Watercolor Landscape - Storm

"Storm Over Cajon"

watercolor on paper, 2014

9" x 13" (22.86cm x 33.02cm)
For Sale at DAILY PAINTWORKS, CLICK HERE

Direct link to painting here

Although I would describe myself as a fair weather person I love stormy weather. It always makes for a great painting subject.
A nice dramatic storm rising from the Cajon Pass, the long climb from San Bernardino to the high desert, is about to pounce on the Mojave Desert.291

Skies

In my last post I talked about the clouds and sky and how I design them for the overall composition.

My skies often have drama but I always keep in mind that they are backgrounds so I don't allow them to outshine what is more important, usually the main subject or theme and I never paint them as an afterthought.
I could make them the primary subject of course, then everything else would step up in support of it.

So even with drama it is always an understated drama, at times just enough to provide texture and participation but not so much it overshadows the rest, even when stormy.
They are a supporting character in the whole of the painting.

Click title under each painting to see original post.

"Union Pacific 4259"

"Catalina Pacific Concrete (Storm)"

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Being a supporting character can also mean using the sky to describe the sentiment behind the subject of the painting as I did below by painting the sky with a certain amount of upheaval.

"303 S. Pacific #1"

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Or by using the sky in a more subtle manner to further an attitude about the subject where I used the sky (part of a design element) as a harbinger of retirement.

"Harbor Line #50 Crossing"

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Or painted in a more dramatic manner as the phantom cloud below. Although it occupies very little of the composition its swooping posture and action plays well to the backlit tangle of pipes and busy energetic composition.

"Oil plant #5 (Phantom Cloud)"

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Or used as drama to celebrate.

"Truck at Rest"

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Sometimes they loom over the subject in an almost menacing way to different degrees.

"HB Power Plant - Dusk"

"Santa Ana River #3 Footbridge"

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Or they may be menacingly fun

"Smilin' Jack"

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Directly pound the subject into submission.

"Dark Rain"

"BNSF (Cajon Puddle)"

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Other times they linger in the background slowly settling over the subject.

"Oil Plant Backside (w/ Storage Tanks)"

"Oil Plant #3"

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I may use them to burn, beat down or choke out the subject.

"Catalina Pacific Concrete - Ruins Study 8"

"Warehouse Rooftop (w/ Palm)"

"Villa Riviera Wrapped for Restoration"

"Study 'Villa Riviera Wrapped for Restoration' "

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Or are left nearly white to make a point about the eventual disappearance of the subject.

"Catalina Pacific Concrete (Demolition 1)"

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Sometimes my skies contain contrails, as a design element variation, allowing me to carve up the sky instead of relying on the usual clouds.

"Gorman Spring"

"Oil plant #7"

"Sunkist Packing Plant (w/ Contrail)"

"Whitepoint Battery Bunker"

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And yes, sometimes I will even use higher chroma or saturated colors in my skies when I need to. You know, happy skies.

"BNSF Mojave"

"Pacific Harbor Line - Weeds"

"Power Pole #5 (2 Buttons)"

"LA River #3"

"Rails, Bridge, Refinery"

Lately my skies have gotten lighter as I explore its subtleties and what I can say with them.

Sometimes choosing an overcast or severely understated sky is the answer, instead of a cloudy or clear blue sky.
It gives the painting a different feel whether it is one of a thick smoldering atmosphere or a cool crisp breath of air.

"Catalina Pacific Concrete - Ruins Study 3"

"Catalina Pacific Concrete - Ruins Study 13"

My skies are never accidental. I always consider how they will play against the whole of the painting and the idea it represents. It is how I arrive at so many variations. I am not painting a sky or clouds just to suit  some design purpose. I am not mindlessly dumping in blue as a background.
I am instead putting down an idea, a thought, a concept, my observations, something about life and using the sky as part of that language.

The sky's the limit (sorry, I had to).

Night Rain in Digital

"18th St. Rain Nocturne"
Digital, 2013

I've had my share of struggles with the digital medium. I know I only have the most basic tool (iPad) and app (Brushes) for this but one way to help figure it out is to redo one of my own oil paintings.

I look at tutorials and other digital paintings but redoing one of your own slows down the learning curve.

