Because I’m beginning to find my way into creating prints of my work, I’ve decided that over the next year I’d create some paintings particularly suited to reproduction. On my list has been Halona Cove, a very special and very challenging location that I’ve painted repeatedly over the years.
Halona Cove, final painting, watercolor, 15 x 22″
I brought this painting into existence using the smaller “plein-air” sketch shown below augmented by a number of pencil drawings, my preferred approach when painting directly, in situ, isn’t a practical solution.
Halona Cove watercolor study, 11 x 14″
The watercolor study managed to grasp general colors and big shapes, some topographical information, and some figures for scale, but that’s about all I could glean from a watercolor excursion to this place, and the work falls short of my ambitions. However, I can use this as a guide in-studio, and when accompanied by pencil drawings and notes, I was able to create the larger and more complete painting that expresses more fully what I’d like to say.
I find that compositional sketches, a simple breaking down of the basic elements into patterns, is indispensable.
Because I’ve immersed myself in painting and drawing on location in Hawai’i, I’ve accumulated a large body of sketchbook material involving figures that I can use and manipulate as reference for paintings.
As my students know, I prefer this approach over the more popular method of using photography. Almost every painter I’ve come to admire worked without much reliance, if any, on the camera. I suspect that some of the shortcomings I find in contemporary representational art, as compared to the work of the older artist’s, is somehow tied to our reliance on the convenience of the camera over the impressions of the mind. At least I think that, and have been willing to challenge myself. Does anyone else think that bowing to convenience has seriously eroded our skills as observers? But more practically, the benefits of working this way are that I’m constantly strengthening my observational skills by drawing from life, am disciplined to create stronger mental impressions, and gain a deeper personal connection with what makes a place special. Perhaps such a practice will prove to have a positive accumulative effect over the years.
A detail of the background figures invented from rough sketchbook suggestions.
Working out the foreground figure
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