Tea & Tears

It has been a few months since I've posted anything...anywhere...so I'm back on the band wagon...getting things updated on-line. 

Last fall, I was accepted into the 2014 Sidney Fine Art Show with 2 of my pieces.  The first was a piece that had been exhibited in Vancouver, and Seattle in 2014.  This piece I called "Aqua Vit".

"Aqua Vit"

The second was a piece I called "Tea & Tears" inspired by a note from my Mom. I have included an image of me next to the piece at the 2014 show.

Sam L Boehner with "Tea & Tears"

Acceptance into this show is an honour for me.  There are so many acclaimed artists with credentials as long as your arm accepted into this show. So to be among them is indeed an honour.  To top this off, I was the recipient of an "Honourable Mention". 

Cindy Agan, back by popular demand to Victoria, BC

Learning to paint luminous watercolour portraits can be a challenge.  And, learning in a fun, stress free environment when you take on that challenge is mandatory.  Learning at Island Art Escape is the answer, and coupled with a Cindy Agan workshop couldn't be more perfect.

It has been suggested that the fun and relaxed atmosphere at Island Art Escape has proven to make emerging artists better artists. The knowledge that is shared between artists as well as from the world class instructors is integral to the experience.
 

This fall, November 8-11, 2014 Cindy Agan will make the trip from the US to our little hamlet just outside Victoria, BC.  A four day workshop to explore the tips and techniques that Cindy will share with you. 
Cindy Agan is an internationally recognized artist, featured in 6 publications of the Splash series. Her book Painting Watercolors that Sparkle With Life has been published by Northlight Books in 2004.

While she will be teaching us her techniques on painting portraits, the knowledge that Cindy will share can be used to paint any subject.  Special attention will be paid to any beginners in the class.
She offers:
*Detailed illustrations and examples
*Guidelines for connecting with viewers
*Tips, tricks and techniques for painless painting

Don't delay, register now.  Early Bird pricing is available until March 31st, 2014, and seats are filling quickly. For details on how to register visit IslandArtEscape.com

Hard to keep up...phew

So much going on these days hard to keep up with all the new technology.  So sorry I've not posted anything in a while.  I hope you are all still painting and practicing your skills and techniques.

I want to share with you some of the things I've been up to recently. 
You all saw the piece "Aqua Vit"  it has brought me a lot of recognition and success.  I entered it into a few shows recently and it has gotten into all but one.  I guess it was saved for bigger and better things.

"Aqua Vit"

"Aqua Vit" has been in a show at the FCA Gallery on Granville Island in Vancouver, BC; and has just been selected for the 74th Annual NWWS International Open Exhibition in Seattle Washington.

My next piece "Prepping for Dinner" I made a bit more challenging yet again.  I wanted to make the background soft and blurred.  While the midground, i.e the area with the glass, I wanted it a bit more focused and yet a bit abstracted as well.  You really have to focus to see the layers of glass.  The peppers and other objects in the foreground are bright and clear.  The composition leads your eye back and forth through the glass to the background and back again. 

"Prepping for Dinner"

I was hoping to have this piece here for the upcoming FCA Spring show in Victoria, but it is being adjudicated in Vancouver for another exhibit.

On to the next piece...I'm hoping to have it completed for the Spring Show...we will see?
Keep your brush wet! 

My newest painting: "Aqua Vit"

Painting glass in watercolour; it seems highly unlikely to me that one could paint something that is transparent, and make it resemble the physical object.

I have been blessed enough to study techniques for painting glass with some masterful artists:  Paul Jackson, Leslie Redhead, Gerry Thompson, and Soon Warren.  Each of these Artists approach this subject differently, and I have learned something different from every one.  I have incorporated something from each course I've taken into my paintings thus creating my own style.

My objective is to achieve that smooth and shiny, reflective, transparent surface.  The key to this is very simple once you know the tricks. It's the practice factor that makes it a challenge.  I have painted many successful and not so successful images of glass in my efforts to perfect these skills.

My most recent paintings "Fruits of my Labour", "Harvest Green", and "Aqua Vit", are three of what I would suggest without arrogance that have been successful pieces.  By successful, I don't mean prize winning. What I mean is they have the look and feel of three dimensions and the glass is smooth, shiny, reflective and transparent.  I will say though that "Fruits of My Labour" won an Honourable Mention at the recent CSPWC regional show "Western Streams", and Harvest Green was juried into a show in Vancouver at the FCA Gallery. You are seeing this piece "Aqua Vit" first (before I enter it anywhere.)  All three pieces have a common theme...wine.


