Susan Abbott - sketching and painting plein air

I caught up with this post The Travel Bug by Susan Abbott on her Painting Notes blog.

You can see her recent watercolour sketches of Paris on her blog A Painting Year and on her website (see below) - plus her plein air oil paintings. What I really like about her watercolour sketches and paintings is how she has a very consistent and recognisable colour palette and the way in which she keeps all her colours fresh and never muddy!

Plein Air Watercolours by Susan Abbott

For those planning plein air painting this summer check out her blog posts about painting plein air which she wrote last summer:

• Plein Air 101 - provides a number of tips for effective working plein air
• Plein Air 102 - covers her kit for watercolour and oil painting plein air

Cityscapes - and Terry Miura's Challenge

Terry Miura - Cityscapes

If you're interested in painting cityscapes, I suggest you check out Terry Miura's blog Studio Notes as he's running a challenge.  It's akin to the challenges which Karin Jurick used to run - the provision of a reference photograph and the challenge to produce a painting from it - as the artist sees it.  The difference is that participant's posts are being reproduced - with commentary from the artist - on Terry's own blog.

Cityscapes are hard to paint not only because everything has to be drawn well, but also because there's just an overwhelming amount of information that needs to be processed. Simplification is key, but arbitrary editing of detail can easily end up with a weak painting that lack a sense of intent.

Here are the relevant posts:

• Simplify  - Terry suggests some rules he uses to simplify his cityscapes

One way to approach it is to have rules for editing –and you know by now I like rules. This way, you can do it systematically (more or less) and it helps me to get the painting going in the right direction. Here are some that I use often;

• Decide on a dominant color theme (in this case, blue green) and mix every color as a variation of it. (you want violet? start with blue green and bend it towards violet. Think of it as a violet-er version of the original blue green)

• Paint every element (car, tree, asphalt, etc.) in just two values. Later on you can add a third value to the more important elements.

• Link all similar valued adjacent shapes.

• Have a large passive area. (Forces me to have an area with NO detail, juxtaposed against which the more active areas need less "stuff" in order to look detailed)

• Treat super sharp edges as exclamation points. Don't shout everywhere.

• Simplify! - A Cityscape Challenge - in which Terry sets the basic guidelines for the challenge and how it works
• The Contributions:
• First Contributions Are In! 
• Cityscape Challenge - The Next Batch!
• Simplify! - Some More!

Here's a link to a slideshow of Terry's own cityscapes

Sherrie York draws and prints the landscape underfoot

Sherrie York (Brush and Baren) is a fine art printmaker who primarily produces original, hand-pulled relief prints in woodcut and linocut of the environment where she lives.

Most of the images reflect my ongoing curiosity about the natural world: wildlife, wildlands, and sometimes not-so-wild places, too.

Longing
Reduction linocut - 10 colors
Edition of 10 | Image size 12" x 16 "
Hand printed on Hosho paper.
copyright Sherrie York

I think her work is totally stunning and I'm impressed by it every time I review her website or blog. Sherrie has a huge talent in terms of draughtsmanship, the ability to see pictures where others wouldn't think to look and a wonderful sense of colour which enriches without being overwhelming.

Sherrie is currently featuring as the Artist of the Month at the Pikes Peak Library Distric.  As a result of which she gets to have an exhibition - and to be on TV!

This is a video which was made for the latter which explains:

• how she became to become interested in the landscape underfoot
• how she produces her linocuts of her enivironment using the reduction method and up to 12 colour printing (using a baren)

PPLD Off the Wall: February 2011 from PPLD TV on Vimeo.

Sherrie York: Art Underfoot

I recommend you go take a good look at her blog and website if you like what you see in the video.

You can also purchase small prints through her Etsy store, Rio Salida Art. 

Links:

• Sherrie York - website http://www.sherrieyork.com/index.html
• Sherrie York -Brush and Baren blog http://brushandbaren.blogspot.com/
• Sherrie York on Etsy - http://www.etsy.com/shop/riosalidaart

The 'Virtual Paintout' wins The Best Art Blog Project Virtual Challenge Cup

It was my great pleasure last month to award The Best Art Blog Project Virtual Challenge Cup to Bill Guffey's The Virtual Paintout as part of the Making A Mark Awards for Generating Art.

