Don't bullshit yourself.

It is a good lesson this one. Pull up a chair and get the popcorn, the story goes like this........I was spending a few days painting with Richard Robinson. I really enjoyed our last outing and it was his philosophy and attitude towards painting that drew me to visit again. Self -taught with great talent an a LOT of focus, he is a natural teacher and I find, if I actually tune in, he has a lot to say  in a succinct and direct way.

We went off painting and I deferred to his local knowledge of where and what to paint. First off was a wonderful, vaguely derelict shed, on a bit of farmland. Richard saw things that I, obviously, did not and painted a wonderful piece. Click here to see it. A magic painting...it glowed.
I painted the THING. It was dreadful. I could not, for the life of me, find my groove and formulate any kind of plan for the painting. What was the concept...I had no idea.

I was frustrated.....why could I not "see " what he was seeing?

 So, I went off that afternoon and found a spot on the beach that spoke to me and painted...and it was good! And then the bell started to ring, just a little. What was it that made it possible for me to paint well and then paint like a chimp at other times? ( no disrespect to my chimp fans) . I mused over the issue that evening, but hit the sack early...I was tired!

I woke the next morning and met Richard at Waipu Cove beach. He told me to pack light for a tramp across the rocks from Waipu Cove to Langs beach, a fabulous walk across cliffs, rocks and farmlands but edged by the sea.

We had to abandon a few sites due to wasp infestation ( Ha! but they were there first!) and settled on this scene. Richard bounded around like a rock rabbit, taking reference photos and sorting out light issues. I stayed on land and admired the bounding and wondering why I had failed to bring a flask of tea.

We set up and started painting. It became clear to me about 20 minutes into the painting that I was hating what I was doing. I was not concentrating, I was lost. I realise, I had no emotional engagement with the scene. I know what I wanted to paint, I know the feeling, and it was about the sky and the land, not the sea and rocks.  I stopped and took stock.
I looked over to the right, up the hill  and there stood a few young bulls, languidly grazing atop the parched farmland, silhouetted against the sky. Bingo! Thank you universe and thank you bulls!

I must have made some kind of gleeful sound because Richard turned round to find me scrubbing my canvas clean and turning my easel round to paint . I quickly explained that what I wanted to paint  and got on with it.

So, I have come to realise that every artist works differently, sees differently, thinks differently and has their own set of emotional buttons that need to be pushed to find a scene paintable or not.  The technical stuff can all be worked on but the creative and inspirational stuff is all you. I know I have to work on my values and that I shall do, but I am also happy to be secure in knowing that I know why I paint and that when it is an emotional response, I stop thinking about the "thing" I am painting and paint how it feels, the poetry of it.Then the bullshit about everything else stops and you are true to your minds eye vision and translating what you see into poetry on the canvas. 

Tada!

Clifftop bulls
27 x 35 cm
oil on canvas


PS!
Please look here to see what Richard was painting. Amazeballs! He really is such fun to paint with and a very nice person to boot. He is off to the Plein Air conference in Carmel in April and I wish him all the best till next time.

Richard Robinson painting experience: part 2

After a second breakfast or early first lunch( sorry, Hobbit reference) and buoyed by our early success, Richard suggested we climb to the top of a small hill and paint the next cove along, called Shelly beach. I ditched some of my equipment, the extra canvas panels, and by mistake, my palette!

After a climb through chin high grasses we set up looking down onto the beach but also with an amazing view of just about everything else in sight.

What to paint, or rather, what NOT to paint. Richard had earlier explained how painting a scene should be akin to describing it in poetry. He described his plan of action and chose to focus on the small beach area rather than the whole vista, as it presented itself to us. I nodded, grateful for the direction and insight.

It was too windy for the umbrella's and we knew we were going to battle the sun and yet we forged ahead. I was deep in thought , painting away, adjusting values and examining colour choices, when he suddenly threw his canvas across the grass and jumped on it a few times. His water bottle came out and he liberally doused the whole thing then , declaring himself satisfied, popped it back on the easel. What a laugh!

We painted for a while longer and then I realised my eyes were starting to get sore from the glare of both canvas and the canvas palette I had to improvise....I knew I was flagging. We took the opportunity to chat some more and he described something he called " abstract expressionism".....and the lightbulbs went off in my head again! I get it!

The last photo is of the beach, the other side of the hill, at Waipu.

We finished off, carrying our completed paintings down over our heads to prevent the long grass heads adding to the brush marks on the canvasses. My completed painting contains a few bugs and some authentic Northland grass seeds!!!

I love my painting, not because it is especially good, but because I had such a good time making it.
I hope you looked at Richards's blog to see his completed version.

I shall post mine tomorrow. Today I am battling ferocious hay fever and trying to sort my new computer out.