My recent teaching expedition to Naramata with Leslie Redhead and 13 other artists reinforced my love of painting still life, glass, and reflections and as a matter of course...wine. So why not paint everything wine...so many possible compositions.

This desire to paint "everything wine"...also has roots in my and my husband Glenn's interest in wine.  We have been buying and tasting wines seriously for about a year now.  I think we've always had good taste in wine, we've just never explored it before.  Now, we belong to a few wine clubs, and we have been trying to develop a palette for good wine.  Another 10,000 bottles, and 10,000 meals and pairings and we may have an inkling...

My most recent still life painting "Aqua Vit" was set up during the Naramata experience. Still life settings were created for the students to paint at the Wineries and Vineyards we visited.

This still life consisted of a background fabric; it is a simple warm yellow brocade; the raised stitching matched nicely with the logo for the Poplar Grove Winery.  The simple wine bottle and goblet that became a series of complex shapes made possible by the fabric in behind.  These two objects overlapped and became the focal point.  The contrast of the grape leaves and the fruit of the rich blue-purple of the cabernet franc varietal made me drool...and I ached to paint it.

I originally thought to keep it simple using just a few objects.  However, as I drew out the many small shapes that made up the whole, it became more and more daunting..."what was I getting myself into?" I was not dissuaded.  I was more determined than ever to try and make it work.

In the process while painting the 17.25x15 piece, I evaluated it at each step, and I took my time.  Patience for me was integral to getting this piece finished; with more than 60 hours in this average size piece, without patience, I would have pulled my hair out.  The image has many layers of mainly three colours, Quin Gold, Pthalo Blue, and Permanent Rose, and mixtures of each, and a few dabs of highlight colours here and there at the end.  And the simple key I spoke of earlier is the 9 step value scale and the shapes.

So, tell me was I successful?  You be the judge...critique's are welcome...

Cheers and keep your brush wet!
Sam

Painting transparent objects can be tricky. The question is how can we illustrate the form of the object while still allowing the object to appear see-through or transparent. With painting transparent objects, there are some basic tips that can help us  achieve this goal more easily. They are: - See more at: http://www.paintdrawpaint.com/2010/12/watercolor-basics-how-to-paint-glass.html#sthash.XCzTI3JJ.dpuf

Painting transparent objects can be tricky. The question is how can we illustrate the form of the object while still allowing the object to appear see-through or transparent. With painting transparent objects, there are some basic tips that can help us  achieve this goal more easily. They are: - See more at: http://www.paintdrawpaint.com/2010/12/watercolor-basics-how-to-paint-glass.html#sthash.XCzTI3JJ.dpuf

Painting transparent objects can be tricky. The question is how can we illustrate the form of the object while still allowing the object to appear see-through or transparent. With painting transparent objects, there are some basic tips that can help us  achieve this goal more easily. They are: - See more at: http://www.paintdrawpaint.com/2010/12/watercolor-basics-how-to-paint-glass.html#sthash.XCzTI3JJ.dpuf

Painting transparent objects can be tricky. The question is how can we illustrate the form of the object while still allowing the object to appear see-through or transparent. With painting transparent objects, there are some basic tips that can help us  achieve this goal more easily. They are: - See more at: http://www.paintdrawpaint.com/2010/12/watercolor-basics-how-to-paint-glass.html#sthash.XCzTI3JJ.dpuf

Painting transparent objects can be tricky. The question is how can we illustrate the form of the object while still allowing the object to appear see-through or transparent. - See more at: http://www.paintdrawpaint.com/2010/12/watercolor-basics-how-to-paint-glass.html#sthash.XCzTI3JJ.dpuf

Painting transparent objects can be tricky. The question is how can we illustrate the form of the object while still allowing the object to appear see-through or transparent. With painting transparent objects, there are some basic tips that can help us  achieve this goal more easily. They are: - See more at: http://www.paintdrawpaint.com/2010/12/watercolor-basics-how-to-paint-glass.html#sthash.XCzTI3JJ.dpuf

Painting transparent objects can be tricky. The question is how can we illustrate the form of the object while still allowing the object to appear see-through or transparent. With painting transparent objects, there are some basic tips that can help us  achieve this goal more easily. They are: - See more at: http://www.paintdrawpaint.com/2010/12/watercolor-basics-how-to-paint-glass.html#sthash.XCzTI3JJ.dpuf

Painting transparent objects can be tricky. The question is how can we illustrate the form of the object while still allowing the object to appear see-through or transparent. With painting transparent objects, there are some basic tips that can help us  achieve this goal more easily. They are: - See more at: http://www.paintdrawpaint.com/2010/12/watercolor-basics-how-to-paint-glass.html#sthash.XCzTI3JJ.dpuf

Harvest Green Stage 2

The next steps are to add hue and value. The colours need to intensified and the values do too. Highlights are preserved using masque, and shadows need to be added using a darker blue grey hue, or the compliment.  The correct values will provide dimension and depth to the piece.