Here's what I had to say.

The Best Art Blog Project Virtual Challenge Cup

Art can be quite a lonely activity and it's noticeable that people often like to have some sort of involvement in groups and projects related to art! This award is for:

• EITHER a major and reputable new project which adds value and involves a large number of bloggers
• OR a project which has grown over the course of the year in question or otherwise had some significant impact during the course of the year

Nominations for this award were:

The Virtual Paintout by Bill Guffey nominated by Charlene Brown  Seconded by Leslie Hawes
My nomination for the Best Art Blog Project Virtual Challenge Cup is The Virtual Paintout by Bill Guffey.  Using Google Streetview as a source of inspiration for paintings provides just the right degree of unity around a shared theme, and diversity of subject – and lends itself to an incredible variety of interpretations. It’s hard to say which is more fun, finding your perfect location by navigating around the selected area on Google, or looking at all the great stuff other people have found!

The "Creative Every Day Challenge" and the associated challenge, "Art Every Day Month" hosted by Leah Piken Kolidas Nominated by Peggy Stermer-Cox 
To explain, the challenge runs all year long with a Monday check-in. Then, in November, check in is daily. Optional themes are given each month for exploring, or not.  What I think is special about this art blog is the vast array of artists who participate: fine art, fine craft, writers, dancers, photographers, etc. Leah started the challenge in 2008. I also like the wide range of experience in the participants.

The Creative Every Day Challenge is an older and bigger site and obviously attracts a lot of participants.  It's also very laudable to be promoting creativity amongst art bloggers.  However in terms of accessibility I found it a bit difficult to navigate and I did notice you didn't need to be an art blogger to participate - and these awards are about art blogging.

By way of contrast, the joy of Bill Guffey's Virtual Paintout site is that it has a very simple concept which is the same every month - painting scenes from specific locations using Google Streetview.  The only thing which ever changes is the place and the map.  The participants get to choose the location they want to paint and then provide the link to the map and the image of what they've produced to Bill for posting to the blog. 

Two paintings of County Clare, Ireland from the December thread

Bill has succeeded in attracting a large number of participants every month - and the benefit is that you can see all the pictures on the blog and that makes it very easy for non-participants to understand the project and see its results. I also like the way that it shows people that they can find places to go and paint plein air using Google Street View and consequently its impact is not just limited to this blog!

Finally to top it off, Bill managed to get himself on TV when Prince Edward Island in Canada discovered they were the chosen location of the month!  I like both the accessibility and the impact of this art blog project and so.....

The 2010 winner of
The Best Art Blog Project Virtual Challenge Cup is
Bill Guffey for The Virtual Paintout

Happy New Year! (plus a landscape art reading list)

Happy New Year to all subscribers to and readers of The Art of the Landscape.

Tomorrow this blog - and this project - is one year old.  This was the very first post on Saturday 2nd January 2010 - Introducing the The Art of the Landscape Project

A View in the Alps

John Ruskin - 1835
Private collection
Painting - watercolor
Height: 21 cm (8.27 in.), Width: 27.5 cm (10.83 in.)

Very early this morning we had a powercut in the area where I live.  This morning when I woke up I discovered they hadn't even started to fix the problem - which made a very grey day even greyer.   I couldn't see to read - having discovered last night that my torch wasn't where it should be!

Study of Gneiss Rock, Glenfinlass
by John Ruskin
Pen, brown ink, ink wash (lamp-back) and bodycolour,
47.7 x 32.7 cm.
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England

That's when I discovered that an ipad screen with a nice light background - such as can be found with a good downloaded book - doubles as a torch!  It certainly makes for very easy reading in the middle of a power cut.

Which is how this morning I came to be reading an ibooks version of John Ruskin's The Elements of Drawing and most particularly how to draw trees and landscapes while I ate breakfast.   

(In brief, Ruskin was the man who championed the landscape art of JMW Turner and fostered the development of the Pre-Raphaelite movement.  He also was an inspiration for the Arts and Crafts Movement, the founding of the National Trust, the National Art Collections Fund, and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.)