Richard Robinson painting experience:part 1

I have just returned from a much anticipated trip to sunny Northland to paint with the highly successful and experienced New Zealand artist, Richard Robinson. I have been looking for something to nudge me forward with my painting...there has been an echo in my head about how I want to paint but I have been unable to put my finger on what it was, exactly, and how to proceed. I hoped a day painting with him would be the nudge I needed....and Boy, I was not disappointed.

I drove up from Hamilton( about a 5 hour drive) the day before and checked into a local beachfront motel. I threw my gear in the room and went for a walk.....2 minutes from my room , over the dunes and there it was, Bream bay in all it's splendour. Is this not an amazing place ?!

1December traditionally heralds the start of summer and there were quite a few hardy souls in the water. The lifeguards were in action, flags up and patrolling in their quad bike.

The next day saw me wake at 6.30 am( yes, AM!!!) to be on Richards doorstep at 7 am to go painting.
I was very nervous.....what if I was an idiot and painted like a chimp all day?! Best I concentrate and focus on what he had to teach me.
Well, what a lovely and generous teacher he is! He is a gentle spoken man with an easy manner and a great way of teaching. In fact, I did not feel he was teaching me but that we were having a conversation about painting and he said many a thing that made lightbulbs go off in my head like paparazzi on the red carpet.

We started painting at Waipu, a place he has painted many times, in the shade of Pohutakawa trees with a view over the sandy shadows out across the sea to Bream Bay beach. We set up our easels alongside so I could watch him and so we could paint a similar scene.
Whilst I had paint smeared on my face before I had even started, Richard is amazingly tidy. His easel is pristine, his tubes of paint organised and all had lids( some of mine are wrapped in tinfoil, the lids lost somewhere else a long time ago..o the shame) his brushes look new.....all his paint is on the palette in ordered blobs and even his puddles of colour were ordered. I felt wildly out of control!

We started, chatted a bit about composition, colour, shadows and how the eye is fooled by light and shade etc. He spoke of his painting experience outdoors and with other eminent painters....it was heady stuff. Then he dropped his first bombshell statement. I paraphrase this, but what he said was to this effect: at any stage of the painting, the abstract shapes should be beautiful . The abstract shapes should render the subject. A painting should read well at all stages. BOOM! it does not matter if you have not drawn a tree and a beach and a river, but if you have rendered the shape abstractly with attention placed on the values(the lightness or darkness), the painting should read as a tree,beach and river. I don't explain well, but he sure did! I got it!....now, how do I make that happen....


We had blocked in the abstract shapes( well, he had, I was still trying to get my head around some stuff) and we stood back to eat a banana and look at the paintings from a distance when a freak wind mini tornado- ed towards us...and tipped his whole easel over. My old Grumbacher stayed put ( possibly due to all the crap I had in it) but his easel ,palette, brushes and canvas were planted in the sand.

yikes.

Cool as a cucumber, he took this as an opportunity to try something different. He was using the Holbein water soluble oils, so went off to find a tap, washed most of the sand and some of the paint off and attacked the canvas with new vigour and less inhibition...because what did he have to loose? and man, it was a fabulous result!!!
I could see how pleased he was with this effort and just watching him and the energy he used when painting it was a masterclass in itself. To see his final effort click here. Go, do it now!

We then stopped for a bite to eat and a coffee at a lovely local cafe, right opposite the beach where we sat and critiqued the works. He gave great, constructive feedback and, once again, some lightbulb moments with regards values and composition. I was having such a good time I did not notice if anyone looked at us or the paintings.

I will continue with my story tomorrow.

unfinished business

I have yet to complete this painting. I know that sounds a bit odd ( why did she post it unfinished?...nutter), but I am not sure who needs to be in this painting: the cyclist or the hitch-hiker. Both know the meaning of the lonely road and both have been on my mind recently . I have a soft spot for cyclists....some of my best friends are roadies and I love how fantastically scary hitch-hiking can be ( I swear, of all the things my mother made me promise not to do, not hitch-hiking was the one I kept.) . The good weather has seen an increase in cyclists on the country roads and hitch-hikers have been waiting on the side of the roads at the major state highway intersections. I think they herald summer.

But that aside, this painting is not about the figure in it, it's about the lonely road, the sky and the stillness that is so rare these days. The right figure will present itself.

oil on canvas panel
25 x 35 cm

I am a week out from travelling up North to Ruakaka to spend the day painting and learning from a great talent, Richard Robinson. I have been slightly freaked out by this and managed to paint like a complete twit for a while until I reigned the self- doubt in, told it to pull up a chair and watch quietly whilst I pulled myself together, and then continued to paint as normal. I have not heard a word from it since!

I am very excited and I hope you have a look at his work....he is amazing and self taught to boot.He recently traveled to Hawaii and has a free downloadable book...well worth the read.