Birds in Art

In a break from the caribou painting,

I am thrilled to announce that my painting Easter Parade has been accepted into the prestigious Birds in Art exhibition at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin.
From 974 entries submitted by artists from around the world, it was one of 95 paintings and sculptures accepted.

I am looking forward to the "Birdy" weekend in Wausau in September. Of particular note, the very talented graphite artist Terry Miller will be honored as this year's Master Artist. An honor so well-deserved.

Easter Parade is my 9th painting to be accepted in the last 12 years.

Background

I was talking with one of my artist friends yesterday and she said she starts her paintings with the subject first because it is the most fun.
That is precisely why I start with the background first. Finding the animals the most fun to paint I want to save them for later in the painting. Especially on a large piece like this my enthusiasm grows as I near the time to work on the caribou.

There will still be adjustments to the background and the whole foreground to paint once I finish the caribou, but now I can move into my element and start my caribou stand off. My plan is to paint the right group first, then the left group. Next I'll paint the smaller bull and finally the larger bull.

Yes, it's big

It may seem it is taking me an inordinate amount of time to paint the landscape.  As you can see from the photo, there is a lot of ground to cover.

As I move closer to the foreground, each slope is receiving more detail and texture.

Taking Shape

Finally. I have been waiting and waiting until I moved down to the water. Up until now the piece has been mostly monochromatic. A subtle palette has its place but it wasn't what I envisioned for this dramatic landscape. I knew once I painted the water, the background would become more alive.

There may still be color shifts and balance issues I'll want to address in the background after the caribou are painted. I won't know until I see how each of their lights and darks work with the landscape.

Here I have added more trees to the right side and have started blocking in the nearest right slope.

 After cleaning my brushes today, I noticed the middle section of water was too visible. Back to the easel and out came the brushes to fill in the trees. Now the main body of water steals most of the attention.

More Landscape

If you look carefully, you can see the first bit of water peaking through. This northern Labrador terrain is impressive. Rolling hills, rocky cliffs, lakes, Boreal Forest, and tundra.

On one of the days I was here another artist and I spent 11 hours hiking to put us close to a large group of migrating caribou. More about that later when I start painting the caribou.

The Landscape

Big country, big landscape. I like starting at the top and working my way down from background to foreground. All the painting is done wet-on-wet, not waiting for layers to dry but rather blending the wet edges. This is not an area where I want sharp lines.

The distant background has cool tones and as I move to the foreground I will add more warmth to the scene. Right now I have about 6 brushes which I am using. Flats are my favorites, especially ones with an angled edge. Those work particularly well for a subtle defining of the trees.

Even though my easel has been modified to hold the board, I can't paint this upper area sitting down like I usually paint. The top of the painting is still so high I have to reach up to paint certain areas. I am walking back and forth and spending a great deal of time standing back from the painting. On a piece this large, you just can't take it all in unless you are a good distance away.

Humility

The above may seem an odd title for a post but I'd like to give you a peak into my creative process.

So far, I have reworked my drawing two times....after I thought I finished it. The first time was when I set the board on the vertical easel. I had drawn the piece on a more or less horizontal surface and only by standing on a chair could I attempt to see the whole board. Now that I could stand back from it something about the bigger bull bothered me. Ah, he was a tiny bit too small. As a matter of fact, he was 5% too small!

5% may not seem like much but it was enough to upset the entire balance of the painting. So, out comes the eraser and since the board already had a light wash on it, I grabbed the elbow grease too! Once I drew him larger (a long process)  I started on the wash for the caribou on the right side of the painting. That was my last post.

My next step was the caribou on the left side and then the bigger bull. One of my favorite caribou was the one I drew in just behind the bigger bull. I oriented him so his legs could be seen in back of the bull. And it was a very good drawing of him. But, there was a problem. As pretty as my drawing, as much time as I spent on it, as much as I loved the animal's expression, he distracted from the bigger bull.

He had to go. Despite the fact that this caribou was one of the first I chose to include in the painting, he had to go.

As an artist sometimes you have to sing your own praises. But I find especially during the creative process humility is a more faithful companion. By quickly admitting I made a mistake and consistently looking for ways to improve the painting (despite how attached I may be to a certain part), I end up with a much better, and more satisfying, result.

Tomorrow I start mixing my oil paints and will begin on the background. Stay tuned.