Thanks for Listening 2016

How very grateful I am for you.

To my dear friends, colleagues, collectors, bloggers and loved ones who made 2016 such a wonderful year, you will never know how much your support is appreciated.

This Blog has been an amazing thing and has served multiple purposes. It has created a creative community of which I am a part and given me a voice to speak about the art I create. It has allowed me to think deeply about my work, art in general and its importance in the world. It has given me a window into the making of my art and by others, and a wealth of information to share and digest. I admit it has been mostly about me, for I benefit the most. But it would not exist without you.

Thank you. Thank you all for your continuing support.

“The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.”     ---Friedrich Nietzsche

Have a Happy and Prosperous New Year, Jim

For my loving wife Linda, I know that no words can express how grateful I am for you.

I am a lucky man. 

My goal and promise in life to show you every day how much I love you, appreciate you and cherish you.

All my love, and Happy Anniversary!

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Explore - Question - Learn - - Enjoy, Jim 

Website - jimserrett.com 
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Studio Paintings - 3 Landscapes

I find trees to be one of the most interesting and complex things to draw and paint, there is just so much variety, from the different species and through the changing seasons they always present a new challenge. I see them as peaceful and contemplative; almost a meditation.

Autumn Shore, oil on panel, 9 x 12 in Jim Serrett

Daytime Moon, oil on panel, 8 x 10 in Jim Serrett

I had read that daytime moon was called a “children’s moon because their eyes were sharp enough to pick it out, where the old folks, with fading vision, could not tell it from the clouds.”

Turns out the prime time for a Daytime Moon is when the Moon gets close to its quarter phases that is the ideal conditions for it to be seen during the day. That is, it is bright enough, far enough away from the Sun to be seen, and rises or sets during daylight hours. When all of these conditions come together, and when the sky is clear enough, the Moon becomes visible during the daytime.

Keep an eye up to the sky, you never know what you might see.

Clouds Over Cedar Lake, oil on panel, 8 x 13 in Jim Serrett

I can spend endless hours watching the ripple rhythm and shadows sail across the lake.

These studio works are created from my Pochade studies, field sketches and my visual memory of an experience. In the studio I hope to let a concept evolve and speak with a little more information and clarity. In these works, I can explore my observations about nature in a more control environment and inject my personal vision and interpretations.

One of the characteristics of oil painting I enjoy most is the ability to create transparent, semi-transparent and opaque layers of paint. Manipulating those qualities can give an image a lot of texture and depth. I like the variation of greens you get with glazes and scumbling effects. You start playing around with the color green differently when you work in thin layers and use it to unify passages. Building up paint in layers of glazes and scumbles provides a arsenal of effects that can create atmosphere in a landscape painting.

I truly enjoy working through an idea with the process of creating thumbnails and roughs. Relying on observations made over time and my memory of the place, it becomes layers of thought, that for me, reach a higher level of understanding and refinement.

Explore - Question - Learn - - Enjoy, Jim 

Website - jimserrett.com 
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Four New Pochades

The sky was filled with colors.
The Light of the Sun, oil on panel, 5 x 7 inches, Jim Serrett

The sky on the way to the concert……
Tangled Up in Blue, oil on panel, 5 x 7 inches, Jim Serrett

At Paul Ice Recreation Area, I did not paint them into this little study but two little ducks were working this cove, diving under water and paddling around. Fun to watch as I painted.
By the Lakeside, oil on panel, 5 x 7 inches, Jim Serrett

Quiet moments on the lake - where the only sounds are lapping water on the shore and the whisper of the wind through the trees.
Whispering Cedar, oil on panel, 5 x7 inches, Jim Serrett

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Impressions from a Lake

We are having an unusual autumn as the weather seems to be unable to make up its mind, cool then hot sunny days, then gray days without much rain. I think we have had them all. The nice thing is that we have been able to get out on the lakes in the kayaks a bit later this season and enjoy some of the color change.

The Fall color is a bit muted and I have read that this can be blamed on the very dry conditions. We still have quite a few pockets of green with a scattering of rust and earth colors. All of which makes for an interesting contrast of colors on the lakes.

This kind of scenery is perfect for my color choices, I mainly use a earth palette which tends to be more about tones and values than saturation. Naples Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, French Ultramarine is really about all I used on these pieces. These low key earth palettes will make you look closely at building color relationships and thinking about color saturation.

My pochade studies both on location and in the studio, are essential to my artistic development and process. They are where I gain that all important canvas mileage and experiment with color, composition and ideas. I try not to get too caught up if they are good or presentable, but if they answered those basic questions of how and why. How do I paint this to look like that and why am I painting that? 

