When is a Painting Finished?

Tree 12x9 Oil
Is this painting finished?  Yes, because it met my goal.
The intention was to paint a tree demonstration on a rainy
day for my students, and that is exactly what I did.

How do you know when a painting is finished?  This is a question students often ask me.  To be honest, even painters who've been working at the craft all their lives still ask themselves this question.  The standard answer is:  When you've accomplished your goal (or achieved your vision), the painting is finished.

That doesn't help us much, as quite often, especially for beginners, the goal or vision is ill-defined at the start.  Sometimes it becomes clearer as you get further into the painting.  But sometimes not.

In my workshops, I teach about capturing the moment.  For me, the moment has much to do with the quality of light in a scene.  To take it further, it has to do with establishing an accurate relationship of the color temperature between light and shadow.   I can establish this early on in a painting, though - quite often right at the end of the block-in and adjustment stages.  (If you've taken one of my workshops, you'll have heard me speak of making your "best guess" in the block-in and then going on to adjusting that "best guess" in the next phase.)

At the end of this adjustment phase, I may stop, if I wish.  Or keep on going.  Basically, at this point  I have a very simplified - yet hopefully very accurate - representation of the scene.  If I want to take it beyond this, I will be moving from the simplified toward the more detailed, like this:

Where a painter stops on this line is completely up to him.  It's a personal choice, usually defined by one's comfort level with the agony of creating detail and the point at which one gets totally bored with the process.

An example of someone working at the more simplified end is Wolf Kahn; at the more detailed end, we have Rackstraw Downes.  You can pick your spot anywhere between them.  My own zone is somewhere along the middle.

Wolf Kahn · "Heavy Haze of a Hot Summer's Day."
1979. Oil, 27.50 x 37.5 inches.

Rackstraw Downes, “Under an Off-Ramp from the George Washington Bridge”
2011. Oil, 26 x 56 inches

Grand Canyon Paintings

Over the years, I've painted many times at Grand Canyon National Park as an invited artist for the
Grand Canyon Conservancy's Celebration of Art.  I've put together a page on my website with some of the more recent ones that you might enjoy.  These are all beautifully framed, and shipping to the US and Canada is included in the price.  You can see (and buy!) them here:

http://www.mchesleyjohnson.com/grand-canyon-paintings/

The collage above will give you a faint idea of what the paintings are like.  I encourage you to go to the link above to see the paintings in a much larger format.

Each of these paintings has a story, and if you buy one, I'll be happy to share the story with you!

Grand Canyon Celebration of Art: Wrap-Up

River Trip 9x12 Oil
One of my favorites from the event

This marks the tenth anniversary of the Grand Canyon Celebration of Art plein air painting event and my fifth time as an invited artist. I always enjoy painting at the canyon, and this was no exception. This year, we had a week of rather warm weather -- it was in the 80s each day -- and an abundance of sunshine and a scarcity of clouds. Without the clouds, most of my paintings have horizons that I placed high in the composition to minimize or even eliminate the empty sky. You will see, though, that one of my paintings features a few; that was the one day with enough to cast interesting shadows over the canyon.

Me at the Quick Draw
I normally don't sit to paint, but the week
had been rough on my back!

As much as I love the views from Yaki Point, this year I seemed to be drawn more toward the section of rim west of that, between Mather Point and the Yavapai Geology Museum. This part of the trail seems to be little-traveled by walkers, and I found a great deal of peace and quiet there. I think I spent as much time just gazing down into the canyon, enjoying the infinity of features and details, as I did actually painting it. Often my eyes would get stuck on some feature, and I’d wonder if any human -- Anglo, Spanish, Havasupai or other -- had ever set foot there.

