Blue Spruce Plein Air

I went back to Brooklyn Botanic Gardens yesterday.
It was nice to be out alone with all the plants.

I love these plants!

Aren't these mugs great?
I got one.

More pictures from familiar places, it was nice to be back.
I didn't really walk around a lot on Sunday, so I did a bit yesterday.

Japanese Garden:

This gorgeous tree caught my eye and I decided to paint it.

Here was my view:  I really loved how the tree stood out against the dark.

The color in this photo is not great- that tree basically glowed blue, it was amazing.

So..... this was a really difficult painting and I kind-of missed the mark on getting the lights on the tree.

Partly because by the time I got to the lights, I had direct sun on the panel at a really bad angle and I stopped being able to see at all.  5pm this time of year is a terrible sun angle!! I did move around but no angles were good.

Also conifers are difficult and I don't really know how to paint them.
I need to figure that out. Probably in-studio.

This painting ended up being a lot darker than I intended... and without the glow I wanted to get.
I should have added cadmium yellow to the palette but I only used yellow ochre, and it was limiting for lighter greens.

But weirdly and unexpectedly, it has gotten extremely positive response on social media. 

I'm kind of surprised to be honest because I didn't think it was that great. 

But people seem to really like all the darkness.

This painting kind of dragged on longer than I wanted to be out, and the sun angle really was a problem.

People at BBG loved it though, and I did get mistaken again for a high schooler so that's cool.

This painting absolutely would not photograph at all.
This is the best I could get, and I had to do it at home.

8x10 oil

On-location shot.... doesn't that look terrible?
I tried taking many location pics at different spots and angles and they all looked awful.

Bluebell Wood

 Yesterday we all decided to meet up again at Brooklyn Botanic Garden to paint.

I have not been since pre-covid, it was so nice to be back.

The bluebells are in full bloom and they are amazing.

I painted them.
8x10 oil

So many bluebells!

Kayak Views

There is free kayaking at the boathouse at Pier 26.

When I painted the geisha in Central Park, I met a new friend, Kedrin, who volunteers at the boathouse.

They are not open for the season yet but it was a friends and family day so she invited me and Grace, and I brought Janet too.

The water was amazing and we stayed out for about 3 1/2 hours.

I am going to volunteer at the boathouse this summer.

It's a good volunteer thing to do, I can learn new stuff, meet new people, and kayak a lot.  It's very physical which I want.

And I love the water!

There is a new park around Pier 26 which is really lovely.

Janet left early but the rest of us got sushi and had an impromptu picnic in the park overlooking the water.

I did intend to paint but it didn't happen.

LIRR Tracks

I went painting after work.

Janet, who sat next to me at the office when we had an office, and who also lives in my neighborhood, came out to chat while i painted.  It was pretty cool of her to stand on a train platform for as long as she did!

This painting took about 2 1/2 hours, as my 8x10s often do. (Janet wasn't there the whole time, I had to pry her away from working by sending an ALL CAPS email to her work address! She laughed and logged off work.)

This is the Long Island Railroad station in Forest Hills.
The trains periodically come by super-fast and it's a bit scary each time, because some of them are right next to the platform.  Stay behind the yellow line is excellent advice.

I'd like to do some more paintings on train platforms.  It's challenging.

I left out the.... I don't know what it is called.... the thing that spans above the tracks.
Now looking at the painting I wish I had put it in.  Next time.
I was kind of lucky to finish before losing light.

I do like painting with company sometimes, and Janet is great company- but it requires a different kind of focus.  It's a little more difficult, actually.

Probably now that the weather is nice and days are longer, I'll go painting after work like I used to, just not in Central Park. That's good though because it will give me different scenes and challenges.

8x10 oil

Moderna Shot #2 Can't Stop Me!

I felt fine last night then the affects of the second shot hit me overnight.  

I woke up several times during the night then went back to sleep.

Had some weird dreams, including being in a small group who got to see a live exclusive performance from The Indigo Girls! That was a pretty cool dream.

Mostly I didn't feel great though.
This morning I felt a little better, the headache went away with some strong tea.

I do not have a fever but I am achy overall and my arm hurts,
But it isn't terrible and I went out painting.

I was going to paint with Thor again but he didn't go out because he didn't have to take his daughter to school and wait for her.  (School is off today.)

Here is a little painting, about an hour and a half.

I did the composition thru my phone at a wide angle and this was very helpful because I saw the composition shapes in a completely different way than I usually look.  This wider angle is something I need to train my mind better to see.

Overall I'm happy with the painting.

6x8 oil

Wednesday Charcoal & Moderna #2

I got my second Moderna shot this afternoon.
I didn't even feel it. Nothing.
The first one hurt and the second..... like nothing even happened.  
I hope i feel ok tomorrow.

Here's the 45 minute pose from tonight:

(the model's cat joined in.)

