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I have been taking the last few weeks to do some much needed study. It's been nearly 2 years since I started this art gig of mine. In that time I've noticed a pattern taking shape. Being a plein air painter I have been following the seasons, painting whatever is currently on the menu and I've figured out (or at least I tell myself I've figured out) more or less what might be good enough to sell or enter a show. If it's late summer I'm painting hay bales and Queen Anne's Lace. As fall moves in I'm doing grasses and fall asters along with harvest shots and sunsets (those high pressure October evenings make for some beautiful sunsets).  It can become a process where you know what needs to be painted and so you do it. The whole painting process can become repetitive...usually the same colors on our palette, painting on the same surfaces and the same sizes (a lot of that has to do with cost too. Can't afford to buy every imaginable frame size). Anyway, what I'm trying to explain is that it's really easy to fall into a pattern and not continue to grow. Studio time is very valuable and taking a few weeks to study, knowing that you may not produce anything that can be sold, is tough. Add to that the cost of buying a course and any materials needed and it can add up.   But in my opinion it is time well spent and having some skin in the game (money for courses and all) gives one an extra incentive to extract something usable from time spent studying. 

 

So, with that being said, I had decided in December that I would allot some time to study this winter. I had been having some problems with matching certain tones and subtle nuances in my sunsets and sunrises, so this is what I was wanting to work on. I decided to go back to the source. The one artist that I have learned the most from,  that being Roos Schuring. I studied with Roos right after I began to paint two years ago. Yes...we are approaching my two year anniversary of this journey. I took a 3 or 4 week master course for beach scenes with her right out of the gate. She was very honest, brutally honest really. In that course I got to video conference with her via some skype thingy. It was expensive, but that taught me more than anything else I've done. I've taken a number of her courses in the interim.  She has a mini course on sunsets, and that is what I bought for this winter. Along with buying the course I bought a number of oil colors that I've never used. I really wanted to get out of my comfort zone and push the envelope.  (and oh how proud they are of those Cadmium oil colors...wow!)

 

I have for the last 2 years painted with more or less the same palette, just adding Veridian in the last 6 months.  I like a limited palette. What can I say, I'm a fan of the KISS principle. This is the palette I used for 2 years. easy peazy:

 

 

 

With this palette I can paint most anything, but I just can't seem to get the pop I want from my sunsets. For the course I added 5 new colors, basically doubling the number on my palette. Here's the colors I added: Quinachridone Rose, Cad Red Lt, Cad Orange, Cad Yellow Deep, Yellow Ochre Pale. Makes for a much more crowded palette. 

 

 

 

The first couple days I just went through the course, no painting.  I always watch her videos a number of times. She is very thorough and crams a ton of info into each course.  She advocated a totally different approach than what I was doing. Laying in the lighter tones in the sky first...i.e. oranges and reds...then coming over that with the blues/turquoises. She explained that the blue is difficult to get rid of once you lay it in and I have experienced that. Plus...the under-layer of red/orange will naturally tone down the blue once they mix.  She also stressed doing the study work en plein air. This I totally agree with. There's no comparison to doing sunsets en plein air as opposed to trying to work off a photo. No comparison. Problem is, you really only have maybe 30 minutes to paint the true colors...after that they are gone. So...it's important to get to your spot way before the sun rises. You need to be setting up in what she called the "blue hour." Twilight before sunrise...when you just barely have enough light to see to mix, but everything really has a blue tint to it.  Also, I wanted some kind of consistency in this study.  I wanted to paint the same scene over and over in different light. I chose a flooded corn field very near where I live. The added reflections in the standing water would make for better compositions....plus with this particular spot I could do sunrises and sunsets.  So...here was my classroom:

 

 

I would get very familiar with this spot over the next week or so. My first morning I got there at 7:30. The sun was rising at 8:15am here in Indiana.  It was still very dark and very, very cold. Lots of frost. Here's my setup:

 

 

 

I layed in  my background and undertones. I decided to use Cad Red Light for an undertone. It looked like a very deep orange and that is what the horizon was shaping up to be. As it got closer to sunrise I began laying in more colors and mixing with my undertones. It was a disaster. That Cad Red Light turned into this muddy ugly pinkish color that didn't work at all with the greenish blue of the sky. I finally gave up after about and hour and a half. Defeated I headed back to the studio. I knew what I needed to do and what I SHOULD have done before I went out. Test these new colors and try to get a feel for them. All is good...this is part of learning. 

 

So back in the studio I took the Cad Red Lt and put it next to Hansa Yellow. Cad Red Lt look very, very orange....but once you introduce white it goes very pinkish...sort of a muddy pinkish. 