Quick Draw auction about to begin

Artistically, I found the event rewarding. I believe I pushed my painting in a new direction with color and contrast, avoiding the tendency to mimic the rather dull colors one finds in nature. This is something I hope to work more with in the future. I also enjoyed meeting the new painters and renewing my acquaintance with old ones. But I’m a bit of a loner, so I also enjoyed my solo hikes. Very early one morning, when most of the hikers were still prepping for their journey to the river, I hiked down the Bright Angel trail a ways. It was so quiet I could hear birdsong echoing off the canyon walls. On my way back up, though, I encountered dozens of hikers making their descent. I grew a little tired of saying “good morning.”

Sunrise over Battleship (photo, not a painting!)

You can see all the paintings at this link:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/8cNH9rYpmynDbAdo9

Some are sold, but some are still available.  In a few days, the paintings will be up on the Grand Canyon Association's website and available for sale there, as well as at the Kolb Studio on the canyon's South Rim.  The exhibit and sale continue now until the end of January. For details, visit www.grandcanyon.org

The Grand Canyon Association staff and volunteers did a fantastic job of organizing the event and supporting the artists, and the National Park Service welcomed us as fellow stewards of the land, giving us special access to the park. Finally, I thank my lodging hosts, who made sure I got enough sleep and food and didn’t mind me waking up at 4 each morning to make coffee.

Now I am on my way home to Campobello Island, where next week Trina and I will pack up the car and head west. My next big event will be to judge the annual show for the Ohio Plein Air Society and to teach a workshop for the group. By the way, I still have room in that workshop, which runs October 1-3. If you’d like to join us, please see the registration flyer here

http://ohiopleinairsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/MCJ-Workshop-Flyer.pdf

with the registration page here

http://ohiopleinairsociety.com/form-michael-chesley-johnson-workshop/

I hope to see some of you there.

Grand Canyon Interim Report

There are many places in the world more remote than Grand Canyon, but sometimes Grand Canyon seems very remote indeed.  Normally, I would be posting to my blog almost daily with entertaining and enlightening reports on this painting business, but I am hobbled somewhat by telecommunications issues.  Be that as it may, I am here now, happy to report midway through the Tenth Annual Grand Canyon Celebration of Art.

As I write, it is Tuesday.  The event started Friday with an evening orientation and canvas-stamping, and painting began Saturday.  I went right in, full-throttle, painting four pieces on Saturday and again on Sunday. This, despite the heat.  Temperatures have been in the 80s, and if you’re in the sun, you bake. I am glad I had a change of heart about bringing my umbrella; I think I have used it for every painting session.  I’ve hoped for clouds, hoped to find a pinon or cedar tall enough to give me shade, but it’s the umbrella that has been a lifesaver. This is my fifth time as an invited artist, and I can’t remember a hotter week.

The organizers requested that some of the artists provide painting demonstrations.  I agreed to do one on Monday at 10 a.m. at the far east end of the park, at the Desert View Watch Tower.  (This is a historic structure in the form of a faux Native American building--a fantasy, really, since no Native American culture ever built such a thing--designed by architect Mary Colter in the 1930s.)  I wanted to be fresh for the demo, so I decided to take a hike rather than paint. I’ve been heading out before dawn each morning, so I did the same on Monday, and hiked from Mather Point to Yaki Point and back.  The demo went well, and although I thought about painting on the route back to Grand Canyon Village, which is where I am lodging, I didn’t. Later I went out to the Hermit Road on the west side of the park, which is where I’ve been painting most of the week, along with sessions at Yaki Point.

My raven overseer

My companions this week:  the ravens. I love to have them tumbling in the air overhead, playing with and talking to one another.  I feel a mystical connection with the raven. I’ve never felt this with any other animal. When I stand on the brink of the canyon, I can feel what it would be like to spread my wings and ride the thermals.  I see through their eyes.

By the way, my mantra this week is “Color and Contrast.”  For color, I’ve added a couple of new pigments to my standard palette.  These are quinacridone red and manganese violet, all Gamblin colors. These are perfect, I find, for the shadowed rocks walls.  So, my complete palette is as follows: hansa yellow light, hansa yellow deep, naphthol red, quinacridone red, permanent alizarin crimnson, manganese violet, ultramarine blue, cerulean blue hue and phthalo emerald, plus titanium-zinc white.  Also a little solvent-free gel. As for contrast, I start each painting with the idea that shadowed areas are to be painted in cool pigments; sunlit areas, in the warm pigments. The fact that I’m starting with color “right from the tube" makes for a very cartoonish start, but then I adjust this in later stages.  I’m starting each painting with a brush but doing most of the finish work with a knife. The color stays richer that way.

