Painting a Day - Week 1

In preparation for an art capstone in my final semester of college, I've created an independent art course in order to explore further methods of painting and improve my technique with consistent studio practice. This blog will be the documentation of my inspiration for works and the execution of paintings as I create four small studies a week in either oil or watercolor paint.

Inspiration:

Richard Claremont is an artist whose style I deeply admire and whom I've chosen to study for my first series of paintings. I love the energy his brush strokes display and the vibrancy of color he implements regardless of his subject. The landscapes that he creates appear challenging to me as he somehow captures enough detail for a viewer to make out the scene while also utilizing abstract marks throughout the work, all while maintaining balance. As I look to learn from his painting style this first week I'm mainly studying the following four works of his which are oil paint on board.

"Beach of Pebbles"

"Last Vineyard in Montmartre" "Paris Style" "The Olive Grove at Lourmarin"

My Works:

The following paintings are the four studies I created this week while attempting to incorporate Richard Claremont's style and technique.

My First Take

Second Painting

Third Take

Final Painting

Reflection:

This week provided many challenges for me as well as opportunities to persevere through painting when frustrated. To begin with, I'd only attempted one landscape painting before in my life and suffice it to say, it hadn't been a great one. Therefore, tackling multiple landscape paintings this week was difficult due to that aspect alone... On top of that, attempting to also paint like Richard Claremont (a master landscape painter) while starting out, was a recipe for frustration when my paintings turned out not to look anything like his no matter what I attempted. Now looking back at this week's works, I've learned to be patient, place color carefully, and to trust instinct.

Painting 1 -

I think the last time I struggled this much with a painting in process was during my first oil painting class ever when a homework assignment I was doing put me in tears from laughing at how aggravated I was. This painting achieved that level of frustration early on for me and was tough until the very end. However, it is now a reminder of perseverance to me.

Starting out, the landscape in front of me seemed to be a fairly simple one and Claremont's style told me to paint color creatively and let brushstrokes be seen. It turns out, over-analyzing my color choices and getting paint too thick too quickly was not the best decision. After scraping and re-mixing, and building, and building layers, I finally stopped thinking enough to let intuition control my brush strokes in some troubled areas and called it a day. The goal had been to paint for 45-60 minutes and this one was a full 90 minute struggle but the end result was far more satisfying than the previous stages it went through.

Painting 2 -

This plein air painting was fun to tackle as this campus view is sentimental to me, but the cloudy day weather was deceiving for a nice day when bugs and humidity overwhelmed me by the end of the session and called for the painting to be wrapped up quickly. Due to the sweat and bugs all over me, I managed to keep this painting session to strictly 45 minutes.

I believe the biggest takeaway from this piece was to trust my underpainting colors that I originally painted. As I ended up trying to correct what I'd instinctively done - again and again - I feel like the true blues and greens of the landscape were lost in my newly mixed colors. I'm not sure if the end result truly represents the setting, but this painting had elements to me that seemed relatable to a Claremont work in more ways than my first landscape did.

Painting 3 -

This painting is my least favorite of the four this week as I don't think it comes close to being Claremont-esque, plus I didn't take the opportunity to attempt another landscape when I had the opportunity. However, this originally appealed to me as I was wanting to loosen up again and feel more like my own artist after working and over-working the two landscapes of the week. In that sense, this one did feel freeing. I'd been drawn to a wire hanging out of a shuttered vent in my studio space all week long and decided to paint it spontaneously. It was a quick 30 minute painting and I feel that it was an important part of my week in letting me loosen up in an unplanned way and get ready to finish up.

Painting 4 -

This one excites me most. Going into this week I'd been inspired by Claremont's "Paris Style" painting but hadn't been planning on specifically painting a bike. When walking to the studio I was anticipating to attempt one more landscape to end my Claremont week but ironically passed a tree with a bike propped up and shadows playing off of it. I considered that a sign to use the motorbike painting inspo and give the bike a try.

I spent 45 minutes painting this piece and felt like my feel for color placement and paint thickness that I'd been working on all week culminated in this painting and took it to a more successful place.

Overall -

Week 1 had it's fair share of difficulties but also lots of growth. Grateful for the warm-up of painting again post-summer and excited for the weeks to come!