Time Lapse - Beaver Pond Reflections

 

Time Lapse Video (First attempt so pardon the quality) of blocking in Beaver Pond Reflections

First pass complete - 45 minutes in

Final Painting

Beaver Pond Reflections

Beaver Pond Reflections - Crawford Maine

Acrylic 12" x 16"

Below left was the painting before final adjustments for color and composition.  Subtle differences in the height of the background trees.  I developed the trees on the island and the shape of the island a bit more and, lastly, added some detail and color contrast to the pond, reflections, and foreground.

I particularly enjoyed painting the foreground.  When exploring the Maine streams and woods in the summer or fall, you will often see trees and driftwood deposited by the spring runoff  high among trees or high up on river banks.  That was the inspiration for the tree in the lower right foreground.   A small thing, an incidental accident, almost unconscious but as soon as I made the first brushstroke - there it was.  

                             

The other challenge I run into when painting is to find the proper balance of detail and impression.  I prefer letting the imagination fill in detail whenever possible.

While reading a book of Rusty Heurlin's with his notes in the margins - he had underlined and noted the importance of simplification in his work.  "Simplify, Simplify, Simplify....   Put in only what is necessary in a picture and no more."

Easier said than done but the experimentation is fun and remember - there is almost nothing that can't be undone!

Process versus Spontaneity

 

Acrylic 12" x 16"

This is an update on the progress of Beaver Pond - Crawford.   This represents about 45 minutes of work with Acrylic directly on canvas to block in the composition and then about 10 minutes on another day to begin to zero in on correcting colors.  (2nd pass)

My favorite type of painting remains on location painting, starting and finishing in one session - generally about two to two and a half hours.  However,  when I don't have the time to paint on location I'll use on location sketches and trips as inspiration.  I've documented this elsewhere if you are interested.

In general my method in these types of cases for acrylics is

Compositional Sketches (very loose - mostly line drawings)

Larger Charcoal Sketch to work on values

Then onto working with Paint:

1st Pass  Covering the Canvas in Paint

                    Blocking in the composition rapidly

                    While attempting to get colors and values correct at this stage - but 

                     not worrying if the colors are off 

2nd Pass  Fine tuning painting for both color and composition

Set aside for a few days (or months or years in some cases)

3rd Pass (if painting is not completed) further refinement

I resisted developing a system or process for years.  I just wanted to get out and paint.  While that helped me develop as an artist in many ways, it was also frustrating for me as I often spent as much time searching for what I needed, often wasting what little time I had for painting.  

I've slowly come to realize that even on a day when nothing goes as planned with a painting, if the results are horrible and in no way reflect what I am trying to capture - it's fine.  I still have learned something.  

It took me years to establish a system that works for me with the time I have that still allows me to maintain a sense of spontaneity and excitement when I'm painting.

I also have a "go bag" (three actually) for Watercolor, Acrylic, and Charcoal in addition to my main paintbox which I will switch out between all of the above and oil paintings.

With All Thy Might

 

With All Thy Might
Acrylic 12" x 16"

I enjoy times at the coast when the weather is such what the roar of the ocean and wind drown out the concerns of the day.  These walks and painting sessions bring to me a deep sense of peace that is both as indescribable as it is increasingly rare in the frenetic pace of our daily lives

This subject, like many of mine, is a combination of a number of places along the Maine Coast and it's islands.  The bulk of the painting was completed in one day.  I'd really been fascinated with the ever changing cloud formations.

The original pass at this subject is below.   I knew that the wave was not correct, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it - so I simply set it aside..

Sometimes the time in between first pass and second is less than a day.  At other times - years.  In this case it was the latter.  

I added more movement to the wave, with the center pushing forward more quickly.  I also added a little more contrast to the tall grass and a few hangers on - leaves on the saplings.  I'm always amazed how nature finds a way - in this case a few leaves in an exposed wind and surf driven spot remain attached even through the first snow.

