September 30 in 30 — Late Summer

Late Summer, 6"x8", oil on canvas panel, ©2013 Cindy Greene
available here

I am still here, and still painting — I've done a few small paintings that are not really blog material. While I will most likely make my goal of 30 paintings this month, they may not all be shared. Oh well.

We had surprise visits from two of our daughters over the weekend, which was really fun. I am SO thankful that our girls like to spend time with us!

Today's painting is from photo references I took at Bolsa Chica Wetlands on our last visit. I think it's about time to go back.

Limited Palette & Demonstration

Homemade Glass Palette with primaries and secondaries

For quite a long time, I've been using a color palette of between eight and twelve colors of paint, plus titanium white. I used the frequently-used warm and cool version of each primary color, a couple of earth colors, occasionally black, and viridian or pthalo blue when needed. I bought other colors of paint of course, including a couple of the quinacridone colors such as magenta or rose and played with them, and also tried a couple of the transparent oxides. These other colors usually went back into the spare paint container and only came out if I really wanted a specific color I couldn't get otherwise. I did find that Richeson Shiva Ice Blue mixes wonderful foggy or overcast skies, and that Viridian was useful in getting that deep turquoise blue I needed while painting in Laguna Beach.

I've been putting together a painting kit for traveling, where I need to fit everything into a smallish backpack. I bought a cigar box pochade on eBay, and took it for a spin (literally, on my back while riding my bike to the beach). It worked great, but the paint is just heavy and I started thinking what I could leave behind. 

I've been reading about a few artists who use a truly limited palette, consisting of three or four colors, and found it interesting but a bit intimidating. I found Lori Putnam's blog post about her three-color palette, and decided to try it. I still have all my other paints, and can easily add in as necessary.

Go ahead and read Lori's post — it's really worthwhile — but basically, she decided to try using this very limited palette for a year. Lori uses Cadmium Yellow, Pyrrol Red and Ultramarine Blue, along with Titanium White. She said it worked so well for her, that she hasn't gone back, and still uses it. She can mix 99% of the colors she needs from these colors.

I've used Lori's palette now for a week or so, and am really enjoying it. I was mostly concerned with giving up Alizarin Crimson, since it made a lot of the mixes I liked. But the Pyrrol Red makes a beautiful purple, and I haven't missed the alizarin at all. I'm using Winsor & Newton's Winsor Red, which is the same as pyrrol (also spelled pyrrole or pyrol). As Lori suggested, I mix up the secondaries on my palette (orange, green, purple). I also save the palette scrapings, mixed together to make a neutral "mud" color, which is always slightly different, but is usually a warm grey. This is a great aid to getting beautiful neutrals and greys. Honestly, I am loving the results and highly recommend it!

Read Lori's blog article, as she explains her reasons for choosing the limited palette much better than I can, and she has a great color chart showing some of the colors she mixes.

"Up A Creek" Demo....

I posted these photos on my FaceBook Cindy Greene Studio page, but it's a little harder to find there and thought I'd cross-post them here. I snapped some photos of my painting "Up A Creek" while in process. This was painted using only Cadmium Yellow, Pyrrol Red and Ultramarine Blue, along with Titanium White.

On Ampersand Gessobord, a very smooth panel, I sketched in the composition
with a diluted mixture of grey "mud."

I laid in the dark shapes, to get the darks where they need to be. I had mixed
a nice large pile of blue and red, and modified that purple as needed.

I added some of the middle values, going cooler in the background, as well as laying in
the light sand color on the right. Also put in the light gold bluff area and its reflection.

Started putting in greens, especially the trees up on the bluff.
I also put in the sky to get the lightest light in place.

I put in the greens of the marsh grass, trying to get the pattern in of lights and darks.

Water! There are some cloud reflections, but not enough to make distinct shapes.
The gessobord is a bit slick for big strokes.

I painted the right side bank, with its grasses and shrubs. I also worked on the left bank a bit.

Finally, the reflections of the bluffs and trees go in the water.

More details now, darkening a few areas and developing some of the marsh.
I also corrected a bit of the reflections.

