Wendy Ervin blog

Painting Upside Down

4/8/2019

Exercising...I've blogged on this before and probably will again in the future, but here is an exercise that challenged everything my left brain brought to the easel: Painting Upside Down!

No, no, I wasn't personally upside down; only my reference photo and my painting were. Here's how it works (and, believe me, it is very baffling at first): turn the photo of what you wish to paint upside down and paint the canvas in the same manner, upside down. It sounds simple enough, but the brain does not want to let go of control and order! The first instinct is to paint right-side-up what you are viewing upside down, which is incredibly difficult and disconcerting. It's like your mind is wanting to make sense of what is not making any sense at all.

step 1: reference (photo taken by Pam Padgett)

step 2: invert reference photo

The point of this exercise is to be released from the idea of the Thing (the doorway, the car, the structure) and paint simple shapes and values, shape relationships with the shapes next to them. This is an exercise done quickly, about 45 minutes. No masterpieces here. No fussiness. No stress. (that explains why I left the detailed bicycle out!)

step 3: paint the shapes as they appear upside down (ie. put in the ground at the top of the canvas and the top of the doorway at the bottom)

step 4: when finished, flip painting right-side-up and compare with right-side-up reference photo

One thing that I immediately noticed when I turned my painting right-side-up was that the stucco wall actually looked like stucco! Because I wasn't carefully drawing the curve of the doorway I was able to capture a painterly impression of the warm and lumpy exterior.

I hope this wasn't too confounding. Did it make sense to you?

I like sharing the details of becoming a better painter in this blog because it both reinforces for me what I'm learning and also sheds light for you, dear readers, on how much goes into becoming a good artist. It also gives me opportunity to consult the thesaurus so I'm not repeating the same word ("confusing") over and over and, instead, get to choose the much more delightful "baffling", "disconcerting", and "confounding."

Thank you for letting me share my ramblings!!

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Color is a Brain Thing

3/29/2019

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A few months ago I read an intriguing article about the reality/non-reality of color that really got me thinking and I've wanted to write about it here ever since. The problem is that I don't want to get all scientific and intellectual because that's over my head and kind of mind-numbing. I also don't want to copy excerpts from studies and articles on the subject, so here goes...in my own words:

Do you think you would know "blue" if you were born without sight? If you see something bright yellow, do you have a unique "feeling response"? The reality is that a large portion of our brains are stimulated by color in unexpected ways, completely unrelated to the hue or wavelength of the light reaching our retinas. We interpret a green lawn as green, regardless of whether the shadows of a tree make that green more of a blue. Our mental associations with color are anchored in our experiences in this world.

Have you ever noticed that a mere suggestion of a color, without seeing it, fires up your mind? Pink is a good example (even though there's a feud over whether it is even a real color or not!) But think about pink for a minute and your brain will imagine a rose, a baby blanket, your favorite sweater; all of them 3 dimensional objects your brain has categorized as pink to help you interact with your external world.

Color perception seems also to be linked with culture and language. A tribe in Africa is able to distinguish and name several different shades of green, but could not pick out an obviously blue square amongst a grouping of green ones. They were able, however, to pick out more hues of green than the rest of us can. Scientist think that until we have a word for a color, we don't "see" it. Our brains seem to be wired to ignore what doesn't appear relevant.

Have you heard the phrase: "learning to see"? Artists hear this all the time as they are developing their visual skills. They hear it most when painting from life. It has taken me years to see the reds and violets in the shadows of trees or the warm yellow on the sunlit side of a white house. I remember watching an artist from California paint a grove of cedar trees and her choice for the dark shadows was a warm maroon! The "rule" is that shadows are painted with cool colors, but by golly, that maroon beneath the cool greens of foliage was perfect!

Color is influenced by not only conditions of light and angle, but also by relevance and language. It was never relevant to my life whether or not a white house actually was more pale yellow on the sunny side and bluish on the shady side until I started learning how to paint one that rings true to the viewers eye.

Little White House 9x12 oil on panel $350

I've got more to say on this subject, but that's all my brain can take for now. Stay tuned for future pithy posts about the brain and color. Thanks for reading my blog!!

