Summer Garden

"Summer Garden," wc/ink on paper ~8x5

This small watercolor is a quick sketch of a corner of one of my flower gardens at home. The black-eye susans and lillies bud and flower at nearly the same time every summer--around now. This was done in a small pocket sketchbook, using my standard techniques.

Downstream

"Downsteam," oil on panel, 9x12

This springtime view of the streambed of Druid Hill Creek was done during the early days when foliage on the honeysuckle undergrowth was just emerging. I set up my pochade box just above, on the bank. The rock in the stream has fallen from rip rap that was used along the banks for erosion control. The stream is maybe six inches deep.

Outdoor Oil

Painting outdoors ("en plein aire" if you want to be fancy) is a great way practice careful observation. A session of studying the world in all its myriad shapes, colors, arrangements and more gives an artist the opportunity to not only see the world but also to translate it, to make it attractive or at least acceptable to the eventual observers. Plein air painting forces the artist to confront the world, as a teacher of mine used to say. 

"Grays Lake North Shore," oil on panel, 12x9

This oil is a good example of my outdoor work. The trees on the opposite bank were lush and very dark green. The challenge for me working outside is the million hue and shade of green, complicated by the infinite variety of tree shapes, leaf shapes, and more. I did this one standing on the northern shore of Grays Lake, near my studio. I've painted there many times, often choosing to focus narrowly on a small portion of the shore. This was late summer so that the surrounding woods and trees are fully leafed.  

Skyline

"Rooflines," wc/ink on paper, 

Last Saturday the sketch group splintered into smaller groups. Some of us went to the Botanical Center, on the east bank of the Des Moines River. Some painted in other spots. I went to the park next to the river, just downstream from the dome of the Botanical Center, where I could sketch the downtown Des Moines skyline, The tallest building houses the home of Principal Insurance, a locally-based firm. The dark brown building is the Ruan Center, named for a trucking firm that built it nearly 50 years ago. The Asian roof is the top of a pavilion in the Robert Ray Park on the river bank. The graceful arch is actually the top of a pedestrian bridge you can take to go to the opposite bank. 

 

Veterans

Although I do watercolors of automobile subjects, they rarely figure in my oil paintings. Nonetheless, over the years I've done quite a few watercolor sketches of pickups and cars. This particular work was done one Friday while I sat in the shade across the street from a local antique car dealer. The two cars in the sketch were both painted and accessorized as police cars. 

"Veterans" wc/ink on paper 5x11

"Veterans" is two late 1950s Chevrolets. One is a '57 and the other a "55. Long ago I actually owned a 1957 BelAir that resembled this one. Antique cars of that vintage now sell for enormous prices, depending on condition. 

 

The Dock

"Grays Lake Dock," wc/ink on paper, ~5x15

Last weekend we selected Grays Lake for a visit from the sketch group. As always, of course, people chose other venues too. I set up on a picnic table near the parking lot, by a floating dock they put out every summer. Two guys were on the dock but weren't fishing. In the distance across the lake you could just see a pedestrian walkway that skirts the opposite shore. 

This began as a graphite sketch, after which I added watercolor. The two fishermen on the dock and the dock itself were accented with ink. 
 

Goldsworthy Group

Andy Goldsworthy has a piece in the garden surrounding the Des Moines Art Center entitled Three Cairns. Materials used in Goldsworthy's art include natural materials, from flowers, leaves, and twigs to stone. This is because of his intense commitment to nature and an intent to work with its entirety. The piece is just south of the Art Center buildings, situated just by rose garden that's currently in full flower.  The three large cairns are perhaps 8 feet tall while a central, pear-shaped cairn is perhaps five feet. The pieces are limestone, carefully dressed and laid without mortar. The Art Center's original building is clad in a similar limestone. There are two other cairns, one in New York and one in San Diego, which with this one form a nation-wide sculptural group. 