I’m afraid I haven’t photographed any of my paintings yet.  I want to take proper photos of them rather than sharing poorly-lit field shots.  I do think my work is good this week. So instead, I will leave you with some photos of some of my locations.  By the way, rather than posting regularly to the blog, I am posting regularly to my Instagram feed. Visit www.instagram.com/mchesleyjohnson for the latest.

My next report will most likely be after the event.  Wish me luck! The exhibition opens on Saturday night with a ticketed collector’s opening.  It opens to the public on Sunday. For full details, visit www.GrandCanyon.org

 

Grand Canyon-Bound

After the Rains 16x24 Oil by Michael Chesley Johnson
For the Celebration of Art invitational, artists will display a studio  painting at the
exhibition.  This is mine, and you can see (and buy!) it at the beginning of the week
at the Kolb Studio.

Ever since Colonel John Wesley Powell rode the wild horse rapids of Grand Canyon's Colorado River in 1869, artists have struggled to depict the canyon's transcendent grandeur.  The struggle doesn't always show up in the finished painting—and most of us artists are happiest when it does not—but as someone who has made the attempt, I can say that the struggle is always there.  But personally, I find the effort to be immensely satisfying, whatever the outcome.

And that is why I'm heading out to the Grand Canyon this week.  This will make my fifth time attending the Celebration of Art, which also marks its 10th anniversary this year.  I'm looking forward to seeing old friends, making some new ones, and to enjoy whatever the canyon throws at me.  Over the years, I've seen everything from incandescent sunsets to fogged-in dawns and daily monsoonal storms hurling lightning while I paint at my favorite spots.  Whatever comes, it will be beautiful and memorable.

Painting Grand Canyon in 2016

Here's a summary of the events:

• Artist Demonstrations and Plein Air Painting - September 8-13, 2018
• Welcome Gathering - Friday, September 14, 5:30 p.m.
• Quick Draw - September 15, 8:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.
• Quick Draw Auction - September 15, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
• Exhibition Grand Opening - September 16, 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
• Art Exhibition and Sale - September 16, 2018 - January 21, 2019, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

There's much more scheduled, including a demonstration by me (Monday, September 10th, at 10 a.m. at Desert View Watchtower), but you can see the full schedule here:  https://www.grandcanyon.org/events/celebration-of-art-2018/

Dawn at Grand Canyon

Like the other 23 invited artists, as I paint during the event, I'll be letting the Grand Canyon Association know my location via text.  If you want to find me, check in with the GCA at any of their shops along the South Rim, and they'll tell you where I am.  I tend to get started early, break in the middle of the day, and then paint again in the late afternoon.  The lighting is best for painting at these times.

If you can't come to Grand Canyon personally, you can follow me here on my blog, on Instagram, or on my Facebook studio page.  I'll try to engage in social media as much as possible—but of course, I'd rather be painting!

I hope to see you there!

New Grand Canyon Painting

"After the Rains"
16x24 Oil by Michael Chesley Johnson
To Be Exhibited at the 10th Annual Grand Canyon Celebration of Art

(Update:  Readers have been asking about the secret violet color I used in much of the painting.  It's Gamblin's quinacridone violet--a beautiful color!)

I'm always amazed at how far tourists will go from the shuttle bus—which isn't far at all.  They spill out, head for the recommended view a few feet from the bus, take a few snaps of a loved one posing before a stunning view, and return.  If I'm looking for a quiet spot to paint in, I often need to walk just a short distance from the stop to be completely alone.