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#robertkahlerlandscapepainting,#acrylic, #maine, #ArtForSale, #WorkingMethods, #seascape

Overcast Day at the coast

 

Overcast Day at the Coast

Acrylic 3" by 5"

This is another small seascape I painted after doing some detail work on a larger painting.  It's an imaginary scene but based on many years of exploring the Maine coast.  I find these quick sketches to be very freeing.  

I go through different phases of sketching.  A few years ago it was a deep exploration of pen and ink. Lately it's been small color sketches in watercolor and acrylic from imagination.  I keep being reminded of how each work informs future works.  While I was painting this small sketch I had a an unplanned trip.  I didn't do it consciously, but when I mixed the paints I flashed back to living over a garage in Westbrook, working on landscape painting with our new arrival (Ari) asleep in the living room.  

It was just one brushstroke but as the paint mixed on the canvas I was transported back nearly a quarter of a century.   This is also what I love about painting on location.  The intense focus and observation of nature, processing it and expressing it on canvas or paper that place/moment in time becomes part of you and you of it.   I urge you to give it a try!

Islands Edge

Island's Edge 

Acrylic 12"x 16" 

I had originally envisioned this painting with a bright clear sky with almost silver reflections off the sea.  But as I began to work on it, I wanted to focus on more color in the surf - which would lend itself more to an active storm.  I wanted to vary the colors in the sky more than a storm would allow so I decided to focus on after a storm with patches of blue sky and storm clouds breaking up.  It would take awhile for the surf to return to normal.  I also decided to have the time of year be late fall which would allow us to see through the wind  blown scrub brush clinging to the cliffs.

I enjoy the creative process whether it goes exactly as I had planned or, as in this case, it goes in another direction.   

Small Seascape

Seascape 
Acrylic 3" x 5"

While doing some detail work on a larger seascape, I began working on some small paintings for a couple of reasons.

For one, I don't like focusing for a long time on small detail work, so I need to break things up.  Also, the yankee in me hates to waste any paint.  If I have paint left over I try to do a small painting - like the one above.  If the paints do not lend themselves to a monochrome or a painting like above, I will use it to put a first coat on a canvas if I have any about.

Below are a few other examples of smalls.  Some of which will be simple studies and abandoned.  Others will lead to other painting journeys.  All, good or bad, complete or incomplete, do help inform my future paintings.  Any day painting is a good day!

Rocks and Wildflowers

Rocks and Wildflowers

Two lights 

Acrylic 12" x 16"

This is my latest Acrylic Painting of a composition that is a common sight in and around Two Lights.  I explained the process to this point in another post if you are interested in learning about methods for creating painting.  Below I've put the large charcoal drawing (12" x 18") side by side with the Acrylic

When I had reached a stopping point in the main painting, I decided to quickly sketch out some other ideas from my trip with leftover paint on 4" by 6" note cards.

Sketch " x 6"

I really enjoy these quick sketches.  I learn a lot from them with very little time invested.  For instance, in the painting above, the ocean seems to "run off" the picture to the left.  Through the placement of rocks or shrubs I will reverse that so that it leads the eye into the painting and not out of it.  It's a win win.  I don't waste paint and I get to explore ideas in a much looser manner.

Surf Sketch 4" x 6"

Scale of Sketches

Above the Old Mill Pond

Above the Old Mill Pond

Acrylic 12" x 16"

This painting was based on Plein Air sketches in Pen and Ink and the watercolor sketch done later in studio.  The perspective is imaginary, as though looking down from a high mill tower.  I wanted to find ways to include what was at the scene in one picture that you could see, just not all at once.

The mill is long unused.  Part of the building being used for apartments.  Part of it collapsing.  Part of it long collapsed.  The mill pond still exists, though the dam is slowly failing.  I broke the edge of the building in the foreground to allow another example of distance as well as the birch tree on the right for the same reason.