Solvent Transport Issues

I buy Gamsol by the gallon.
It's about $37/gallon plus tax online, $47/gallon in-store (but Blick web-matches) and it takes me over a year to go through it.

IMPORTANT SOLVENT NOTE: NEVER dispose of your solvent!! Re-use it! Put your dirty solvent in a container and let it sit for a few days.  All the pigment will settle to the bottom and you will have "clean" solvent.  It will still be yellow because there is oil, resin, etc in it, so don't use it as a painting medium but it is absolutely fine as a brush rinse.

Gamsol is expensive but really is the safest solvent out there, and the only one that can fly on airplanes.

I LOVE Gamsol. I will never be a solvent-free painter.

But I have been unnecessarily losing solvent lately and it's getting annoying.
Not only because it's wasteful, but it's messing up my paint tubes. 

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Solvent Transportation

When I go out plein airing with my small setup, I just use the small plastic containers Ben includes with his boxes. They are great.  Perfect size etc. On my small setup especially, I don't need very much solvent. 

But I have been taking leftover paint home lately which I keep inside my box for safe transport.  So my solvent containers have been going in the ziplock bag with all my paint tubes.

And they have been leaking.
I think it might be time to retire the plastic containers.  2 of them are 11 years old, one is 3 years old.
They are not sealing anymore.

The labels on my paint tubes are coming off and getting sticky from the tape I used to stick them back on.  Also, they all turned grey-green.  It's not nice.

I do have a large sealing stainless steel solvent jug, but it's too big for my small setup.
So I finally got another one, a supercute mini one that will be perfect in my Belly River box.

It hasn't been out yet, but hopefully will this weekend!!!

Mothers Day

Today I did not go painting but it was nice to be home and be lazy.

Daya did say happy mothers day, which is a step up from the previous 2 years.
Then she went back in her room and I didn't see her for the rest of the day.

Jackie had a gift card for hour long foot massages at a place in her neighborhood.  So I went over there, and we walked in the rain.  This is apparently my weekend to get rained on, but I don't care, my new black hiking boots are waterproof.

The massage was just wonderful, exactly when I needed.
On the way home (it was still raining) the bus was taking forever so I stopped at the awesome vegan Chinese place near Jackie and got some nice food to bring home.

So, all in all, it was a lovely day.  I was determined to have a nice day with or without Daya.

Rain & Oil Paint & Other Stuff

 The weather forecast kept flipping back and forth.  Rain.  No rain.  Not much rain.

So I decided to go out and paint.
Grace came in from New Jersey and we met at Turtle Pond.

I was already painting when she arrived.

She said there's a HUGE rainstorm on the way.
I said I have an umbrella.

And she was right, it really rained but I painted anyhow.
My goal was simplification and getting rained on really helps with that because you just can't focus on anything other than big-picture.

I also have a third plein air pet: a robin.  He kept coming over to hang out.

11x14 oil

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RAIN AND OIL PAINT

This is the third time i have been rained on at Turtle Pond.
In previous rained-on adventured, I discovered that oil paint does not adhere to a wet panel.
That's why there are white bits in the lower left.

I did find, though, that oil paint will still adhere over oil paint when it is raining.
So if you find yourself caught in the rain while painting, get the whole panel covered before it gets wet.
Then you can still paint and it will stick.

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As soon as I packed up it stopped raining.

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Grace's mom was with us and we decided to try and get into the Museum of Natural History.
We did not have reservations and they don't even let you in line to get in without seeing your email confirmation. Also, everyone goes to the museum when it is raining.  There were no slots available online, not even for people paying full price.

But I am a member, and Grace said let's try anyhow.

The lady guarding the line was nice and asked to see my member card.  Then she pointed us to another entrance that I didn't even know about where there is a membership desk.  (It isn't the member desk in the main hall, it is downstairs.)

The nice man at the member desk said sure, come on in!
He gave us three tickets and entrance to the very excellent exhibit on color.

I asked when does my membership expire? I knew it was soon.
He said it expired already, do I want to renew? Yes, of course.
At the same membership level?

Yes of course.  (I get the dual membership which gets 2 people in, it is $115.)

Out of nowhere he said I'm giving you $25 off, so it's only $90 today.

!!!!

Such amaze!

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The color exhibit is very good, if you are in the area you should go see it.

I like this color:

There is a cool section on skin tones & Pantone:

There are a few live animals, bugs and frogs and stuff like that.

These beetles were mating:

You never know what you'll find at the museum!

Painting with Thor

First, there is no Wednesday Drawing not because I didn't go, but because I don't have anything worth showing. We started Dangerous Liaisons and I hate it.  It is the most boring and tedious book and I don't know how I am going to get through May drawing sessions.  I'll have to come up with alternate audio.

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I have all Thursdays off this month because I asked Thor Wickstrom if I could join him painting, and he said Thursdays are good.  I met him today.  It was a wonderful day and Thor is a great guy.  And a REALLY good painter.

We met on the Lower East Side in Tompkins Square park.