 

 

 

So here's is Cad Red Light and Cad Orange tinted with white...Hansa  Yellow for reference:

 

 

 

So a big difference...at least to me and especially how Cad Red Light interacts with blue/turquoises. I should have done this before I went out. This is what we do as artists. Try to figure out these colors and how best to use them. Next is  Cad Orange with Cad Yellow Dark. Thing is...on the palette these colors are nearly identical. Very tough to tell the difference:

 

 

 

 

Here again...to look at Cad Yellow Deep it looks very orange....but hit it with some white and those yellows pop out. Simply amazing. That is just Titanium White with that Cad Yellow Deep....but look how yellow it gets once it's tinted.  This little exercise really helped me. It was Cad Orange and Cad yellow deep I wanted to use for under-layering. I could use Cad Red light ....but just mostly as a strong red/orange on the horizon.  I played around with the Quinachridone Rose..but it acted much like Quinachridone Magenta that I had been using for almost a year now. Very powerful pigment and very transparent. The Yellow Ochre Pale was much like any other yellow ochre...more or less a yellowish earth pigment.  So...with all this new info I headed out the next morning to do it all over again:

 

 

So that's Cad Red Light at the horizon near the sun. Cad orange and Cad yellow deep for the rest.  Here's another picture of the painting:

 

      

 

All in all very pleased. Much more punch in my colors. It's tough...you really only have about 20 minutes to lay in the real  color of the sunrise...so you have to be on your game. Headed home to watch Roos's videos again. After that I headed out to do a sunset at the same spot:

 

 

Here's is what I was looking at, more or less:

 

 

 

and a better shot of the finished piece. Not nearly as much red in the sunset as the sunrise:

 

 

 

Ok...now I was beginning to understand what Roos was talking about. You can mix your background colors into the sunset as you paint it. Really helped since in reality you only have 20 minutes to make it happen. You have to paint very fast...almost intuitively. 

 

Next morning I was out again ready to catch the sunrise. Having had a couple under my belt I felt more comfortable this morning and decided to include more of the reflections in the standing cornfield water. I was very pleased with this piece and I was able to utilize what Roos was taking about. I was able to mix the undertone I did before the sun rose into the sky and even into the reflected areas in the cornfield. I never could have achieved these tones before I took her course:

 

 

Stoked from my morning session I did some quick review of Roos's course. Watching carefully how she was laying in her tones and got ready for the sunset. Again..same spot...a lot of people where driving by wandering WFT I was up to...lol. This was my view:

 

 

Here's what I came up with:

 

 

and here's a shot of it in the studio. In hindsight I probably shouldn't have introduced the greens into this. But this is how you learn:

 

 

 

Weather didn't cooperate for me for a couple days. But finally I was able to get back out and do another sunrise at the same spot. Difference was it was super cold now. Only 25 degrees when I got there. Water was frozen and there was this fine mist...frozen mist in the air:

 

 

 

It was so cold that when I was cleaning up my palette I noticed that frost was forming on it. Crazy cold this morning:

 

 

And finally here's the piece in the studio. Quite different feel to this this do to how cold it was. Totally changes the colors:

 

 

 

At this point I was feeling very comfortably with the new colors. I've yet to decide what ones I will add permanently to the palette...but I will add a few.  You just can't create the deep of color without using some of these. For now I will keep them handy. One last study I was wanting to do was a moon-rise nocturne of the same spot. I had been watching the moon rise schedule and it looked like everything was going to come together to give me a chance to paint a nocturne moon rise. I really need a warm evening to get the reflection in the standing water. The moon didn't rise till 9:30 pm so I got at my "classroom" at 8:45 and waited. I have to say, I've never really watched a "moon rise" and was surprised to fine it much like I sunrise. Granted the conditions were way different. Even though it was not suppose to freeze there was frost everywhere and it was very, very cold. But finally the moon did rise. Nocturnes are tough. I use two book lights. One to light my palette and one for my panel. The light throws you off and makes it hard to see. There is very little light to paint by. But what light there is, is very sublime. Here is what i came up with...it all  happened in less than 30 minutes. This was my setup...very hard to photograph at night but you can see the moon and it's reflection: 

 

 

and here's a shot of the finished piece:

 

 

 

I know...nearly impossible to see. So here's a shot of it in the studio:

 

 

 

I am very happy with how this came out. It was a crazy kind of light, eerie in a sort of way.  Again I used some of the new colors to get this effect. Predominately cad orange and cad yellow deep. Satisfied with my study (plus the weather went to absolute hell...cloudy with no sun) I decided to do one last piece from this spot. A studio piece in daylight. This is a large piece on canvas 18x36., but pretty much captures my classroom for this winter study:

 

 

All of these pieces will be at the Hoosier Salon Gallery in New Harmony Indiana this June. I have a show there and these will be there along with a lot of others.  This break has been wonderful for me. I've learned a lot and look forward to incorporating what I have learned into my new works. Next I move on to gearing up for painting in the Caribbean. It's time to head to Vieques, Puerto Rico for the annual Vieques Humane Society Art Auction. I plan on filming some of my work down there....as well as getting a much needed warm up. 

 

 If you've read this far, I thank you. You are a trooper and I hope some of my ramblings will help.  Lastly, again...a huge thank you to all my patrons and subscribers.  You make this all possible.....thank you. 

 

Curt