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Do This Thing....uhhhh, ok.

3/19/2019

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It's been a few years since I got my first initiation into internet website management. I started with what has proved to be the easiest website to construct and maintain: this one- Weebly. It is truly a "drag and drop" website builder, with only a few complicated steps involved to link it to Facebook and MailChimp. Even so, it took me a 40 hour week and lots of YouTube video views to put it together.

Fast forward a couple years...I get a phone call from my local art group leader asking if I would be willing to help out with their website. I'm pretty sure I wrote a blog about this. Whenever I attempt something new I enter the world of humility and humiliation. Most of mine in this case were in the privacy of my own office space as I became familiar with the Wix website platform. It always feels like I am going to blow up the internet, when I'm learning this stuff, but I quickly realized that until I push that little "Publish" button, nothing at all changes on the viewer side. Wix building is so much more complicated than Weebly, but also offers so many more options to make interesting pages. I was able to animate images, add fun little boxes and lines in different colors and styles, use all kinds of fonts of multiple sizes, etc. Once I got the hang of it, it was fun to work on.

Another fast forward to now: I've been invited/recruited to work on The Chestnut Group website and, guess what? A completely different platform: WordPress. And to top that off, it was built for this artist group by actual professionals. Holy moly, there are pages within pages, secret dropdown menus and so many boxes to check, uncheck, ignore, pray over! My introductory experience involved having to decide what to do with boxes that had words like "delete user" "expire member" "block password". Yikes! But, fortunately, I have teachers that have walked me through the various things I'm expected to do. And, since it is so easy to forget things, I've been creating recipe cards for each of the procedures with step by step instructions.

So....all that to say, along with all the learning that comes with being a professional artist, I am also learning to be an amateur webperson. (Just can't bring myself to say WebMaster) I think it's been really good for me to stretch my brain muscles and gain confidence; but also it's helped me understand and be compassionate for my friends who don't feel comfortable in this computer age. Everything is changing and it is easy to be left behind, left out, if you don't keep up with technology. Hey, if I can learn, you can learn! If I can do it, so can you!

Be a boss and do something techie today!!

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A Few More "50-cent" Words...

2/20/2019

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Here are a few more oil painting terms to add to my last blog post:

Scumbling: applying an uneven layer of paint over a thin, dry underpainting so that the first color shows through, creating an attractive effect of complex color. (you might see this used in a cloudy sky or the side of an otherwise drab building)

Tonking: named after Professor Tonks (no, I'm not kidding), it is a method to remove excess paint by laying absorbent paper directly onto the painted canvas, pressing gently and evenly, and then carefully peeling off.

Sgraffito: the Italian word for 'scratch', this technique involves using an implement to score into the paint, creating lines or scoring into the layers of paint. (example: creating wood grain effects on a table)
Some artists use this method to sign their paintings, which is especially helpful if the paint is very thick.

Crazing: (sounds like something you'd get while spending an evening tonking, honky-style...but, no.) This is the term for those fine lines and surface cracks you see on old paintings, due to the underpaint drying more slowly than the surface varnish, causing it to separate and crack. One of the challenges of creating a lasting painting is to understand and practice professional painting techniques.

Fugitive Pigment: colors that fade or change under the influence of sunlight, heat, or other environmental conditions. Again, avoiding the sad fading or yellowing depends on the artist's knowledge and use of quality materials.

Sfumato: Italian for 'smoke', this is painting in thin glazes to get a cloudy, hazy effect. You would see this mostly when the artist is trying to make things look far off in the distance.

and, finally, Mahl Stick: is not the club you use when "crazed" after "tonking"! This is a wooden stick used by the artist to steady her arm while painting a more detailed area of the work. It's usually held on one end and propped against the easel, while the painting arm is rested on it, leaving that hand free and steady for detail work.

Here's a fun challenge: can anyone make a sentence using all seven of these vocabulary words??!

Thanks for reading my blog!!!

