Afton's Legacy

I painted this piece a couple weeks ago, its a 20x24 and is one of the only "overcast weather" pieces that I let live... Most see the round file.

Quote:"I know for sure that I have an instinct for color, and that it will come to me more and more, that painting is in the very marrow of my bones."(Letter to Theo van Gogh, 3 September 1882) Vincent van Gogh.

Leftovers.....uuggh

Quote: "The best part about being an Artist is still being able to enjoy books for the pictures" Me/ Daniel Corey

Beauport Easel Fix

Alot of people have been using or should I say "trying" to use the latest mass produced version of the original Goucester Easels, the Beauport. Working painters look for an outdoor easel that is sturdy while painting and they can actually leave for a second and not find fallen over, broken and your painting butter side down in the dirt when they return. This easel has that potential, the one thing holding it back is well, itself. The modern manufacturer ( I don't know the actual name) is sending these out for sale ignoring the best parts of the design that they have stolen (borrowed??)
With this post I'm hoping to help out those who bought one (or are about to) based on the photos and when they got it out of the bag and tried to use it said " WTF this thing is a POS!" Most of the measurements for the mods I'm gonna show you can be made by looking at the enlarged photo and guesstimating the location. Only a couple of things are very important to making this easel work correctly. Please ask questions if I am vague or over look anything.


First thing is the traveling, the "body bag" it comes with is ridiculous. You can probably use that to carry six of these easels...

Most all you need can be held in place with two small bungee cords.

1: First mod is taking one of the stock strap holder rings off and putting aside for later. Replace this with a decent frame hanger ring. The one you took off fits something else that we need to modify later. While doing this you can throw out the stock plastic clip that is attached to the strap. That thing is junk and you will do better to tie the long strap directly to the metal rings.

2: Place a small eyelet that has been bent open in the top inside of the back leg, as shown in Photo 3 and 4, this will be what holds the horizontal "A" cross braces in place when we are closing the easel and opening it. Notice the screws place into what will be the bottom front of the horizontal "A" frame. By the placement of the screws in the hinge area you should be able to get a ball park measurement to place these screws and leave them out approx 1/4 - 1/8 of an inch.

3: Here in Photo 5 we see where that strap ring clamp went, we placed it around one of the metal "C" rings that hold together the horizontal "A" cross braces. The other Metal "C" ring has been removed for the next step. Please click on photo as it should make what is going on here much clearer.

4: Notice in Photo 6 the location and orientation of the "metal C rings" one is in between the metal pins of the horizontal A cross brace and the other we must bend back on in front of the front set of pins. The opening of the "C" must be up on both metal "C" rings in order for the easel to close properly. Again click on the photo for clarification.

When you set up your easel now you will be able to use the supplied rod (the one that looks like there is a nail sticking out of one side) to pull the closest metal "C" ring towards you and this will tighten the easel. No more wobble. Genius right?
Anyway when these mods are complete your easel should fold up like an original and open like one too. If you ever get the chance to pick an original up, do it! They are about 3-4lbs lighter then the Beauport and the ones Ive seen open quicker then any other easel I know of.

No quotes today, a real post coming soon. Go paint!

Invasion of the 20x24s..

For the past few weeks I have been painting 20x24" inch canvases more then anything else, here are a few that I like enough to share with you.

If your someone that says "I could never paint big outdoors" then that should give you all the more reason to try it... If you step back and use big brushes its really a similar experience to an 8x10 or 11x14. Except when you have a drawing mistake, people can see it from 30 feet away. Happy Painting!

Quote: Van Gogh on Color: "I know for sure that I have an instinct for color, and that it will come to me more and more, that painting is in the very marrow of my bones."(Letter to Theo van Gogh, 3 September 1882)

Quote 2 (remember... Two Quote Tuesday!) : "I retain from nature a certain sequence and a certain correctness in placing the tones; I study nature, so as not to do foolish things, to remain reasonable. However, I don't mind so much whether my color corresponds exactly, as long as it looks beautiful on my canvas, as beautiful as it looks in nature."(Letter to Theo van Gogh, October 1885)

Where the Masses Meet is Where the Color Sleeps!

This week has been pretty crazy weather wise, we have had short sleeve shirt (in the sun) weather and yesterday I had snow landing on my palette.... For the most part spring has sprung in Maine and the grass is getting greener (finally!) .

I have decided that just one last gray scale comparison will do it this week and thought it was a good one to do this with, here's why. The colors are what some would call "crazy" or "Imaginative" I see these colors as fine comparisons of warm/cool and lighter/darker but you can judge for yourself. Either way it works in the gray scale and proves a point that a value is only a light or a dark in comparison to the value next to it.. If you took the unlit side of the building in this piece and made a sample chip to hold up to other paintings you would see that it could be a "Light", in this one it works as "in shadow. This piece was painted at Cozy Harbor in Boothbay, its 8x10.

The top piece is from a day up on Mount Battie here in Camden Maine. It was a day of on and off rain, this one is when the rain clouds left for the day. I am not sure why the top left of the image looks dirty??? In real life it is clean color. This piece is a 20x16.

Quote" "I have observed a number of works which actually lead one to assume that certain people's eyes show them things differently from the way they really are ... who perceive - or as they would doubtless say 'experience' - the meadows as blue, the sky as green, the clouds as sulphurous yellow, and so on ... I wish to prohibit such unfortunates, who clearly suffer from defective vision, from trying to foist the products of their faulty observation on to their fellow men as though they were realities, or indeed from dishing them up as 'art'."Adolf Hitler, 1937.

there.. do you really wanna have to the same opinions on color as that guy????

"The craving for colour is a natural necessity just as for water and fire. Colour is a raw material indispensable to life. At every era of his existence and his history, the human being has associated colour with his joys, his actions and his pleasures."-- Frenand Leger, "On Monumentality and Color", 1943.

I'm guessing these two didn't share a six pack.. LOL.. thanks for stopping by, Dan

Values..... what have you done to me?...

OK the title is a little dramatic... Here are some more images in both Color and black and white. Please let me know what you think of these in comparison of the B+W versus the Color. Also let me know if these comparisons are affecting any your work and helping you keep values on the front of your mind, I would love to hear the feedback.

Images from top to bottom, 12x16, 8x10, 6x8.

Quote: "…As I understand it, we of course agree perfectly about black in nature. Absolute black does not really exist. But like white, it is present in almost every color, and forms the endless variety of grays -- different in tone and strength. So that in nature one really sees nothing else but those tones or shades. " Van Gogh..

A Month and A Day

Wheeew it has been a month and a day since my last post... First off I would like to dispel any rumors that my blog is closing down and that I joined the peace corps or taken an apprenticeship with Ravi Shankar... In all honesty I have been working real hard on accessing where I am with my painting and what I need to work on to move forward.
What I have come up with is Values... I have always been pushing colors as far as I can and as a result my work has always stayed towards the middle of the road value wise. The side effect of this mid value bias is less impact visually and can sometimes (OK alot of the time) lull you to mental sleep.. Don't get me wrong I feel that a near white mid tone and almost black value scheme is the absolute worst. The lack of mid tone finesse can push away even the greenest of viewers on to the next image. So here is a collection of a few pieces in Color and Black + White. Let me know which ones you think worked out better or worse and if the value patterns seem too busy.... I think that's my next focus



I also would love to hear how the photos are looking compared to before, the bottom one is one I have had a few "re photo" requests for, so here it is.



Two Quote Tuesday. Both Paul Cezanne.



Quote: "Painting is damned difficult ... you always think you've got it, but you haven't."



Quote2: "I want to die painting."