Sandy Miller Landscape Painting Traverse City

Day 1 – 8/7/2011

Started painting around at 9:30. I choose to paint a rolling hill on Carol Rd. covered with violet thistles, brown and green grasses with some yellow and white daisies scattered about. In the far back there is a cherry orchard and a variety of trees. I choose to let the field and foreground to take prominence, with the horizon high on the canvas. Used acrylic paints and had lots of difficulty with the paints drying out and therefore it was difficult to mix paints and use the paints. Tomorrow I will have a water sprayer and hopefully will have better luck. I have a good base and intend to paint in the same spot and add more detail.

Day 2 – 8/8/2011

I continued to paint on the same picture today. I wanted to try and bring more sunlight into the picture because the last two days were very sunny and hot. I do like to paint with rich colors but I had a lot of difficulty with my acrylics darkening when they dried. I wish I had brought more colors for my palette.

Carrol Road, Mission Pennisula, MI

Acrylic on Canvas – 18”x24”

Day 3 -8/9/2011

Today was a very dreary rainy day. I got out to Mission Point Lighthouse at 8:00 and was not inspired to paint today. I did not want to get set up and mix my paints and have to pack it up because of rain. So I choose to go a charchol drawing using different values to reflect the weather and the mood of the day. I drew the rocky shoreline, water and mountains arcoss the East bay. I had a good start but it started to rain (you can see droplets on the drawing) and did not get to finish getting the darker values into the drawing. No rain in the forcast for tomorrow just overcast skies. Hopefully a better day for painting.

Mission Point, MI

Charcoal on Bristol. 14”x17”

Day 4 – 8/10/2011

Last night for homework I read and studied some of David Hockney’s work. He is an British artist Hochney used all types tmediums to develop his art. He like to use photography as a study of light rather than aid his memory. His use if bright colors also atrached me to his work and was my inspiration for today. I painted today from one of the highest points on Mission Penninsula, with veiws of the bays and surounding vineyards. I choose to paint the vinyards over looking the East Bay. It was quite breezy and overcast. Because I like to paint bright colors it was really fun to paint in abtracct and brilliant colors. Even though my painting is not realistic I could not have painted it anywhere else but here in the outdoors. I concentrated on the shapes I saw as well as the values. I also used varied brush strokes and my pallete knife to create different effects in the paint. It was my best day painting so far.

Chateau Chantal, MI

Acrylic on Canvas, 18”x24”

Day 5 – 8/11/2011

Today I drove up to Petoskey to paint in one of the many parks in Little Traverse Bay. It was a picture perfect day for painting. I choose to paint the pier and lighthouse in the bay. I mixed my pallet of blues, greens and pinks and had a lovely day painting. What I like about the picture is the richness of colors. What I continue to need to work on iis to vary my brush stoke I always seem to come back to pointillism in my work which I feel I tend to over due.

Little Traverse Bay, MI

Acrylic on Canvas, 18”x 24”

Reflection

This was my first experience painting outdoors. I have no fear now and will attempt more “ En plein air” It not only painting what you see but what you feel as you paint and that’s what made my experience so exciting. I only brought one size of canvas and only acrylics, which made me feel limited. I will try smaller sizes as well as different mediums En plein air. Nora was a great teacher who helped me to see things and understand the process of painting outdoors.

Rachel Jensen - Landscape Painting: Round 2

I took this class last summer, and it was my first painting class. I have an art degree, and paint a little with my middle school students, but I never took a class. I really enjoyed it, and Old Mission Peninsula is an excellent muse, worthy of a return trip. For my second time around I decided to stick with watercolor as my medium. I was just starting to get the hang of it at the end of last year's class, so I was eager to get back to it.

Day 1
We gathered at the Carroll street site. It is my least favorite spot of all the ones we hit last year. I remember it as being hot, buggy, and sans bathroom. It is pretty, though, and the addition of hay bales and a veggie garden broke up all that green that I grew tired of last time. We did have some "distractions" wander through our first demo in the form of some escaped pigs, but we got to work after they left. I chose the view from up on the hill.



The Painting is 15" x 11", watercolor. And it looks just a little better than my first day out last year. I didn't really like this one. I didn't say it outright, but it was clear how I felt when I accidentally drove away without it at the end of the day. Luckily Nora grabbed it for me, but I don't think I would have lost sleep over it if it had disappeared.