I thought it was finished here, but as usual it needed to "steep" overnight.

I made a couple of miniscule corrections on the bluff areas.
This is the final, and the colors are more true to the original.

"Up A Creek", 6"x6"
©2013 Cindy Greene

September 30 in 30 — Early Morning Walk

Early Morning Walk, 5"x5", oil on gessobord, ©2013 Cindy Greene
Daily Paintworks Auction here

As I said, I love paths. Especially in the early morning, when the light is catching the tips of the shrubs and marsh plants. This is another view I took on a painting trip to the Newport Back Bay. What an oasis in the middle of busy Orange County — not just for us, but also for the animals who live there or visit on their long flights north or south.

September 30 in 30 — Incoming Tide

Incoming Tide, 5"x7", oil on canvas panel, ©2013 Cindy Greene,
$100, available here

When we were at Bolsa Chica Wetlands the other day, the clouds gradually cleared and the heat started to sink in. This view of the inlet is full of birds, resident and visitor, as well as sealife. I love sitting there and watching. 

I'm thankful I painted a couple of paintings ahead last week. A dear elderly family member is not feeling well, and I've spent quite a bit of time with her. Then yesterday, two of our daughters came for a weekend visit, and it was totally worth putting the paints aside while we enjoyed them. We visited, talked, swam, cooked, watched soccer, knit, shopped, ate and talked a lot more. So much fun, and I am so thankful.

September 30 in 30 — Summer Clearing, Back Bay

Summer Clearing, Back Bay, 6"x8", oil on canvas panel, ©2013 Cindy Greene
$125, available here

Cheater alert: I started this painting at the Back Bay last month, but stopped way before it was completed. Since Real Life is happening around here, I spent a couple of hours reworking and finishing it as one of my September paintings. Yep, I did. 

The Newport Back Bay is a fun place to paint. And challenging!! The summer greens are so very bright, and next winter that marsh will be golden-red. Like this:

High Noon at the Back Bay, 8"x8", oil on board, ©2013 Cindy Greene
$125, available here

And early spring, it will start to green up just a bit, like this:

Rain's Coming, 10"x8", oil on board, ©2013 Cindy Greene
$125 available here

Always changing; always different. And now, what to paint today?

September 30 in 30 — Wetlands Sky

Wetlands Sky, 7"x5", oil on canvas panel, ©2013 Cindy Greene
$100, available here

When we arrived at the marsh the other morning, the sky was just amazing. I'm guessing the late summer unstable hot air meeting the marine moisture did some magic. I painted very quickly to try to capture the essence of the sky. This is the main inlet for the wetlands, so the moving water allowed very few reflections.

September 30 in 30 — Wetlands Reflections

Wetlands Reflections, 6"x8", oil on canvas panel, ©2013 Cindy Greene
$125, available here

We went to Bolsa Chica Wetlands again yesterday, to enjoy being outdoors before it got too hot. (Yes, heat wave here.) This is a slightly different view of the same area of marsh I painted last week. The clouds were just magnificent.

My husband got some great photos, including a red egret and a pair of white pelicans, neither of which we had seen there before. Fun morning, but by 10:00 it was too hot to stay in the sun, even at the coast.

Summer Clouds

Summer Clouds, 5x7", oil on linen panel,
©2013 Cindy Greene

Tuesdays have been plein air days all summer and today my two painting buddies were not able to go. So I asked my husband if he'd like an outing (he's a photographer), and off we went to one of our favorite local spots, the Bolsa Chica Wetlands. It was a strange morning, weather-wise, very cloudy for late August. But what a beautiful morning it turned out to be. I shared this part of the marsh with a reclusive clapper rail, who had at least one photographer looking for him, as I guess they are fairly rare this time of year.

I'm very pleased with this painting — since the light was changing so rapidly, and the clouds clearing up, I got the color notes for the water in early, as well as the dark marsh areas. The pickleweed was fun, with all the reds and greens.

 

I finished this painting fairly quickly and started another of the incoming tide. You can see a bit of it below, along with Stuart who agreed to pose. Such a fun morning; it left both of us very satisfied. And hungry!