"Goldsworthy Group[," wc/ink on paper ~5x14"

Our sketch group elected to stay on the grounds of Greenwood Park, which contains the Art Center, rose garden and a number of outdoor sculptures, including works by Richard Serra and Henry Moore, among others. I sat at the edge of the rose garden on a stone bench to draw Three Cairns in the wooded area they occupy. Built in 2002, these have become popular as backgrounds for wedding photos and other significant events, as happened Saturday. A bride and groom in full dress were posing among the cairns while several of us worked away. 

Because I enjoy a panoramic view I started on the left side of the open sketchbook with a fairly detailed graphite sketch then proceeded directly to full-bodied watercolor, sometimes trying for translucent or transparent effects, sometimes trying for opacity by loading thicker, nearly dry pigment for dark values. After I was mostly satisfied with the colors and values I accentuated parts of the cairns to emphasize the center of interest.

 

Sculpture Park Panorama

"Sculpture Park View," wc/ink on paper, 5x16

Last week I stopped at the Pappajohn Sculpture Park downtown and spent a couple of hours on a view of one of the sculptures and the contemporary buildings across the street. The sculpture is T-8, a huge work (28.6 × 24 × 37 ft.) by Mark di Suvero, an abstract expressionist whose sculptures reside in U.S. collections and worldwide. The artist is well-known for having made cranes and heavy equipment part of his sculptural tools. He takes great pride in making and assembling is art on-site. This particular work was one of the group originally donated to the city by John and Mary Pappajohn. The long building across the street was designed by Renzo Piano (famous for the Pompidou Center in Paris) as headquarters for the Krause Group, based here.  

As ever this watercolor began as a graphite sketch, then watercolor and ink were applied to finish.  

Grays Lake Sketch

"Grays Lake," wc/ink on paper, 5x10

As a personal exercise in keeping sketches loose and not overwork them, I did the sketch above in perhaps forty minutes, sitting a shady parking spot at Grays Lake in the park not far from my studio. It was a wonderful late spring day with a soft south breeze. The lake was smooth, placid, the color of polished pewter. I was drawn by the old, v-shaped tree and the rocky bank. The work was a standard graphite sketch followed by watercolor, then inked details here and there. 

In the Garden

"Lantern," oil on canvas, 20x16

Sometimes a limited perspective is useful. This painting focuses on a metal reproduction of an Asian lantern hanging on a shepherd's crook in one of my gardens. The retaining wall behind and the trees above formed a wonderful backdrop in this shady spot. 

This particular work has been a favorite of mine and remains in my private collection
 

Anthony's Garden Redux

Our Saturday sketch group revisited a favorite spot last weekend--a private garden that welcomed us warmly a couple of weeks ago. The day was delightfully sunny with a faint breeze. Our group scattered through the garden, many finding a place to sketch near the tall central fountain. Although I've drawn this particular feature numerous times, it continues to be a challenge. Giant mature trees and well-maintained hedges and shrubs add to the peaceful atmosphere. Although this is a working fountain and was running at the time I chose to depict it without attempting to render the myriad rivulets and splashes. 

As is my usual practice, I began with a fairly accurate graphite drawing of the fountain. When drawing any vertical object--bottles for example--it's useful to establish a vertical as a center line and draw the symmetrical parts equally distant. In general, when drawing it's useful to draw shapes rather than objects, so I made the bowl shapes match as closely, side to side, as possible. 

After drawing, I added colors in a range of values and chroma. The changing colors of the fountain were the result of reflected sun, since the basin below is painted blue. To bring the fountain forward in the image I added ink lines to show shapes and suggest ornamentation. Distant shapes like the windows were kept looser, with edges considerably less distant. 

 

 

Demo Garden

For the past several years, the gardens downtown that are part of Better Homes and Gardens magazine have been an occasional sketching subject. The gardens are beautiful in concept and execution, and represent outstanding examples of garden design and maintenance. Because the gardens are used for various publications and purposes, they are only open to the public Fridays, noon to 2pm, May through September. 

