Choices

The following views are from the gazebo at Heisler Park.  This is the south view.  The next view is the view to the west and the final view is to the north.  It is seldom that you can paint three quality subjects just by turning.  Mark was painting the view of the main beach facing south.  I chose the view facing the west because of the interesting rocks, plants and water.

After Brian finished his demo, I took his spot with my gear set up and began paining.  The gazebo was full of painters.  I was full of energy and I was looking forward to get Brian's critique. 

Jeff Sewell was painting this view of Rock Pile during the demonstration.  When Brian had finished I started painting.  After about twenty minutes a man came in and said the gazebo had been reserved for a wedding and we would need to move.  Brian had to go and conduct some business as he had a forty painting show opening later in the day at  Pacific Edge Gallery

 

 

Brian Mark Taylor

One of the interesting things about the way Brian Mark Taylor paints is that he uses no painting medium.  He uses a dry brush because it gives his paintings a texture.  In this painting he used this one brush.  You can see the red dots and dashes Brian made to build his composition.  Brian does not do an initial sketch or thumbnail drawing to begin his painting.

At this point in the painting Brian is still deciding what his focal point is going to be.  He was debating which of the buildings he would choose.  He ended up picking the buildings by his brush in this photo.  He would lateer make significant adjustments to the hills in the background.  He really kept things simple and open to interpretation in the background.  It helped him nail down the atmospheric perspective.  He also altered the bottom of the painting where the water and the sand meet because the water and the sand had too similar a look.  They were evenly painted all across the bottom.

This demo took an hour for him to complete.  This is the result.

Brian Mark Taylor

After spending a couple of hours with Brian and watching him paint, I came away with a better understanding of some painting goals that I have been working towards.

Here are some of the take aways I got from his demonstration.

-Establish the large shapes and the darker value areas first.

-Your brush work should be varied to increase interest and detail in your painting.

-The use of a dry brush helps create texture within the painting that others interpret as detail.

-Abstract shapes within the painting help create interest.

-A focus on edges lost and found within the painting should be used to create areas of focus and interest.

-Don't let the composition dictate an exact reading of the landscape.  If you need to move or alter elements do so to complete your vision of what the painting is meant to be.

-Look for something beyond the obvious in your composition if you are painting a familiar subject.

-Learn to trust your mark making and don't overwork your painting.

Moving

Brian is finished with his demo and people kick us out of the gazebo for a wedding.  I have all of my stuff spread out all over the place and my set up is not conducive to packing up quickly.  I was the last one out of the gazebo.

 Everyone moved out and set up by Las Brisas facing the main beach.  The Santa Ana winds were blowing ever so slightly and it was hot.

By the time I moved to set up, everyone had crowded together on either side of the path leading to the beach.  While I was setting up, one of the painters yelled to move out of the way with my large set up and board. whatever...I moved.

Sloppy Seconds

Figuring it out

Finished at last

 

West

This is the painting I started when I was at the demonstration by Brian Mark Taylor.  This is how far I had gotten when we were asked to move out of the gazebo for a wedding.

I was able to paint from the exact same spot at the same time.  The rocks were at a fairly finished point so I had to get the foreground in the right relationship to them.  The dark colors had to be darker and the lights lighter when compared to the rocks so there would be the right perspective.

 

West

This painting was pieced together.  I moved from one element to the next.  Usually I paint all over the canvas to keep everything in balance with each of the other elements.

I moved to the cactus and worked on getting the values and the colors the right intensity.

I worked at getting the succulent the right color and value as well.  I worked on using some abstract mark making to pull the painting together.

West

 I was surprised by how bright this painting ended up being.  Painting in the shade of the gazebo made this painting seem very understated.

 Because I had done some of the work figuring everything out during the first session, it made the decision making that much easier.  This was a difficult subject because of the transition of the foreground to the background.  It was time for the second painting of the day.

South

The north view from the gazebo is rock pile.  I think I have painted rock pile at Hiesler ten times this year.  This was ideal for my second painting.  The familiarity of the subject sped everything up.  As this session was a continuation of the Brian Mark Taylor demonstration / paint out, I tried to keep some of his main points in mind as I worked.

One of the things that sped this painting up was that I did not do as much drawing in of the subject.  Because I had painted it many times, I was able to trust my position of the elements.  I took a more painterly approach.

Another thing which enabled me to complete this 24"X36" painting quickly is that I did not really overwork any part of the painting.  In some areas of the water I allowed the underpainting a more dominant presence than in other paintings.  As you will see in the finished result, the lighter parts of the ocean are untouched parts of the painting because the value of the underpainting worked with the tonal range in the ocean.

South

One of the challenges of painting seascapes for me, is holding on to an impression of the water movement and following it through to the end.  It is more of a memory exercise than anything else.  What I am trying to do is to notice what all of the water in the painting is doing at a moment when it is interesting and putting it down in a believable fashion.

Usually I establish the color and value of the sky early in the painting and then relate everything else in the painting to it.  In this painting I related everything to the dark contours of the bluffs and the water.  It worked out in this painting. 


One of the biggest differences in painting in the shade was making sure my colors and values were correct.  As you can see in the painting, the colors are more vibrant than the preceding photos that were taken under the gazebo.

Rock Pile Afternoon

In this painting I was able to let a lot more of my mark making come through in the final result.  Because I am able to paint quickly with pastels, I sometimes find that I have over painted an area which I should have left alone.  Although some of the marks are not as I intended, I think they are better than if I had reworked them.

I have left this image it's original size so that the mark making in the painting is more visible.  The area where this is most noticeable is the lighter area of the bluffs.  Most of those marks are "once and done."