Alternate Oil Palettes

Some time ago, I read about an alternate palette that painter Daniel Corey recommends for students.  It's a simple, three-color palette based on the primaries, but one of the colors is unexpected.  It consists of cadmium yellow, quinacridone red and - here's the unexpected one - Prussian blue.  I never think of Prussian as being a workhorse color when it comes to oils.  I sometimes use phthalo blue; Prussian is similar, but more muted and, because it doesn't have the high tinting strength, it is less dangerous.  In Daniel's blog post, he shows the wide range of color than can be mixed with this palette.

During this week's workshop, I decided to give it a try.  I was pleased with the color range.  Overall, the painting has a cool feeling to it, but then, it was painted at noontime when the sunlight tends to be cooler.  Here it is:

"Cathedral Rock from Schnebly Hill" 6x12, oil - $100 - contact

Below are a few more paintings from the week, all done with my typical six-color palette (cadmium yellow light, cadmium yellow medium, cadmium red light, permanent alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, phthalo emerald).  And one quick note - if you haven't seen my March newsletter, it is here.

"Hononki Tower" 6x12, oil - $100 - contact

"Hononki Cliff" 9x12, oil - $150 - contact

"Arroyo Cedar" 12x9, oil - $150 - contact

Arizona Plein Air Painters Annual Juried Members Show

I received word that I've had a couple of pieces juried into the upcoming Arizona Plein Air Painters Annual Juried Member's Show.  The exhibit runs March 30-April 11, from 10-5 each day, at the Sedona Arts Center on Main Street, Sedona, Arizona.  There'll be two receptions, one on March 30, from 4-8 pm, and again on April 6, from 4-8 pm.  If you're going to be in the area, I hope you'll drop by the reception or at least see the show!

The pieces are below.  Both are oil and painted, of course, on location.  Your purchase will benefit the non-profit Sedona Arts Center.

"Into the Flow" 12x16, oil, $750
This was painted at the well-known Red Rock Crossing.  Usually, photographers (and painters) like the view of Cathedral Rock looming up over Oak Creek.  I shifted my viewpoint to the left, and painted looking up stream.

"Warrior" 12x24, $1125
This is one of my favorite spots to paint, at what I call  Uptown Trails.  This is an area right below Steamboat Rock where the trailheads are for the Jim Thompson and Brins Mesa trails.

Who's Buying Paintings These Days - Part 2

The Tortilla Lady, 9x12, oil - $150 - contact Michael

I had over 90 responses to my survey on buyer demographics. It's a small sample of the buying population, and no doubt it is biased toward my own network of buyers, students and followers. Although I did have one billionaire - really! - cruise through the Campobello Island gallery a few years ago and buy a truckload of paintings, she's at the far end of the bell curve. With that in mind, here are some interesting statistics, starting with what people are buying:

• Over 87% buy landscapes. I am, after all, a landscape painter! But each of the other categories - abstract, figurative and still life - had approximately a 20% share. (You'll note that some questions end up with more than 100%; these allowed for multiple responses.)
• Over 62% buy impressionistic work. Half buy "somewhat realistic" work" and and nearly a third "expressive" work. A tiny percentage, 4%, buy photo-realistic work.
• A strong majority of 73% purchase work that evokes a mood. A little over a third buy because the work evokes a memory of a particular place. Nearly half buy work that they want to study in order to improve their own painting skills. Whether a painting had bright or muted colors didn't seem to matter so much - 15% or less responded positively to this question.

Now let's look at who's doing the buying.

• More than 82% of respondents are 50 or older. Twelve percent are 70 or older. Only 2% are in the 21-29 age group.
• Over 70% have only a bachelor's degree. Over 30% have a graduate degree.
• Nearly 70% are employed. About a quarter are retired. Of those employed, over 70% are self-employed. Surprisingly, nearly 75% of those employed are either full-time or part-time professional artists.
• Slightly more than 86% of the respondents buy one or more paintings a year. About 14% have never bought a painting. Two percent say they haven't and probably won't.

So what does all of this mean?

• The average painting could be described as an impressionistic landscape that evokes a mood.
• The average buyer is over 50 with at least a college education and is self-employed as a professional artist. He or she buys at least one painting a year.

Now the question is, Should this data guide me in my future work and the marketing of it? I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.

Who's Buying Paintings These Days?

If you paint a lot, as I do, the paintings eventually start pushing up the rafters. You either have to sell them, give them away, or burn them. I prefer to sell mine, since that fills the bank account so I can make more paintings. But sell them to whom?

I suspect most of my paintings either go to other painters or to my students, or to older people who have always bought paintings and still have the funds to continue to do so. I suspect that the paintings aren't going to twenty-somethings fresh out of college burdened by hefty school loans. I have some other thoughts on the matter, which I will discuss in a future post.

I've put together a little survey I'd love for you to take. Your responses will help me discover who's buying today. (UPDATE: Survey is now closed!)

By the way, we had a good time last week in the latest Paint Sedona workshop. Below are a few of the sketches I did.  They're all for sale.  Let me know if you'd like one.  (Shipping is $10, so if you buy several, you save!)

9x12, oil. - $100 - From Uptown
We had on iffy-weather day.  This is the view out the window of the Uptown Sedona studio.

6x12, oil. - SOLD - Munds Mountain Vista
There's nothing like Schnebly Hill for some good panoramas.

6x12, oil. - $75 - Thunder Mountain Vista
I'm really liking these 6x12 pieces.  Quicker to do than a 12x24, but they still give you the panorama.
This one is looking down the ridge from Thunder Mountain to Coffee Pot and beyond.

5x7, oil. - $60 - Up the Canyon
I like backlighting on the Sedona rocks.  This is a view from the Sedona Heritage Museum.

6x9, pastel. - $60 - Camelhead
Another Schnebly Hill view, looking toward Snoopy Rock and  Camelhead.  This is another backlit scene.

6x9, pastel. - $60 - Snow up the Canyon
One day we headed up Schnebly Hill Road to the Cowpies area.  There was still some snow up in the shadows.

Backlit Clouds

Backlit Clouds, 9x12, oil - $100 - contact Michael

As many of my students will tell you, I enjoy painting backlit subjects.  It seems like I'm always positioning myself so I'm looking into the sun with some nice rimlighting around a mountain.  (It makes for a nice tan.)  Sometimes, we get clouds in Sedona, and I like to paint those backlit, too.

Here's an example.  For this one, clearly it was the clouds that drew my eye.   They were incandescent and fiery around the edges.  I could almost feel the heat.

One thing I observed was the curious progression of warm-and-cool from the clouds nearly overhead to the ones on the horizon.  The ones closer by, and thus most overhead, had warm, shadowed interiors and a nimbus of cool light.  The farther away the clouds got, this reversed, so they had cool, shadowed interiors and a warmer nimbus.  This change in contrast of warm and cool quite striking and contributed to the sense of light and heat.