Day 2
On the second day, the group went to Carroll street again, but I just wanted to find some water. I went to Haserot Beach, near the top of the peninsula. It was a beach I liked last year, so I thought it might propel me forward. I think it did. The watercolor below is 15" x 8". It looks like what I was doing at the end of last years class. Improvement.



In the evening, I decided to pull over at the scenic overlook that we pass when we drive up and down the peninsula. I was really drawn to the horizon line, the atmospheric layering of hills, the crisp line where trees meet water, and water meets the distant land. The watercolor below is 15" x 5.5"


Day 3
On the third day we went to the lighthouse. It rained when we first got there, but the showers held off just long enough for me to get a few things done. We were asked to work wet on wet with our watercolor, so I did just that. The first painting is 3" x 6" and the second is 15" x 5'. I started working with multiple pieces at one time so that I could experiment on a smaller one, before I did something to the larger piece. It also gave me an opportunity to play a bit more. Working with multiples also takes the pressure off, because not all of our eggs are in one basket.



When it started to rain again, I moved to a site in front of Old Mission Inn, where I had heard there was something like a picnic shelter that I could sit in to keep dry. This was great because the hazy, rainy day was great for painting, and I didn't want to stop.The first piece below is 15" x 5.5". The second was an experiment, where I was really trying to isolate that line I liked so much. I found that if you painted a line and then dripped water on it, the paint would disperse like a landscape on top with it's reflection in the water below. This one is 6.5" x 3.75". The third piece is the same idea using violet, and is 3.5" x 6".




Day 4
The fourth day was spent at Chateau Chantal. It was cold. After two hot days and a rainy day, the chill in the air wasn't so bad. I did have to break out the sweatshirt and blanket. In this first piece I think I finally achieved what I was after. I wanted to simplify the landscape, have smooth gradation within the color blocks, and capture the lighting with my color palette. It reminds me a little of some contemporary pieces my parents found in Cape Dorset, Alaska.It is 15" x 6".


I also did some smaller pieces. The first was a practice for the large piece, and measures 6.5" x 4". The second is my only vertical composition, measuring 3" x 6". The third is 9" x 2", and is more energetic. I used watercolor, and water resistant pen, that bled a little on that. The fourth is the shape of a little line of trees I liked. It is 4" x 1.5".





Day 5
I started my last painting with a barn and a field right outside my cabin door. I had begun to sketch the composition the evening before, but the morning light was so much better. The first piece measures 6" x 3.5". It is bolder in color, like the scene itself. The second piece 7.5" x 4". Here, I started to bring in some pattern in the foreground, layered on top of the color blocks. I think I moved on from what I was doing in the previous few days to something new, which was cool.




When I finished there, I headed up to the Two Lads Winery on the peninsula. I checked it out the day before and thought the contemporary architecture, might lend itself to what I was doing with the landscape. These reminded me of something I had seen before and at our final critic, Nora said that the artist I was thinking of was Charles Demuth. His work with industrial architecture must have made a subconscious impression on me in an art history course at some point. The first painting is 4" x 4". I wanted that horizon line to be stopped in its tracks by the massive vertical of the building. I also wanted to see if I could get away with dividing the composition into quadrants with the most prominent vertical and horizontal lines. The second piece below is 10.25" x 3.5". In this one I focused on the big black windows and the graphic 2 from the Two Lads logo.



Now that the course is complete, I feel good about the work I created. I definitely have a better understanding of watercolor after this week. Also, I found a style of working with the material that is engaging enough that I want to keep painting. Overall, it was an excellent week!

Maria Prose Landscapes - Traverse City

This is the first very hot, hot day. It was a difficult day for many reasons. The acrylic paints dried instantly. The attempt at a new palate did not work either. So the best thing to do that day was to use a palate knife and layer the paint, sometimes in the exact color out of the tube. Though it was a frustrating day, I did learn a bit about painting outside in the heat and hoped that tomorrow would be a better day.

Acrylic on canvas

11x14 in Carrol Road

For homework that evening, I attempted a landscape from a postcard to see how the acrylic paints reacted indoors especially in air conditioning! It gave me the confidence to continue the next day.

Acrylic on canvas

11x14 in

One of my favorite days, the day of the pig invasion! I am grateful to Nora for suggesting the change in green in the front, the lilac also made all the difference on the hay.

Carrol Road

Acrylic on canvas

11x14 in

This was a rain day. It also was a day that I worked way too long on my painting, to the point that it was not the same painting I started with. I realized that no matter how many times I tried to fix it, I could not reproduce the weather conditions that I needed to make it right!

