  It's well rendered, it looks like the scene.  What is missing in it that doesn't allow the spirit of the place, the sense of place, to come through?  What was I saying as an artist about the landscape that is unique to my own vision?"  These are the questions that come to my mind when I leave a painting location and am not thrilled about what I just painted.  It's not usually that I didn't get the color, that I didn't draw it well enough, that I didn't choose a good design.  I usually can accomplish those things.

What is missing when I don't enjoy my efforts, is that I return with a mere rendering, not an understanding of the life of the landscape that I just painted.  That happens for two reasons... 1- I don't know the place...or... 2- I didn't dig deep enough into why I want to be there, at that time, painting that place.  The latter can't be understood until the former is in place.  

That brings me back to the point of this post, I hope.  When I moved to Colorado I was excited to jump into painting immediately, faster than I was ready to.  Not only did I have some emotional things to overcome, normal in a relocation move when you've been in once place for so long, the logistical things that had to be done... like driver's license, unpacking, creating a workplace in a new place, finding out how to get around town, feeling like you're in a new country, and so on... I also needed some time to wander around the country side to understand a few things about this new land I was now planted in and on.  I did a lot of that, wandered, photographed, attempted to paint it, and wondered if I would ever learn this place as well as I knew where I lived in Minnesota, well enough to paint it as I wanted to?  

I have been blessed since moving here with great things happening in my career... an article in the November issue of Southwest Art Magazine, and the cover of the same issue... I've been invited to show as a featured artist at Gallery 1261 in Denver, and have also been invited to show as a guest at Saks Gallery in Denver, and at Mary Williams Fine Arts in Boulder.  I'm grateful for these and other opportunities that have arisen since my move.  Not to mention all of the artist friends that have been so gracious and welcoming to me here.  

If you're an artist, you know that despite every other good thing that happens in your life, if your painting isn't going right, if you're not in touch with that Artist within you, it can be overwhelmingly concerning. 

Not to draw this out too much longer, but I am happy to say that I am 'finally' beginning to be more in touch with where I am.  When I first started painting around Longmont and Boulder, I would stand and stare, mouth agape, at the mountains.  They're so powerful, so beautiful, that they put me in a painterly trance.  I've painted a few of them, wiped out a bunch, and am now settling down into seeing things closer to my feet where the understanding begins.  I found a couple of dirt roads that are rich with texture, color, shape and design possibilities.  Any success I'm gaining, has been because I've limited myself to gaining an intimate understanding of those two areas first, before I try to tackle chunks of the larger landscape, just yet.  It's working, I feel good about what I'm painting now.  

In fact, I've been hauling out large canvases, up to 24x30, and feeling pretty comfortable that I'm beginning to gain a sense of 'my' place in this landscape.  As time goes along, as more paint is pushed, more in depth observation and questioning is pushed through my art brain, I am now confident that I will find out how this land breathes in time.  Now the fun begins... 

These are all field paintings that were painted in October and November.  The first one, "Longmont Resident" was the first painting that I painted here as a new resident of Colorado, back in late September.  

Thanks for reading... 

Longmont Resident - oil - 9x12

October Flow - oil - 10x8

Indian Summer Day - oil - 11x14

Entanglement - oil - 11x14

November Willow Gold - oil - 9x12

61st Street - oil - 6x6

Fast Lane - oil - 6x10

Ringbills - oil - 14x18

Pasture Cows - oil - 6x12

Snaking Along - oil - 9x12

Softly Opening Day - oil - 18x24

Spread - oil 0 12x16

Where oh where did my blog go???

Well, I know... it's been accosted by facebook!  It's interesting to me how through recent time there have been several major communicating/social networking arenas that have absorbed my time, yet have been arteries through which I have connected with other artists, collectors, galleries, and a multitude of art resources.

As one has become more populated and easy to use, the previous ones have fallen by the wayside.  In my own life, since I first had a functioning computer, one that would actually connect to the internet, there have been three of these outlets for being in contact with other artists.

First there was Wet Canvas, an online artists' community, where I met many, many artists who have become lifelong friends.  I can't tell you how many hours I spent online on Wet Canvas talking with artists from all over the world about life, art and everything involving both, in between.  I think I started in about 1998 or so, continued as a contributer until about 2005 or there about.

At that time, Blogging increased in popularity, and ease of use, as a method to have commune with others about your art or art in general.  I blogged here pretty heavily for most of the last 6 years, and it proved to be a wonderful platform for presenting not only my own art, but for discussions about topics in the art world, that many of us are interested in.

Then came Facebook!  Since joining Facebook, my blogging has suffered in an increasing lapse between posts.  FB is simply so easy to use, and the artist community there is HUGE, that I think it became more attractive as an outlet for those of us who work alone in a studio, and enjoy the 'office chit chat' that FB seems to provide.  You can build a HUGE audience for your work on FB, thousands... until they cut you off!  I am thankful for the followers of my blog, and apologetic for neglecting it, until now.  There are many, many reasons for this, that those who study social phenomenon are going to be much better at laying out, so I'm not going any deeper into it than that.

