ParadiseBeachPark2

Add a Comment

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on June 11, 2014 at 0:47

Thank you Ruby.

Comment by Ruby on June 10, 2014 at 20:47

very nice painting Stuart

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on June 10, 2014 at 18:01

Thanks Lori.   I am going to paint in the Cedarburg Plein Air Festival.   It's a 12 day long festival with multiple jurors and contests and 160 artists.   I am staying with my son and his family; he's a pediatric surgeon at the Medical College of Wisconsin.   My wife is going and we will stay a couple of nights in Cedarburg (about 30 miles North of my son's home) to give them a little break in the middle of the visit.   Our youngest grandchild will have her 5th birthday while we are there and I am going to try and take my two grandsons out and let them do a little painting with my oils on some small panels.   I have never been in a plein air painting contest that went more than a day; so this will be a real art adventure for me.  The main reason that I have been so inactive on this site in the past year is that I have mainly been intensely painting plein air and not spending much time  in the studio getting ready for this.  I will try and post my paintings every day  on this site while I am there.  Stu

Comment by Lori Ippolito on June 10, 2014 at 17:07

nice contrast between tat foregroung tree and the mountains..i like your distant mountain colors quite a bit.

whats happening in Wisconsin?

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on June 10, 2014 at 15:03

Yes Michael, I am still experimenting.  I do mix all my secondaries as needed and keep my darks transparent.   I mainly use my warm gray and not my cool gray.   Indigo and blue gray are new from my workshop with Richard Lindenberg about 6 weeks ago and I like both of them.   The transparent colors I got from you when you were trying the Vasari CMYK palette and I really like Michael Harding's oils.   Wnen I painted with you, I had not ramped up my alla prima plein air work yet and I was using pretty much JVs landscape palette with all Gamblin colors with Cad yellow pale, Cad yellow deep, Cad red light, permanent Alizarin, Ultramarine blue, Indian red, Viridian and I think thalo blue.   I am still experimenting with the grays.   I keep my paints in my little Palette Garage with clove oil in it to keep it from oxidizing and my Rembrandt warm and cool grays were skinning over, so I switched to the Sennelier and Old Holland warm and cool grays and they hold up better.   I have a warm and cool white from Gamblin (new colors from them) and have not tried them yet.   I am definitely sticking with what I have now through my Wisconsin trip since I am on a bit of a roll.  If I eliminate anything it will be the Sennelier dark neutral tint because that's somewhere between a neutral organic black and a very deep blue purple; also, I rarely use it.   Since most of my grays are used in my mid values and mid-light values, I will keep those higher value grays.  I also really like the Sennelier gray blue because it is just about the right value for water and sky, so I can start with it and lighten, darken, warm and cool it very quickly.   For painting a landscape with a lot of sky, a lot of water or both, it really cuts the time down.   I am usually putting those values in after my mid-dark and middle values and having to do a fair amount of negative painting.   The indigo I really like much better than Thalo blue.   Richard Lindenberg used to be the North American product manager for the Sennelier distributor and is quite partial to their products.   I find them a little more runny than other premium oils and sometimes when I have my pockade box tipped way up to keep it in the shade, they can tend to slide down the box.  I like your idea of another demo with Silvana's photo.   I hope to have my blog up tomorrow.   I have all my photographs, most of the text is done and I just need to put it all together and add the screen shots with value viewer from my iPad to complete it.   Since it's a plein air demo, I will post it all at once.   It pretty much has athe same steps as your recent demo of Linda's painting except for the initial design from the Notan on the iPad.  I am going to try using the iPad more when I am in Wisconsin.   The only drawback is that you can't see the image in bright sunlight.   The easiest way to get around this is to jump in the car with the iPad and panel and sketch it out there.  I think that sitting on a stool in a doorway or under a tree will work too, and I will try it out in Wisconsin if I am not painting near where I have parked the car.   I really have to get it together the first 3 days, because the 2.5 hour quidk draw (painting done, signed, framed and hung in the gallery in that time) is on the 4th day.   I will play around with my camp stool, doorways and under trees this week before leaving for Wisconsin.   Laura wants us to go paint at Bullhead Flat when you come down here, and I told her that I would make sure we do that.    Stu

Comment by Michael J. Severin on June 10, 2014 at 14:31

It looks like you have piled the grays on your palette? ...is that from your recent workshop, or are you experimenting?  ...I don't remember you having all those grays when we painted together.  Your paintings are looking great, so I guess the palette is working for you!! ...I say,if its working, go for it.  Looking forward to seeing your step by step demo!!!  I am thinking about doing another one using Silvana's photo.  I will use another technique. 

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on June 10, 2014 at 14:13

Thanks Michael.   I did the morning one with my iPad for the design and just did this one right on the canvas with no sketch or Notan.   Touchups in the studio were only to scratches and thin paint on the edges and my signature.   My confidence in my alla prima painting is rising steadily.   I am still using an all transparent colors split-primary palette with Michael Harding oils.   I replaced my thalo blue with Sennelier's indigo.   My grays are a dark neutral tint from Sennelier, mid value warm and cool grays from Sennelier and Old Holland, blue gray from Sennelier (great for skies and water as the starting point) and Sennelier's buff titanium (I like it better than Naples Yellow as a warm white for mixing).   This is the palette I am taking to Wisconsin and I will post it as part of my blog on composing my sketch from Value Viewer on the iPad with my step by step demo of the painting I just posted today "Richardson's Bay Marsh".   I am sure it will draw some questions.   Stu

Comment by Michael J. Severin on June 10, 2014 at 9:35

Stu, this one is very, very nice!!! ....very good tonal harmonies and good comp.  ..excellent painting.