About winter painting.

An Aldro Hibbard of Rockport Massachusetts

Every year do a post on how to paint outside in the winter. Here is this years. Some of it is from previous posts, however I am getting so many questions about it that I need to cover it about this time every year. If you are a plein air painter and you only work outside in the summer you are only working part time. It is really not too hard to get your act outside in the snow and it is a great subject matter. It lends itself to being designed, and it is not too green.

WINTER IS THE BEST TIME TO PAINT OUTSIDE!

I don't change my palette to paint snow, but I do whip my white. That is; I make a donut shape of white on my palette and throw a shot of medium in the hole. Then I whip it up with my palette knife, I may have to do this to my ocher or another color sometimes too. But I have worked out side at 10 degrees below zero and the paint will still work, It can get a little stiff, almost like joint compound, but I don't really mind that. Somehow it seems to adapt to the kinds of things that I paint in the winter. Bare branches and trees are easier to pant with the cold paint.

If your easel has any wingnuts on it, you had better bring a pair of pliers along. Your hands may get to cold to turn them and at the end of the day an easel that you can't collapse can be a big problem.

It is also best to paint in pairs. If you fall down and break a leg back in the woods it is nice to have some one else along. It happened to a friend of mine a few years ago along a frozen stream in Vermont. He would have frozen to death out there had he been painting alone.

Here is a list I send to my workshop attendees that tells what I use outdoors for a palette and a little about my boots.

Here are the materials you will need for my workshop. Most of you are not in my workshop of course. It would be huge if you were. We would need about five Greyhound buses. But look at the materials list here and you can get an idea of what I think you should have, at a minimum, to paint on location.

Because it is winter painting you will need to have good boots, I recommend these.

Cabela's® Trans-Alaska™ III Pac Boot

Every other part of your clothing needs for cold weather painting is negotiable, this works and that works. However when it comes to footwear I think most of what the average person thinks of as adequate gear won't cut it. Boots that might be OK for shoveling the walk or taking a winter hike will not allow you to stand in snow or on ice for hour after hour without getting cold feet. You have to keep your feet warm.

. Every other part of your clothing needs for cold weather painting is negotiable, this works and that works. However when it comes to footwear I think most of what the average person thinks of as adequate gear won't cut it. Boots that might be OK for shoveling the walk or taking a winter hike will not allow you to stand in snow or on ice for hour after hour without getting cold feet. You have to keep your feet warm. Your Sorels will not cut it. I would impress on you that you think your boots are OK, but they will probably not be. You are going to ignore this and then your feet are going to be cold and you will be unable to work. "I won't be there for you to whine to, but if I was, I would say, Hey, I warned you!"

If you can keep your feet warm standing out painting everything else is relatively easy. There are lots of good parkas and hats, snow pants and suits etc. But it doesn't seem to me that there are many boots that are as serious as these. I have lent mine to other guys who then bought them the next day. If you are worried about getting cold painting, buy these boots and everything else is just a matter adding layers of clothing. But if your boots don't cut it you can't add another pair.

. There are a lot of different winter boots available but I think these are the ticket. Cabelas is a reasonably priced gear merchandiser mainly aimed at the hunters, rather than extreme sports, elitist gear freaks.
I think a woman could probably find boots of this sort there also.

If you can keep your feet warm standing out painting everything else is relatively easy. There are lots of good parkas and hats, snow pants and suits etc. But it doesn't seem to me that there are many boots that are as serious as these. I have lent mine to other guys who then bought them the next day. If you are worried about getting cold painting, buy these boots and everything else is just a matter adding layers of clothing. But if your boots don't cut it you can't add another pair.

Here is a link to the page on Cabelas site where you can find them.
Many of you will decide the boots you already have are fine, and they might be, come to the workshop in them and we will see. But if you absolutely want to have warm feet, heres what you need.

You will need a warm parka of the ski sort or a snowmobile suit. You can by a one piece outdoor work suit at Wal-Mart very inexpensively that seem to be fine. Under that I recommend a wool sweater or poly fleece shirt over a cotton shirt. I wear insulated snow pants made for snowboarders but there are lots of sorts of snowpants made for snowmobilers and other winter sports, under that polar weight long underwear, Cabelas is good for this.I wear inexpensive thinsulate lined gloves that you can buy at a Wal-Mart or hardware store cheaply. I have a hat with a brim over which I pull a stocking cap when it is very cold. There is no reason for you to be cold painting outside. It is simply a matter of getting the equipment right.

