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Merry Christmas & a Painting Update

by Bruce E Ulrich on 12/26/2008 2:23:38 AMComment on this
It's the night of Christmas and all through the my house you can hear the trickle of water off the roof and feel the slow thaw from our 10 plus days of snow and cold here in the Northwest. I've had more time in the studio painting and finally got some images of the latest iteration of that painting I've been working over. It was a quite day at home as travel is still slow and slippery so all the family gatherings will be this weekend. Several works seemed to gel after the frustrations of this past week
.
Stage 4 from Dec.20.



Stage 5 from Dec.24 Still not it.

Stage 6 at the end of today, to me this is more like it.
After this one coalesced several more canvases got closer to the end game too.
Here is another from today.

This is a Red one for the season.
I hope your Christmas was very Merry.
Good Night and let me know what you think.
Bruce

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Image Update

by Bruce E Ulrich on 12/19/2008 1:39:44 PMComment on this

I said I would get some images up here to show what I am working on. I am a day late but I have cropped and sized two stages of one painting. This is just one on several projects that can fill the days in the studio.







This is stage 1 from Tuesday night Nice but to literal for my goal.



Stage two from Thursday is getting closer to my goals for this painting, who knows what further iterations it will go through.
I hope this glimpse into one way of making an image is of interest. If you have any questions leave a comment of email me. Have a good weekend.
Bruce

 
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The Weather Outside is Frightful

by Bruce e Ulrich on 12/17/2008 12:38:46 AMComment on this
Here in the upper left corner of America we have been is a cold spell with snow and ice on the valley floor (in the Portland metro area). Not a cold as the upper right corner or the upper mid-west, but for the area the coldest for the longest time in 30 years so a weather man reports.
It's a paltry amount by the standards of colder areas yet a sheet of ice puts a damper on crossing the street or getting the mail without the risk for falls, and it means chaining up to get out of the neighborhood to go to the store.
I am grateful that I only have to walk across the street to the studio and flip a switch to get heat and light. The fact that it is sunny with a bright blue sky even if it is a wild chill of 9 is a change from the ever changing shades of gray that are a typical Oregon winter day. The bright light seems to have lightened the colors in the paintings I've started this week. I am working towards a personal abstraction of the landscape or parts and pieces of it;the less it is identified as a specific place and the more universal my image can be of a region,or the idea of a region the better  I will have succeeded. Presently the start looks much to specific for this goal. It's so much easier in some ways to try and paint a pleasing interpretation of what is out there. I'll re look at some of Carl Morris's work and a few other greats and see if I can get some ideas to pursue for my own solution. Greater painters than I  hope to be have spent years and given us many great and different paintings in answer to this type of question and I'm only beginning to frame my questions. Such are my ruminations on a cold winters night.
Have a warm and safe Christmas where ever you are in the world.
I'll take some photos of this and some other recent paintings and get them up tomorrow.
Thanks for reading.
B
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Color Notes

by Bruce E. Ulrich on 12/11/2008 6:33:17 PMComment on this
I have a few more thoughts on my palette and some of the colors of paint used.  I usually have two of each primary. In the Munsell color system that is Red Yellow Green Blue and Purple.  The reason for two of each is to have a warm and cool of each color/hue.  Most of us recognize that colors have a temperature component and we think of reds and yellows as warmer than blues and greens.  Our language references it when we say "something is red hot".  Blue or green hues can be warmer if they have some red or yellow in them and are perceived to be cooler when they are not in the mixes.  In real life all colors/hues are evaluated by the colors next to and around them.  By using this knowledge an artist can create the illusion of depth in a painting or enhance a mood or emotion in a less representational painting.
Currently I use cadmium yellow light and medium, cadmium red light, alizarin crimson or quinacridone red, ultramarine blue and phthalo blue(red shade) viridian or medium green, and dioxazine purple, plus white and black.  I use several earth colors sienna, yellow ocher, transparent yellow iron oxide and transparent red iron oxide.


Night Bottles 2

                               Wine Tasting       
Thanks for reading, please let me know what you think and feel free to email me any questions.
Bruce

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Lights ,Color Action

by Bruce E. Ulrich on 12/9/2008 11:56:31 PMComment on this

Lights ,Color Action

It is December in Oregon and in spite of the warm dry sunny days we have had this fall, the days are short the nights are longer and most of my painting is done in the studio. This means artificial lighting is my norm.
I use florescent 4 foot shop fixtures and either daylight balanced bulbs or 1 warm and 1 cool bulb in each fixture. This gives plenty of light to supplement the north window or take over when needed. To my eyes this makes the colors look most like they do in daylight and match the lighting in most homes where the paintings will live.

A view of my easel and some of my added lights.

I was reading from "Portraits" by Michael Kimmelman, art critic for the NY Times, last night.
The book is a series of talks, interviews and conversations with well known artists as they went through various museums and looked at the art. I read the chapter on Wayne Thiebaud, one of my favorite artists and a great colorist. Mr. Kimmelman is a good listener and asks very interesting questions to make captivating word portraits of each artist and how they view art and what drives them in making art. Ending the day on a positive note primes my process for a fresh beginning in the studio.
Thank you for reading, let me know what you think or ask me a question.
Bruce

 
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Color Choices

by Bruce E Ulrich on 12/3/2008 2:15:57 PMComment on this




Sorry for my laxness in posting. Being lazy by nature, new to the routine and add in my favorite meal of the year and I have a host of excuses to choose from. (As a good friend is fond of saying "God grant me my excuses with out which I am nothing")
On to the subject of color and how I attempt to use it when I paint and abstract or most any subject. At the top of this post is picture of kind of color wheel I use based on the Munsell color notation system, many artists better than I use these ideas and write about them. The main difference from the 3 primary color wheel of grade school fame Red , Yellow, and Blue is the addition of 2 more primary colors, Green and Purple. This results in more accurate color compliments ( ie, colors opposite each other on the wheel). This system is used by science and industry to precisely describe a color and reproduce it.
Robert Burridge adapted this system to the paints made by Holbein but you can use any brand of paint to create your own color wheel. Between each of the five evenly spaced primaries are the five secondaries ie yellow-green or blue-green,etc.. This model lets the artist start with 10 colors of paint(hue) plus white and black and in theory mix any color she ever needs.
In practice a painting has more impact if there is a dominate color/hue for each painting, the red painting the green painting. Once you pick the dominate color its opposite or compliment is the strongest color choice for using as the center of interest. and as Burridge calls them your spice colors, are on either side of the compliment with one color between them. This gives you 4 colors to paint with,plus black and white.
By limiting your palette the odds of creating a stronger painting are improved and your mind is freer to concentrate on the one million other choices needed to build a picture.
Here is a sample of how I used some of these concepts in a painting I plan to use for my Christmas card. Enjoy the sneak preview.


Ornaments '08
12x12
Acrylic on canvas panel

I was thinking red and green to represent the Christmas season and red is the dominant hue, green it the compliment The center of interest is the ornaments In Munsell a blue green is the compliment of a red and my center ornament leans toward that hue.

Thanks for your patience as I learn the blogging world and let me know what you think.
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