Mohave Point is one of my favorite locations at Grand Canyon.  It's very popular with tourists—after all, it offers a stunning vista, and the buses do pause there every few minutes—but just past the stop the Rim Trail snakes along quietly with only the occasional walker.  I can paint here with little interruption.

Just west on the trail, I can enjoy a glorious view of the Colorado River 4500 feet below.  As sundown approaches, the growing shadows pen a new drama every minute.   It's a view I've painted many times.

Recently, I decided to make a larger view of this scene, based on plein air studies and photos.   I worked out my design in pencil first and then charcoal; made a color sketch to explore harmony choices; and finally went to my 16x24 panel and got to work.  As I neared the end, I made a series of adjustments, mostly with color and modelling, but I also had to make a design change.  A second pair of eyes—Trina's—suggested that the tree I put in the bottom right interrupted the theme, and after some time, I finally agreed with her.  The painting is stronger because of that change, and it also opened up more terrain for the viewer to explore.

The painting will be my studio piece for the 2018 10th Annual Grand Canyon Celebration of Art this fall.  It will appear in the catalog and also be exhibited along with my plein air work.  The outdoor painting part of the event runs from September 8-15, 2018, with the exhibition and sale continuing until January 14, 2019.  For more details:  https://www.grandcanyon.org/events/celebration-of-art/

Please don't forget my plein air painting workshop at Grand Canyon October 24-28, 2018.  There are still a few spaces left.  I'd love to show you my favorite spots in the Canyon!  Details are here at https://www.grandcanyon.org/photography-art-yoga/plein-air-painting/  

Initial Design Sketch (Pencil, 6x9)

Value Study (Charcoal, 6x9)

Color Study (Oil, 6x9)

16x24 panel toned with Gamblin Fastmatte Transparent Earth Red
and references to the right.  Also had a tablet with photos to the left, not shown.
Ready to start painting!

Grand Canyon Celebration of Art - 10th Annual in 2018

Sunrise, Grand Canyon

This week, I'm lost.  I'm wandering the rim of a vast canyon, taking any trail that offers the least promise of finding a special place.  But I'm not outfitted with hiking boots and water bottle; instead, my gear consist of computer and sketchpad.  I'm exploring Grand Canyon in a virtual way from my studio, sorting through all my past paintings and photographs and making little sketches, seeking inspiration for an important painting.

As you might remember, I've been invited back to participate in the Grand Canyon Celebration of Art this fall.  For the event, I need to create a studio painting that will go in the catalog and be exhibited along with my plein air paintings at the show.  The task of creating a painting that is 1) different from everyone else's so it stands out and yet 2) traditional enough that it will attract a buyer is a real challenge, considering the high caliber of artists invited each year.   During a time like this, I take many walks.  I find that a long, solitary hike—or maybe several—helps me discover the bright, shiny nugget of an idea in my personal landscape of images.

Some of Myy Paintings of Grand Canyon

Over the course of this research, I've learned that I've painted over 120 views of Grand Canyon.  This does not include the casual sketches, but only the serious efforts.  Most of them are plein air, painted either on expeditions to the Canyon or at the Celebration of Art .  (This will make my fifth time as an invited artist.)  During the course of painting the outdoor pieces, I've experienced hammering rain and explosive lightning; chilling snow squalls that rattled sleet down onto my palette; awesome, billowy clouds piling up before a storm; the Canyon filled with impenetrable fog; rosy sunrises and golden sunsets of which one cannot fail to make a postcard-perfect photo; and wind powerful enough to rip brushes out of your hand.  Looking through my images brings all of these moments back to me, which is a very pleasurable thing.

I'll be posting updates on my blog as I go through the process of creating the painting.  In the meantime, I offer you some photos of me painting at Grand Canyon over the years.  I'm also hoping to get up to the Canyon this winter to paint snow, if we do get any snow this season!

By the way, if you are an outdoor painter, the Grand Canyon Association, which hosts the Celebration of Art, reserves a few spots on the roster for new artists.  You an apply on-line at https://www.callforentry.org/festivals_unique_info.php?ID=4811   Good luck!  I hope to see you there September 8-16, 2018.