You will need a a french easel, a pochade ( pronounced "pochade") box and tripod, or a Gloucester easel. Aluminum collapsing easels and little wooden tripod easels are generally not steady enough and they won't hold your palette. I don't recommend them.

PAINTING IS HARD ENOUGH WITH THE BEST OF MATERIALS!

In your paintbox you will need:

Titanium White
cadmium yellow medium or light
cadmium red light
burnt sienna
either cobalt, Prussian, or pthalocyanine blue
yellow ochre
ultramarine blue
Permanent alizirin or quinacridone red
viridian or permanent green deep

you also might want, but won't require,

Ivory black or
cobalt violet

a palette of some sort, most easel setups include a palette.

a medium. I like Liquin or Galkyd but if you like an oil and varnish medium that is fine too. You may already be using a medium at home, bring that. Also you will need a top from an olive jar or a small oil cup to put it in.

mineral spirits or turpentine, and a tuna fish can to put that in.

A roll of Bounty or Viva paper towels, all others are inferior. Also a grocery store plastic bag for them after use.

A selection of flat brushes, a couple of #1's, several #4's, a #8 or 10 and a short handled rigger, synthetic or sable, about a #4 . Also a leaf shaped palette knife.

You will need a hat with a substantial brim, a baseball hat works well. I carry a container of Goop, you can get that at Wall Mart or an auto supply store, to use cleaning your hands.

A fine cigar or two, possibly a maduro, box pressed if possible, no White Owls or plastic mouthpieces please.

Some people like to have an umbrella to shade their canvas, I don't use one, but you might.

A camera, you will want to get a shot of what you are painting because it may save the project later in the studio.

The return of the Take-it-Easel

I am sorry to post late today. I flew in to Boston late last night from Minnesota. You probably got up late anyway. Here is today's post.

I am pleased to announce the resurrection of the Take-it-Easel. This is the Gloucester easel that I have used for years. For you hardened outdoor painters this is a great easel. It doesn't blow down in wind and you can paint enormous canvasses on it. This easel has been unavailable for a few years and I have been asked so many times "where did you get that easel?" Now I have an answer.


"top">The Chicoms are producing a version of this easel that is sold through the major mail order catalogs. I recommend this easel and not those. The commie easel won't work out of the box, it is put together wrong and is not built to last a lifetime like the Take-it-easel. Although it can be worked on, and made serviceable it is never going to be the "Cadillac" that the real thing is. Tobin Nadeau, whose family has been making this easel for years has set up a new workshop in Vermont and begun building them again, using American Maple. That is what you want. He has redesigned the leg mechanism and that seems like it will work well too. This is a workbench built, handmade product, made in the USA with craftsmanship and care. If something breaks or you have a problem with it, they will fix it.

Tobin is going to produce a STAPLETON KEARNS SIGNATURE MODEL! That will be tricked out just like mine. Call him and ask for that. It is an ongoing project and I expect to tell you more about those as they come on line.

I was asked about mediums for outdoor painting in the winter I like to use Liquin but I think the same medium that you prefer for the rest of the year should be fine. I don't use a particular medium for outdoors. The writer who asked me that said they had had a problem with Kamar varnish. I didn't even know that K-Mart made a varnish! I recommend a gloss damar retouch or final varnish. There are lots of new high tech varnishes out there, some that thin with rocket fuel or who knows what. Damar is the old standard and can easily be removed or painted over. It is simple, time tested and reliable. I would however, not spray it onto a cold painting

Supression of values and Stapletonian confusion

Sargent portrait from artrenewal.com

Below is another e-mail question:

Dear Stape:
Howard Pyle is quoted (paraphrased):

Only 2 values - makes strong & powerful picture

Only 3 values - picture is still good

4 or more -- throw it away.

But we are told to use value change - don't substitite color change for value - novices use too few values - etc. I have made the error of using too few values and I see too few values in many weak paintings.
How do I reconcile these two bits of advice???????? It has been bothering me since reading the Pyle quote.

Thanks,
Australopithecus Portapotty

Dear Austra:

I read that quote too, over on Mathew Innis's great blog (find that here) The supression of values is an idea that I was unaaware of until a decade or so ago. Richard Schmid hipped me to that. I can't say that I have fully assimilated it either. usually I confidently write about things I know well, but tonight I will have to say I am a little fuzzy on this too. Here are my muddled thoughts, none the less.Would bullets make me seem smarter? Maybe.

