Surprised by art

 I just returned last night from a trip to Norway with visits to Amsterdam on either end. If one loves art, a trip to the Rijksmuseum is almost a necessity. As this was my first trip to this amazing museum there were pieces on my must-see list.

 Of course the Night Watch by Rembrandt was at the top of the list. Particularly fascinating is the ongoing restoration of the original colors in the painting which have been obscured by centuries of dirt and darkening varnish. One can now see it is not a night scene at all as the vivid central characters break forth from the canvas. The painting was created in 1642 but the title was assigned not by the artist but at the end of the 18th century. Once the restoration is complete Rembrandt's genius will be even more apparent in this magnificent painting. 

 Many were gathered admiring Vermeer's Milkmaid. So much is said in such a simple everyday scene. The painting is only 18" X 16" but feels so much larger as one is drawn in to the story. 

 While these pieces are certainly on almost everyone's bucket list, I like to leave myself open to be surprised by works I have never seen nor heard of. Most of the art I have been exposed to has been from the Italian Renaissance or Baroque periods. Unless they are particularly well-known, my knowledge of paintings from the Netherlands is limited.

I was most surprised by a work by Cesar Boetius van Everdingen (1617 - 1678.) It was not near the two paintings mentioned above but was in another wing. I stepped around a corner and stopped in my tracks. Its simple beauty was overwhelming. (please excuse the the quick phone photo below which does not do it justice.)

 When I read the museum's description I was even more intrigued. 

 

A Young Woman Warming her Hands over a Brazier: Allegory of Winter 

oil on canvas, c. 1644-1648

 

The young woman warms her hands above a dish of glowing coals. She personifies Winter. This season was usually represented as a shabbily dressed old man or woman: old because the year is coming to an end, and poor because crops do not grow in the winter. Van Everdingen's choice of a young, richly attired woman is thus rather unusual. 

 

 

 

 

Finished

 

Seventh Continent

18" X 24"

Original Oil by Linda Besse 

 

 

 

Color!

 For several years I have used gray disposal palette sheets. The gray gives me a better feeling of the colors than a bright white palette.

 

When I mixed the colors for the left side of the painting they looked just right...... until I painted them on the board. They leapt out. What was I thinking mixing that combination?

Part of my initial shock to the color was its contrast to the yellow ochre turpentine wash over my drawing. The brilliance of the color was magnified.

 

I hesitated but decided to continue. The color can always be toned down later I thought. As I applied more paint I became more sure that these vivid blues were right for this piece.

 

Even after painting for more than 25 years I still question my choices - that comes from trying new things. I've never painted a scene like this before.  

 

 

 

 The center "moving" glacier has a more definitive sweeping direction at this stage.

 

 

 

 

 

A moving glacier

 How to paint a moving glacier. 

Fortunately, they don't move very quickly. But, to get the sense of the flowing nature of a glacier, there are a lot of cracks and crevices to incorporate.

 

 

 This center section with the glacier spilling down to the ocean I thought would be the most challenging of the painting. 

Starting with the "flat" surface on top I next moved around this section painting the cool areas. The "white" (titanium white and a dab of cadmium yellow dark) was then added and blended in to the cool paint to create soft edges.

 

At this stage I don't think the "moving" glacier is there yet but it's a good start. I'll revisit it when more of the piece is painted. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More snow and rocks

 

There are advantages to visiting Antarctica in a small ship. 

You can make a continental landing, access areas too small for the large ships, have the opportunity to make as many as three shore trips a day, walk on sea ice, climb up a glacier with an overhang, and take a polar plunge. We did all that with our 100-passenger boat through Quark Expeditions.

 

But even more than that, you are closer to the water and every now and then can catch a glimpse of the remoteness the explorers, whalers, and sailors felt on this continent. 

A Landscape

 Usually I will put something in a landscape: an animal, a boat, a lighthouse.

This piece will have none of them. 

 

 

Finished

 

Argentine Tango

12" X 16"

Original Oil by Linda Besse 

 

 

 

 

The penguin pair

    When I decided to paint Magellanic penguins I had hundreds of my reference photos to review. My main goal was to tell a story unique to this penguin species. The background plays a large part in the story with the mountains and the burrow. Even the dead brush on the right is integral to the story. 

   On our drive to the dock to catch the small boat to take us to Hammer Island (note: boat had a special permit to land), we passed trees bent by the strong prevailing winds at the tip of South America. The brush in the painting is a nod to the wind's impact on the vegetation.

