Zhaoming Wu Demo

Chinese master Zhaoming Wu did a two-hour figure painting demo in oil yesterday at the Plein Air convention in Monterey, California. Here are a few notes:

"I start with three values. At the beginning I keep the treatment of shadows flat, with almost no form, but I keep lots of color. After working on the shadows I begin working on the light side."

"I start with a 2D approach, thinking first of shape, then of value, and then color. First comes 2D—shapes and angles; then 3D—form, volume, and structure."

"Once the shadow shapes are clear, I establish halftones and value ranges in the light side. There should be some temperature contrast from light to shadow. Normally I like natural studio north light, with warm shadows and cool light."


"I use thicker paint on the light side to give texture. Some touches of the brush are very delicate, and some are more scumbling. At the final stages, edge control is very important. There should be a lost and found quality to the edges in order to show atmosphere and depth."

Zhaoming Wu gave a lot of consideration to the transition areas between light and shadow. He brushed along, but also across, the forms, alternately softening and defining edges all the way from start to finish.

He stood evenly on both feet, holding the brush well back from the ferrule, and considering each stroke carefully, flicking the brush upward after each stroke was completed. The small accents of the dress and the hair came at the very last.

New book: Selected Oil Paintings by Wu Zhaoming: Oversea Chinese Oil Painters (Chinese Edition)
Zhaoming Wu website
Plein Air convention
YouTube video of Zhaoming Wu

Auster and Crump Demos

There are about 70 faculty artists here at the Plein Air convention, each giving lectures and demonstrations. Some of the demos are conducted indoors on a stage, with giant screens projecting the work as the artists describe their process.

Ken Auster set up a canvas the size of a picture window. To establish the placement of elements, he held up a small photo directly in front of the large canvas, charged forward, and placed the landmark points that he held in short term memory.  

For the remainder of the hour and a half demo he used big brushes and paint squeezed from a caulking gun, to create the oil cityscape you see below.

He expressed the importance of leaving all but the focal point broadly stated. "The part of the visual field that you see in focus is equal to the size of your thumb held at arm's length," he said. He compared an overly finished painting to a play with too many lead actors in it.

New Zealand artist John Crump demonstrated a surf scene in oil. "I tend not to be a 

high key painter. I tend to paint in grays." He used a light touch with his bristle brushes, often feathering the strokes to give softness and atmosphere.

Crump established the dark masses of rock as large shapes and then added the light planes over them toward the end of his hour and a half-long demo. What you see above is a work in progress, and he seemed keen on putting more time into it.

Edit: Here's the finish!

Painting Calla Lilies

I took a break from the inspiring indoor events at the Plein Air convention for another outdoor painting session. Monterey has a number of beautiful vestpocket flower gardens that are in full bloom right now. I concentrated in on four calla lilies. You can see them in the upper right corner of photo above. 

Three were in bloom and one was shriveled. Behind them was a rhododendron bush.

As with any flower garden, the amount of detail was overwhelming, so I tried to focus my interest on the white shapes of the lilies against the foliage in the background. I could see through to the far side of the bush and a white building in shadow.

That's four layers to contend with: 1. lilies in front, 2. rhodie leaves in light, 3. rhodie leaves and branches in shadow, and 4. white wall. I was using mostly transparent watercolor, which meant mostly painting around the lighter forms. 

First I did a pencil drawing to outline the main forms. The initial painting step on this one was to lay a fairly bright yellow wash across everything but the white lilies, and then bring the yellow down with a layer or two of varied green leaf colors. I then established the blue-gray background color with a large flat brush. That blue-gray color needed the opacity of white gouache mixed in to knock out the yellow underpainting color. After that dried, I painted the dark leaves and stems in shadow. Total elapsed time was a little over two hours.

I have rationalized these steps after the fact to try to give you the impression that I knew what I was doing, but my mind state was rather scrambled and chaotic as I did the painting. I agree with John Sargent's description of the watercolor painting experience as "making the best of an emergency"—and that's what I love about the medium.

I'll tell you more about my fellow Plein Air convention faculty in tomorrow's post.

Fisherman's Wharf, Monterey

We enjoyed the first day of the Plein Air convention in Monterey, California, where more than 800 artists from nine countries have assembled to paint together. Organizer Eric Rhoads claims it's the largest congregation of outdoor oil painters in history.