Step 1 Refer to the reference image to determine shadow areas in the grapes and the leaf.  I added french ultramarine blue (FUB) to the shadows.

 

Step 2. Adding more colour to the bottle:  Again, using the reference, I needed to intensify the value on the bottle to give it shape.  I wanted to preserve the luminosity, so I worked wet-in-wet with transparent colours.  Transparent pigment is critical because opaque hues will result in a muddy appearance when layered. Opaques tend to lift a bit when you glaze over top of them, mixing the pigments resulting in mud.

I added Pthalo Green, and Alizron, to make a richer dark, for the dark areas, and using the cool yellow on the upper shoulder and a mixture of Pthalo and Cool yellow to make the chartreuse on the lower shoulder.  The pigment was applied in a slightly value.  Keeping it transparent.  Do not go too dark too quickly. 
Once the value was close, I lifted out a small section next to the grapes (using a scrubby brush, Simply Simmons, 1/8 to 1/4 chisel; these brushes are firm yet soft, and are perfect for lifting out pigment without damaging the fine art paper).  Let dry before adding more pigment. over the darker areas. 

Step 3 Painting the wine glass, and the leaf behind the glass: I used the same mixtures to make the chartreuse and a few different values of greens, and using the reference as my guide, built up the values, and masking in-between layers to preserve the highlights or in some cases painting around the highlights. 

Step 4 Grape Stems: I layered colour beginning with yellow.  Let dry, and add, Burnt Sienna, and while that is wet, add a richer dark on the underside, and let it bleed up. make sure to preserve the highlight by masking or lifting out after it is dry.

Step 5 Leaf: I removed the mask and put a wash of yellow over the entire leaf.  let dry.
Mixing up a greyed down midtone bluegreen, using Pthalo, FUB, and a touch of Alizron, I negative painted the spaces between the veins.

Step 6 The stem of the glass: I removed the masque and worked with the reference to build up the values that give the stem depth and roundness. I did not try and make every mark as it appears in the reference photo.  Instead I built up the mid tones and added a few details at the end with a darker hue. 

It's getting very close now.  I take a photo of the painting and look at it on the computer...this helps me to see the areas that are glaringly wrong and subtle changes that can be made to make the painting better.  I start on the far left, and compare my painting to the reference photo to ensure the values are correct.  Be careful not to overcompensate, photos can be misleading in the shadows, and end up too dark.

Harvest Green

Painting Waves The finishing touches...

I painted in the shadows of the bird. I added a few touches to the forefront, and the curve of the wave.
Scratched out a bit of foam and calling it done.

Painting the Harvest Green Stage 1

We are actually beginning the process part way through because I forgot to take pictures...
Here are the steps leading up to the following image:
Step 1 Draw or transfer your image to the watercolour paper Arches 140 lb or 300 lb 100% cotton rag.
Step 2 Masque out the whitest whites.  Dry
Step 3 Using a cool transparent yellow,  very pale,  wash over the entire piece (except in the areas that are blue/grey in the image, in these areas use raw sienna, very pale); dry.
Step 4 masque out the next palest value. Dry
Step 5 Another wash, this time drop in some warm yellow in the leaf, the glass, and the top of the bottle. Dry
Step 6. Paint the grapes individually wet in wet using pthalo green and cool yellow to make that chartreuse green hue.  Then drop in a bit of Ultramarine blue and the green randomly into the shadow areas on each grape.
Step 7 Paint the cork and glass around the cork with raw sienna, and Opera pink. Dry

Step 8 Using the reference photo, note where the values need to change. Using Pthalo, Alizron and a mixture of the two to make a rich dark,  lay down the hues next to each other and let them mingle wet into wet; do not overwork the areas, drop in the pigment and soften the outside edges. 
Step 9 clean up edges where needed before you move on to the next Stages.
Stay tuned.