 

 

   photo by Linda

 

photo by Linda

 

 

   For the penguins I wanted to draw a pair which felt like a pair. 

 

 Forming strong bonds, Magellanic penguins are known to mate for life. Many of the pairs I saw had one penguin which would be just right for a painting but the other's posture was not what I wanted. It was time to create a pair. 

   I started with choosing the background penguin to paint. A particular penguin's tall stance what just what I wanted. Now to find the mate. When I came across a photo of the foreground penguin the search was over. All I had to do when drawing was to adjust its size in proportion to the background penguin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Burrows

  Unlike on the frozen expanses of Antarctica, Magellanic penguins can dig their nests in Hammer Island.  While some of the nests I saw were tucked in holes, others had a ramp for the burrow (which I have painted.)

  On an isolated island one would wonder what predators these birds would have. I didn't have to wonder long as not two far away from the colony was a pair of nesting Chilean skuas, a large predatory bird who would be eager to take advantage of the penguins' chicks. The other penguin on this island was the gentoo. Their nests were above ground and very close together for group protection.

 

 

 

Painting something further south

 As in, way south.

 

   When  I went to Antarctica in December of 2008 I saw four species of penguins on the trip. I've painted three of them, gentoo, Adele', and chin-strapped, some many times. Most think of penguins in the ice and snow so maybe that is why I haven't painted the Magellanic penguins I saw on Hammer Island off the coast of Ushuaia, Argentina.

 

It's time. They are a quite interesting species of penguin.

 

 

 From Ushuaia, Argentina you can see the mountains in both Argentina and Chile.

 

 

 

 

 

Finished

 

Hudson Bay Hunter

15" X 22"

Original Oil 

 

Scanned image

 

    In some areas of the world polar bear populations are threatened by the warming climate. With ice forming later than usual their food source is not as accessible. However, along the Hudson Bay coast polar bears do have a fat-filled food source during the summer: beluga whales. Taking advantage of the 14-foot tidal change, bears climb the rock erratics left by the last ice age and wait for the tide to come in. In high tide, belugas enjoy coming close to shore to rub their bellies near the fresh water sources entering the bay. With more than 25,000 belugas in Hudson Bay during the warm season there is a ready supply for polar bears who have learned the jump-and-catch-a-whale technique, or know a “friend” who has.

 

 

 

 

Adding "sparkles" to the water

 

This quick phone photo shows the "white" sparkles I painted in the water over the light warm orange base. Tying it to the lower orange color in the sky, some of the base shows through.

 

For the bear, I like to start with the basic hair direction and shadow sections.

 

 

 

More rocks

 

 The background rocks closest to Hudson Bay were painted lighter, with less contrast, and bluer than the most foreground rocks. 

 

 

 

 

Rocks

 

The rocks rimming Hudson Bay are some of the oldest on our planet. Gneisses and volcanic rocks are accompanied by younger sedimentary rocks. Perhaps even more interesting is that these rocks along the shore endure a 14-foot tidal change twice a day. You might be standing at the edge of the water and once the tide goes out you can not see the bay with the naked eye.

 

Some of the rocks are enormous boulders left over from the last ice age. Here I am painting some of the smaller outlying rocks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Background

 

I've done a little tweaking with the sky. The large bit of moisture near the bear's nose has been softened and shortened.

 

The first stage of the water has been painted. It may look strange to have orange water but it underlays the "sparkly" layer similar to the technique in my painting Walkin' On Sunshine below.

 

 

 

 

Palette knife

 Some artists wield a palette knife expertly when they apply paint to a canvas or board. I view this tool differently.

 

 For me it is essential for mixing paint. I like one which is an elongated diamond with a sharp pointy end.

 

Secondly, I use my palette knife for mistakes. In this piece I had my whole sky carefully designed and drawn. Lights and darks would be blended just right to give a feeling of the type of stormy skies they have around Hudson Bay, Manitoba. I painted it. It didn't work.

 

I tried fixing it but all I ended up with was a mess. Time for the palette knife. I scraped off the majority of paint. You'd probably like to see what it looked like before I grabbed the palette knife. Well, I didn't take a photo of it - in too big a hurry to "erase" it. This is one great advantage of oil paint. While it is still wet one can remove it and not be distracted by its lack of success.