Now I am only reinterpreting it through a different medium. I was involved in the original decision making so I am not also trying to figure that out. It is a more simplified version with not as much of the orange throughout, the colors are not woven together as well, but I do have more mileage under my belt in oils and it was still a valuable learning excercise.252

The oil painting version here.

Church in Rain

"10th Street Rain (Church)"
watercolor on paper, 2013
6" x 9" (15.24cm x 22.86cm)
For Sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE
Direct link to painting here

We had our first real rain of fall this week so I thought I would paint a rain scene.
Will this (churches) be a series? I don't know yet.

I have done plenty of rain paintings. Click the RAIN label to see more.

There are tons of paintings of churches in this world. If I can find something to say it might turn into a series. I'll have to give it some thought. For now I just liked the rain motif and the shadow crawling up the side of the church.

I painted this as a continuation of a looser or more painterly approach in watercolor. Not as much pre-drawing, instead finding the image in paint. I like working this way from time to time since it is freer and I learn different 'ways of the watercolor' and what you can do with it. Even when it looks like it's failing I find I can recover it much of the time.

Watercolor has a reputation for being so final and though that is true much of the time when I do reach a point of "oh damn, your'e headed for the shredder", as I did on this one, sometimes I will hang in there figuring if it's ruined anyway I can't make it any worse so throw down paint and see what happens. This is when I lose a little more of that inherent fear of watercolor, lay it down right or it's ruined.

I should say really working the watercolor this way means a high-density paint application and I like that too. It is not the vibrant thin washes typical of a lot of watercolors. Thats OK, sometimes a heavy-handed approach serves the subject better.
Hey, maybe that is my first thought for a church series?249

Others in this dense approach here, here, here(UP 8381) and here(San Pedro Plant).

This is another adjusted image due to the Blogger image upload problems I have been having sporadically lately. The better image is on DAILYPAINTWORKS.

**I have updated this post with a 'fixed' photo. This is how it should have looked in the first place.

Night Rain at 6x6 Show

"18th St. Rain Nocturne"    SOLD
oil on panel, 2012

6" x 6" (15.24cm x 15.24cm)

My fourth painting accepted into the 6 Inch Squared Show at the Randy Higbee Gallery in Costa Mesa California.
Another rain painting in the show here.

A simple enough idea, more challenging to paint than I thought.
Warm light on a cold night. Yellow green from the house, orange from the sodium street lights meant the two had to be interspersed in some places.
In reality the light is actually blueish white but made for a cold uninviting image. This is when artistic decisions must be made.
I initially had more yellow from the house light but the painting lacked depth so I added green as the light spread out from its source, even further under the shine of rainy conditions. I finished it off by adding some color accents of blue in the sky and red of the taillights.199

Another "18th St. Rain" here, a view slightly up the same street.
Click rain 'RAIN' LABEL to see others.

Rain at 6x6 Show

"11th St. Rain"    SOLD
oil on panel, 2012
6" x 6" (15.24cm x 15.24cm)
Randy Higbee Gallery

Here is one of my four paintings accepted into the 6 Inch Squared show at Randy Higbee Gallery.

If you are like me you never tire of rain and weather images. I love shiny glistening streets under these conditions. The landscape under a canopy of clouds with the golden sun breaking through.
I've always thought of rainy days as slow days. Here I've painted the late afternoon with a lone figure returning home from work in no particular hurry.196

Click 'Rain' or 'Weather' LABELS to see others.

Note: I updated the image here with one that is more color correct.
Click on image for larger view

BNSF Slogging

"BNSF Flooded Road"    SOLD
oil on panel, 2011
6” x 8” (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

Two of my favorite subjects, trains and rain.

A BNSF locomotive slogging through the rain near the top of the Cajon pass headed to the high desert in Southern California. Rounding the bend in a heavy rainstorm as shown by the flooded road in the foreground. An autumn scene with just a hint of orange trees showing through the fog.

The train, somewhat inconsequential within the composition and placed high in the picture plane, gives it a feeling of isolation and puts more emphasis on the landscape. But while that is true the lines of the landscape still all lead to the train.
With two thirds of the composition being foreground/middle ground this demanded the road have a strong design. The foreground and middle ground get divided by the rain water washing over the road. Each share similar angular shapes but vary enough in shape and size to keep them from becoming boring. It's really about avoiding design 'twins' and breaking up the larger mass into smaller supporting ones. That also allows for the recession of space, leading the eye through the weather to the locomotive.