• I work with ten values with the darkest being a little less that black and the lightest being little less than white. I had this driven onto me by Ives Gammell before the cast. I may not use all ten in a painting, but that IS my frame of reference.

• I was also taught to suppress halftones lest my drawing be "overmodeled". Still I don't see how I can adequately work in two or three values.I think I need at least;

1. the value of the lights
   
2. the shadow note
3. A highlight
4. a reflected light in the shadow
5. a variation in the halftone as it approaches the shadow (modeling)
   

That comes to at least five values .I believe I see those separate values in the works of the great painters I study. So I am a little befuddled here too.

• I do suppress values to simplify my value construction but perhaps I don't really get the implications of this.I try to avoid chopping forms up with lots of fussy transitions and keep the "big".
  
• Pyle was working for reproduction by what would now seem primitive means. Some of the illustration in that era was reproduced in black, white, and red. Perhaps getting his art to "read": in that environment made it important to collapse his values, I am not sure. I do understand how this works in the largest overall picture design sense, but not as much within the objects represented themselves.
  
• Richard Schmid certainly does it, and that is enough to impress me. I have studied his painting and he is suppressing his value changes, so there has to be something to it. His word is enough for me. His book is a little cryptic on this. I noticed his mentions of it and wished for more explanation.He mentions it, but doesn't explain it, at least not enough for me to figure it out.
• I understand how portrait pointers turn form with color rather than with value change, and I use that in my landscapes when it seems feasible.
• When I teach, most of my students have too few values. They have a light, and a couple of darks, and their paintings work better when I throw a better observed panoply of values into them.
• Henry Hensche used to stress turning form with color rather than value and I was exposed to that through his students long ago. but still......
• I'm with you, I don't really get it either. I have been worrying over this myself, perhaps I am overthinking it, I don't know.

There I have done a post on something I don't know. Thats a new frontier for me and opens up lots of possibilities for the future as there are lots of other things I don't know. I will no longer be constrained to writing only when I know what I am talking about.

A pause for reflection on the blog

Donald De Lue 1897-1988
I have been writing this blog for two years now. I have written 757 of them in a row. I think I have missed a day or two, but that is it. My intention was to write down everything that I think painter should know. I had no outline of how that should go and the process has been accretion rather than an orderly exposition. The materials and basic methods posts are concentrated in the first six months. There is no index to the blog and the search feature at the upper left is only partially useful. Some of the posts that I think are most useful, at least from a technical standpoint, are those. I think the posts on edges and design are probably the best writing I have done . I encourage you to go back and check those out. I don't know that I will write this blog forever, but I am not ready to quit yet either.

There is a lot of art history yet to be written and I have wanted to write more about aesthetics too. I think that is the direction this blog will take for a while. There has been an increasing amount of that lately anyways. It is in my opinion the largest area of study for those who want to make good art anyway. Examining the history of art provides a model for making good art ourselves. I have covered art history only up to about 1890 and concentrated mostly on the Americans. I want to continue that, but, I have yet to do the impressionists and I want to cover the "other" painters of the 20th century, the little known American realist painters that the museums have neglected. I would like to write on the decorative arts and architecture too, not a scholarly examination, but just an armchair tour, as I think a painter should know about that too. Do you know about Eastlake? How about Asher Benjamin? Eugene Galien Laloue? Anthony Thieme? Stafordshire pottery? The Oneida colony? See, there is still some ground to be covered.

I am a little concerned that I frontloaded the blog with so much "how-to", but I have, and now I am going to have to steer the blog more in the direction of a course in aesthetics. I hope you find it interesting. But I am willing to bore you, too. I think painters need to know this stuff. In the long run the importance of taste is huge. Taste is terribly underestimated and I often see well made art that fails because it lacks taste.Taste is the integrity of aesthetics.

Either way I intend to keep going and on this the second anniversary of this project I am pleased at the enormous audience it has built.About 30,000 people a month read this blog.Or maybe one guy out there reads it 30,000 times, who knows? Thanks for reading it. I am appreciative of the time you give me. I will take a deep breath and continue. I hope I can make it worthy of the time you give me to read it and I hope I can be of service to you all.
...........................Stape

There are still a few slots left in the second Snowcamp, the first is filled
I will lead a band of fearless painters through the snows of New Hampshire's White Mountains from a 19th century inn early next month Do you want to come? I can save you YEARS of screwing around! You can sign up here.