I was pleased at how this composition came together and I enjoyed trying to convey a sense of space without having any actual "sky" in the painting.  I plan to go back to this location to do an on location painting of the dam itself, before it is gone.

You may have noted that there is no chimney in the finished painting.  There wasn't actually one there, I was just experimenting in the watercolor.  I also adjusted the angle of the mill building to lead more into the mill pond rather than across it as in the watercolor sketch.

Swift River March

Mixed Media

Oil over Acrylic

12" x 16"

This painting was a continuation of the painting below.  There were parts of the painting that seemed flat to me and I wanted to add some more life, color, and movement to the painting.  Here they are side by side/

Here they are side by side.  I think it works a little better now than before.

Approaching Storm

Acrylic on Canvas Board

18" x 24"

My submission, Approaching Storm, was selected for inclusion in the juried show "Top Art" at Roux and Cyr International Fine Art Gallery, 48 Free Street, Portland Maine.  The show will run April 3 through April 23, 2020.   This was my first entry into a Portland based art gallery.   I look forward to seeing the gallery space and the other work included in this show as well as to meeting fellow artists and patrons of the arts.

Approaching Storm

Approaching Storm

Acrylic on Canvas Board

18" x 24"

When painting a subject that is imaginary, or half memory and half imagination versus an on location painting, different challenges arise.  However, I find that each choice in painting informs the other.  Thinking quickly about the genesis of this painting - four things come to mind.  

A sketching trip to Cushing Maine, Painting trips to Evans Notch, Dunes on Cape Cod and the fields and forest that I used to play in growing up in Westbrook.  This composition is an amalgam of those experiences and more.

I've submitted this painting for consideration in an upcoming juried exhibition. This painting is one of the first that I've specifically designed for a show.  Generally I've simply matched paintings completed with the themes of juried shows.  I can't really say that I have a preference beyond painting effects and subjects that are of interest to me.

Another different thing that I've done with these past few paintings is prepping the canvas with yellow ochre and raw sienna.  that's part of the effect that you see of the reflections in the water - it is the under-painting being revealed by thinning the surface of paint.

New England Fall

New England Fall

Acrylic 24" x 36"

I did some touch up work on this painting yesterday.  The bulk of this painting was done long ago, but I had never been happy with the sky.  So I took the painting as far as I could and left it for later consideration.  Sometimes days, months, and in this case years pass before the solution comes to mind.

I've been working on a series of paintings and paying more and more attention to the role of skies in a composition.  I am becoming much more confident and therefore looser with my skies.  The effects of skies are so fleeting and complex that it allows one to paint almost to the point of abstraction in an otherwise realistic style.

One of my artistic inspirations, John Stobart, as well as other experienced Plein Air painters will often wait until the sky strikes them of interest and then they paint it in and adjust the more permanent areas of the painting (shadows etc).  This scene is an imaginary setting based on my own exploration of the Maine landscape.

This painting is one of five that I've entered for consideration at an upcoming juried show.

Riverbed Reflection

Riverbed Reflection
Acrylic 12" x 16"

This painting is a challenge that had been bouncing around in my head for more than 25 years.  Water is always a challenge to capture, even when it is still.  The slightest wind, the time of year, the color of the material of the river bed.  Nearly endless combinations are possible.

Julie and I were exploring the area around tumbledown mountain and there was a beautiful scene of a riverbed surrounded by fall foliage.  The riverbed was all but empty this late into the fall.  I came across these scene with a reflection of the sky and trees on three sides.   

I've a number of  ideas and sketches for a series of reflection paintings.  This subject was about as abstract as I tend to get with my paintings - I did really enjoy the challenge of working with only three colors plus white.  

Alternate versions of this painting could include different patters of reflections, additional puddles  as well as including fallen leaves for more color.

I actually started this painting in part because I am a yankee and hate to waste any paint.  I was taking a break from two other paintings and I had a mishmash of paint left on my palette.  I decided to use the paints to prime a new canvas board and as this idea had been bouncing around for while  so I just decided to  keep going.

