m. p i l g r i m (art)

In November a couple weeks ago, I was going to go out with Himself, my Patrone, for a hike and a paint. Himself is the one that I married after my first master's degree, and a decade  after my mother warned me to get a job that pays .  However, it was too breezy.  Some plein air painters would say, "that's what happens with painting outside," but I'm still too new to the genre to pull it off. So, I opened up an old ipad that I've repurposed into a reference photo repository to find something worth painting, (this is a pretty genius way to access reference photos, because you can pinch in to see details and isolate color) and came up with this image from Crescent Moon State Park, near Sedona.  .   I frequently begin my initial blocking in, and many of the later stages, without my glasses on.   I do this when painting out of door, as well.  It helps me to focus on the big shapes, and to ignore that anxiety that arises when I'm missing out on de...

  Badly planned, rapidly done. My first SP in oil.   You'll notice that I ran out of space. Did I say badly planned? I didn't plan it at all.  Where'd my chin go? Where? Rapidly done, on a 6x6 canvas board. I may yet poke at it to get rid of the darks around my nose.

 I joined a local group of plein air painters who goes to various locations around Albuquerque this past week.   It gave me a chance to test out my LEDER EASEL .  I bought this on Etsy, and it works pretty well, but you can save the maker the fees and buy it off his website .   Here's my set up at "Tres Pistoles" trailhead, or as the locals call it, "Three Gun".  This is the scene I chose.  I love the path, I love paths and roads. I love the shadows. I love the Sandias in the background.   I set up my board, pre-toned with transparent red oxide, and blocked in the scene.  For the sky, I chose magnesium blue. It wasn't a good choice. It's too transparent on top of that red oxide.   After roughing it in, I took is back to my home to work on it. Here's the end of the first day. Eventually, I felt like it was too "cool", including the sky, and decided I wanted to warm it up. I also felt it lacked some vibrancy, so I used some ...