I haven't broken out the oils yet because I didn't have any solvent, but I had fun with watercolors. This is a view of the rocks near the Fisherman's Wharf. It's about 5x8 inches.


I took a photo of the scene that I was painting and then superimposed the painting over the photo, after the fact. It's a good way to check the drawing and the values, kind of like using a calculator after an abacus.

We chose a spot next to the music buskers, so we were entertained for the two hours that we sat there. There are about 70 instructors moving about and talking to the students--a really supportive atmosphere.
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Plein Air Convention

TSA Guy

We’re in Monterey, California at the Plein Air convention, and I’ll try to bring you some photos and sketches from the event. Here’s one from the trip over, a TSA guy that I sketched on the airport shuttle.

Rembrandt's Night Watch reenacted by flash mob

(Direct link to video) A Dutch bank sponsored this dramatic re-enactment of Rembrandt's painting "Night Watch" as a flash mob event in a shopping mall.
via BoingBoing

Frederic Church's fleeting light

 We cherish light at its most fleeting moments, especially during sunrise and sunset. No one captured these effects more compellingly than Frederic Church (American 1826-1900).

This one shows the view from his home Olana, as the last winter light shines through a break of clouds over the Catskill mountains.

This view of Hudson, New York at sunset shows the clouds underlit, an effect so fleeting that to paint it requires both anticipation and memory. You have to set up the painting in anticipation that that kind of effect is coming, and then finish it later from recollection. This was before color photography, so only artists could capture it.

Church famously hired a vessel for an expedition to Arctic waters to sketch icebergs. Despite seasickness and other setbacks, he managed to produce a series of memorable studies.

In addition to the exhibition opening in June that I mentioned recently, there's another museum show currently up in London that features Church's landscape oil sketches. The show has about 30 small works, together with the large finished canvas Niagara from the American Side are part of Frederic Church and the Landscape Oil Sketch, at the National Gallery in London. The exhibit will continue through April 28 and then travel to Scotland.
Book: Frederic Church and the Landscape Oil Sketch
Wikipedia visual list of Church's works.

Returning to Moss Landing

The second annual Plein Air convention is coming up in less than a week in Monterey, California. I will be giving the kick-off speech on Wednesday.

It will be an interesting return for me because I did an oil painting on location there over 30 years ago, before they called it "plein air painting." 

I found a painting spot in Moss Landing by a stillwater lagoon looking across to a set of old shacks. As I worked, an old woman in a flowered dress came out of the trailer, and hobbled over to me. She looked at my painting, and a faraway look came over her face. She said that author John Steinbeck used to come by here, and said that Mack and the Boys from his novel Cannery Row were real people who stayed in the very shacks I was painting.

I have a feeling the place has changed a bit since then, (Edit: I found the spot via Google Street View, and 30 years later, they've still got the same shacks and the same trailer). But I'll still be hunting around for interesting stories to document with my oils and watercolors, and I'll be inviting guests of the convention to join me on the hunt.

Here's the Plein Air Convention website. The event is mostly sold out, but I hear they're saving out a few places for walk-ins.

Petman the human robot

(Direct video link) New from Boston Dynamics, a human robot that walks freely and does calisthenics. The overhead cables don't hold it up; they are just for safety. Now Big Dog has someone to take it for a walk.
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Via BoingBoing

2500th post: A-Z of Favorite Posts

This is the 2500th post on GurneyJourney. My goal with the blog is simply to have some fun and learn something new every day.

To mark the occasion, here's an A-Z list of some favorite posts from the last five and a half years since I started the blog.

Asymmetrical Makeup
Behind the Scenes at G.J.
Color Zones of the Face
Do Artists See Differently?
Eyetracking 
Foliage Series
Gamut Masking 
Happy Old-Time Photos
In-Flight Portrait
Joy in the Farmyard
Kinstler Demo
Light and Form
Manhandled by Apes
Nephroid Caustics
Origami Mystery
Photography as Reference
Quick Draw
Rotating Eyeballs
Smiling Presidents
Two-Streams Hypothesis
Unmade Beds
Vignetting Series
Windmill Principle
X-Ray Technique Reveals Dino Colors
Yurmby Wheel and other Color Wheels
Zoo Sketching of Gorillas


Thanks for joining me on the journey. There's a lot more to come.