The Red Dress

It's been months since I've attended an open studio figure painting session.  I miss the experience and the opportunity to paint from life, so I finally got my act together.   On Friday morning, I attended a session at Patris Studio and Art Gallery in Oak Park.   (http://patrisstudiogallery.blogspot.com/)  It's been a while since I have visited Patris's wonderful new location as well, so this was a doubly productive morning.  Patris's Studio is also where the upcoming workshop with the fabulous Qiang Huang
(Chong Wong) will be held.  I can't wait for that one and the opportunity to meet this fabulous artist and human being. (http://qiang-huang.blogspot.com/ )

This was a three hour session, but I probably have about two hours total into this 16" x 12" painting.  I felt good about the outcome.  Workshops and more frequent painting are combining to give me more confidence in tackling and completing a study like this.  I feel more like I know what to do next....a bit more in control.   Much more practice on simple proportions is obviously needed, but the execution of the painting - given the time constraints - felt planned and controlled.

I'm looking forward to attending Patris's open studios more often.

The Red Dress   Oil on stretched canvas   16" x 12"

My Art Site: Bruce Hancock Fine Art

Howard's Mill - Watercolor

Rain has finally come to Northern California.  We are in a severe drought situation, so it is very welcome.  My artist friend Howard Rees and I had arranged to paint outdoors on Saturday, but the rain drove us inside Howard's studio...where Howard had set up a complete watercolor station for both of us.   I had my own personal Howard Rees watercolor workshop.  Howard is an accomplished watercolor painter, so it was a very informative rainy day activity.  I painted from a photo of a painting Howard had done some time ago.  He painted the same scene so I followed step by step as much as I could.

I made lots of mistakes.  Years of oil painting have to be set aside in favor of more carefully controlled watercolor techniques.  My biggest sin in watercolor is to paint too fast.  Watercolor requires some careful thinking before you begin and as you proceed.  It is a wonderful medium though...so much different than oil.  I had a great day in Howard's studio, learned a lot and did this painting.  I look forward to the next attempt.  Hopefully, I'll do a little better.

I call this Howard's Mill.  I don't even know if it is a mill, but who cares?  Thanks for a good day Howard.

Howard's Mill   Watercolor on 15" x 22" Arches Rough

My Art Site: Bruce Hancock Fine Art

A Red Fence In Locke -- Plein Air

Today the Sacramento Plein Air Painters met in Locke.  It was a beautiful morning, but cold in the shade.  After about an hour and one half working on this painting, I had to stand in the sun for 30 minutes to thaw out!  I guess I shouldn't complain too loudly though...in most of the rest of the country, this weather would be very welcome.

 Sometimes I find myself wandering in Locke.  It is so incredibly fascinating and unique that it's difficult to settle on something to paint.  But today I arrived a bit late so I set up fairly quickly.  I made a quick pencil sketch and felt like I had a good feel for what I wanted to paint.  I made a real effort to keep things simple.  I think it worked out well.

A Red Fence in Locke   12" x 16" oil on canvas   Plein Air

My Art Site: Bruce Hancock Fine Art

Willie's on Broadway Plein Air Oil

David Peterson, Sacramento's cherished watercolor artist, hosts a plein air paint out on the third Saturday of each month.  He has been doing this for a long time, I understand.  Currently the Sacramento Plein Air Painters meetup.com site serves as the source for information about the time and place of David's paint outs, as it does for dozens of other plein air events, thanks to moderator Martha Esch's tireless efforts. ( http://www.meetup.com/Sacramento_Plein_Air_Painters/ )

Last Saturday, we met at the parking lot of Willie's a Sacramento favorite for hamburgers and chili fries.  Right across Broadway from Willie's is the Iconic Tower Theater which was the starting point for the world famous Tower Records.  The weather was incredible, and most of us were in shirt sleeves by 10 am.  The majority of the group painted the well known "tower" of the Tower Theater, but I decided to turn and face Willie's and give that a try.

My goal here was to capture the feeling of Willie's and the rear of a neighboring gas station.  I wanted to get the 'urban clutter' feel.   I had a 16" x 20" linen panel already toned in a pretty garish red-orange.  That's a lot larger than I usually attempt when doing plein air painting, but I wanted the width to give me room to block in the structures without getting too small.  I decided to ignore the bright tone, even though I was thinking "vignette" right from the start, meaning that the tone would be a major player.

I made a very conscious decision to try to paint the shapes and shadows and avoid painting things.  I also resolved to think in layers: block in of major shapes and shadow without detail, locate few edges to define shapes slightly, add some pieces of color placed as judiciously as possible and finally place the 'clutter'.   I think that plan worked well overall.

Willie's on Broadway    Oil on 14" x 20" linen panel.