However, I have decided that the blog is a better place to present my work, and to discuss the things that are important to me as an artist.  So, with that, I am planning to renew my efforts to get this thing back up and active.

As I last posted, I moved to Colorado in September.  I did make it, the truck made it, and the cats had a great trip.  Sarge found a spot underneath the bench seat, where the kitty litter pail was, Frida found a spot on the bench seat, glued to my thigh for the entire ride out here.

We only had one narrow brush with getting that truck and trailer into a tight spot, and nearly running out of gas, all at the same time.  I was into CO about 75 miles, and had been timing my gas stops at about 1/4 tank left.  As soon as I was there, I took the next opportunity to fill up.  That went really well, until I hit eastern CO.  For some reason, the gas stations seem to evaporate.  I hit the 1/4 tank mark, started looking... and looking... and looking.  At close to the 'low fuel' warning light and buzzer, I saw a gas station off of the interstate, with diesel.   Happy now, I pulled off and made the turn onto a narrow 2 lane road to enter the gas station.  To my grief, it was closed, and the entrance was barb wired!  I was now heading east on a skinny frontage road... and the sign said... NO OUTLET!  Words did not escape me... Looking quickly for somewhere to turn around the 22' truck plus the 12' of trailer, I didn't see any where to do that, but I did see the dead end a short distance ahead.

The road was built up on a berm, so I couldn't go into the ditch to turn around.  At this point, the 'low fuel' warning light and buzzer goes off... I'm in the red zone and beginning to worry.  I attempted to do a 'back up, three point turn' with all of that length, but realized I was lucky not to get stuck trying that.

Without any other ideas, I drove to the end of the road a few hundred yards ahead... thinking maybe there would be a way to solve the problem.  At the end of the road, there was one dirt road that led up to a trailer house and a bunch of garbage (kind of a crack house looking place), about 75 yards ahead, and into a pasture.  I was looking at that, then realized that there were no fences along the road!!!???

Light bulb....

I tightened up the seat belt, told the kitties to hang on tight, and put that diesel to work.  Drove it right up that dirt road about 40 yds, just enough to clear the trailer, hung a tight left into the pasture (which I took a serious look at, it looked solid and destructive object free), and did a Penske U-eee... through the pasture and around back onto the 2 lane road, heading west again.  I'm sighing a big sigh of relief now, because if I run out of fuel, at least after a return walk with a fuel can, the Penske would be pointed towards my destination, a very good thing.  To cut this short, the very next exit, less than 2 miles ahead, had diesel and wide roads.  I made it, and with great relief drove on into Longmont, CO without having to stop again.

Mt Meeker and Long's Peak from Golden Ponds in Longmont

I love it here... this is the place that I though it was going to be, when I made the choice to relocate.  In the 3 months that I've been here now, I have become extremely comfortable in my new apartment, in my new state, with my new friends and community.  In a future post, I will talk about how I've tried to adjust as an artist here, that has taken some time.  But as adjusting to a new place to live goes, that has been a breeze.

Every day brings about new beauty in the landscape.  It never ceases to amaze and challenge me as an artist.  Be back soon...

The relocation adventure begins...

The countdown to my newest adventure, a move to Colorado, has begun today.  I'm going to try to keep track of my progress on the blog... 11 days and counting... I leave lovely Minnesota on either the 30th or the 31st of August, depending on my progress in getting everything done that needs to be done.  Services have been notified, I still need to change mailing addresses with a bazillion different entities... first I have to try to remember them all to do that... working on it.  

With an exception or two, most of my art business that has to be done beforehand, has been completed. And a new lease and rent has been signed and paid on a nice apartment in Longmont, CO.  I'm really happy about where I'll be living, the space is tight for a pack rat of an artist, but nice and cozy for now.  Once I have feet on the ground there I can spend some time in the next year looking around and possibly finding something that is more than I'm starting out in.  

Today I'm packing up art supplies, cook books, tools and other miscellaneous 'stuff', room by room.  The studio is first, there's a lot to deal with in here, but it's going well.  It's really hard to imagine the entire bulk of your life possessions fitting into a 16' truck... But it has too, I want it to.  Of course the Hughes Easel is coming along... after nearly selling it a few months back, I realized that it's seasoned now, and just like my cats, must be with me.  

There will undoubtedly be a large truck load or two going to Family Pathways and ReStore in St Croix Falls, as donated goods.  I've already outfitted several rooms up there with furniture, clothing, tools, shop tools, sound equipment and on and on.  Chairs, kitchen table and chairs, dishes, and so many other household goods, that I wonder why there's anything left here now.  And there in lies the problem... There is still too much stuff!!!  

