On the road again

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From the Sea-to-Sky Highway above Squamish

Watercolour sketch

©2012 Charlene Brown

‘On the road again’ usually implies you’re going somewhere, but this is not the case here… in fact I’m back in Victoria at the moment.  But I was over on the mainland for the Mothers’ Day week-end and had the opportunity to drive up the Sea-to-Sky Highway again, a road where I did a series of paintings, such as Howe Sound, and Horseshoe Bay, three years ago during the run-up to the 2010 Olympics, which took place in venues at both ends of this highway.

This view shows the iconic Stawamus Chief rock face, a popular spot for climbers and vertical dancers, Shannon Falls, now swollen with a huge spring run-off and visible for miles (though not as visible as I’ve shown it here) and the head of Howe Sound, the southernmost fjord in the Northern Hemisphere.  (Pay attention there will be a test!)

Turning Paintings into Posters III

Here are the posters I generated in Photoshop using the two large paintings I described.  I hope you’ll agree they go together surprisingly well considering the dissimilar landscapes involved.

Posterizing a picture greatly increases its impact.  The process causes portions of the original image that contained gradual colour transitions to be replaced by abrupt changes in shading and gradation from one area of tone to another. 

Specific colour sets (roughly the same for both pictures) were assigned to these sharply defined image portions.  I mentioned I’d gotten so I didn’t even notice the paintings anymore, even though they are full sheet size (~ 75 cm. in height) and hanging in our front hall… It’s pretty hard not to notice these posters!

Turning Paintings into Posters II

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Sunset in the Gulf

Watercolour and marker

©1998 Charlene Brown

This is the view of Dubai looking northwest from our favourite Tex-Mex restaurant. (Yes, we ate a lot of Tex-Mex in Dubai when we lived there) The large Jumeira and Iranian mosques, as well as the smaller neighbourhood mosques closer to the beach can be seen lined up facing Mecca, almost directly west of Dubai.

This small version of my full-sheet watercolour belies its rather pale presentation of what was a pretty spectacular sight…  

Tomorrow I’ll outline the ‘posterizing’ process, and show you the (surprisingly) matched pair of posters that ‘Banff at Night’ and ‘Sunset in the Gulf’ turned into…

Turning Paintings into Posters

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Banff at Night

Watercolour

©1991 Charlene Brown

This is one of two framed full-sheet watercolours I did several years ago that I’ve grown a little tired of… in fact, no longer even notice, despite the fact they’re hanging in our front hall.

As I mentioned in the introduction to my Poster Project  last year, the purpose of posters is to get people’s attention and deliver a clear, concise message – or sometimes they are simply intended as ‘art with impact.’

My art supply store has recently added digital printing to their repertoire, so I decided to have my Photoshopped paintings printed as posters of exactly the same size and to tape the posters onto the glass over the framed paintings.

Tomorrow, I’ll show you the other painting, ‘Dubai at Night,’ and the next day, I’ll write about the two posters.

Reality in Representational Art

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Olympic Sliding Centre

Watercolour

©2012 Charlene Brown

Representational art is defined as work that depicts something easily recognized by most people. This painting was supposed to be representational, titled ‘Olympic Sliding Centre, from Whistler cable car’ as it is based on a photograph I took from one of the Whistler ski lifts. Here is what happened instead…

I decided to ‘improve’ the picture’s composition by angling the cables differently and taking out an unattractive vertical one on the left – then realized, too late, that I had removed the cable that had been holding me up!  I’d painted over the pencil lines at that point, which makes them impossible to erase, so I couldn’t get things lined up properly to get myself back on the lift.

I don't always concern myself that much with accuracy (or even reality) but I want to get this one 'right' as it's a gift, so I will start over and either line up the towers and cables as they appear in my photograph or – more likely – leave them out entirely, and call it ‘Olympic Sliding Centre, from Whistler Mountain.’

Virtual Paintout in Jerusalem

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Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives

Watercolour

©2012 Charlene Brown

The Virtual Paintout is in Jerusalem this month, and finding a Streetview to paint was quite a bit easier than last month. I really didn’t know where to start in Gdansk, but in Jerusalem I knew I wanted to include the Dome of the Rock, which I first painted fifteen years ago (rather more precisely than I paint now) and wrote about last year.  All I had to do was look at the Google Satellite view of Jerusalem to find a blue street (indicating it had been covered by the Google camera car) with an unobstructed view of the Old City, and quickly found an excellent location on the Mount of Olives.  Here is the link to it.        

Painting plein air where the world will end on December 21 of this year

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Hieroglyphic Stairway at Copan

Watercolour and crayon

©2012 Charlene Brown

This is another made-up view of the hieroglyphic stairway, as (not quite) seen from near the top of one of the pyramids enclosing the two courts of the Acropolis. All I could actually see was the huge protective tarpaulin that was draped over the whole length of it. The painting I did lastAugust  showed the view from the other end of the ball court. And you couldn’t see the stairway from there either.

When I asked for stories from artist friends who are capable of talking and painting at the same time and actually replying intelligently to roving art critics, I got some good advice, but I was also reassured to learn that they too have avoidance techniques. Vivien Blackburn said that one of the many uses of a ‘half-igloo’ beach tent she takes when she goes painting plein air is to shelter herself from enquiring passers-by – I could see this providing the corner-to-back-into I’m always looking for! AlisonStaite  said she’d never been much bothered by Roving Art Critics, and thought this might be because of her glowering look!  I’d have to say that the glowering look I’m pretty sure I had at Copan had a rather surprising result…

RAC: I see you’ve left out the tarpaulin…

Artist: mm-hmm

RAC: Do you know why it’s there?

Artist: They’re getting ready for the end of the world.

RAC: Do you believe that?

Artist: Of course not.

This led to a fascinating discussion of why some people believe the Mayan calendar predicted the world would end on December 21, 2012.

Reflecting on this conversation has led me to wonder if a less defensive, more confident approach to The Drama of Painting Plein Air would be a good idea… Make that a pleasantly confident approach, and it could be a great idea.

A big advantage of painting over photography

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Columbine Garden on Salt Spring Island

Watercolour

©2012 Charlene Brown

It takes a lot longer to paint something than to photograph it, but painters do have some huge advantages over photographers. My favourite is that you can put whatever you want into your picture. Of course, this only applies to painters not too tightly bound to reality, or to rules like ‘one painting – one subject,’ which I’ve never liked much.

Photographers can get Mount Maxwell and the lovely little church (it’s St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, should you be wondering) lined up in one shot if they’re quick and pick the right moment as the ferry swings around and heads for the dock at Fulford Harbour. But only a painter can work in this spectacular columbine garden, which is not in fact located in the middle of the harbour, but at an artist’s studio at the top of a precipitous drive up the hill on the right.