When the power came back on I decided to see which other books were available through ibooks and discovered I could access a number of works including

• The Stones of Venice
• Modern Painters
• Lectures on Landscape

Modern Painters (1843) is book on art by John Ruskin which argues that recent painters emerging from the tradition of the picturesque are superior in the art of landscape to the old masters. The book was primarily written as a defence of the later work of J.M.W. Turner. Ruskin used the book to argue that art should devote itself to the accurate documentation of nature. In Ruskin's view Turner had developed from early detailed documentation of nature to a later more profound insight into natural forces and atmospheric effects.

Ruskin added later volumes in subsequent years. Volume two (1846) placed emphasis on symbolism in art, expressed through nature. The second volume was influential on the early development of Pre-Raphaelitism. Ruskin also added third and fourth volumes in later years.

I then took at look at the Project Gutenburg site - and found that has a lot of his writing (and associated images) is available to download in various formats - see links at end for just some of them.

So one of my New Year's Resolutions will be to read Lectures on Landscapes!

The Field behind Ruskin's House at Denmark Hill by John Ruskin
1860. Watercolor.

This is what Wikipedia has to say about Ruskin's theories about art

Ruskin's views on art, wrote Kenneth Clark, "cannot be made to form a logical system, and perhaps owe to this fact a part of their value." Ruskin's accounts of art are descriptions of a superior type that conjure images vividly in the mind's eye.^[10] Certain principles, however, remain consistent throughout his work, which Clark summarised as:

1. Art is not a matter of taste, but involves the whole man. Whether in making or perceiving a work of art, we bring to bear on it feeling, intellect, morals, knowledge, memory, and every other human capacity, all focused in a flash on a single point. Aesthetic man is a concept as false and dehumanizing as economic man.
2. Even the most superior mind and the most powerful imagination must found itself on facts, which must be recognized for what they are. The imagination will often reshape them in a way which the prosaic mind cannot understand; but this recreation will be based on facts, not on formulas or illusions.
3. These facts must be perceived by the senses, or felt; not learnt.
4. The greatest artists and schools of art have believed it their duty to impart vital truths, not only about the facts of vision, but about religion and the conduct of life.
5. Beauty of form is revealed in organisms which have developed perfectly according to their laws of growth, and so give, in his own words, 'the appearance of felicitous fulfillment of function.'
6. This fulfillment of function depends on all parts of an organism cohering and cooperating. This was what he called the 'Law of Help,' one of Ruskin's fundamental beliefs, extending from nature and art to society.
7. Good art is done with enjoyment. The artist must feel that, within certain reasonable limits, he is free, that he is wanted by society, and that the ideas he is asked to express are true and important.
8. Great art is the expression of epochs where people are united by a common faith and a common purpose, accept their laws, believe in their leaders, and take a serious view of human destiny.^[11]

I'll finish with another winter landscape - this time by John Ruskin - painted from his home at Brantwood overlooking Coniston water in the Lake District. 

Study of Ice Clouds over Coniston by John Ruskin

You can visit Brantwood - said to be the most beautifully situated house anywhere in the Lake District - between March and November. 

It also has a regular schedule of art exhibitions - many of which relate to explorations of the wonderful Lake District landscape.

Links: Project Gutenburg - files to download

• Lectures on Landscape
  Delivered at Oxford in Lent Term, 1871 (English) (as Author)
• Stones of Venice [introductions] (English) (as Author)
• The Stones of Venice, Volume I (of 3) (English) (as Author)
• The Stones of Venice, Volume II (of 3), (English) (as Author)
• The Stones of Venice, Volume III (of 3) (English) (as Author)
• Modern Painters Volume I (of V) (English) (as Author)
• Modern Painters Volume II (of V) (English) (as Author)
• Modern Painters, Volume IV (of V) (English) (as Author)

How to draw and paint trees

Autumn Forest in oil pastels by Martin Stankewitz (How to draw a tree)

The trees are fabulous at the moment - and we should all be out making the most of them as landscape motifs!

For those who need some help in how to approach this, here are some links to very experienced artists and bloggers who have been writing about and drawing trees this year.