Swift River #2

Swift River #2
Acrylic on Canvas Board
12"X 16"

This painting was done from an on location sketch done in acrylics more than twenty years ago.  It was a grey spring day and quite cold.  I set up in the middle of a small bridge built for lumber access.  By the time I was done with the painting I was freezing and my hand was so stiff I needed to use my left hand to take the brush out of my right hand.

One of the things that I enjoy the most about painting on location is how lost I become in a place and time.  The paintings bring me back to that moment in time.  And even when the moment is well beyond my skills and experience, I find that so much more is taken in than I realize, and it often comes out later as my skills and experience catch up with my chosen subject.

One of the challenges of this type of day and subject is that without much sunlight, shadows are minimized and the key is similar throughout the painting, making the effect of distance harder to achieve.  I'm likely to do a couple different versions of this composition based on my observations of other similar locations. 

One will be a scene with mottled sunlight filtering through the trees.  Another a winter scene. 

Good Neighbors

"Good Neighbors" (Andy's view)

Acrylic 18" x 24"

This painting was inspired by my recent trip to Cushing and the Olsen family cemetery.   The rock to the left was actually off to the right and would have been out of the picture but I wanted to include it.  In my mind, I've seen a painting by Andrew Wyeth of an erratic boulder.  I've no idea if this was the one or if my memory is faulty, but in my mind, it added to the composition and is also a testament to how hard farmers worked to clear their land along the rocky coast

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The barbed wire fence was an addition, not there in reality.  A memory from exploring the fields where I grew up. Perhaps a reminder that this is Wyeth country and no one will ever approach his talent, sensitivity, love and familiarity of the subject and his friends.

I freely admit, that for years I paid little, if any attention, to the art of Andrew Wyeth.  Reproductions of work abound.  Personally, I prefer more color - from his earlier works.  However, when I began my own artistic journey - a day at a time for more than twenty years now - and as I continued to experience loss - as do we wall - and expressing myself through my art I developed an entirely new understanding of and an appreciation for Andrew Wyeth.

The Wyeth center in Rockland, at the Farnsworth Museum, is a treasure and it's well worth the trip to see the art of the Wyeth family. One of my favorite paintings is the Witching Hour - seen below.

                  

 I also recently picked up a used copy of Wyeth at Kuerners - it provides a glimpse behind the curtain, of the artists working methods and process.  I've always been attracted to the "unfinished" - the work of an artist caught up in an inspirational moment where perhaps the composition isn't really considered, but what caught the artists eye is captured in a way seldom captured again in the finished painting.   It's also equally telling to see what the artist has decided to leave out, to simplify, or to relocate in order to strengthen the pictorial interest.

It's been a particularly productive few weeks, with half a dozen paintings completed or nearly so.

 

Winter Landscapes 1-3

I have a complicated relationship with winter. The older I get , the less I enjoy winter (shoveling and driving really).  Yet there is an undeniable beauty in winter with all its moods.  The morning shadows and the reflection of sunsets in the snow will steal your breath as sure as the frigid air will.

There is a crispness and clarity to the landscape unlike any other season.  The patterns of shadows on the snow and reflections on brooks and rivers   And the blue moonlight nights are truly magical.  I thought I'd completed a handful of winter scenes over the years but in going through my paintings recently to get ready for an exhibition, I found that I'd completed more than a dozen which I will post over the next few weeks while waiting for more fresh snow to paint.

Nor Easter Maine Coast
Charcoal on Tissue Paper

After the Ice Storm, Lisbon ME
Acrylic on Canvas

Watercolor - on location
Ammonoosic River

Incoming Storm Sebego Lake, Maine

Incoming Storm - Sebego Lake

Acrylic 18"x 24"

This acrylic was painted on location at Harmon's Beach Sebego Lake, Maine many falls ago.  I can remember the day like it was yesterday.  I used a heavy french easel which I had to prop against a tree to keep it from being knocked over by the strong wind gusts.