He's much better than I am, and that's not a knock against myself and I don't feel bad about it.  It's just a fact.  I have only been going out for 11 years and Thor has been going out for something like 35 years.
I like finding people who are better than I am and learning from them.  Osmosis-learning is a very real thing.

I worked 11x14 oil on my Yellowstone box:

Thor took some pictures of me.  It was still chilly enough that I wore a jacket, so I am wearing my Tent Smock over it which makes me look enormous.

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Painting Notes:

1. Viewfinding: Thor uses his cellphone to take a picture and he does his layout drawing from that.
I have a viewfinder thingy and I even use it sometimes.  I have also seen other people do the comp from a phone photo.  I think I'm going to start doing this because one of the things I love about Thor's paintings and dislike about mine is the wider angle.  My compositions are more zoomed in and I want to zoom out. It's much easier to get a wider angle from the phone, at least until I learn how to "see" it without.

2. Fake Cobalt Violet: Thor uses mostly Rembrandt paints but he has a huge tube of Winton Cobalt Violet.  Winton is student grade paint.  I looked at it on his palette and said it looks like manganese violet.  It is, in fact, a mix of manganese violet and ultramarine.  It's very transparent (moreso because it is student paint).  He uses it in his gray mixtures.  He has a HUGE tube of it so it must be pretty important.  I'm going to get some.  

I have both real cobalt violet ($$$$) and artist-grade manganese but he likes it because it is subtle.
Winton is super cheap so it's not a big deal to get some to try it.

3. Trees: There are no real formulas in painting. Sometimes you can do leaves first and add branches, sometimes it's branches first. But Thor did put his trunks and branches in first.  Then he layered the leaves on top, at least when I went over to look. 

4. Simplification: This is something we cannot hear enough as painters. It's really the key to many things.  Garin Baker talked a lot about it too. Thor really simplifies but it's not readily apparent because his paintings have a lot happening. This is definitely something I need to work on.

5. Buildings: As far as I could tell Thor layered spots of paint next to each other (windows/façade). But then went over it with façade for perspective lines.  Again, not a formula approach. I still need practice.

6. Pigeons: I have a new goal to get pigeons in my paintings.

7. Trash: I looked at Thor's painting at one point and mentioned it was a good call to leave out the huge trash bags at the corner.  He looked at them and thought it would be a good idea to add them in so he did.  What is NYC without trash?  I definitely need to put trash in my paintings, too.

8. Drawing: I have drawing issues....... but who doesn't? These types of paintings are heavily drawing-based combined with painting spots of color.... but the drawing holds it up.

9. Small brushes: In general larger brushes are the way to go. Thor used fairly small ones though.
Next time I paint with him I'm going to examine his brushes more.... but when I looked they were on the small side. He painted the below painting on a 12x12 canvas.  He's FAST! Oh my gosh it's ridiculous!
He even knocked out a second painting after he did this one! 

I'm pretty fast but....he's REALLY fast.  It comes with experience.

10: Favorite Gesso: We both have the same favorite gesso.... the good stuff from Jerry's. It literally says World's Greatest Gesso on the jar, so that explains everything.

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The Lower East Side is still one of those little pockets of NYC where it is still a genuine NYC vibe.
Lots of local color kind of thing.  I am very at-home in that type of environment.   Everyone is local and a bit weird. Many, many people came over to say hi and a lot of them knew Thor.  Including a whole class of kindergarten and first graders with their teacher.  I also met a lady named Laurie who also knows Thor.  She was at Pratt in the 70s and we chatted for a while.  

Everyone was very nice.  But people will also come over and just start talking about literally anything, which is sometimes interesting, sometimes not, and sometimes makes no sense at all, like the guy who came over talking about carving alligator heads in trees.

I also got interviewed for a documentary some lady was doing.  I have no clue what it will be used for but she wanted a bad landlord story (I don't have one), a story about something spontaneous that worked out and something that didn't work out. Interestingly, this lady was also in Central Park that day  we were painting the geisha!

Replaced!

Madalyn from The Second Show in Hudson has made me a replacement pair of earrings!
I'm so happy!

I know this is such a small thing but I was really bummed.

Maybe the missing one will still turn up, who knows where the heck it went or how, but I will be extra careful with these new ones.

They were very inexpensive but I really like them, they are my colors. :)

Doctor

Daya has had the same pediatrician since she was about 6 months old.

I LOVE her doctor.

It's a very small family practice. The doctor and her family live upstairs.

Every time I call, the doctor answers the phone herself.  She knows and remembers us and always gives us big hugs. She's a wonderful human being. Her daughter is at the front desk and I often see her husband wandering around as well.

She is originally from Iran but came to the US a long time ago under political asylum because she's Jewish.

She has a lot of patients who have been with her from infancy to adulthood, and one of her patients now brings her own baby there.

Another plus is she is open Sundays.

We went today for the first time since before covid.

Daya's pictures from years ago are still prominent on the bulletin board.