Sketch Work from Dreams and Surreal Experiences

Night Swimming
©2016  Katherine Kean
graphite 10 x 8 inches

Night Swimming 2
©2016  Katherine Kean
graphite 9 x 8 inches

 I never forgot having an encounter with an owl while swimming at night. My guess at the time, as it swooped very low just over my head, is that with just my head above water I must have appeared to be prey. I'm thankful the owl had second thoughts. I've heard of other owl situations that didn't end as well.

Dream Drawing: Horse 
©2016  Katherine Kean
graphite 6 x 10 inches

 I've been finalizing drawings and preparing linen for painting. I've been gradually changing from stretched supports to linens glued down to panels. It requires a longer preparation time, but less, make that no, sagging, buckling, re-stretching, tightening, denting headaches down the road.

I've been using Lineco glue for the archival and reversible qualities, but find it a pain on larger sizes. It sets so fast that the glue on one end of the panel is dry before I can finish applying it to the rest. I'm going to try BEVA film next time. It is heat activated, so I may be able to simply iron it down. Either way, I'm finding it handy to have many large format art books handy. They do make incredible weights.

Chair Books Fire Water Dream wip
©2016 Katherine Kean
oil on linen on panel

The same art books appear in this dream based painting shown in the initial blocking in stage. Some of the drawings made to develop this image can be found here: Dream Sketch :Books, Chair, Fire, Water.

Planning, Intuition, Imagination

"Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success." - Picasso

Cloudburst Over Marsh work in progress
©2016  Katherine Kean
oil on linen 40 x 40 inches

Do your paintings talk back to you as you paint them?

During Anselm Kiefer’s talk at the Getty last week, he mentioned that he starts a piece with an idea in mind, but during the process the artwork will often transform into something else.

Usually I begin a painting with what I think is a clear intention of what the painting is about; the content, the subject, the mood and also the scale, the palette, and to what extent it will be painterly and textured.

Cloudburst Over Marsh sketch 
©2016 Katherine Kean
graphite 8 x 10 inches

I almost always go to Nature as the source of inspiration. I also make use of the many intellectual rules of composition. You know them: the Golden Ratio, the Fibonacci Spiral, the Rule of Thirds, etc. With these ideas in the back of my mind I rearrange the elements of the landscape to align to the framework of the canvas. Clouds up and to the left, tree down and to the right, the curve of a road from here to there, and so on.

Cloudburst Over Marsh study 
©2016 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 6 x 6 inches

Most of the time everything proceeds as imagined, and I’ll think I know when and how the painting will arrive.

Cloudburst Over Marsh work in progress 
©2016 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 40 x 40 inches

“An idea is a point of departure and no more. As soon as you elaborate it, it becomes transformed by thought." - Picasso

Cloudburst Over Marsh work in progress 
©2016 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 40 x 40 inches

Lately I find that as I approach this anticipated completion, I’ll begin to see something else and if I slow down and let it happen the painting seems to suggest a direction it would like to go – which may or may not be what I’d originally intended. 

Cloudburst Over Marsh detail 
©2016 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 40 x 40 inches

Often the shift is subtle, a part I wasn’t too concerned about starts to become more of a focus point. A section of sky asks to be darkened, a carefully painted cloud all but disappears. A faintly suggested tree demands attention and detail. Other times it might as well be a completely different painting. If I take the hint and follow up, the results often make sense and I wonder why it wasn’t part of my “original plan” – or was it? It’s hard for me to tell where imagination ends and intuition begins.

And yet, I’m starting to like this way of working.

“Picasso was writing about this subject when he said: “I consider a work of art as the product of calculations, but calculations which are frequently unknown to the author himself. It is exactly like the carrier pigeon calculating his return to the loft. But the calculation that turns out to be correct is unknown to him; it is a calculation that precedes intelligence.” - Keeper of the Flame, An essay on Max Shertz and his Art of the Unconscious. By Daniel Kaufman, Artist and Writer

Did you hear that?

It’s not very loud. Just a faint scratch on paper, or a soft blerp or splat or splosh or slosh of paint, and perhaps an occasional sigh. The sounds of the art studio and work being made with pencil and paint.*

First the thumbnail sketches...

 Then the studies.

Eventually underpainting begins.

And at last the first color layer.

That's not the end of it. There is more to come, so stay tuned.

"Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks". Plutarch

*onomatopeia - a word, which imitates the natural sounds of a thing.