My oil sketches start very simply with the big patterns of color and shape, looking for the abstract quality that unifies the scene before me. Nature is a highly accomplished organizer and she can be very complex, often it takes careful study to see her design. This is the challenge that keeps us engaged in the creative process. The exploration of light, form, space, and color interpreted through strokes and dabs of paint which communicate a sensual vision of the world. 

And then there is this thought; leave at least some hours in each day to enjoy the nature around you. Tune out from the daily chaos of life, and observe, draw or paint from nature.

Man-made noise is muzzled by nature's silence...

Kinkaid Lake Reflections

Evening Ripples

Johnson Creek

Lake Clouds

All pochades are 5 x 7 inches oil on panel, © Jim Serrett

More information on my color palette here.

Explore - Question - Learn - - Enjoy, Jim 

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Silent Clouds – Floating Shadows

I cannot think of a time when I did not find clouds fascinating, as a kid I could spend hours finding images in them. Many lazy summer days were spent laying on the backyard lawn looking for a triceratops or a pirate ship. Today, I admit they still occupy hours of my imagination.

Now I am a bit more analytical about clouds, certainly more interested in their formation and pattern then what animal or thing I see in them.  The type of cloud is important, I make an attempt to name them cumulus, stratus or cirrus. I feel that if the naturalistic observation is truthful, then it is easier to express what you see, think and feel about what is in front of you.

If I study the clouds with that intent - the personality of them tends to come forward. It’s funny how they can be like lead actors in a drama, for they set the mood and temperament. They can be broody or cheerful, dramatic or calm, the entire passing attitude of a day or painting can be changed by a cloud.

These particular clouds had a stillness and mesmerizing silence to them, their shadows moved across the lake in a medley of patterns like a liquid kaleidoscope.  Time seemed to slow or even move backwards somehow, I became closer to that little boy laying in the lawn looking for a triceratops or a pirate ship.

"What amazes me about landscape, landscape recalls you into a mindful mode of stillness, solitude, and silence where you can truly receive time." - John O'Donohue

Silent Clouds – Floating Shadows, oil on board, 9 x 12 inches © jim serrett

Explore - Question - Learn - - Enjoy, Jim 

Links:

Cloud Appreciation Society

Poet and philosopher - John O'Donohue

Pareidolia ( parr-i-doh-lee-ə) is a psychological phenomenon involving a stimulus (an image or a sound) wherein the mind perceives a familiar pattern of something where none actually exists

Website - jimserrett.com 
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Perfect Day

The weather this summer has been a bear, just too wet and too dang hot. So my long list of projects only has a few items checked off. The old fence will have to hang on one more winter. We did get in some kayaking and some plein air painting but mostly I did a great deal of sketching. Floating and bobbing around in my kayak with a watercolor kit is a pretty interesting thing to do and a fun way to spend a day.

The piece above was done in the studio based on a series of sketches from the lake. We have probably kayaked around this point a couple of dozen times and have I sketched it undoubtedly as many. So I started this painting with a particular image in mind about this place and the feeling I wanted it to convey.

To help create a sense of depth and light I worked into glazes of oil color. Pushing and pulling the light effect and hopefully captured the end of a perfect day.

Perfect Day oil on panel 9 x 12 inches ©jimserrett

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Further on Down the Road II

This is a pastoral scene I trek through several times a month. During the summer there always seems to be a flotilla of clouds sailing slowly across the sky. When I think of the dog days of summer this image always comes to my mind.
   

I really wanted to capture that summer atmosphere and felt that a studio piece was the best way to do that. I created the painting from a pochade study, some watercolor sketches and my memories of this place. 

Further on Down the Road II, oil on panel 9 x 12 inches © Jim Serrett

Oil color alla-prima study 5 x 7 inches

One of the characteristics of oil painting I enjoy most is the ability to create transparent, semi-transparent and opaque layers of paint. Manipulating those qualities can give an image a lot of texture and depth. I like the variation of greens you get with glazes and scumbling effects. You start playing around with the color green differently when you work in thin layers and use it to unify passages. Building up paint in layers of glazes and scumbles provides a arsenal of effects that can create atmosphere in a landscape painting.

Sketchbook watercolor study.

Sketchbook thumbnails.

I truly enjoy working through an idea with the process of creating thumbnails and roughs. Relying on observations made over time and my memory of the place, it becomes layers of thought, that for me, reach a higher level of understanding and refinement.

Explore - Question - Learn - - Enjoy, Jim 

Website - jimserrett.com 
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The Fourth of July by Childe Hassam

The Fourth of July by Childe Hassam, 1916, oil on canvas, 36 x 26 inches

This patriotic flag painting was painted by the American Impressionist Childe Hassam (1859-1935).

