Day 4 Deer Island Revisited!!

Our first visit to Deer Island was in fog and rain. A disappointing day-so the group decided to head back out there on our 4th day in glorious sunlight. We headed to a little cove of land where 2 fishing boats were waiting - stranded on land by the low tide. One of the boats was a wonderful maroon-purple next to a green shack, lobster traps with orange buoys and grey tubes abounded on the dry docks next to the boat.

I purposely choose to paint a foreshortened boast as this a very complex drawing--and well my mentor, Kevin Macpherson, told me to pick something complex. There is a method to his torture! ;-) Of course the objective for me when painting with these wonderful Masters such as Kevin, Joe Anna Arnett and Jim Asher is to learn from them--not paint what I know I can paint, paint something that I struggle with so that I can take their advice and wisdom back with me. Force me to ask the questions that are needed to learn. What do you learn if you do nothing but paint what you know in front of them just to impress them. Impress them? Pleeeeeeaaaasssseee! That's like practicing one lick on a guitar--playing it in front of Clapton and expecting to get a rave review from the man! Even in this case you'd probably get a mere..."oh..pretty good...what else can you do?..." Oh yeah...impressive... :-D

The foreshortened boat proved painful...and showed me a weakness I now will spend lots of time against. Drawing, while never my strong point and thanks to Drawing on the Ride Side of your Brain---gave me the biggest block to drawing that I've ever had! But with the complex compositions that I choose this week and Joe Anna's method of sketching the scene first--it became very apparent that drawing skills are so important to the plein air painter when selecting complex compositions. And as Joe Anna said in her talk--"You want to draw better? Draw more---you don't need books telling you how--just paper, pencil, eraser and subject....just draw." And so I shall.

The study itself was a weak one, however, as well all who provide critiques, there are always positive among the negatives. The positives in this study was the values I nailed, the learning I learned, the struggle I went through to learn what I learned and the importance of painting with thick paint.

I began to understand the importance of pushing wet paint around in plein air and have started to use thick paint and realizing the advantages of doing so. Bolder strokes, refining shapes, adding depth--all so much more intriguing a the paint began to flow. Also just important is the lightness of touch.

That afternoon, after a delightful lunch with my new painting friends--was spent watching Joe Anna paint and create. The importance of a solid drawing and perspective became even more apparent as I watched her create. The little aides that she uses to find the center point, transferring the sketch to canvas, working out the most complex area of the painting on the sketch and not the canvas before you start the painting were all shown and discussed.

I asked questions sparingly as this was Joe Anna's time to paint as well. It was after all a paint out. And you can learn so much just by quietly watching a Master at this level. One questioned I asked was if she approached the blank canvas asking "where's the darkest dark?" and if she holds to the belief of only one darkest dark in the painting throughout. After a number of attempts to answer the question--or I should say to ensure that I understood what she was trying to tell me--it boiled down to me that the question of where's the area of greatest contrast--most complex point of her drawing. This really doesn't do Joe Anna's answer justice. The discussion was enlightening and also helped to explain why Kevin asks the four questions continually while he is painting. Where's the darkest dark? Lightest light? (that's the area of greatest contrast?)...when laying colors in the shapes...Lighter? Darker? warmer? cooler?--also known as contrast? What's the contract between the color I just laid down and the color next to it. However--with all those questions--don't get lost in the little area of the painting---overall is it working--the colors and what you want to convey. You know---if it were easy--everyone would be painting!!!

I watched as she worked dark values in areas that I would have painted lighter in value--which prompted the question of only one darkest dark. Joe Anna patiently explained her thinking on this concept. Again--Greatest contrast--not so technical as to continuing to worry and struggle where is "my darkest dark" and only having one. Paint and catch the contrast and in layers you can lighten and create contrast.

We rushed back to catch the ferry back to the mainland. We painted late on this day. Our group that was the last to leave went directly to downtown St. Andrews for a late dinner at the Harbour Front. We drank and ate with lots of laughter as we talked about our adventures of the week. The next day is a free day--No formal instructions and while I originally planned to go whale watching, I decided that I would paint instead. It's not often you get invited to paint with artists at this level. Joe Anna invited and I accepted. It was her day off as well, so I was not expecting help or critiques--but wanted to reinforce what I learned from the week.

More on that one tomorrow.