It's surprising how many missteps can be made even when one knows better.  I made several here.  The most obvious is the placement of the large pole....almost dead center!  I even compounded that by sketching in a parking lot curb that leads almost vertically to the base of the pole, thus effectively splitting the painting in two!  I considered painting the pole out and relocating it, but decided against it.  I didn't want to start getting fussy for one thing.  For another, this is a plein air sketch.  If I were to try to translate it into a studio painting, I'd shift the pole -- maybe.  But in the end, I started liking it.  There's a certain tension that it creates.  It's all part of the mess.  It's edgy.  Maybe it's OK.  Maybe not.   But it stays.

I've cropped the painting in this picture to 14" x 20", cutting two inches off the bottom.  That's in keeping with the reason for the selection of this panel anyway....it was the width I needed.  The height is superfluous.  I'm going to cut down the panel to this size.  

All in all, a great morning on Broadway.  I had a double cheeseburger and garlic fries afterward.  Don't tell my cardiologist.  Although overall, I think both my heart and soul got a boost by being in the sun with artist friends again....thanks David!


My Art Site: Bruce Hancock Fine Art

"Rising Above"

Happy New Year!  2014 is here, ready or not.  Is it possible that it's been 14 years since Y2K, when planes were going to drop from the sky and computers worldwide were going to stop working?  And here we are more than a year after the end of the world.  Looks pretty much like it did before.  Guess I should stop procrastinating and get back to work!

This painting has been on my easel for quite a while.  I put some final brushstrokes to it yesterday and signed it.  Time to move on.  My object and focus in this painting was the evening light strongly hitting the old Elks Building in downtown Sacramento.  I pushed that light by darkening the foreground somewhat more than it appeared to be in real life.  I also minimized the detail on the old building, letting the rich native color of the building and the light of the setting sun be the star.

As I painted along though, I couldn't help but notice and reflect on the stark contrast between the Elks building, built in 1926, and the newer and closer building which also edges into the light.  I simplified the newer building, leaving out a fairly plain vertical panel at the corner, letting the windows run to the corner instead, so I can't hold the architect responsible for that.  But in either version - the actual or my simplified one, the contrast between the soaring architecture of the Elks Building and the squat structure and prefabricated panels of the newer building is much the same.  Although change is always inevitable, it makes you a little less enthusiastic about tearing down the old to make room for the new. So maybe that's a theme for this painting as well.  It certainly gave me the idea for the painting title.

"Rising Above"    Oil on 20" x 12" canvas

My Art Site: Bruce Hancock Fine Art

"Spence" An oil portrait

It's been a while since I painted a portrait.  This is from a snapshot I took of artist Chris Spencer of Locke, CA.  On this day, Spence was 'holding forth', as he often does, in front of Al the Wops.  Spence is not only a gifted artist who has made Locke his home for more than 30 years, but he is also one of those 'characters' that you run across now and then and who stay with you forever after.  I've had a lot of fun painting with Chris in Locke and the Delta and I've always enjoyed his outrageous (and insightful) take on life. 

I'd prefer to paint from life, but sometimes - often - that isn't possible.  I liked the photo and so I decided to try it.  It's a fairly large portrait - 16" x 20".   The compostion was difficult because of the hand, which I considered essential to the portrait.  It forced the head to the left of center, just the opposite of what I would normally want with the head also facing to the left.  As a result, the painting may be crowded on the left side. I'm not quite sure.  I've considered cropping closer (into a square) to see if that helps and I've tried it on Photoshop, but for now, I'll just let it sit for a week and then decide if it needs to be fixed is some way, or if it's ok as is.

Spence    oil on canvas   16" x 20"



Spence in Black and White  

Spence   Oil sketch on canvas

My Art Site: Bruce Hancock Fine Art

A great print experience!

I've never pursued the idea of selling prints of my artwork, but the concept got a significant boost the other day.  As an experiment (and at the request of two buddies) I sent off for a variety of prints using one subject photo.  I choose iPrintfromhome.com on the recommendation of a friend, and I'm glad I did. I new venue for my work might have opened up. 

My friends wanted prints of a Model A that I had done using a great old truck that I photographed at the Amador County Fair.  The painting is a small 8" x 10" oil on an Ampersand panel.  I liked the painting itself...and the color range from very dark to stark white made it a good test run candidate.  I ordered a 8x10 photo print lustre finish, a 9x12 inkjet lustre print (an upgraded process) and a 9 x 12 giclee on canvas (unstretched).  I was able to easily crop the photo of the painting on the firm's website to accommodate the slightly different size ratios.  The costs were very reasonable and the service was prompt and the prints were delivered impressively and securely packaged.  Honestly I'm blown away by the quality of the prints.  All of them are just great....and the prices for the work are very reasonable.  I'm delighted with the the whole process and the end result.  No, I'm not on the iPrintfromhome.com PR staff.  I just appreciate good work and value.  A few times I've commented on products and services that in my opinion, deliver what they promise and make the artist's life a little easier and more fun.  I'll try to do that more in the future, but for now....iPrintfromhome.com gets a California Painter Thumbs up!

Here are the sample prints l to r.  Photo print, 9 x 12 giclee (unstretched but with 3" canvas all sides for stretching. Can also be glued to a panel, of course), and the 9x12 inkjet.  

My Art Site: Bruce Hancock Fine Art