Stapleton Kearns - http://stapletonkearns.blogspot.com/

In the earlier part of 2010, Stapleton was writing about tree anatomy and how to look at trees - to understand their structure - and how to paint trees

• Branch control - about the need to simplify trees to paint them well.  The number of branches need to be controlled.
• Habits of branching - considers the different ways and angles in which trees throw out their branches
• Telescoping branches - considers how branches join, taper and create angularity in their form 
• Trees and balance - looks at how a mental plumb line helps you to see where the weight is in the form of the tree - and considers how the different parts of a tree (trunk, branches and foliage) achieve an overall balance
• Hidden bounding lines for drawing the forms of trees - about finding big shapes, critical lines and establishing relationships between trees and between trrees and the landscape
• Design problems in the placement of trees - how the four most important lines (the edges of the picture plane) relate to trees - and common mistakes to avoid
• Perspective in the masses of trees - emphasises how trees have perspective too
• Color and light in different parts of a tree - talks about how the light at different times of the day affects how you see and best picture trees
• Transparent branches against the sky - studies the approaches of different artists (Constable, Corot) to painting branches against the sky

He also has some tips for drawing and painting sky holes - those bits of trees that the birdies fly through - and various other aspects of drawing and painting trees

• Skyholes part 1 - about trying to find some order and relationships within the grouping of sky holes
• Sky holes 2 - about what colour to paint the sky holes so they don't jump out
• Sky holes 3 - studies sky holes in paintings by master landscape painters

How to draw a tree - http://www.draw-a-tree.com

This is Martin Stankewitz's blog - his emphasis is much more on drawing trees.  His recent posts have included:

• Drawing with oil pastels – autumn forest - demonstrates the use of oil pastels for vibrant colour in the company of wild boars
• How to draw simple leaves includes a tutorial “How to draw leaves” which explains how to draw simple leaves in various positions.
• Lost in wrinkles of bark – draw a tree trunk - illustrates just how much there is to draw in a tree

Pastel Pointers -  http://pastelpointersblog.artistsnetwork.com

Richard McKinley also has some tips for

• sky holes when working in pastels - see Pastel Tips for Sky Holes
• what to do When the Light Comes Through the Trees

and finally....

Here's a link to a newspaper article about Stourhead - one of the classic tree landscapes in the UK - which is always renowned for its autumn leaves

Virtual Paintout August - in Prince Edward Island

A view of Newfoundland from Prince Edward Island

The place which the Virtual Paintout is visiting in August is Prince Edward Island - off the coast of New Brunswick, Canada and very close to both Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

Prince Edward Island (PEI or P.E.I.; French: Île-du-Prince-Édouard, Scottish Gaelic: Eilean a' Phrionnsa) is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population (excluding the territories). The island has a few other names: "Garden of the Gulf" referring to the pastoral scenery and lush agricultural lands throughout the province
Prince Edward Island - wikipedia

These are the links to:

• The August post/thread about Prince Edward Island - which includes paintings from those who have contributed to date
• This is the Large Google Map
•  - what you have to do next is

...drag the little Yellow Man onto the map, let go while he's over a blue area, and start exploring. Find an interesting subject/area. Change it all you want. Or paint it straight up as you see it. Instructions are in the sidebar to the right. Any questions, ask 'em in the comments or email me directly.
Bill Guffey - The Virtual Paintout: Prince Edward Island

The image of the lighthouse in my screen capture from Google Maps Streetview is....

20 minutes east of Souris. East Point Lighthouse is situated on the extreme eastern end of Prince Edward Island where the mighty tides of the St. Lawrence and Northumberland Strait meet to create a show of nature's force. As one of the Island's itinerant lighthouses, the East Point Lighthouse has been moved several times due to poor positioning of the light and continuing erosion of the coastline.
Lighthouses of PEI

The rules

The rules are simple but must be adhered to:

• participation for this virtual paintout finishes on 31st August 2010
• the location must be a picture from Google Streetview (not a photo linked to the spot) 
• each artist must now include the URL of the location that the artwork is based upon
• the image has to be at a resolution of 72 and no larger than 1000 pixels on the widest side
• you cannot post to the blog direct - you have to send your pic to Bill Guffey 

Links:

• Prince Edward Island - government website
• Prince Edward Island  - tourism website
• Prince Edward Island - wikipedia

Virtual Paintout July - in Hong Kong

 A view of Hong Kong from.......