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Increase Your WordPower

2/12/2019

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Occasionally I throw around words in my blog that may be as unfamiliar to you as they were to me when I first encountered them in my art studies. I thought I might highlight a few with their definitions and give you a leg up on your word power. It could come in handy someday...like at Trivia Night or working a crossword puzzle. Here goes...

Chroma: the intensity and purity of a specific hue (the absence of adding white or gray to a pure hue)

Alla Prima: beginning and finishing a painting in a single session (often using thickly applied paint)

Impasto: thickly applied paint

Pigment: dry powder derived from plant, earth, animals that can become paint when mixed with oil, water, or other medium

Opaque: not allowing light to pass through, not transparent

Transparent: allowing light to pass through (allows previous layers of paint to show through)

Luminosity: the measure of glowing light, appearance of radiating or reflecting light

Grisaille (pronounced gri-Zay): French word for painting in monochrome shades of gray or brown

Chiaroscuro (Kee-ahr-uh-skyoor-oh): Italian word for painting in light and dark shades of the same color

That is enough for now! We are in the doldrums of winter here in Tennessee and I must say it looks way more like Seattle than the South. I'm trying to keep a steady schedule in my studio, painting from photographs of sunnier days. Here are a few tidbits of the paintings in progress currently:

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Expanding Horizons

1/28/2019

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The best advice on this art adventure was given to me a couple of years before I ever picked up a paintbrush and that was "take a painting class and get involved with the painters in your community." Of course, it took me two years to overcome the fear and commit to art lessons, but ever since I have been actively involved with other artists in my community and the larger Nashville area and have reaped untold rewards!

Last year I began to consider art events further afield and was, happily, accepted into two art shows on the west coast, which got me thinking about some of the national art organizations that serve oil painters. There are several and I began to investigate what other fellow artists thought about them. Some felt it was an unnecessary expense, but many of the artists I admire had two or three listed on their CVs. After a lot of deliberation I decided to join the National Organization of Oil and Acrylic Painters, otherwise known as NOAPS, which welcomes all comers who pay the dues. I also applied to Oil Painters of America, who jury applicants based on submitted jpgs of recent paintings. If accepted, you begin as an Associate Member and have opportunities to advance, after a few years and a few hurdles, to the Signature membership (where you get to put letters behind your name!) The biggest jump is the Masters Level and it is a small and special group of amazing painters.

When we got home from vacation this week a pile of mail was waiting and in it was a fat little envelope from Oil Painters of America. You know what a fat envelope means, right? (happy dance!) So now I am a card-carrying American artist!!

Thank you for letting me share my happy news! Thanks for reading my blog!

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The Process of Painting a Donkey

1/8/2019

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Just like my kids when they were toddlers, it's a good thing this donkey is cute or else I would have given up! I thought it would be entertaining for you to see my process. The struggle is real!

So, the beginning: I start most of my work with a grisaille lay in, covering the canvas in a warm, transparent layer of paint, usually a red or orange oxide. Once that is on, I use a low lint paper towel and wipe away the lighter areas of the subject and go over the darker values with more transparent paint.

A lovely, almost haunting image results. Many artists will continue with transparent layers of paint and build the values while leaving the image more monochromatic.

I went for the "local color" of the donkey in my photo reference, mixing warm and cool grays and darker browns for the fur.

Hmmm, I thought. He looks a little brown. Maybe I should make him grayer...

Now to build in some dimension with values so he looks round and not pasted on. Hmmm, now I think he is too gray.

I like this brownish color better. And the gray shows through because I'm mostly using transparent paint colors. Hmmm...I think his chin is a little weak and the shape of the muzzle is too slopey...

Straightened the slope out; now to develop a sweet, tender eye. It took several renditions until I got the one that shows how darling this boy is. Also, let's make him fuzzier.

A little more work on the background, floor, and the light streaming in. Not feeling satisfied with the difference between the lighter values in the head compared to the dark neck. It kind of looks like "Pin the Head on the Donkey" to me.

Adding some lighter values on the coat and blending the edges below the ear seems to help round out the neck area. I'm trying for an indication of fur without losing interesting brushstrokes.