Grand Canyon 2016 - Part 9

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Saturday morning dawned with the canyon filled with a blue haze from the Fuller fire still smouldering on the North Rim. The artists I met during check-in for the Quick Draw all remarked on how lucky we were; it always helps with a painting to put a feeling of “atmosphere” in it, and here we had been handed it on this day. We wouldn’t have to make it up.

Parking in the Village, which is where the Quick Draw is held, is always a problem on weekends. Even though check-in wasn’t until 7:30, I arrived at 6 to find a parking spot, which I was lucky to do right near the Kolb Studio. (I was able to keep that parking spot all day and didn’t have to move my car.) So I had plenty of time to join the tourists for sunrise pictures and coffee.

After checkin-in, I went to my favorite spot near the Bright Angel Lodge with a nice view of shadowed cliffs. Having over two dozen artists set up between Verkamp’s and the Kolb Studio, a short stretch of trail, meant that some of us would be painting similar scenes -- or so you would think. Artists who set up beside me were Brad Holt, Robert Goldman and Susan Klein. None of us painted the same view! Brad painted a picture of the Lookout Studio; Susan, an intimate close-up of some rocks right off the trail; Robert, the view looking west; and I, the view looking east.

The virtual pistol went off at 8; by 10, we wrapped up and delivered the paintings, finished and framed to the auction table. There was an amazing amount of good work done in just two hours, and it always amazes me that artists can pull that off. (But this is what we do, isn’t it?) I was very pleased to have my 12x16 auctioned off at $1000. You might remark that this is not a bad rate of pay. But as Whistler remarked, artists are paid for their vision, not for their labor.

We had a break after the auction, so I joined my lodging host and Robert Goldman at El Tovar for a beer. Robert, it turns out, lives in Prescott, and I also learned that we were in the same gallery (now closed) in Sedona for awhile several years ago. I talked to Robert about his painting process, and it’s always interesting to hear how other artists work.

Artists were asked to return to the Kolb Studio at 4 to vote on Artists’ Choice. (Won by Robert Dalegowski.) I love getting a chance to see the artwork before the collectors arrive because I can take my time to enjoy the paintings. Each artist has a studio painting as well as the week’s worth of plein air work. I won’t render judgement on my fellow artists and their work, but I will say there are some excellent paintings there. I was honored by Peter (P.A) Nisbet, a much-respected and highly-collected Grand Canyon painter, who said my studio painting of Acadia National Park’s Otter Point was the best of all of them. “I like to give credit where credit is due,” he said.

The collectors flooded in at 5, and the Studio became a mosh pit. By 7, it was over and time to go home.


Now it’s Sunday. Artists have a debriefing with the Grand Canyon Association at 8, followed by a Buyer’s Brunch at 10 and more sales. The exhibit and sale opens to the public at noon and will be ongoing until January.

On Tuesday, I fly back home to Maine and New Brunswick. Not long after, we pack up the car and head west for our winter home and studio in Sedona. I may write more on this event as a wrap-up, but I’ll be quite busy with packing, a workshop in North Carolina, and then the Sedona Plein Air Festival. I will say I had a great week and enjoyed, as always, painting on the Rim, working with the Grand Canyon Association’s staff and volunteers and the National Park Service, and deeply appreciate the support and hospitality of my lodging hosts. Thank you, everyone!

Grand Canyon 2016 - Part 8

Saturday, September 17, 2016

I thought I’d take a moment to talk about my evolving palette. Many of you have asked what I use and if it changes from Maine to Arizona. Up until this week, I have used what is basically a split-primary palette. And no, the palette doesn’t change. In the photo above, you can see the these colors in the top row, from left to right:

• Cool yellow (cadmium or hansa yellow light)
• Warm yellow (cadmium or hansa yellow deep)
• Warm red (cadmium red light)
• Cool red (permanent alizarin crimson)
• Blue (ultramarine blue, which is a blue with red in it and next to cool red on the color wheel)
• Green (phthalo green)

Rather than two blues, I prefer use use a blue and a green. I feel it enlarges the gamut, or offers more color mixing possibilities.  That's titanium-zinc white on the left.

