Monday, January 17, 2011

Another High Sierra Acrylic Painting

I finished this one last week for my two-man show at the Elliott Fouts Gallery here in Sacramento. It was painted on stretched canvas and is 11"X14". Paintings are a series of challenges. That is why we painters don't get board with our passion. The challenge with this particular landscape was the rocks. Like trees, they are at first sight, damn complicated. The key word here is "sight". It may sound like an oxymoron, but if you can reduce the acuity of your sight, you can mange the complexity of what you see and want to paint (or draw). Most all artists do this by squinting. All that visual complexity is simplified or edited out. How? When squinting, you see less. Value is important here. You still easily see the darkest values as well as the lightest. But all those pesky values in between with their subtle tonal differences cannot be discerned nearly as well... I told you keep those eyes SQUINTED!!!...that' the trick, and that's what I did quite often as I looked at the rocks and even sometimes while I painted them. All I needed to paint was dark, light, and one or two middle grays on each rock. SQUINT and make your life easier.

13 comments:

Gary L. Everest said...

Hi David,
Great work and lessons! But I digress. For some reason, at least on our computer (new Dell laptop with Windows-7) the font size of your blog has diminished to a point nearly impossible to read, even with my good eye and reading glasses.
Any other reports from your countless followers? No other blog has exhibited this quirk and I was just wondering if it's Google, our computer or something you did on purpose.

Autumn Leaves said...

It is beautiful, David. I spend so much of my time squinting it isn't even funny. Now where are those danged glasses of mine???

Cynthia Schelzig said...

Well your rocks definitely rock!
I guess it is worth all those crows-feet........

Unknown said...

I squint a lot when drawing, originally to get tones, now because of poor eyesight.

I can't believe you had me googling Tour de Cluck and it turned out to be real- thought it was one of your jokes. What fun, wish I could participate! Is that the same Davis as Pete Scully draws and arranges sketchcrawls around?

SKIZO said...

Excellent
work
thank you for sharing

David Lobenberg said...

Gary, I've had no other complaints, but aren't you in Alabama where dead birds have recently fallen from the sky? Let me know if this continues as you have caught my curiosity. Have you tried tapping the top of your Dell with a silver or gold hammer. I hear that a silver hammer is the best. Don't ask me why.

David Lobenberg said...

Autumn, I am not near nor far sighted, so I have to squint through my glasses.

David Lobenberg said...

Cynthia, Yes, my eyes are looking like an old time sea captain's eyes

David Lobenberg said...

Sue (who tries to stay away from that rainy place as much as humanly possible), Now I have to google Scully!

David Lobenberg said...

Thanks, Skizo!

David Lobenberg said...

Sue again, Just googled Pete Scully. That guy sure gets around! A good sketcher.

Unknown said...

Is it the same Davis?

David Lobenberg said...

Sue, Yes!...the same David.