This is exciting!  The place which the Virtual Paintout is visiting in July is Hong Kong.  These are the links to:

• the July post on The Virtual Paintout
• the big map - basically it's Hong Kong if there is a blue line.  The rest is China.
• information about Hong Kong

More things to note from Bill Guffey- and he starts with a new one

IGNORE THE BLUE DOTS! It appears that Google has now added every user submitted photograph to the maps in the form of blue dots. Make sure your reference comes from the actual Street View application and not a photograph. Thanks.

The key things you need to do are:

• the image has to be at a resolution of 72 and no larger than 1000 pixels on the widest side
• each artist must now include the URL of the location that the artwork is based upon

My initial trawl suggests finding good viewpoints might take some time but can be worthwhile.  The view at the top was about my 10th go at finding a location

How to draw a tree by Edition Handdruck

My friend and ace artist/draughtsman/printmaker Martin Stankewitz (Edition Handdruck) produces delightful plein air pen and ink drawings and then fabulous monotype and giclee prints from the drawings and sketches.

Martin is very fond of drawing trees and recently he's been sharing his enthusiasm for drawing trees in a number of different ways

He's been very busy creating a whole set of resources and different ways in which people can share what's learned.

How to draw a tree is a visual summary of my experiences in drawing and sketching trees from life.

Rather than teaching a drawing method the little booklet shall encourage the reader with example drawings, mainly in pen and ink, to own explorations and to use the own handwrite.

The text concentrates on important aspects of tree drawings as proportions, trunk and branches and how to depict foilage of trees.

How to Draw a Tree

These include:

• a blog called How to draw a tree
• a book about How to draw a tree

How to Draw a Tree - the blog

the book cover of 'how to draw a tree'

PLUS a whole suite of 'how to draw a tree' sites aimed at helping people improve their skills in drawing trees.

• How to draw a tree - tree drawing
• How to draw a pine tree
• How to draw deciduous trees
• How to draw coniferous trees
• Forest diary - keeping a nature sketchbook

To give you a taster, the first of these includes:

• Learning by doing - tree drawing from LIFE
• Three critical points in depictions of trees
• Rythm and patterns in foliage
  
• Some tricks that help to get a convincing tree drawing
  
• How to draw the trunk of a tree
• plus some examples of how he applies basic principles in his own drawings in different media
• and some examples from well known artists from the past and the present

"How to Draw a tree" is a gold nugget of art education - and in my view is it's well worth investing some time in studying what he has to say. I need to improve my tree drawing and I'm going to be reading it from end to end more than once!

motifs from Martin Stankewitz's 'how to draw a tree' information websites
copyright the artist/printmaker

Martin is German and he lives in Maulbronn in southern Germany. However his English is excellent and his advice and information is very easy to understand. He also includes a 'translate into English' option on all his blogs.

Overall, I think his resources are a really refreshing change from all the normal 'how to draw a tree' books which seem to be produced these days. I highly recommend exploring all the resources Martin has to offer.

Other landscape blogs by Martin include:

• Edition Handdruck - for the original fine art prints he produces
• Wandern und Zeichnen - hiking and drawing
• A year in the vineyard

Plus you can purchase his original monotype prints or buy reproductions of his fine art prints

Art postcard Tree landscape by editionha
postcard printing by Zazzle.com

Canary Islands - The Virtual Paintout in April

The number of people participating in The Virtual Paintout each month is growing. In March there were 117 submissions and there were over 100 in both January and February. Of course some people submit more than one but whichever way you look at it that's a very big number.

All of this means that Bill Guffey needs to look at ways to make this project and blog an exercise which continues to be pleasureable for him rather than onerous.

Consequently, he's made some changes to how the Virtual Paintout works which we all need to pay attention to. Karin Jurick did pretty much the same sort of thing with her Different Strokes from Different Folks blog so this is pretty much par for the course when it comes to a successful blog project.

Size your picture correctly

With Bill now posting well over 100 entries each month, the last thing he needs is to have to adjust the images of people who don't submit them according to the rules. However I gather from Bill that around a third of the submissions are not correctly sized.

