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

Liquid Sun Splash

Liquid Sun Splash Sketch Katherine Kean
graphite 8 x 10 inches

“If you don't like the weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes.” - Mark Twain

The weather in Hawaii provides a similar effect, or rather than waiting as it changes, a person can experience radiant sunshine and pouring rain simultaneously.

Liquid Sun Splash wip Katherine Kean
oil on linen 12 x 16 inches

This provides a new challenge for me when it comes to windshield weather paintings. Instead of a soft, misty background as a backdrop for well defined rain drops, the background is bright in places, and parts of the road are sharp along with some of the water edges. 

Connect the Drops Katherine Kean
oil on linen 12 x 16 inches

Between the Drops Katherine Kean
oil on linen 12 x 16 inches

Counting Raindrops Katherine Kean
oil on linen 12 x 16 inches

It's less about a foreground veil for gazing out from a separate interior world and more about the sudden encounter and the dynamic patterns made.

Liquid Sun Splash wip ©2016 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 12 x 16 inches

I've let the brushstrokes remain painterly, brushy, a little bit textured and slightly raised, particularly for the drops. It's almost there, I think, just a few more touches.

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.

Storm, Eucalyptus Tree Sketch

Storm, Eucalyptus Tree ©2015 Katherine Kean

graphite 10 x 12 inches

I'd like to make this a larger painting. I've been working on small and medium size work the past three months. I work in the smaller space under my house in the summer. It's much cooler! Now that the days are getting shorter and aren't as hot, I've moved back into the larger space, allowing me to scale up. 

 I was pretty happy with this sketch until I decided that the tree is just too static. Considering the wind that's pushing all the clouds around it ought to be moving, or bending. I'm looking at these Burchfield and Hopper paintings for inspiration. I'd be happier if I can get the tree to have the same feeling of wind and energy that I get from these paintings.

 March Winds  Charles Burchfield

Windy Day Edward Hopper

And then, just about the time I was wondering where to turn for inspiration, I got lucky.

The Santa Anas came. Above, a quick video of a neighbor's enormous Eucalyptus in the wind.

And last, a revised windy tree.

Pencil Sketch "Dominion" from Dream Image

Dominion ©2015 Katherine Kean
graphite on paper 4 1/2 x 10 inches

This is an initial sketch from a dream. My idea is to get the image and mood while not fretting too much about detail and accuracy. Later on I'll need to refine the scale of the animals to each other and their environment.

 The dream? I'm on a rocky shore, towing a large, old, wooden boat full of animals, through shallow water. The animals are not all exotic animals. I remember there was a cow and a cat among them.

 Did I mention I've been pet sitting all week?

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.

Thunderhead Over Marsh Sketch

Thunderhead Over Marsh Sketch
©2015 Katherine Kean
graphite 7 x 8 3/4 inches

I'm eager to get started on this painting - looking forward to balancing deep, bright blue skies with luminous clouds, gold grasses, and dark rain clouds. I need to decide on the size. Maybe 40 x 50inches.

Coincidentally we have been having amazing Thunderheads appearing over the Angeles National Forest. Yay, El Nino!

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.

Finishing Touches

I'm putting the final touches on this painting. I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend!

Painting Dusk

Caspar David Friedrich A Walk at Dusk

Have you noticed how sometimes the sky at dusk creates an unbearable phenomena of color? I am often startled when I see it and pause to look and try to imagine what color, or combination of colors, might create the same indescribable low light effect in paint. I'm thinking of that almost colorless color that is still somehow full of light. The Friedrich painting above comes close in some ways to what I am thinking of.

Edward Hopper Shakespeare at Dusk

Conversely, sometimes at dusk one color seems to predominate. I suspect that part of the secret is in how our eyes perceive at this time of day. Hopper above, and Shaw below, nail down the effect simply and boldly.

George Shaw Scenes From the Passion: 10 Shilling Wood

Romantic pastoral or urban decadent, the indeterminate light of dusk compels with it's elusiveness, it's mystery, and it's mood - whatever that might be.

John Felsing Far From Babylon

Other well known favorites are George Innes, Atkinson Grimshaw, Dwight Tryon, the tonalists.

Suburban Murmuration 2 work in progress
©2015 Katherine Kean

This last one is a work in progress, with much to be done to the house.

For more on this topic from others follow these links:

Nocturne: prettiness in a face-off with edgelands grit

The Phenomenology of Twilight