Snow and Paint

The following are blog posts from my daughter Charity's website. The pictures and narrative are fun and descriptive of the perils of plein air painting:

Snow Painting

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Blessings and warm wishes! 

Her set up

A client has commissioned paintings of her house in all four seasons, all of the other three are done with only winter remaining which has been awaiting a little bit of winter.  We have definitely received our "little bit" today!   Painting in the snow is definitely a new adventure for me.

Once I made it up the long steep drive to her house, it seemed all would go well.  Just as I was set up, it began snowing, well, snowing up a "storm"!  I spent a little over an hour on a little 8x10 that I will use for a color study back in the studio.  I figured out a way to perch my umbrella to shelter palette, painting and my favorite easel contraption. (But there was no so shelter for me, ha!)  Even so, there were snowflakes literally in my paint piles on the palette, all over my brushes, and mixed into the painting itself for good measure.   Every 10 minutes or so my umbrella needed a good shaking out, along with my hood and bodily person.

Would I do it again?  Absolutely, yes!  I always love the mishap, haphazard type of adventure that comes along with the plein aire painting territory.  In spite of my tea spilling multiple times, cold and stiff paint, much slipping and sliding, and a tricky set up and tear down, I did get what I needed. It is not extremely polished, but I've got colors from life that will help me to hopefully capture the correct atmospheric conditions and general feel for the final version later.  

Here is her later post with the final version:

Elkridge in Winter

by Charity Hubbard on 3/21/2014 8:16:44 PMComment on this

Here is the finished painting that I mentioned before in my blog.  The study for this was done on location in the snow, which was a fun haphazard adventure. The other three commissioned paintings from each season are on my website.

Hope you enjoyed her Snow Day. If you would like to see her work go to:

Charity Hubbard 

A Fun Surprise

A friend sent a message to my website saying that she had seen my painting Tory's Smile on Fine Art Views. (I have since changed the name to Quiet Hope.) I am thinking what? My painting that I just posted is on Fine Art Views. I checked and there it was with a nice article written by Carrie Turner and a comment by Brian Sherwin:
Art critic Brian Sherwin commented on artist Sheri Dinardi's artwork, remarking, "There is a soft quality in the way that Sheri Dinardi approaches oil painting -- a certain radiance that projects a sense of spirituality in the way she captures her subjects." Sherwin added, "These works convey a positive message... a reminder of the sacred simplicity, if you will, of the past."

I like what he said about my work... "the radiance, a sense of spirituality... a positive message... a reminder of the sacred simplicity, if you will of the past" What a joy that he said these things as they are what I hope to capture... a sense that will uplift people. We live in a day of such complexity. In my own life I strive for simplicity as much as is possible in our technological, busy lifestyles. Thanks Carrie and Brian for your interest in my work. See the full article: FASO Featured Artist Sheri Dinardi

More about this painting coming soon.

Gerhartz Workshop Day One

Dan's Studio

Day One:

Once we checked in; brought in all our easels, supplies, etc, We gathered around Dan to hear him open the workshop.  It was important for Dan to know what we each of us needed to get out of the workshop. What is my current struggle? He also took some pressure off us by saying that "no one paints their best in a workshop setting". What he hoped for us is that simple principles would emerge and continue when we get home and work.

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Dan Teaches

Dan's goal to convey to us was to:

1). See the subject's absolute essence  2). Organize values  3). How to organize, to pull out the essential... what is important to the big picture. He warned us that he will say the same thing over and over. What was reassuring is the things he would repeat are the very same things that he tells himself, every day. Values, edges, temperature, good drawing.

He also strongly encouraged us to work from Life. It does make a difference in your paintings and is worth the extra effort. He prayed for the workshop. :)

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Dan's Color Study

Dan's Value/Color Study:

Simply beautiful isn't it? He recommended that we first do an 8x10 study where we set up a simple light and shade pattern. Put what is essential on there... The biggest thing, is to SQUINT! He wanted us to create a hierarchy of values to prioritize. Certainly drawing and proportion is important; but he was more focused on the hierarchy of values, edges, and temperature. For values first we are to squint to find the lightest light and darkest dark. Put those in right from the beginning to compare all the other values to. Then to squint again to simplify the form into 2 basic values by deciding what belongs to the light shape and what belongs to the dark shape. Next squint to look for a variety of hard and soft edges. Where is the sharpest edge? Put that in. Where are the softest edges? Where are they like vapors, disappearing into the form

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My Color Study

My color study:

So how did I do? OK, I guess, but not as well as I hoped. When Dan paints and teaches he makes it look so obvious and easy. As you watch, you are sure you can paint better than ever. But this is not bad for a 1/2 hour study on the first day of a workshop. I will improve. Also, the important thing about a study like this is that I get the important notes that I will need to do a larger piece; the simple light and shade patterns, the sharpest and softest edges and temperatures of the light.