Winter Wet Paint

The winter months, such as they are in Southern California, should be a perfect time for accomplishing some studio painting. Once the holidays are over, there are fewer distractions and the garden is less demanding. The number of daylight hours is growing again, but it's still cool enough to work through the day. The catch is this - drying time slows down - a lot. A small study or painted edge that might dry overnight at other times of year might take a week - or more. I've taken to placing smaller work in front of the fireplace to try to speed the drying up.

Storm and Eucalyptus Tree wip
©2016 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 30 x 40 inches

When I can, I paint working wet into wet. I find it more challenging than working in layers, allowing each to dry completely. Yet, working directly has certain advantages. The rules of fat over lean are less consequential in direct painting. 

Detail-Storm and Eucalyptus Tree wip 
©2016 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 30 x 40 inches

 Except for the underpainting layer, the painting above has been proceeding entirely with wet into wet technique, although I haven't decided yet whether to paint the tree into the wet paint, or allow it to dry first.

Underpainting - Storm and Eucalyptus Tree wip 
©2016 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 30 x 40 inches

In the meantime I've been keeping a drop of clove oil on the palette to keep the paint fresh overnight. The cool weather and the clove oil fumes are all it takes to keep the paint from drying, and it makes the studio smell amazing.

On the Easel

Here are some process shots of work in progress. Above, a storm in the Angeles Forest underpainting.

The storm painting with descriptive color layers. It's coming together fairly quickly. Another refining layer or two might finish it.

The first color layers of clouds over the Chain of Craters Road and a detail of the turbulence below.

Chain of Craters clouds painting further along. These clouds are complex. I suspect it will take some time to untangle all the shapes. 

  

And finally, a small volcano painting in the underpainting stage.

Angeles Forest Storm Wide

Angeles Forest Storm Wide ©2015 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 8 x 16 inches

There are times when the local landscape is especially inspiring. In this painting it's the mountains and skies of the Angeles National Forest.

In these links you can see the initial sketch and middle painting, and a companion painting.

McGroarty Art Center's Inaugural Artist Studios Tour

I'm participating in McGroarty Art Center's Inaugural Artist Studios Tour. The day long event is Saturday, June 27, from 10am to 4pm. 

Visitors will be able to browse sketchbooks, works in progress, plus a selection of finished artwork, or stroll about the garden. I'll have a painting in progress and be available to answer questions about my process for the curious.

Joining me for the day will be a special guest artist and fabulous painter, Rosanna Norton. 

Additional information and Ticket sales can be found here: McGroarty Arts Center Inaugural Artist Studios Tour.  All ticket sales benefit McGroarty Arts Center.

Angeles Forest Storm

Angeles Forest Storm work in progress Katherine Kean
oil 8 x 8 inches

This is the beginning of a little square painting. I started with a tonal underpainting, as I usually do, but rather than wait for it to dry, worked over it wet into wet. It doesn't need many changes, but I will add some glazes to make some areas richer in color and others more atmospheric.

Painterly Progress Continues

Raindrops and Twinkle Lights work in progress Katherine Kean
oil   18 x 24 inches

Another installment, shall we say, of the Raindrops with Holiday Lights painting showing about three more layers to establish the background as a bright, yet blurry structure of shapes with the colors streaking and flowing into each other. After drying thoroughly, I'll go back in with a series of glazes before applying the final raindrop layers.

"A painting is a combination of opposites with unity and variety; thick and thin; opaque and transparent; bold and delicate. Artists must use as many devices as they can to hold the viewer's attention. Impasto strokes alongside thin passages enhance the painting surface and create the illusion of volume and depth."  Kevin Macpherson, Landscape Painting Inside and Out

Painterly Progress Proceeds

Raindrops and Twinkle Lights work in progress Katherine Kean
oil 18 x 24 inches

I'm continuing right where I left off last week, with more painterliness on subsequent layers. I'm allowing each layer to dry completely in between applications of paint.

Raindrops and Twinkle Lights work in progress (detail) 
Katherine Kean
oil 18 x 24 inches

As I mentioned in the previous post, I'm allowing some areas to remain thin and translucent, while other areas will be opaque. Because I'm more or less inventing a raindrop pattern on this one, I'm taking my time to allow that pattern to emerge. The actual drops will be the very last to be painted. For now I'm only interested in where raindrops might run together or pool.

