Reading About the San Gabriels - Tall, Steep, and Now Waterproof

Clouds Over Great Marsh Sketch

© 2009 Katherine Kean

While I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with the large paintings, I'm also looking forward to getting on with some new work, such as a painting from the sketch above. I've finally seen a clear change of season with the chilly Santa Ana winds - the first ones in many years bringing no accompanying anxiety. I was amazed yesterday by fantastic dust and ash cloud that the winds kicked up. The descent into winter here includes some cold days punctuated by a day or two in the 80's, accompanied by thoughts about the impending rainy season. I've been reading John McPhee's The Control of Nature, specifically the chapter "Los Angeles Against the Mountains". McPhee's reporting style is entertaining as he lays out the hazards of living next to the "unimproved wilderness" known as the San Gabriel Mountains, among them:

1. Steep and rugged, the San Gabriels are twice as high as Mt. Washington - from base to summit 3000 feet higher than the Rockies.

2. Some of the most concentrated rainfall in the history of the US has occurred in the San Gabriel Mountains.

3. Burned chaparral releases wax like resins that coat the soil particles, creating a waterproof layer one to six centimeters down.

All of this together sets the scene for the "full scale flat-out debris flows", which McPhee reports on in his book.

There is another chapter in the book that I've yet to read, "Cooling the Lava" - I can hardly wait.

Head Room

A Sketch of the Great Marsh
© 2009 Katherine Kean

I've had some wonderful dreams over the past few weeks, many of them from various categories of recurring dreams. Although I don't paint my dreams in the form of subject matter or even dream locale, I do use the feeling of many dreams for inspiration.

In a recent dream I found that there was a whole additional floor above where I live. I've had this dream many times, in many variations, and in this most recent one I felt all the excitement of realizing that there was so much more available to me. I started down a hallway that ran the perimeter of the building, looking into all the rooms as I went. All of the rooms were in good repair, many of them well furnished and even with closets full of clothing. The hallway continued on, and so did I, and so did the rooms. There were living rooms and dressing rooms. There were library rooms with floor to ceiling shelves full of books, there were kitchens and dining rooms and breakfast nooks. The further I went, the more I realized that there didn't seem to be an end to this building and I started running to see if I could get to the end. Eventually I tried a shortcut through the middle of the building, going through yet more and more rooms, and eventually came to realize that this particular space was virtually endless.

The excitement and wonder that I felt in the dream has stayed with me and has been like a whoosh of energy over the past several days.

Matchy Matchy

This past weekend I took a few moments to update my regular website, something I’ve planned to do since changing the look of this blog, in order to bring the look of the pages closer together. I haven’t made a lot of changes. I updated my resume and I took off everything that’s been sold. Everything showing is recent work. I removed old work, although I may put the old work back up at some point, but on a separate page. I also plan to start adding new work on it's own page during the next few weeks.

I got so into it that I went ahead and altered my MySpace page to match as closely as possible as well.

I feel inspired. I had a crazy, wonderful dream last night, but more about that later.

Related Post:

Before and After

Just My Type

I Saw it in the Sky

Converging Conditions work in progress 48 x 60" oil on linen
© 2009 Katherine Kean

I'm back on the large surfaces again with the initial over layer of color complete on this, the largest one, while the other is getting it's finishing touches. I'm liking the effect of working on large areas with big brushes. I'd like to keep it as simple as this is while still feeling complete about it, although I'm wondering how it'll fit in with the rest of my work. Time - and the application of paint - will tell.

Previous Stages:

Storm Clouds Over Lava Field

Back to Work

Great Marsh Sketches

Here are three new sketches inspired by a visit to The Great Marsh on Cape Cod this summer. These will be small paintings, probably 6 x 6" or so - quite a contrast to the three to five foot paintings I've been working to finish up. They have a very different mood - calmer than the turbulent volcanic plumes and storm clouds that have dominated my work over the past few months.

I'm acutely aware of how the days are getting shorter and I know how difficult it is to artificially light a large surface evenly to work on, so I'll probably be working on smaller works for the next few weeks.

Related Post:
Cape Cod Marshes

Ways to Check Your Work

Point Lobos Path 10 x 8" oil on linen
© 2009 Katherine Kean - Available at TAG Gallery

The first method I ever learned for checking artwork is to squint your eyes. Look at your work through half closed eyes and the details drop away leaving the values and composition. Or use a Reducing Glass – I mentioned this before. A Reducing Glass is particularly helpful with large paintings. My favorite way to check for errors is to hold a painting up to a mirror – or for a large painting I bring the mirror to the painting. Right away weak areas stand out and if there is a drawing or perspective error it will show. Another method I use is to turn the work upside down – the composition is quickly revealed – strong and weak areas, value problems, and so on.

Jacqueline Gnott talks about how she checks her work in this post on her Contemporary Realism blog.

I have another, more complicated method for checking work – and for moving it along. I’ll post it soon.

How do you check your work? Answer in the poll to the right, or if you have a different way to check your work, let me know in the comments.

Catching Up

I’ve let a whole week slip by without posting. I have a good excuse - I was out of town briefly visiting family. I got to go to my 5 year old niece’s bowling alley birthday party where I learned how it is that 5 year olds can bowl. (With gutter guards and steel ramps to aim the balls.) Now that I’m back I’m getting started reviewing portfolios for potential new members at the artist owned gallery that I belong to. This is a job that I really enjoy. It involves looking at fresh new artwork and meeting creative people – what’s not to like?

In the meantime I’ve gone back to work finishing up the paintings I’ve started this summer and although I made good progress this past week I didn’t finish yet. Next week I’ll be beginning on new work - drawings for more on this series about nature’s transitions written in the wind.

For now I’ll show you this image of a determined looking Bear enjoying his first cantaloupe rind. For some reason I thought he would just chew the “edible” portions and not go for the whole rind. Silly me, after a brief tug of war I got most of it back and he only chewed up and swallowed a few pieces. It doesn’t seem to have done him any harm.