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!

Above the Old Mill Pond Study

Watercolor Sketch - Above the Old Mill Pond

As of late, I've become more and more interested in cropping compositions differently, almost approaching the abstract.   This quick watercolor sketch is based on reality, but not exact.

I'd gone out on a Sunday morning sketch trip and revisited on old mill I'd sketched before in pen and ink.  I sketched the building from the side of the road from a much lower perspective.  The old dam, in the lower right of the composition, was also another subject of interest for me.   The mill pond was was also a point of interest that could not be seen from my original vantage point.

These sketches also took place in the winter.  I decided to imagine what the scene would look like in the fall with the reflections of trees and then how I could alter the perspective and still be true to the mill and the old dam.  So what started as a subject focused on the mill in winter, turned out very differently.  

I enjoy the process of when I am working on a painting or even when writing, that I have a clear idea of where I want to go, but the painting develops a will of its own.  This was a quick watercolor sketch that I will definitely expand into a larger more finished work.

There was an older mill across the street that I'd hoped to paint and sketch, as there were many interesting angles and designs in the decaying mill, but the last time I went back to sketch, the mill had been torn down.

watercolor sketching

I recently started experimenting with compositional sketches in watercolor.  Watercolor allows me to quickly block in a scene, experiment with color and different ideas for the subject.

The corner farm at dusk was just a quick impression I caught a glimpse of while driving home from work.   These sketches were only done in watercolor.

The second sketch of the corner farm is what it might look like as a winter scene with cornstalks as were actually there.  I changed the sky and moved the trees behind the house and moved the house further back in the composition.  I also extended the heighth of the silo.

From these quick small sketches I will continue to refine the paintings with more detailed studies (such as the corn stalks) before launching in to a finished painting.

All of these materials, a portable watercolor palette, a small water container and the watercolor paper scraps fit into a small sketch bag.  It's a quick ready to go at a moments notice.  I've put a couple of small watercolor brushes in a baggy along with pencil and charcoal should I desire to sketch in different media as well. 

Keeping these sketches "sketchy" will allow me to retain the enthusiasm necessary to continue to create and add throughout the process to the finished painting.

abstract seascape study

Here is another full sheet watercolor study by Elmer L. Ham.   The pictures don't do it justice.  It has an almost abstract quality about it.  It strikes me as another on location study.  Faint pencil lines block in both the major masses of rocks (Feels more like California than Maine to me) as well as of the wave action - see below.

The sense of movement is captured and the white of the paper also is utilized effectively to capture whitecaps as well as foam from waves crashing on rocks.  It all implies to me a familiarity with the ocean as well as this particular location.  That is only reinforced by the deft strokes of a loaded brush throughout the painting.  

This strikes me as a rapidly executed sketch (you have a max of a couple of hours before the light changes too much - and my reality of painting along the coast is that you tend to have a shorter window).  But everything is contained within this first pass to allow the artist to go back at any time to finish the painting or to use this as a basis for a finished painting.

I will show more of his completed seascapes in future posts but I enjoy sharing some of my interpretations of the artists thinking.  They are not complete but , for me, the sense of movement is there and I can hear the surf (it could be the tinnitus but I prefer to think it is the surf)

Too much to paint, too little time - Paris Hill

What do you do when confronted with Artistic Overload?  When every corner hides another dozen scenes to paint?

I suppose there are as many different answers to that question as there are people in the world.  For me, direct observation and sketching and painting from nature are key to my process.  However, there are simply times and circumstances where it is not possible to do either.  In those cases I will try to take a few pictures for later reference.  As soon as possible, I'll record my impressions with a sketch and sometimes a brief written description of what drew my attention to the subject - initially without even referencing the photograph.

The first time I went to Paris Hill was for a wedding at the church on the green.  If you've never been, it's well worth the trip and the effort to find it.  There used to be tours around Christmas of many of the historic houses.  I'm not sure if they still do that, but once again, worth it if they do.

Below are some small (3" by 4")  quick pen and ink sketches to explore different compositions and to develop a bank of historical house sketches for potential use in the future.  These particular sketches are all on a larger sheet of drawing paper sectioned off into 8 grids.

Paris Hill Impressions

               Church with Hannibal Hamblin House                         View from behind church toward

                              Pen and Ink 3" x 5"                                               village Pen and Ink 3" x 5"

                     Sunset and Distant Hills                                            Distant Hills, Sunset

                        Pen and ink 3" X 4"                                                 Pen and Ink 3"x 4"

New Englander - Pen and Ink 3" x 5"

I now really enjoy playing around with these sketches and compositions before launching into a painting.  It is time spent up front, but in the long run it is good practice and saves time from having to make large adjustments to a painting in progress.

Another thought I had while doing these sketches is to later take these sketches as a basis for finished sketches to have a unique momento of a place.  Many small sketches in the space of one larger sketch.