 

Time to regroup. What type of storms do I remember from my times there? How can I incorporate them into the overall plan? There are some aspects of my design I could use. After putting on some music I starting painting with a less cerebral approach to the sky. Below is the result. It'll be tweaked throughout the painting but for me the sky feels more real and organic.

 

 

  

Sea, Sand, & Shore Collection

 For part of my 2025 Sea, Sand, & Shore Collection at the Louisa Gould Gallery in Vineyard Haven, MA, Martha's Vineyard, I wanted to showcase some of the buoys around the island.

 

There are many of these marine markers to choose from...... for now. Currently there is a proposal from the Coast Guard to remove some buoys, and various mariner organizations are opposed to the idea. The Coast Guard asserts that removing 60 buoys around Cape Cod is part of an essential modernization plan and sailors, commercial fisherman, harbormasters, and others are opposed.

Here is one article published June 9, 2025

 

 Assembly of Delegates opposes Coast Guard plan to remove some buoys in Cape Cod waters

 

 

I won't use the blog to weigh in on the issue as I'm sure there is much to consider on both sides.

 

I will say that the allure of painting buoys will always be with me.

 

For the gallery I decided to paint four buoys (two red, two green), all with different shapes. The water in each painting is unique, reflecting the buoy's setting in Nantucket Sound.

 

 Buoy 1    9" X 11.5"    Original Oil 

 

 

 

Buoy 4A    8" X 11"     Original Oil

 

 

 

Buoy 25     8" X 11"     Original Oil

 

 

 

Buoy 4       9" X 9"      Original Oil

 

 

 

 

   
 

Deadlines + Finished

Deadlines would seem to be contrary to an artistic endeavor. I like deadlines. They add structure.

 

However, there are times ......and this was one of them.

I contacted my gallery 8am on a Tuesday to let them know the first set of paintings was shipped the day before and would arrive on Monday. The owner said that was good because she was hanging my show on Tuesday, the day after they would arrive. In one week. Unfortunately, this was the first I heard of that.  

 

If the gallery was across the street, the next state, or even in the same time zone, this would not be quite the issue. But, I am 3000 miles away. I have three more paintings to ship and was planning on bringing the last four (small ones) with me for the show for a total of nine pieces.

 

Time to make some calls. First I called my framer here (before she opened - handy to have her cell number.) She could join and fill the three frames and have them ready by 2:30 pm today. Next call was to my shipper. He could have the custom boxes ready before he closed at 3 pm. So far, so good.

 

One of the three paintings was still in my studio and it was time to varnish it after I scanned it. I have a 12" X 18" flatbed professional scanner which unfortunately only works on a Windows 7 machine. It's set up in a separate room for ease of scanning. When I turned on the computer it decided it wanted to run a disk check. Tick, tick, tick. Time is slipping away. 45 minutes later disk check complete. Restart and Windows 7 comes up and ..... black screen. Tick, tick, tick. Restart - same result. restart, restart. It will not work for me today.

 

That leaves the deadline and a choice. Do I varnish the painting (giving it 2 hours to dry before leaving the studio) and have a chance to get the shipment moving today? Or, do I only get two of the three paintings shipped and bring the non-scanned painting to my professional printer guy to scan which would take a few days? This painting would be too big to bring with me on the flight so it would arrive late and not be there for the show opening.

 

I decided to forego the scan. Varnish. Wait. Drive to framer. Take paintings in their frames to shipper. Get labels printed all by 2:50pm. This did miss the 2:15 pm FedEx pickup at the shipper but I was prepared to drive the boxes to the main FedEx Spokane office. 

In hindsight, my decision seems to have been a good one. This shipment was delayed because they put the trailer from the semi on a train ......in Ohio. (no idea why.) The three paintings arrived safely on Wednesday and the gallery owner had already pushed the gallery rehanging a day later to accommodate the arrival of my paintings. 

 

This story is probably a familiar one to many artists.

The below is a photo I took of the completed painting. It's not as good as a scan but probably having it at the show opening is more important.

 

 

 Garden Visitor

16" X 12"

Original Oil 

The Bluejay

 Almost always I save the animal to paint last. It's my favorite part of a wildlife painting.

For this piece I started as I usually do - with the eye.  

Reality

 

My paintings are realistic but I view reality with flexibility. The leaf in the middle bottom of the painting which stretches across two pickets had brown edges and the bent over edge had large brown blotches of dried plant. Could I have painted it that way? Of course. But, would presenting the leaf that way add anything to the story or would it be a distraction? I opted for turning back the clock on its life cycle.

