How to create a harmonious painting with a limited palette.

I am really enjoying creating videos to help artists with fundamentals of painting, and I seem to be getting good feedback, so I am going to continue here. In this video, I will show you how to make a harmonious painting from a limited palette, from a reference that you love! I chose this lovely abstract "Black Tangerine", oil on canvas, 2014, by Rose Marie Kossowan.




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Painting In The Rain -This Artists' Journey

Last week I spent four days at the most magical place on earth: Lake O'Hara in Yoho Provincial Park in BC. This is a place I have been to for the past 6 Septembers. The first time I went, we had 25 degree weather (celcius) and full sun each day. Since then we have had maybe 2 days of sunshine, but this year we had 4 full days of on and off rain -when I say on and off, I mean it changed every 15 minutes between sun, rain and sleet.!

On our first day, the sun came out for long enough to get us inspired to hike up to Opabin Lake. It takes work to hike your painting gear up the sides of mountains to reach glorious alpine lakes and golden larches. No sooner did I get set up and half the painting blocked in, when the mountain I was painting disappeared, shortly after which we were engulfed in freezing sleet. We were instantly frozen and it was all I could do to put my stuff away and back into my pack and run for cover in the forest below us.

The next day vacillated between snow and rain. So the question was: do I set up and paint in the wet and cold? I decided that painting is why I was there, so I set up beside a small creek near the Elizabeth Parker Hut where we were staying, and got in a little 8x10". One thing about the rain is that it brings out all the incredible colors in the landscape, where in the sun all those subtle colors are wiped out by the light. My plein air umbrella saved the day and kept the painting relatively dry. Luckily it wasn't windy -heavy wind is the only condition in which it is impossible to paint en plein air, as everything blows over, no matter how you try to anchor your tripod. I have made many monoprints on my painting shirts!

This is what my camera captured. What you don't see is the amazing array of colors in the creek and the foliage. THAT'S why I paint en plein air, rather than from a photo! The colours in the painting are what I actually saw with my eyes. Now I have to admit I have a highly developed ability to see colour. They are there, but most people don't notice them unless you point them out. 

"Rainy Creek", 8x10" plein air oil

On the third day the weather continued to be bleak and I opted to go hiking instead. We hiked up to Lake Oesa, passing Victoria Falls on the way -had to stop and make a small pen and ink and watercolour sketch. Then we took the alpine route via Yukness Ledges to the Opabin Plateau. I had never been up on the Ledges before and it was thrilling to scramble around the huge rock fall and look down to turquoise Lake O'Hara far below us. Without 30lbs of painting gear on my back, the hike was surprisingly easy. We explored the whole of the Opabin Plateau where there is wonder at every turn. As I already mentioned, photos don't do the area justice, but here are a few pictures from our hike.

On our last day the sun was peaking out a bit more frequently so I decided to give painting another shot. I set up in front of the cabins on Lake O'Hara, determined to challenge myself.

"On The Edge", 12x12" plein air oil

And what a challenge it was. The rain was coming from many different angles and I had my umbrella between my legs in an effort to keep the rain off my painting and off myself! But weather aside, the optical challenge was incredible. First, there was the reflection of the bushes and trees in the water (remember the color is saturated in the rain?). Then there were rocks that were sitting in the water, half of them were sticking above the water and which cast their own reflection onto the surface of the water, and the rest of the rock was below the water, influenced by the depth of the bottom of the lake. At depth the lake is a remarkable turquoise, but as it gets shallower, the colour changes to the red orange of the silt on the bottom. Now most artists would SIMPLIFY the scene, but I decided to see if I could capture what my eyes were seeing, rather than try to impose my own design and color sense into the painting. I don't know if it is a great painting, but I think I was successful in rendering what it actually looked like to be standing there at that moment. All that heavy thinking kept my mind off of my freezing fingers anyway :)

Enjoy!

Sharon

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Bad Blogger with new work!

Hello there faithful followers! I really must apologize for my lack of persistence with posting to this blog. I have been busily painting away, but blogging has escaped my previous enthusiasm. I hope that you will bear with me as I post occasionally when I have something of substance to say.

So here is more than you probably wanted to hear about being an artist blogger. Part of the truth is that there is so much more involved in it than just posting a photo -firstly, there has to be a photo! So that means I need to wait for the work to dry (plein air oils) or they will photography with unsightly shine. Then I have to wait for an available sunny day in mid afternoon to cart all my work out and take photos. This often means having to repeat the process once I find that my photo did not capture the accurate color or texture. Next the photos need to uploaded to Photoshop Elements where I get rid of any parallax because I unintentionally didn't get square behind the camera. Also, there is usually other colour and value corrections to be made. Sometime, I realize that the painting isn't finished, so it goes back to the studio for updates, which may take weeks to get to. Then I have to save it in a lower resolution for placement on the mighty internet. THEN I have to think of something clever or helpful to say to you, my wonderful friends, about the work. It is sometimes (often, my failing) really hard to talk about my work. It is a very raw and vulnerable feeling to put one's work out there for all the world to see and judge.