I hope you enjoy these impressions of Paris Hill.  In future posts I will share impressions of recent trips to Eastport and Cape Cod.

The link below will take you to some painting sketches completed in Eastport

https://robertkahlerlandscapepaintings.blogspot.com/2018/08/sea-glass-and-sketches.html

Summertime Opening Night - River Arts

Robert Kahler landscape paintings

5 mins · 

Lisbon Farm, Watercolor This painting was accepted into the Juried exibition "Summertime" at River Arts Gallery in Damriscotta Maine. The opening of the show is tomorrow evening. It's going to be a busy night... Art Show then back to Lisbon for the Moxie Festival Fireworks!!

https://robertkahlerlandscapepaintings.blogspot.com/2018/06/lisbon-farm-charcoal.html

Farm on location sketch

I go through periods of time when, for a variety of reasons, I am not able to spend time out on location painting.  I crave it.   I can return to on location paintings from decades ago and be just as inspired today as I was at the time I painted it.

Here is my latest on location sketch.  Last fathers day, I sneaked out in the morning and came upon this scene.  The light was very striking

I did a quick pencil sketch in a larger fomat (pictured below) and painted this on a watercolor block.

(note: The line you see on the right side of this sketch is simply the side of the paper that I'd squared out in advance... more important for works I plan to finish and frame)

I did some quick experimentation in the studio this afternoon.  I began outlining the broad strokes of a large charcoal drawing of this scene utilizing the sketches made on location.

Then I utilized tracing paper to try the placement of a tree sketched on location to this scene (The actual placement of the tree would be to the right of this painting.  The tree framed a hill covered in dandelions quite nicely) .

Just a few pencil strokes on the tracing paper indicating the tree led to four or more different compositions inspired by this scene.

A winter scene with the tree and a rock wall in the foreground.  A summer scene of the same. The rock wall though not original to this scene, none the less is a common sight throughout New England and will add some visual interest beyond the simple dirt turnaround I utilized to paint this scene.

Then separate compositions involving the tree framing the group of houses on the left and another of the group of houses on the right.  My father in law was the first to show me different ways to utilize a viewfinder to help reduce distractions in nature and to focus in on different potential subjects for painting.  Another tip of Aiden's is to examine compositions in a mirror.   I've never actually done this on location.

Another artist I quite admire, Frank W. Benson, often took larger subjects (including group portraits) and created separate compositions from the larger original.  It does require more than simply dividing up a larger subject, but I find it to be an enjoyable creative exercise from time to time.

One of Benson's more famous students, Aiden Lassell Ripley, would also experiment with various compositions from various on location sketches.  Including creating some paintings with reversed compositions.  I find it fascinating how much that switch can change the look of a painting.

I plan to begin a large charcoal of the farm in next few days.

Breakers Two

Pen and Ink - Breakers Two

I enjoy studying the many moods of the ocean.  The power of the waves.  The color and the shapes in the rock and in the surf, the reflections of the sun and moon, the mist, sea fog and foam, and , the movement of the waves create constantly shifting and new fascinations to me.  This is all purely the visual and doesn't even take into account the impact of the sounds and smells of the ocean.

These drawings are half memory half imagination from my childhood explorations of Higgins Beach in Scarborough Maine, Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth, and my most recent trips to Pemaquid.

Tidal Pool, Incoming Tide - Pen and Ink

Stockbridge River Sketch

Stockbridge River – Acyrlic on Canvas 12” x 16”

I set up on a small bridge near tumbledown mountain years ago to complete this on location sketch in early spring years ago.  Some of my on location paintings are quite complete – others are very rough.  It depends on a number of factors from time, subject, weather conditions, and my reason for painting the particular subject.  If I’m experimenting with a new medium, new technique, et cetera, I’m not very concerned about producing a “finished” painting.  Though unfinished, this painting is one of my favorites because of the memories of the day with my father in law.

The spring runoff from the mountain was roaring on this particular day, and being on the bridge in the shade of the valley and trees was very  cold.  I hardly noticed how cold I was until I did the trees in the closest forground.  The broken paint strokes were as much a physical response as a stylistic one.  I’d planned to complete the birches with black spots throughout but by then I was too cold.

I find in expansive settings, particularly in the mountains, it can be difficult to choose which subject to paint.  They sky and lighting on the mountains wasn’t particularly interesting on this day, rather hazy, so I decided to focus on this subject.  I think that this subject would also be interesting in bright daylight and shadows creating patterns of light on the river, trees, and rocks.  This sketch will remain unfinished but will serve as a refernce

One lesson I learned on this trip was to pay close attention to your surroundings.  My father in law and I drove in as far as the snow let us, and then we hiked the rest of the way to this location.  Neither of us had really considered how much the tote road would soften as the snow melted throughout the day.  We made it out fine, but there were a few times where we thought we would be spending the night.  I try to make it a point to bring extra clothing, blankets, etc when I'm painting somewhere off the beaten trail.