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Monday, September 13, 2010

Two Approaches

"Quoddy Cliffs I" 9x12, oil

The other day, we went out to West Quoddy Head State Park in Lubec, the easternmost point in the States. There's a lighthouse, but I avoid painting it. ("Why?" deserves its own blog post.) Usually, I'm drawn to the 150-foot cliffs and the challenge they present. Although the jumble of cracks and planes seem to defy a painter's need to simplify, you can see the underlying pattern if you try. I spent a couple of overcast hours painstakingly observing one prominent cliff, working especially on the subtle colors of the rocks. I felt it was important to accurately observe. The overcast light gave me steady shadows, so I didn't have to rush.

Then the sun broke out. The cloud shadows speeding over the cliffs killed any chance of a leisurely approach, and I had to move on to a different painting. Now, observing anything accurately is tiring work, and I wasn't up to doing that again. So I took a more intuitive approach, focussing less on exact form and more on capturing light effects and a sense of atmosphere. (This is how I most often work.) Also, rather than mix color carefully on my palette, I chose to mix directly on the surface. That's a gut-wrenching way to paint, especially if you're a very methodical painter. But you paint yourself into a corner, and then you find you can paint yourself out of it. It was like a carnival ride, putting down a too rich, too dark blue for the sky, and then stirring a dollop of white into it to make it work.

I'm curious: Which of the two paintings seem to work best? (By the way, the second is not the exact same scene, but a different view of a different rock.)

"Quoddy Cliffs II" 9x12, oil