SO, that is why I don't post that often any more. Truth is, I would much rather spend all that time painting! We are told by marketing gurus (the artists who are making their living by telling other artists how to sell their art -hmmm, why aren't they just selling their own art??? But I digress..) that in order to be successful in online marketing, one must post daily to one's blog, several times a day to Facebook, daily on Instagram and update one's website on a weekly basis. Gosh, I am exhausted just thinking about that! They say followers are everything, and imply that the quality of the artwork is secondary to this big marketing machine. I have seen that many have gotten on this bandwagon, and many are being successful in producing good sales of their art online. I am on Daily Painters (ha, I am certainly not a 'daily painter' as in one who produces a small painting every day and puts it up for sale for cheap), and I have sold a few paintings there, but mostly I renege on posting there either. My small work is usually done 'en plein air' and my galleries would really frown if I offered it up at a fraction of the price for online consumption. So my prices are much higher than many of those daily painters. So I sell less. Oh well, that's the way it is.

I am much more interested in using this blog as a forum for ideas about painting and all art in general, rather than as a marketing tool. Don't get me wrong, I would love it if you would buy a painting from me! But I just don't have the stamina to work that hard at the marketing end of things. Luckily I am blessed with a wonderful, super supportive husband, who also happens to have a wonderful pension, so I don't have to sell my work in order to eat (maybe that is why I am not as skinny as I used to be...).  You have caught me in a very wry sense of humour today, sorry.

To that end, I am delighted if you will share this art journey with me. Hopefully I can give you something of interest to enrich your life with. So here is a painting that I did while standing on the rocks in the water at my cottage this summer. Didn't even fall in, but I did inadvertently wash some art gear in the process!

"Tied Up",  12x12" plein air oil on board

$575 beautifully framed

I was really interested in the way the light hit the water and made it a golden glow in contrast to the cool shady areas, and in the reflected light on the trees. I am always a sucker for light effects, and I try really hard to capture them using colour and opacity/transparency to tell the story of what I felt as I was looking at the scene. Hope that comes through! I also did another 2 paintings at the cottage, but one is drying after a repaint, and I thought I would save the other for another time when I can think of something else interesting to tell you about.

As always, I invite you to comment on this post, and to share it on social media using the Share link below.

Blessings
Sharon

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"A Seat For Beauty", new oil painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"A Seat For Beauty", 9x12" oil on panel
$495 beautifully framed

I know I have been derelict in my duty to post, but I do have a good excuse this time. I came down with shingles a week ago and it really knocked me out. I am happy to say that I caught it early and was put on antiviral meds, plus I was directed to a new cream that has done wonders on the healing of the rashes. I am now on the mend, and hope to make more of an effort to post. Not that you aren't already inundated with things to see online, but I hope I can bring some beauty into your lives with my paintngs.

I am taking an online class with the wonderful Dreama Tolle Perry, and our assignment for this week was a blue chair in France with geraniums growing from it. Well, it turns out that I was right there in that place taking photos with Dreama as part of my France workshop in 2014. So I chose to paint from my own photo, which is quite different from the one the class painted. If you can possibly swing it, I HIGHLY recommend taking Dreama's online course which will open again in September. I have taken 13 days painting with Dreama in person, and I must say that this course is an even better experience than the live workshops. You get to see everything she does close up, but more than that, Dreama has opened up her heart by adding so much more besides painting, going into attitude, perseverance and painting with JOY. Go to her website and take a look.

Enjoy!
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Plein Air: Fall in the Mountains, by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Rundle Ridge Fall", 9x12" plein air oil
$495 beautifully framed

I had the pleasure of painting in the mountains of Canmore, AB with two of my best painting buddies this week. The fall colours were astounding and the sky cloudless, which made it easier on the artists.

"Quarry Lake Fall", 12x12" plein air oil
$575 beautifully framed

This was actually the first painting of the day. This is called "Little Sister" because it is the lowest of the Three Sisters, but it is the biggest mass-wise of the three.  No wonder I keep getting them confused!

These are my 'partners in crime': Dee Poisson on the left and Patti Dyment on the right. Both are great painters and make me laugh!

Enjoy!
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