 

In addition, the clump of leaves in the bottom left were much darker and hard to read. This left me with an opportunity to add dappled light to the group, change their position, and modify the stems.

 

I could have left out all the leaves and just had the flowers in the background but to me the fence would then be a barrier, a jail, holding back the flowers. The fluidity of the leaves helps add motion to the painting. The pink flower peeking between the pickets is also a deliberate choice, in this case to marry the background to the foreground with its visual proximity to the outside leaves.

White, but not white

 Shadowed whites can go in any number of directions: purple, blue, greens.

 

For the shadows of the white fence I opted for a gray-ish light blue-ish teal. There are spots which called for a cooler look so I mixed a bluer color to blend in to the main base color. 

The color gets darker on the pickets moving toward the bottom of the painting to convince the eye that there is less light. You will notice just under the bird the picket edge is lighter. So the pickets do not look flat, the lighter edge gives the feeling the pickets were painted with a satin or semi-gloss paint.

 

 

 

 

 

Pink

 

The garden which was the inspiration for the flowers had lots of color choices. There was yellow, a deep purple from some interesting alliums, blues from morning glories, and more. I decided these flowers with the added pops of pink would showcase this bird the best.

 

 

Flowers

 

Without most of the glare from wet paint you can better see the color of the background. I'm keeping the flower detail to a minimum so the focus will remain on the bird.

 

 

 

 

19 years

 It has been 19 years since I had the idea for this painting. While on the east coast I saw a bluejay near a white picket fence. Bluejays are birds I grew up in Rhode Island but are only rare visitors to Washington State where I live now.

It's hard to say why it has taken so long for this piece to wind up on my easel, though I didn't figure out the setting (the garden and the fence) until inspired by a garden in New England two years ago.

 

 

The background looks black in this quick phone photo but it is actually a deep green. 

I used Rembrandt Sap green, Richeson Cobalt Green Deep, Richeson Hansa Yellow, and a touch of Rembrandt Burnt Umber. The effect is almost a dark green suede.

 

 

 

 Some of the plant leaves are painted so they appear to either emerge from or disappear into the background.

 

 

Finished

 

Surf's Up

12" X 30"

Original Oil

 

Scanned image

 

The painting took longer than the blog's elapsed time but after not posting for quite a while I thought an accelerated post was in order.

 

 

Pelicans

 

Having the brown pelicans in the painting imparts another element of timelessness and movement. The painting is 12" X 40" so there doesn't need to be a huge amount of detail in the bird. In fact, if there were, the pelican would look stuck on rather than a part of the painting.

 

Starting on the next bird.

 

Spray

 I divide water spray in to two general categories: spot and brushed. 

For spots I paint individual dots of "white" water.

For brushed I paint small bit of "white" and gently blend them together. 

 

 

Moving Rocks

 

I guess this is less moving rocks than removing rocks. In my original concept I thought I would have a lower left rock to suggest how close to the shore this wave is. However, after roughing it in (see the previous post) all the rock was doing was breaking the flow of the water. Which I guess is what rocks along the shore do, but it wasn't adding anything to the movement in the painting.

 

 Above I am starting to fill in the "white" on the right foam. My whites generally are titanium white with a touch of cadmium yellow dark. I am not fulling covering the yellow ochre wash underneath. Leaving the warm "space" tends to add a vibrating feeling to the water.

More wave

 

 

Now that I have some painted texture in the lower section, the movement in the painting is starting to come together. The three disparate sections (background blue, wave, and lower shore water) feel more integral to one another.

Modification

 

Coming back to work on the next section I found the "background" water much too light. It wouldn't show off the wave the way I want it to so I painted it darker. Sometimes a section I want to change is still wet enough to rework as this section was. I find painting water requires constant modification. 

A breaking wave

Last fall's drive down the Oregon and California coasts was filled with inspiration. 

 

My first painting from the trip features a breaking wave. An elongated format seemed best as I worked out the composition. Of course I wanted to incorporate a few of the brown pelicans who were flying among the waves.

 

 

When painting water I like to block out a lot of uninterrupted  time so I can work wet-on-wet and easily blend the edges. Though oil paint is slow-drying, some colors dry more quickly than others. My browns can dry overnight and whites can take more than a week. (I don't use a medium and mix directly from the tube so the colors are not diluted.) Working in one section at a time works best for me.