Talk about feeling liberated, shedding your belongings may be even better than shedding body weight! Doing the work it takes to shed the junk also sheds the fat cells... I hope.  

I have to get back to it, but wanted to share my chariot for the adventure... a 16' Penske truck and a dolly to tow my truck with.  Why Penske?  After reading reviews, in which you basically become totally confused by the differing opinions, I paid attention to a couple of independent review sights, and Penske came out right up there with Budget as being the two most highly thought of for services and cost.  The cost to do this yourself vs using a container, or having moving company do it for you, is at least a 1/4th less than those options.  

I like the yellow trucks, so Penske it is.  I'll have 5 days to load and drive it to Colorado before the truck has to be turned in to a drop off site in Boulder, CO.  Should be no biggie...??? 

For now, back to packing.  And throwing, more throwing than packing in fact!  

The Abstract of the Block In

Whenever I write about painting ideas or methods, just to let you know, I'm only speaking about my own ideas or methods, and how I proceed with them.  There are many other methods and at anytime I may be using one other than what I'm discussing in any particular post. 

The other day I was having a conversation with a friend, who had taken a look at a lot of my paintings, and noticed that I frequently employ the use of a 'lead in' to the picture in the form of a road, shoreline, fence line, or some other linear idea to add a diagonal entrance into the painting.  This is true, they are great compositional tools for doing just that.  She also noticed that I often place that entrance to the right side of the composition.  I looked at some of those and realized she was accurate.  It was a surprise to me, so I began to think about it.  

I am right eye dominant.  You can do a simple test to see which eye is your dominant eye.  Hold both hands out if front of you gripped together as if holding a pistol grip, straight armed, and point your index fingers out in front.  Aim at an object in the near distance in front of you, put the two fingers on the object.  Now close each eye, one at a time.  The object will stay lined up with your fingers when your dominant eye is open, it will move when your dominant eye is closed.  

Back to my right side roads... I don't know this for sure, there are others who have probably studied such things, but I think that because I am right handed and right eye dominant, I tend to favor that side of the composition when it comes to drawing or painting a diagonal, or near vertical, entrance into the composition.  This is all subconscious, I don't purposefully, nearly always, place these entrances on the right side.  But, it would be more awkward for me to reach my right hand across to the left to draw in the same entrance on the left side of the canvas, unless I think about it (which I can guarantee you that I will be doing now) and make that conscious choice.  Also, my mechanical paint applier, my arm and hand, are on my right side... 

This seems to be a mechanical issue because I don't have a problem with placing other dominant compositional items on the left side, it's just this placing the entrance in on the right side that is interesting to me.  

A side note that may be related... When I was younger and skied, I taught skiing and did some casual racing and was coached.  I was always told that my turns, when on my right side downhill ski, were beautiful, very well done.  But when turning onto my left side downhill ski, I was told that I was "blocked" on that side, I don't perform a right hand turn as well.  Could that also be because of a dominance favoring my right?  Don't know.

Enough on that for now, but the way our brains work without our being aware of what they are up to sometimes is fascinating.  And thank goodness for artist friends, our 'third eye' contingency, for being honest in relating what they see in our work.  It's always helpful.  

Getting back to the topic "The Abstract of the Block-In"... To me this is the second most important stage of a painting, be it in the studio or in the field.  The first most important step is forming a Concept, an idea about what you're going to paint.  Without that, you have nowhere to go, not even enough information to get to the Block-In.  Concept is a blog post all by itself.

I use the block-in as the abstract break up of the blank space, the visual reminder of my conceptual idea about where I intend this painting to go.  It can be very complicated, or very simple, very specific or very loosely defined.  Either way, it sets the stage for the next steps in paint application to come.  

This is the way that I am able to see the 'big picture' of my idea for the painting.  If these big idea shapes aren't working, not proportioned in a pleasing way, not balancing each other, not providing a color scheme (loosely stated) that I am happy with, I will never improve the painting past this point.  

This is a critical stage. 

I'm asked often about using a toned painting surface.  As you can see in the photos of block-ins here, these are all painted on an untoned surface, linen on board to be exact.  That's one way.  I also sometimes tone the surface ahead of time and paint more directly and opaquely with out this same kind of a start.  Having many methods in your technique bag is never a bad thing.  

The other thing about beginning to place your Conceptual idea on the canvas in this way, is that it's a fluid situation, it can still be changed, moulded, wiped or continued at anytime.  The paint is thin, like a water color wash, nothing is locked into place yet.  This is the time to make the decisions...

If you normally get out the small brush or charcoal and begin to draw the little pieces of the composition instead of going for the large masses, try this way out, it might fit in some cases.

Thank you... Marc

These area few examples of slightly more drawn out block-ins.  In the one directly below, I began to use the middle to dark values that made up the road, weeds, treeline and buildings, to paint the negative shapes of the snow on the ground.