This week, however, I’m finding it advantageous to add some earth colors. These are in the column on the right, from top to bottom:

• Yellow ochre
• Burnt sienna
• Raw umber
• Prussian blue

Prussian blue, of course, isn’t an earth color, but I’ve found it plays so well with the earth colors and is perfect for the skies and canyon blues this week. That last little dollop in the column is Gamblin’s Solvent-Free Gel. It’s my medium when I don’t want to thin with Gamsol (odorless mineral spirits.) It also helps the earth colors stay glossier. Earth colors tend to go matte, whereas the modern colors tend to stay glossy.

Now you are asking, Why the earth colors? To make the colors of the canyon, it’s just faster and easier to use these rather than mix the equivalent with the split-primary palette.

My process is to first tone the surface with Gamblin’s transparent earth red (all my colors are Gamblin) to get a nice warm effect going. Next, I paint as much as I can with the earth colors. Then, since the earth colors dull down so easily, I move to my split-primary palette if any of the colors need to be richer. This is especially the case with sunlit areas, where I might need a warmer, more intense light than I can achieve with yellow ochre. I might use the cadmiums here. In the darks, I might add touches of ultramarine, alizarin crimson or even phthalo green.

Now, on to my journal.

Chimney by Mary Jane Colter at Hermit's Rest

After delivering my final painting Friday around noon, I was beat. It’d been a busy week. But I had a breather, with nothing really to do until Saturday, when two fun-filled days of hob-nobbing with collectors will begin. So I took the afternoon off. A couple of friends surprised me by coming up from Sedona, and we had lunch together. When lunch was over, they had to head back, so I was once again on my own. I decided to drive slowly out to the end of the West Rim Drive to Hermit’s Rest and take a hike there.

As Arizona goes, it wasn’t very hot -- 82 degrees -- but the sun at 1 p.m. was intense, even for being so near the autumnal equinox. I smeared on the sunblock, put on my hat and grabbed two bottles of water. I began to hike down the trail and quickly realized, yes, it was indeed hot. I decided to go off-trail and hike along a rock shelf that followed a contour line.

As it turns out, it was a very pleasant detour. I came across twisted, graceful junipers; patches of blooming apache plume and mountain mahogany; agaves that had recently sent up flower stalks and were now green with fruit; and of course there were the ravens, playing. I strolled for about an hour, all told.

Next stop was Pima Point. The view there is amazing. You can look back to Hermit’s Rest and see the trail winding far, far below. All the layers of the Earth lay open, peeled back by erosion like the layers of an onion. I stood at the rail for a long time, entranced. It was a very spiritual moment, and for awhile, I was no longer a painter but a witness to the ages.

From there, I went home. It was time for a rest and to engage my mind with something other than painting. When you are painting for a festival, you are always spending your creative energy and not earning it. You empty the bank. It’s good to have a break just before the end to take a little in. Hiking and sightseeing is part of that; so is sitting down with a book or magazine or movie.

After my rest period, I went off to hear a talk given by Curt Walters. Curt, who lives in Sedona, has painted Grand Canyon for many years and has won many awards for his work and kudos for his activism in helping to preserve the Canyon. He showed a retrospective of his work and talked about how it had changed over the years, and why.

Now it’s Saturday morning. The Quick Draw starts very soon. Artists are expected to check in at 7:30 with the starter pistol going off at 8. We’ll paint for two hours along the Rim, between Verkamp’s and the Bright Angel trailhead. At 10, we are expected to deliver our paintings finished and framed to the auction table at the Bright Angel trailhead. The auction starts at noon.

Finally, the day will end with the Grand Opening at 5 pm at the Kolb Studio. This is a ticketed event and allows you to get first pick of the paintings. The public opening isn’t until Sunday at noon. I hope to see you at all these events! Visit www.grandcanyon.org for details.