A little more light here, a little more dark there...a few dots and dashes..."Light in the Stable" 16x20 Oil on canvas $600

I hope you enjoyed coming along with me while I wrestled this cute fellow! Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!!

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Sacred Places

12/27/2018

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Secret places, hidden gems, mystery...I am drawn like a magnet to these things and I hope it comes through in my paintings. Ireland abounds with them and I was blessed to experience the reverence and awe of ancient stones: monuments to people who lived eons ago. I chose five to paint as a collection and kept them unified by size and a tetrad color palette (red-violet, yellow-green, blue-violet, yellow-orange) Besides the reality that almost everything looks mossy green, I thought that hue brought out the age and mystery of these sacred sites. The large photos are of the paintings and the small ones are my reference photos...so you can judge how well I did in capturing what I saw and felt.

Muckross Abbey is the ruins of a Franciscan Friary and this painting is of the Cloister Walk that surrounds the now roofless central cloister where an enormous, ancient Yew tree grows and the light pours in through the beautiful stone arches.

Though the roof is gone, Muckross Abbey is still in an amazing state of preservation. There are beautiful arched doorways and spiral staircases to sturdy upper floors. Surrounding the ruins are the thickly forested shores of Lough Leane, adding to the enchantment of the place. I wanted to highlight the lovely intricate window so darkened the foreground wall to lead the eye.

Just outside of Limerick, in County Clare, is Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. The castle was amazing, filled with all kinds of secrets, but was caught my attention was a small wall shrine of Mary and baby Jesus. It was a place for the faithful to pray and leave a coin in Mary's hand. I painted it from slightly to one side to take advantage of the shadow line directing the eye.

You can see that I painted it again, this time a close-up, to capture the aged and weathered stone and the coin in Mary's palm. I used the palette knife a little more in this one to show how the rain and moisture had grooved the stone. This small shrine was quite easy to miss on the grounds and there was very little information about it, leaving me to wonder what prayers and hopes had been placed there in the past.

Towards the end of our Ireland trip we visited the Glendalough Monastic Site, outside of Dublin. Located in the Wicklow mountains and national park, it is an awesome, iconic place to see. The ruins and cemetery clearly show the passage of time and the brevity of our lives, as in the New Testament book of James: "You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away" James 4:14

Thank you so much for viewing my art and for all your comments here and on social media.
You are appreciated!!

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It's Lookin' a lot like Christmas

12/15/2018

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I wish you all a merry and blessed Christmas!! Usually I wait until the last minute to paint Christmas-themed work, but this year I started in July and have these completed and up on the wall...except for the donkey...he's on my easel, keeping me company and making me happy. I so appreciate all the kind and encouraging words and "likes" on facebook. I'm beyond grateful that what I paint blesses you!!

Isaiah 9:6
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God. Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

"Santa Baby 2" 11x14 Oil

"Santa Baby 1" 11x14 Oil

work in progress "Light in the Stable" 16x20 Oil work in progress

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New Paintings//New Art Show

11/27/2018

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Private Retreat 9x12. Oil on linen panel $400 available at Fort Houston Art Show

Country Creek in Autumn 9x12 Oil on linen panel $400 available at Fort Houston Art Show

One last art show before the year runs out: in partnership with the Chestnut Group and Fort Houston, we will have a month long art display of plein air and studio paintings by our members. Fort Houston is a hidden gem in Nashville, near the fairgrounds and I-65, It is a virtual playground for artists of all types and has all the tools, machines, and studio space for wood and metal artists, as well as a photo studio and screen printing station. Our show will help support their contribution to art in Nashville.

The show opens with a free reception Saturday, December 1st, 6-9pm, all are welcome, no rsvp necessary. Click here for map. The art can be viewed during regular business hours Monday through Friday 10am-5pm until December 29th. I hope you get a chance to see and buy some awesome art!

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<<Previous

Painting Upside Down

Color is a Brain Thing

Do This Thing....uhhhh, ok.

A Few More "50-cent" Words...

Increase Your WordPower

Expanding Horizons

The Process of Painting a Donkey

Sacred Places

It's Lookin' a lot like Christmas

New Paintings//New Art Show

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