"Better Homes Test Garden," wc/ink

Last Friday was my first visit to the gardens this year, on a beautiful late spring day. The sun was out and a light breeze played through the branches above. I sat in the central paved area--patio?--at one of several wrought iron tables, next to its central, multi-tier fountain. Others were sitting here and there while more toured the pathways among glowing flower beds. My view was to the north, toward downtown Des Moines but screened by large evergreens and deciduous trees. In front of those were bright red Japanese maples, stuck by mid-day sun and footed by a small green meadow. In front of the green, spiral-trunked crabapples stood like sentinels. The fountain bubbled and frothed just to my left as I tried to capture the multiple layers, colors and textures. This sketch began as a graphite sketch to which watercolor and ink were added.

Plein Air Sketch

This week one of our sketch group members kindly hosted us at her (and her husband's) farm a few dozen miles from Des Moines. Their farm occupies a big patch of rolling prairie east of the city, where they raise cattle and lease much of it to others. Lisa, our host, has a small studio in a converted shed on the farm, which has many subjects for sketching--huge grain bins, barns, farm implements of all sorts (historical and contemporary). They even have a century-old Ford farm truck in running order. 

"At Lisa's Farm," oil on panel, 9x12

When I paint outdoors I'm desperate at first to cover as much of the bright white bareness as I can. For green landscapes--pretty common--I start by washing the surface with burnt sienna or an earth red, thinned to a watery consistency. After that wash-in I sometimes work the red earth monochrome into a relatively detailed underpainting, but sometimes I move on more quickly and loosely. In this case I washed the lower half or so with red earth, leaving the sky area white. Then I laid in the series of conical shapes that constitute the evergreens as simple loose shapes. The shed (her studio) was too red so I wiped out much of the red color with a piece of rag and turp. The brushes I used for those steps were the largest in my roll. 

Next I mixed a series of greens using cerulean blue, sap green, ivory black, cad yellow and y. ochre. and used them to paint the trees and grassland, varying the mixes without premixing, doing all wet-in-wet. The studio building was simplified and horizontals added to suggest distant grassland (left) and tree shadows (right) to provide an illusion of depth. Working with progressively smaller brushes I painted the building carefully to separate values and give it volume and shape. Then working into the foreground I used lighter mixes of green, raising the chroma and enlarging the brush strokes to suggest the more near grassy patches. During the entire painting process I was at pains to keep the vast majority of edges soft and vague, saving sharper shapes for emphasis--note the studio eaves and roof line and the peaks of a limited number of evergreens. The piece is still wet and unsigned, pending a rest and further review. 

Sabasa

"Maria Garcia Perez de Castro, after Goya," oil on gessoed hardboard, 24x18

As I've written in previous posts, copying master paintings has long been a practical way for painters to learn how those masters achieved their effects, particularly with oil paint. Of course copy practice with other media can be very helpful, too. But most of my copying has been oil masterworks, from Goya to Leyendecker to Rembrandt to Rockwell. Recently I unearthed a copy I made more than 20 years ago of a beautiful work by Francisco Goys. It is a portrait of Maria Garcia Perez de Castro, who was known to friends as Sabasa. Goya painted her in 1804, supposedly after he saw her while he was doing her uncle's portrait. Struck by her beauty, he asked permission to portray her as well. The actual portrait was very challenging, particularly, the shawl. If you click the link above you can compare the original to my copy.

Anthony's Garden

"Anthony's Garden," wc/ink on paper

Last weekend the sketchers decided to visit different parts of the city for plein air work. I went to a private garden in the Sherman Hill district of Des Moines, which is an area of houses and apartments dating to a period from the late 19th century to the early 20th, with many fine examples of Victorian architecture. One of the places we sometimes go is this private garden, which Anthony, the owner and gardener, has made into an oasis of green filled with flowers, fountains, any much more. 

It was a warm, sunny day and my companion and I had a wonderful couple of hourse. 

The workflow on this one began as a graphite drawing, then it was painted, then inked.  