For the engineer, this must be the most solitary part of their job, which is what this painting is about.
The design and the weather itself both serve as vehicles to that idea, instead of the primary subject. The smallness of the train against the larger landscape and the isolating nature of stormy weather.157


Click on images for larger view

Washed in Gray Green 2

"Tree in Rain/Fog"    SOLD
oil on panel, 2011
7" x 5" (17.78cm x 12.7cm)

I have always liked rain images, washing over the landscape
in grayish green tones. Even the most mundane scene
becomes far more interesting and worthy of pause. The middle
of a street takes on different patterns of light while wet and
can easily become the central focus. Although the tree in
rainy foggy weather was my original intent, it's the wet street that shines.118
To see another similar painting click previous post here Washed in Grey Green
For others click rain or weather Labels below this post.

Click on image for larger view

BNSF at 6 x 6

"BNSF 6631 Rain"   SOLD
oil on panel, 2011
6" x 6" (15.24cm x 15.24cm)

My fourth painting juried into the 6" Squared Show at the Randy Higbee Gallery. The 3 others here and here and here. If you are in the area it's worth checking out. The show promises to have lots of great art on display and for sale.

The BNSF 6631 near the top of the El Cajon Pass headed to the high desert in Southern California pulling a short string of passenger cars instead of the usual freight cars and cargo containers. Seen here punching out of the mist and into a clearing.
With it's lighter than usual load this train was moving pretty fast and despite it's climb up the steep long grade it rolled around the corner and was gone in a flash, traveling with a sense of urgency.112

Click on image for larger view

"Dark Rain"

"Dark Rain"   SOLD
oil on panel, 2010
6" x 6" (15.24cm x 15.24cm)

This is the sister painting from the previous post "Light Rain". Both are the same site and location, different views and included in the 6" Squared Show at the Randy Higbee Gallery in Costa Mesa California.

These buildings are on the same site as my Oil Plant series.

I like this area for it's hodgepodge of cement slabs laid over the years at various angles. By showing a lot of foreground the emphasis is less on the buildings and more on the weather as a subject for the painting.

The dark cloud allows for a more limited, almost monochromatic palette, and with the sun still breaking through, higher contrast values. The rain rolls in with an unrelenting fury, about to pound the landscape. A cold brooding day with only hints of color, the orange cone and yellow poles.89


Click on image for larger view

"Light Rain"

"Light Rain"   SOLD
oil on panel, 2010
6" x 6" (15.24cm x 15.24cm)

This painting will be in the 6" Squared show this weekend at the Randy Higbee Gallery. It is the sister painting of one titled "Dark Rain" which I will post soon.

These buildings are on the same site as my Oil Plant series.

I like this area for it's hodgepodge of cement slabs laid over the years at various angles. By showing a lot of foreground the emphasis is less on the buildings and more on the weather as a subject for painting.

A light rain kind of day where the clouds streak swiftly across the sky, scattering their rain. The sun breaks, bringing hard shadows, rain washed air and that great mineral smell.88


Click on image for larger view

Harbor Colors

"Sunken Dock, Cranes (w/Bird)"   SOLD

oil on panel, 2010

6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

I was lamenting awhile back that mother nature was holding back spring in favor of an extended winter. Now she still has spring or at least spring like weather on the table. Our 4th of July was only warm, not hot, with a rather cool evening. We have not seen any real hot, blistering summer days and nights yet. So, with that, here is another spring painting.

The harbor, looking east, a bank of rain clouds. This is a common site in Los Angeles this time of year (early spring). The weather will move off shore and along the mountains, leaving the LA basin to the sun, a sort of hole with no weather, much like the eye of a hurricane. This does lead to some dramatic backdrops and here it provided a deep cool gray for the brightly lit red cranes.

These are the colors of the harbor. The equipment... whites, reds, blues, greens, yellows, oranges, some bright, some pale. Docks and piers... earthy siennas, oxidized gray browns, dark wet chocolate browns. The organic... green waters, ochre dirt, various shades of gray and tan in jetties and rocks.