Additionally, this was like a quick practice and made the next full size piece go quicker and easier.

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My Day One Full Size Portrait

My Day One Full Size Portrait:

How did I do? Pretty good as well. It really helped me to do the color study first to practice the drawing as well as  to organize my values, edges and temperatures in the cool north light. (The image looks warmer than the actual painting) Doing the small study first also took some pressure off of being nervous on the first day of the workshop. At home I spent a few minutes to do a few things to improve it. Warmed and darkened the hair in a few places and softened an edge on her right check.

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Dan's finished full size portrait.

Dan's Finished Painting:
Wow! So beautiful, poetic, so full of emotion and feeling.

To start he tones the canvas and finds shape the best with vine charcoal. It wipes off very easy for making corrections.

Start with the big picture: You don't want the head to be too big. Use the simplest straight angles and lines to get the basic shape of the head. Then a center line and breakdown further to locate the features.

He said "the Biggest Thing is edge variety and simplicity of value". What does that mean? Well, you don't want all of your edges to be equally soft or equally sharp. You want a spectrum of edge variation. As far as the values you want that simple separation between light and dark. Then you turn the form with warmer or cooler color. "If the values are not in range it will kill the effect of light."
Notice there are not lights that jump out of the shadow on her face or neck. Also note: the top left portion of the painting has glare on it, showing up to be blue. It is not in the original painting.

Stay tuned for more...

Dan Gerhartz Workshop

Dan Gerhartz' Studio

I just got back from an amazing five day Workshop in Dan Gerhartz's Studio.

I bought a couple of Dan's video's about 6 years ago, learning so much from them; and adding to principles I already had in place. Then I took a one day workshop in 2010 at Week End with the Masters from each Dan, Carolyn Andersen and Sherry McGraw. What a fun time to see so many well known artists walking about and milling around chatting. They were very approachable and fun to talk to. I also met other attendee's. The workshops and evening programs were really inspiring but crowded and lacking in personal attention. Two of the gals that I met had each been to a workshop in Dan's Studio. Both of them said, "Oh, you have to take a workshop from him in his studio. Since then, I have met two other gals who said the same thing. Four people recommending a workshop in his studio. So now here I am doing the same... highly recommending a workshop with Dan Gerhartz in his Studio!!!

I've seen Dan's video Her Mothers Locket many times. In the beginnging Dan walks up the path and on into his studio. It seems surreal to finally be there, walk up the path and into his studio. Wow, I am finally here, very excited, but determined to remain calm and clear thinking. Dan's wife Jennifer was there to greet each of us coming in. She is a dear person. Later Dan came; he is a great guy. The other fellow students were very nice people and we quickly got acquainted, really enjoying one another during our time together.

What is so different about being at a 5 day workshop rather than learning from a video or one day workshop? For me, it is one thing to know something and another thing to do it... to experience it. As we sat around Dan and watched him paint; he made it look so easy. We were all sure we could paint better than ever. Then reality hits. Now it is me... and the other students each standing in front of a blank canvas and a beautiful model lit up in front of us. We saw the master paint and now it is our turn... our turn to put what he said into practice. I kept thinking of a teaching of Jesus all week as I was painting. He said, "Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on a rock." Now it was time to put everything I learned from watching Dan into practice and build a solid foundation, one brush stroke at a time.

I have known about squinting, values, and edges for years and I even though I thought I was using them, I had some growing to do. Here's what really helped me. Dan would come by while I was painting and point out on my own work how I need to squint even harder to separate the light from the shade.  My three hour paintings were not great, but each day I improved. (Except Wednesday... it wasn't so good so I wiped it off and painted over it.) I will do future posts about these pieces and how I was able to work on them at home as well.

Life painting is always an adventure. It has been difficult for me; but I am more encouraged and energized than ever before. This will change my painting and I look forward to the work to come.

See you next time,
Sheri

Leah's Repose

This piece was a break through for me.  It began from a life painting session and was painted on Senso natural linen canvas. They treat it with a clear coat to paint over. I worked on it for only about two hours. It was a good start worth completing at home... using a poor photo, but mainly the memory of Leah's calm gentle expression. Here is what it looked like after the two hour session:

Leah after two hours

I spent many hours on the piece focused on maintaining the separation of light and shade.  I was mindful of the degrees of edge work from sharp to lost into the background. In the end I was pleased with the result, especially the natural skin tones and sense of form.

Leah's Repose Complete


Leah's Repose was one of 6 chosen by Stephen Baumann (of PBS, The Grand View) at a critique to be in the pool for painting of the year with Southern Oregon Society of Artists.