Listening To The Bees On A Hot Day

A dozen Black Angus crowd under three old crabapple trees, tails busy swashing hungry flies away. Strong country perfume hangs in the thick air drawing more blood suckers. Country wildflowers give up their pollen to huge bumble bees working hard on this hot summer day. For several minutes I judge the possibilities of getting eaten alive against getting a great painting. Beyond the crowd of angus the land drops off to a gentle valley of fields and pastures, a crazy quilt of colors . A dusty violet field snuggles up to a bright yellow field. Blue green grasses lean over a blue creek flowing under a fallen wire fence line stretching every which way. I spray on some Deep Woods OFF and pull my french easel from the trunk of my car. Finding the perfect spot, I stamp down just enough grass and wildflowers to set up. My subject is the hot day which I aim to portray with the colors I see. The blue of the distant trees and the haziness of the sky with it's puffy creamy clouds fading into the pastel blue sky should translate well into summer heat. 

The huge Black Angus maneuver around to watch me. I wonder what they could be thinking as I begin to lay out the colors on my palette. The wildflowers around me advise me on what colors I will need. Painting is about observation and editing. Listening to the bees also helps. A winding path I missed at first becomes important as it gives me a way of leading the viewer into the painting - something I try to do with all my paintings. A few wildflowers still standing in front of me I will add to my painting at the end to create a greater sense of distance and interest to my painting.

My critics stay with me watching every stroke as I press on. Swatting flies as they discuss my progress with no comments of approval or disapproval. Off to my right, farther on down the road is a dairy farm and even though it is Sunday I see men working, moving hay bales into the big barn. I pause to make a note of the activity and plans for returning on Monday to do a painting of the farm.  Three hours of pushing paint around, pulling things out and putting others back, my painting is speaking to me saying, "I'm done." We engage in a conversation and I ask about the yellow. The painting says it looks great, but I think it's too bright.

As I'm engaged in this intellectual discussion with my painting I see people leaving the driveway of the farm, walking up the road towards me. The entire family from the farm seems to be coming.  Two young boys arrive first and yell back that I am an artist and have painted their farm. The rest of the family arrive and all agree I have done a fine job. I find the Angus belong to a neighbor, and they learn I am a professional artist from Aurora.  I get permission to set up at their place for the next day and I'm invited to come down when I'm done for a cool drink. Painting out can be a fun way of meeting people and cows.  

Lost and Found Edges

Looking up from sweeping, there on the wall, was the most impressive drawing of the human figure I have ever seen. Working for Welna Gallery as a gopher I got to see some amazing art by living artists. It was important to me to study living artists, to be able to ask questions of them was such a great help. Looking up at this drawing more answers were coming to me than questions. Most drawings of the human figure are full of highlights, little dots of pure white. This drawing, by Richard Schmid, had not one highlight, making the figure look so real. Richard had captured the look of skin with conte' alone. The other thing that struck me was how he rendered the penis. For me, and many artists, how one deals with the genitals is a major problem, genitals are right there in the center of the body, limiting the poses most artists feel comfortable with. Some artists never return to the nude once out of art school. 

Studying Richard's drawing that afternoon I learned more about drawing and art than I did in a year at school; not that they hadn't taught us the things I was understanding studying Richard's drawing. Looking at that piece so many things about drawing became clear. Lost and found edges, where darks are important and where to use lines and/or smudges. That night at home I went through my collection of Saturday Evening Post covers and found some of the same little nuances in Norman Rockwell paintings. It was very clear. Rockwell's knowledge of the human figure and how to capture it gave him great story telling ability with his art.  

I carry all I learn from drawing and painting the human figure with me when I am out painting. Some of the best plein air workshops are actually taught in life drawing classes. What one learns in one workshop can be applied to other forms of art.