This is another palette I like. Saturated color, but deep, still weighty, with bright accents. A good mix of artificial and natural earthy color. Man made and nature together.

Bright days don't necessarily have to be depicted in high key (lighter) values. If done right, middle and even low key values will represent a bright day.

The only light values here lie in a thin horizontal strip at the base of the cranes... sunlit whites, blues and yellow. The color saturation too, aids in depicting a sunny day and distant atmospheric conditions... wet air.65

Click on image for larger view

Update-Previous Post

*I found a better photo of the painting "Power Pole #10(w/ rooftop)" under the post heading ' Chilly Biting Air ' in the May archives.

Jarring

"Storage Yard Nocturne"   SOLD

oil on panel, 2010

5"x 7" (12.7cm x 17.78cm)

Horizon Fine Art Gallery

Industrial nocturne, just after a rain. Combining four of my favorite image elements or subjects; the nocturne, the industrial, rain, and a simple composition.

Much like I said in my post 'Of the Night' / "Nocturne-Lucy(Cat)", the simple image can be tricky. It needs to have something to hold your attention, some quality that stirs up memories, emotions, some drama... anything to prevent it from being boring.

Here a crisp cool night, a dark blue clearing sky, the scene soaked in the yellow sodium street light, the slick wet textured street, the harder lines of the foreground offset by the lingering fog.

Dangerously close to being too simple, the power pole, dissecting the composition just off center was needed to provide a jarring effect. Without it or the lit up electrical box at the far right the image isn't as compelling to me. Hopefully this painting is provocative to others in some way, so that the industrial motif is secondary.44

Click on image for larger view

Chilly Biting Air

*Updated image above

"Power Pole #10(w/ Rooftop)"    SOLD

oil on panel, 2009

5" x 3.5" (12.7cm x 8.89cm)

From my Power Pole series, done at the end of 2009. The color here is a bit off, the painting has deeper tones, especially the blue background. With the deeper tones the image has that feel of the chilly, biting air of a cold December day, with only the slightest of warm tone/color to it.

Like others in the series, the wires zinging about provide that controlled chaos that draws me to this subject, but in this case what caught my eye was the pyramid shaped roofline and the sliver of building at the left that stabilized the chaos. And again, I love the simple, fundamental arrangement of shapes making up the composition.35

Click on image for larger view

*Update- I found a better photo of this painting since it was originally posted, although curiously enough I photographed it before I signed it, which I rarely do.

It is however more faithful to the painting itself. Generally, the colors are not as raw. Like I said in the text, this shows the deeper and richer tones as well as the more textural application of paint, giving me the 'heavy' skies I favor.

Saturated Hues

"Spring Seascape"

oil on panel, 2010

6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

private collection

After the last entry I'm hoping this seascape will urge Mother Nature to finally deliver spring before it's time for summer. This painting is small but I have 5 or 6 medium sized ones in the works, I'll post them sometime soon, been working on these 'mini's' lately, recently sold 11 of them plus a slightly larger figure painting.

This is the So Cal spring I remember. As Mother Nature's temperament softens... the winter fades, the days lengthen and the sun arches higher... the colors in her palette get swept clean. The waters begin to calm and it warms up enough for water ballon fights. The horizon lays itself out once again... basking in the sun.

Although a horizon is not shown here, the pacific blue lightens as it moves towards it and as the sky reflects off it's surface. The deeper shades of winter replaced by the brighter, more saturated hues of spring.31

Click on image to enlarge

Washed in Gray Green

"18th St.Rain"       SOLD

oil on board, 2009

8" x 10" (20.32cm x 25.4)

With our unusual lingering winter, cooler temperatures, and sporadic rain it seemed appropriate to post a rain painting. By this time of year it's typically in the 70's (at least in So Cal) but the cold air persists.

Despite the fact that we don't get rain like other parts of the country I've always liked rain and weather images. Painted late in the day, the sun struggling to shine and gleaming off the street, it's the kind of rainfall that alternates between drizzle and those huge scattered drops, never quite committing to a downpour. Just enough to keep things wet and wash over the landscape in grayish green tones.30

Click on image to enlarge