It was so cold, that when I finished painting, I couldn't drop the paint brush, I needed to remove it from my right hand with my left.

I was focused on the water and sky, amazed at all the colors that we often think of a simply a grey day.  Like any painting I look at later, there are some things that I would do differently now, but i was and still am pleased with the effort.  I captured things that I could never have imagined because it was painted start to finish on location (en plein air).

When I look at this today, I am transported back to that moment in time.  I can hear the crashing windblown surf, and feel and hear the howl of the wind and the spray from the waves.

If you've never tried painting on location, I'd encourage you to do so.  Don't let people talk you out of it talking about all the challenges - its worth it.  I've found that even though some of the effects I'm trying to capture in nature are still beyond me, the mind takes in far more than you are aware of at the time.

For me, sometimes, things go exactly as I hope, or I have happy accidents, and I have a picture ready to frame.  At other times, I use the piece as a reference for a studio work, or I use bits and pieces of what I've painted in other painting compositions.  Others simply are stacked up in the studio. the result of many lessons learned - unlikely to ever see the light of day (or the internet).  Still it is time well spent, in my opinion.

#pleinair #pleinairpainting #acrylicpainting #landscapepainting #Sebagolake #Maine #arttherapy

#artforsale #paintingtips

FMI please visit robertkahler.com

Moments of abstraction

Androscoggin River Sketch 2

Acrylic on Paper

This sketch was executed rapidly, like most of my paintings.  A pattern in most of my on location work or series studio work is a trend toward abstraction in my third or later paintings in a day.  Sometimes caused by vanishing light.  At other times caused by the beauty of the abstract patterns and color combinations in nature itself.

My preference is toward the impressionistic, but more often than not, I'm simply trying to capture the emotion or mood of a moment in time.  The shadows of the trees on the far shore juxtaposed with the light reflections and color patterns in the water were what drew me to this scene.  I also enjoyed experimenting with different blues to achieve warmer and cooler shadows and greens on the far bank and in the reflections.

Below are two other abstractions - the one immediately below done on location more than twenty years ago.  This was executed at the end of a day of exploring in and around bear notch road in NH.  The mountain was reflected in the water until the gentlest of breezes rippled the surface of the water.  It's a subject and a motif that I will return to.

Bear Notch Reflections

The subject below was born from yankee thrift.  I had some paints left over and I try to never waste or throw out any paint.  Aiden Lassell Ripley, a distant relative of my wife, is an artist I admire so this very pale imitation was born in the studio at the end of a day of painting.  It's rather liberating to simply experiment with different ideas and materials.  This painting is acrylic paint on tracing paper.

Snow Shadows and Spruce

Androscoggin, Ferry Road, Lisbon

Adroscoggin River Color Sketches

These two sketches are Acrylic on Paper.  Done from observation on location and the composition sketches below.  I tend to sort through my composition sketches and on location sketches for ideas for paintings - especially when I don't really have the time to paint.  In this case - I'd actually intended to work on a completely different subject - which I'd taken from small composition sketches like to these to a full sheet charcoal drawing.  But instead the image on the upper right caught my attention and I decided to skip a larger charcoal (for now) and go right into color sketches.

Androscoggin River Comp Sketches

My art critic - Echo accompanies me on my trips to my basement studio.  I paint standing up, and you can tell from the picture that it is probably a good thing that I do so as sitting isn't really an option.

Echo -Art Critic

 Once Echo sees me getting my palette ready, he settles in for a nap.

Ready To Paint

Androscoggin River 1

Acrylic on Paper

The lights and the darks were so impressive on this day creating rich color contrasts and striking shadows.  For this sketch I was also experimenting with different blues throughout the painting and intentionally leaving some of the white of the paper showing to add range to the color palette.  

The sketch below was completed quickly after the first, and was intentionally much more abstract than my normal painting.  This will be the subject of my next post.

Adroscoggin River 2

Acrylic on Paper