Mission Point Lighthouse

Acrylic on canvas

11x14 in

The Chateau Chantel was a beautiful spot with multiple views. It also was a cold, windy, moody day. I was trying to capture this mood and hope that it comes across that way.

Chateau Chantel

Acrylic on canvas

16x20 in

One of my homework assignments was to use colored paper to "block" the color in. I tried this technique with painting the next day. This is a very quick block that everyone told me to leave as is. It is the same day, same place, just different view as previous painting.

Chateau Chantel

Acrylic on canvas

16x20 in

The last day I went to Borrow's Harbor. This is near the restaurant with wonderful aroma's and views! I wanted to capture a private setting that would invite a friend into the picture.

Borrow's Harbor

Acrylic on canvas

16x20 in

I have never blogged before and had difficulty with doing this one. (Guess there is always one in the class)! I hope it has met with the criteria needed. I loved the class and want to keep pursuing Landscape Painting! Thank you Nora for a great experience and thank you all for making it fun.

Maria Prose

Carol Fleischer

I really enjoyed this week of painting outdoors and up north. I was worried that I would be miserable, but was able to paint through heat, sun, rain, wind and bugs and like it. My goals for this week were to get together a reasonable amount of equipment for paining comfortably outdoors, get away from picky details in my paintings and not panic if someone looked at my paintings in progress. Firstly, I did manage to have everything that I needed to make a painting. In the future I will reduce the amount of stuff that I take and use a smaller pallet. Painting on watercolor paper blacks worked well as did my new umbrella. Secondly, I didn’t take any small brushes with me thus avoiding picky details. I think that this has improved my paintings. Lastly, no one came near me while I was painting but I have generally more confidence and hope that I will be able to carry on if I encounter strangers in the future while painting.

For me one of the more interesting things that Nora told us was that painting where you live identifies you. The local landscape is part of who we are. This may help to explain my difficulty in settling down to paint during my travels. Those exotic landscapes are not a part of me. I must remember also that those nineteenth century travelers who documented their travels with watercolor sketches did not have cameras. Therefore in the future I plan to just enjoy the moment and take some pictures while traveling. If I feel like doing a sketch I will otherwise, that’s just not who I am.

Nora also mentioned that the colors in the Michigan landscape are lovely in August when the grasses turn golden and violet. In addition she conveyed that the light in September is the same a Florence Italy. Nora also seems to like the Mission Peninsula. I have fond memories of the Mission Peninsula and I did not know before the class started that we would be painting there. On this trip I did not lament the changes on the peninsula but celebrated them. Wineries are a good thing and it looks as if they will help the economy of our state. This trip has made me appreciate Michigan more and I hope to continue painting in plein aire here.

The Work

Sunday July 31, 20011, Carroll Road

I worked on these two 9x12 watercolor paintings simultaneously. I was intrigued by the way the hills overlapped, and by the color of the sunlight on the higher hill. Nora encouraged me to “push” one a little more. I tried to emphasize the place where the hills come together in the painting on the bottom.

Monday August 1, 2011, Carroll Road

I liked the saddle shape of this hill and the early morning sun and shadow in the orchard on the left. For this 9x12 watercolor I used only two large brushes.

Tuesday August 2, 2001 Mission Point Lighthouse.

I made these 9x12 watercolors by wading into the lake to wet my paper. Then I placed the wet paper on glass that kept the paper wet for a very long time allowing me to work wet on wet. This was my favorite activity of the week as the lake became a part of my painting.

It began to rain so I moved to a beach north of the Old Mission to do this 9x12 oil pastel while sitting in my car. This was my first attempt at oil pastel and my small set of colors was too intense for this gray day.

I liked using wet paper on glass so much that I did two more 9x12 watercolors for homework. It was nice to be able to use a hair dryer to dry the paper enough to make a few harder edges.

Wednesday and Thursday August 3&4, Chateau Chantel

For this painting I wanted to try to do a larger (18x24) watercolor over two days. The problem with this approach was that the first day was gloomy with very dark heavy skies. The next day was very sunny. I tried to finish the painting as if the light was the same as the first day. I would not do this again. I think that doing a small study and taking lots of photos on one day and then painting a large work in the studio would be a better solution. The atmosphere and even the paint drying time all interact in a plein aire session.

Sunday August 7, 2011

Changes made in response to the August 5 critique.

Homework

For my homework I wanted to explore watercolor on 11x14 yupo paper. I found that opaque colors worked best and that wiping away color to get back to white paper could be used to make images. Layering washes could be done but needs to be done carefully.