I believe it to be a street in NY city, one of several pieces he produced in this genre. These are some of the most distinctive and famous works by the artist. There were around thirty painting in his "Flag series". (Notice the flag in the foreground and how it has only 48 stars as Alaska and Hawaii were not yet states in 1916.)  Always an inspiration and one of my favorite artists.

Happy 4th of July!

To learn more about Childe Hassam click this link.

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim 

Website - jimserrett.com
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Landscape Blog - Pochade Box Paintings

Punta Nizuc Reef - WIP

These are two studies based on my sketches from Mexico at our favorite snorkeling spot. They will be the source of a larger studio painting. I am working out the design idea based on my sketches and studies done on site, while relying on the memories of the place and the connection I have to it. It is this visual library of references that I will based the finished work on.

In the studio I ask myself a million questions – how to describe the shadow of these clouds, where is the horizon line seen and what colors are in the Caribbean Sea?, to name a few. Organizing all of the questions and answering them in a color study will aid me in the finished piece. I tried two versions based on my drawings with slightly different vantage points and lighting to establish the mood of the painting. With these I hope to create out of my mind's eye, my memories, and my feelings for the amazing place and experience.

Punta Nizuc Reef, Color Studies I and II, oil on panel,  9 x 12 in, © jserrett

Punta Nizuc Reef, Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico

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Finished the challenge!

Here we are at the end of my 30 in 30-day painting challenge and I have got to say that it zoomed by, I must have had fun.                           

I enjoyed exploring composition and colors with these alla-prima paintings. From the beginning I intended to concentrate on design and composition but as I reflect over the collection I started to see an unexpected story being told. As I was looking at the big forms in nature, a theme quickly evolved that was about earth and sky and water. Lots of weather effects, dramatic skies, sunsets and clouds, the forces of nature.  So I was happy that they collectively communicated the spirit of the natural world.

My approach was to be as direct and complete with my brush as I could and record the motif in front of me. The goal was to make quick and spontaneous decisions, describing things simply and abstractly. Yet hang onto that illusion of real space and place and the experience of it. I find myself looking a lot at the Barbizon painters, Charles-Francois Daubigny and Jean Baptiste Camille Corot and the Russian School of the late nineteenth century Isaac Levitan and Ilya Repin.  These painters handle the sense of space so masterfully, so much abstraction in their work, brush handling, surfaces and texture. They could just drag the viewer into the atmosphere of the painting

Anyway this is where my head has been during this endeavor. Looking for insight from artist of the past and observing the world for inspiration. 

Explore - Question - Learn - - Enjoy, Jim 

Website - jimserrett.com
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Landscape Blog - Pochade Box Paintings


LINKS:

The Barbizon School:French Painters of Nature

Jean Baptiste CamilleCorot

Charles-Francois Daubigny

Isaac Levitan

Ilya Repin

No.29 of 30 - Spring Colors

Spring Colors, oil on canvas panel, 5 x 7 inches (12.7 cm x 17.8 cm)

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No.30 of 30 - Standing Next to You.

Standing Next to You, oil on canvas panel, 5 x 7 inches (12.7 cm x 17.8 cm)

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No.28 of 30 - In a Little Pond

In a Little Pond, oil on canvas panel, 5 x 7 inches (12.7 cm x 17.8 cm)

Available on ebay,

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No.27 of 30 - Up Cherry Hill

Up Cherry Hill, oil on canvas panel, 5 x 7 inches (12.7 cm x 17.8 cm)

Available on ebay,

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No.26 of 30 - Out Like a Lamb

Out Like a Lamb, oil on canvas panel, 5 x 7 inches (12.7 cm x 17.8 cm)

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No.25 of 30 - Shawnee National Forest Overlook

Shawnee National Forest Overlook, oil on canvas panel, 5 x 7 inches (12.7 cm x 17.8 cm)

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No.24 of 30 - Cold Front

Cold Front, oil on canvas panel, 5 x 7 inches (12.7 cm x 17.8 cm)

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No.23 of 30 - The Far Ridge

The Far Ridge, oil on canvas panel, 5 x 7 inches (12.7 cm x 17.8 cm)

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No.22 of 30 - Sunset Clouds

Sunset Clouds, oil on canvas panel, 5 x 7 inches (12.7 cm x 17.8 cm)

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No.21 of 30 - Woodland Phlox Trail

Woodland Phlox Trail, oil on canvas panel, 5 x 7 inches (12.7 cm x 17.8 cm)

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