Raindrops and Twinkle Lights work in progress (detail) 
Katherine Kean
oil 18 x 24 inches

The orange layer is slightly impasto, applied with stiffer paint to help retain the height and shape of the brush strokes. I plan to apply this idea to the raindrops too, when I get to them.

"A painting in which impasto is a prominent feature can also said to be painterly. This term carries the implication that the artist is revelling in the manipulation of the paint itself and making the fullest use of its sensuous properties." - Tate Glossary, Impasto

Is It Done Yet?

Marsh House 2013 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 6 x 6 inches

How do you decide when a painting is done?

 For me this has always been something that's mostly intuitive, but as I go along I realize that these days I spend a lot more time thinking about it - especially as I'm approaching the end. Lately it seems to be a matter of whether I feel 've reached clarity on what I think the painting is about.

What do other artists say? Here are some quotes on the subject:

"To put it as simply as possible - and this is a simple answer, not a total answer - I know when a painting's finished when I understand why I wanted to do it in the first place." James Elkins

"The painting is finished when the idea has disappeared." Georges Braque

"One always has to spoil a picture a little bit in order to finish it." Eugene Delacroix

"That's the terrible thing: the more one works on a picture, the more impossible it becomes to finish it." Alberto Giacometti

"When a painting is done I feel it actually recedes from me. Everything coalesces and moves away, and I can no longer focus on a single part of it. It suddenly does this gestalt." April Gornik

"It can be difficult to assess when a painting is complete. For this reason, I often set aside the painting to prevent overworking it. When I am unsure, I ask myself if doing more would add or take away from the purpose of the painting." Mary French

"I paint until I become the audience staring at the painting staring back at me. It’s how I know the painting is done." Eric Fischl

"When nothing is wrong anymore, then I stop." Gerhard Richter

A Painting Moment: Video Interview

A Moment with Katherine Kean from Aaron Landman and Joe Gasparik on Vimeo 

This video interview was shot this summer when friends Aaron Landman and Joe Gasparik came to the studio in the September heat and set up their equipment; fitting camera, lights, and recording gear wherever they could between wet canvases , flat files, and easel. From sketching to painting, peeking over my shoulder and close up on the palette they went about capturing thoughts about my painting process along with a behind the scenes look inside my studio.

Bear was also on hand - mostly sleeping and otherwise on good behavior. You can catch a glimpse of him keeping watch in the background.

Any proverbs about weather....

... are doubly true during a storm. 

~Ed Northstrum

I Stop for Drops 2012 Katherine Kean

(work in progress) oil on linen 12 x 16 inches

Here's a progression from drawing through details.

As you can see I ended up with much more description of the background and less focus on the drops.

Above are the first three (or so) layers from a beginning coral/pink, next a minty, pale green, and then shapes suggested in transparent brown tones. I could almost have begun with the drops at this stage, however I got carried away.

It was so much fun painting the distant urban landscaping, the trees, and the car that I just kept on going.

When I got around to adding the drops I worked from left to right, only working with the largest shapes at first.

This is what it looks like close up.

I'm undecided now. I can just finish this up with a few more glazes, or I may decide to paint over the bottom, this time taking away detail, or perhaps paint an alternate version. I'm not sure - what would you do?

Fall News

 

My late fall newsletter emailed today. Did you get it? This one links to a first look at a short video interview in my studio. Sign up below if you'd like to receive it:

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Details, Details, Details

"It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen." John Wooden

Detail of Wave triptych work in progress  ©2012  Katherine Kean   

Charles Eames said "The details are details. They make the product. The connections, the connections, the connections. It will in the end be these details that give the product its life."   

Detail of Wave triptych work in progress  ©2012  Katherine Kean

It's been said that God is in the details. It is also said that the devil is in the details. Gloria Steinem said "God may be in the details, but the goddess is in the questions. Once we begin to ask them, there's no turning back."

Detail of Wave triptych work in progress  ©2012  Katherine Kean

"A mountain is composed of tiny grains of earth. The ocean is made up of tiny drops of water. Even so, life is but an endless series of little details, actions, speeches, and thoughts. And the consequences whether good or bad of even the least of them are far-reaching." Sivananda

I've always thought of myself as a "big picture" person, happy to leave the details to someone else. More and more I find a lot of joy in details, espeically the details of paint. What are your thoughts about details? Love them, hate them, just endure them? Let us know in the comments.