So - if you've not paid attention to the sizing rules in the past, Bill has now highlighted in the sidebar of the Virtual Paintout all the reasons why an image might not get posted. It's worth a careful read!

Don't forget to make a note of the link to your location

Bill has also introduced a new rule - which will help those of us (like me) who find a spot and then lose it again. From now on when you submit your picture you also have to submit the link to the view you used.

I think this is a really great idea for making sure everyone really is participating in a Virtual paintout as opposed to submitting a work they'd already painted - which I gather may have happened.....

and finally....


View Larger Map

Bill Guffey has selected the Canary Islands for the Virtual Paintout in April - which means two islands to look at!

A learning project for art bloggers

It struck me today that it's possible that people don't yet understand what this project is about. Probably because I've only just started to explain it! ;)

However the applications to join the ning community suggest that I maybe need to do a bit more explaining rather quickly! So here goes..............

1. The Art of the Landscape is essentially about development and learning

The focus of this project is very much on what we can learn about the art of the landscape from both the past and the present

Sources for our learning will include information about:

• famous artists and their paintings,
  
• art movements and their impact on landscape art
  
• interviews with contemporary artists,
  
• books about the history of the development of landscape art
  
• books about 'how to' paint a landscape
• mini-projects to learn more, through participation, about specific aspects of landscape art - such as how to draw a tree; how to construct a composition which works
  
• art tutors who choose to participate
• workshops listed on the site - and constructive/balanced feedback from participants as to which ones they have found useful
  

2. The Art of the Landscape is targeted at art bloggers

My intention has always been that this should be a project primarily for art bloggers.

As such it will

• NOT be somewhere where you can post or link to a recent landscape for sale - because the appropriate place for that to happen is on your own art blog.
• NOT be a place to post a landscape for 'fan' comments because your own art blog or other art forums dedicated to landscape art where there is an opportunity for people to post art for comments and/or admiration already exist
• NOT provide a way to get your art online and NOT be a place where you can archive your images - because there are other places where you can do that

Membership

Yesterday The Art of the Landscape ning community was converted to a site which is now PUBLIC in terms of its home page only.

As a result, despite the fact that this clearly indicates that membership is by invitation only at this stage, I'm now getting a number of applications to join the ning community.

These all need a response and I've had devise a standard response for people applying to join. I'm sending this out to everybody who applies - just so that I'm sure that people are clear that there will be a wait and that the focus is on art bloggers.

The last paragraph of the following applies to those who people who have not supplied either website or blog URL. I've also now changed the join-up form to indicate that blog and/or website URLs are required info.

Dear [name]

As stated in the introduction

"Who can join? (INVITATION ONLY AT PRESENT)
Members are expected to be active participants - as either experienced artists, students of landscape art or people who teach landscape art. Initially members are being invited until a nucleus of active members are established."

As a result approval may take a little while - but you are now in the queue for approval.

Also, this forum is really for bloggers only (as there are other forums for people who want to discuss landscape art and/or post landscape paintings on the internet). It's primary purpose is NOT as a place where people can post their own art (ie that should be on their own blog).

Do you have a blog? If so what is its URL?

Katherine Tyrrell
Moderator

Do let me know if you have any queries as that would be helpful to how I 'unfold' the rest of the plan for how this project works.

Finally - can I extend my thanks and appreciation to all the people who have

• signed up as followers of this blog - which is a good way of keeping in touch with how this develops
• subscribed to the blog via feedreader or email - both are excellent ways of keeping in touch with content on this blog

I'm knocked out by the support this project is getting and look forward to telling you all a bit more about it in the next few days.

Landscape Art - check out the blogroll

This blog's blogroll will focus on those blogs which are wholly or mainly dedicated to landscape art.

Apart from links to my own blogs, I've created a number of groups for various blogs which relate to landscape art:

• Landscape Art - Tutors
• Landscape art - Group activity (for group blogs and blogs of groups)
• Landscape Art - Plein Air Groups
  
• Landscape Art - Artist Blogs
• Landscape Art - Sketching Blogs
  
• Landscape Art - Art History

Why not check out the lists?

They're not complete - feel free to make suggestions for additions as a comment to this post. At this stage I'm aiming to keep the blogroll under active review and will be refining it as the project progresses.