Three Page Hudson River Vista

This is a 10x22" spread across three pages in my blue Pescia journal. You can click on it to enlarge the image. (Here is a link to how I made this fabulous 16-page journal from a single sheet, in case you missed it.) It's a scene from Dennings Point Park facing downriver through the Hudson Highlands, with Bannerman Island showing on the right side, just in front of the mountains. I had been wanting to paint this for so long, and will probably do a larger version to frame and hang in the near future.

This painting was done with traditional brushes, but I used the Golden Airbrush paints to do it. That line of acrylic paints has been reformulated, and has just hit the market as the new Golden High Flow line. I ordered some as soon as they became available, and was delighted to see the color range expanded to include some colors that I sorely missed in the Airbrush line. I have the new paints here now, and will be posting a review of them next week.

Design Sketches for Palisade Memories

Click image for a larger, clearer view

Watercolor and acrylic on paper

(9x12" Stillman & Birn Beta Wirebound sketchbook)

This sheet of sketches was done to work out the major issues for an 8x16" painting of the Hudson River and Palisades. When I'm out painting on location, I don't usually have the time to plan to this degree. In my studio, however, time is on my side. I'm not having to drive long distances to locations and then try to make time stand still while the sun races across the sky and shadows change. Going through these planning stages yields a better painting in terms of composition, color, and overall design.

I began with the four tiny thumbnail sketches at the bottom of the page. Each is 1x2". I did them with black ink and a fountain pen, trying different places for the horizon, and scoping out where I wanted the boats to go. I sketched in a barge and tug for these thumbnails, but in doing so, I decided they detracted too much from the Palisades, which I wanted to keep as the main point of interest. When I went to do the larger study, I put in a small fleet of sailboats instead. They provide interest and break up the horizon line without stealing the show. Once I finished deciding what would go where, I pulled out some watercolors and played with color on the thumbnails. Then I did the larger study in acrylic, which would also be my medium for the finished painting.

Although I'd gone through all these stages, I still wasn't completely satisfied. I decided that when it came time to do the final painting, I'd shorten the foreground space so that the water and cliffs wouldn't mirror each other as much. I also wanted to scale back the tree on the left, so that it would break the horizon line, but not extend beyond the upper edge of the cliffs. You can click here to see the finished painting I did, based on this series of sketches.

Kaaterskill Falls from the Top

8.5x11" across a two page spread of a 5.5x8.5"

Stillman & Birn Beta Hardbound Sketchbook

Ink and Watercolor

On the way back from the Inspiration Point hike that I posted about yesterday, we detoured to the top of Kaaterskill Falls, where you can sit alongside Lake Creek just where it plunges over the 270 foot waterfall. There are dramatic distant vistas of the mountains from up there, plus beautiful rock outcroppings and intimate cascades. It was one of the favorite spots of the Hudson River School artists, and it's one of my favorites as well! They have done quite a bit of trail work there recently and the footing is vastly improved from the top of the mountain down to the top of the falls.

Four Design Studies

Design Studies 3-6

Acrylics in a 9x12" Stillman & Birn Beta Wirebound Sketchbook

I'm going back to basics for awhile to revamp some things about my painting process. I've noticed some bad habits creeping into my paintings, and I'm really excited about correcting them and moving forward to make more of an artistic statement in my work. In order to accomplish these goals, I've dedicated this Stillman & Birn 9x12" wirebound sketchbook to the process, though I might do some of them on other supports too. This paper holds up really well to anything I throw at it, so here goes!

I'm planning to do at least one of these studies a day --- sometimes a full page, and sometimes just a portion of a page --- in addition to my regular paintings. Yesterday, I taped up a couple of pages into quarters so that I could do more of them faster. I'll do some of them in monochrome, but most in color. I may test drive different palettes too. The emphasis will be on design, and experimenting with how value, color, and composition work together in creating a painting that impacts the viewer.

These four studies were done with acrylics, using just Naphthol Crimson, Cadmium Yellow Light, Ultramarine Blue, Titanium White, and Carbon Black. I reverted to a red-yellow-blue simple palette in the interest of keeping my color clean and simplifying the process. (I usually do not use any Naphthol reds, but it's what I happened to have on hand, and whadaya know..... It worked!) I'm using acrylics because it dries quickly, doesn't lift, is opaque, and can be painted on paper. I'll probably do some of them in gouache and other water based mediums too, depending on what is convenient at the time.

In contrast to much of my work over the past few years, which builds on transparent layers, I am planning to work more directly with opaque paint on these. I'll work from life when I can, but I'll also work from photos. The two on the top of this page were done yesterday at the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site in Hyde Park, New York. The bottom two were painted today from photos. The study on the bottom left was done from a photo taken during my recent Adirondack trip. The lower right is from a photo taken at my property in the Catskills.

I started out this series working the full 9x12 pages, but after the first two, I saw problems which would be more quickly resolved by working smaller and faster, and then bumping the size back up again once I've worked through the issues that I'm seeing. I'll do at least a few more quartered pages before I go larger again with these.

From a hike to Palenville Overlook

Stillman & Birn Beta hardbound sketchbook

Watercolor

Noodler's Luxury Blue Ink

Lamy Safari with EF nib

Sketched during our lunch break on a hike to Palenville Overlook with friends.

Siuslaw Forest Preserve -- Golden Airbrush Acrylics and Silverpoint Ground

Golden Airbrush Acrylics

Golden Silverpoint Ground

Stillman & Birn 8.5x11" Beta 180lb Hardbound sketchbook

I've still got so many August sketches to post. My vacation is now over, and although I didn't get any oil paintings done in my wanderings with my husband, I did take a sketchbook and some sort of paints/pens everywhere with me. Now I need to start photographing the more recent ones, which have been patiently waiting for my new camera to arrive. I got a Samsung NX1000 while on my break time. That was a good time to get a new camera, since I had some down time to actually go out and take photos and get through a chunk of the manual. I'm hoping it will result in improved accuracy, better color, and crisper detail in reproducing my sketches and paintings.

Windham High Peak --- Sketching and hiking

My husband and I hiked up Windham High Peak. It was a long way to cart art supplies, but I packed light, bringing just my Arches 140# Rough custom hardbound sketchbook and a watercolor pan set. I had pre-taped the page borders to speed the process along, and did the writing (shown below) after returning home.