Honeysuckle Haze

"Honeysuckle Haze, watercolor on paper, 7x5

This watercolor dates to a few weeks ago, after my post about the hazy green of spring, but before warming temperatures and abundant rain brought the flush of new green to trees and undergrowth. These hardy, brushy plants open tiny yellow-green buds over dark ground and twiggy wood before nearly any other plants. The creek even looks dark this time of year. 

Even two weeks after my first sketch the tiny honeysuckle leaves had opened only a little, their green haze thicker and more obscuring. The other visible greens came from sparse grass along the banks. .

I painted this from my studio window, looking north along Druid Hill Creek. 
 

State Park

The weather last weekend was particularly fine--warmer, sunny, and less wind. The sketch group went to Walnut Wood State Park, which is only five miles or so from where we meet. We had anticipated that a big field of bluebells would be in flower, but warm weather had accelerated their fading, so none could be found. Nonetheless, I sat at a picnic bench and sketched one of the park buildings. I changed it from a rather rustic sanitary facility to a cozy cabin, but otherwise the scene is pretty accurate. The west entrance of the park is at the end of the receding road. The most enjoyable part of this little piece was the dark values. 
 

Courtyard

When the weather moderates in the spring, people come to the Des Moines Art Center courtyard for lunch. A small cafe comprising maybe ten tables expands with outdoor seating. It's a cool, shady spot with a big reflecting pool, views into the galleries and a big bronze sculpture. 

Last week I spend an hour there, sketching the contribution of Richard Meier to the architecture of the Art Center. The original building, opened in 1948, was designed by Eliel Saarinen, the renowned Finnish architect who designed many landmark buildings in the 1940s and 1950s. The second building, by I.M. Pei, who also designed the pyramid entrance of the Louvre, enclosed the courtyard on the south. The Meier building is much more than the cafe in the corner of the courtyard; it's about twice the size of the Pei but that part of the three story addition can't be seen inside the courtyard. 

"In the Courtyard," wc/ink on paper

This is a watercolor and ink sketch done similarly to many others. I begin with a graphite drawing, add watercolor, then ink and then more color if needed.  

The Painter

Most artists acknowledge many influences on their work, from their families to their home countries to mentors and masters from the past. In my case, one of mine is J.C. Leyendecker, an exceptional illustrator from a century or so ago. Leyendecker was an outstanding draftsman whose work is immediately recognizable once you know it. Today he is overshadowed by other famous illustrators--Norman Rockwell for example. I've studied Leyendecker's work and done a number of copies of his works, particularly interested in his brushwork and color palette. 

"Studies," J.C. Leyendecker

This is sourced from a Leyendecker illustration that can be found online showing an elderly painter in smock and beret, cooking a sausage over a charcoal stove. The artist is probably poor, surviving on not much. The work seems to have been intended as a wry comment on Thanksgiving and feasting. But the smock, beard, eyebrows and the figure itself were more interesting to me. Instead of an outright copy, I decided to use the master's work as a jumping off point. 

In my painting, the old painter is not cooking but instead is looking directly at us, the viewers, and holding out a loaded paintbrush. The implication intended is that we the viewers are the subject of his painting. As you can see below, my work owes a great deal to Leyendecker's but is an original idea superimposed on his.

"The Painter," oil on panel, 16x12, 2008. Private collection

 

Greening Iowa

The season seems to have turned at last. Days are longer, skies brighter, and crucially the world is greening. In the parks and along waterways, honeysuckle is lush and leafy. The grasses are that deep arresting green of springtime. And now the giants of the woods are greening at their tops. 

"Spring in Waterworks Park," wc/ink

The sketch group, mindful of new flowering in Waterworks Park, elected almost to the person to sketch there last week. The sun was bright but the wind was strong and cold. I sat on a bench in the sun, back to the wind, and drew this sketch in a fair bit of detail using pencil. When I got cold I went back to my car and inked the drawing while I warmed up then went back outside to paint. After that it was again time for the car and a few finishing grace notes with ink and paint.