Girl in the Red Kayak

Anyone who follows my work or my blogs knows that most of my landscapes and waterscapes come from our exploration of the local lakes by kayak.  Linda and I paddle the lakes in the Shawnee National Forrest area often and have grown especially fond of Cedar Lake. It has some of the most beautiful, secluded and peaceful areas to paddle.

The Lake has become a muse for my plein air work and it is one of those places you can go a thousand times and never tire of. The lake is large enough to turn into a good vigorous paddle or you can just slowly explore the necks and fingers. Either way you can always find an adventure along its banks.

More important is that it has grown to hold a special place in our hearts.

There is a communion with nature when you are quietly floating on the surface of the lake, and it gives us sustenance. “Fuel for the soul”, as sappy as it sounds is a real thing or it can be. Those moments are real when we stop and just see, and feel and be present.

The lake has given awareness and inspiration, a connection to the spirit of the land that I may never have known if I never stopped to pay attention and experience the moment. 

And when I close my eyes and imagine I see the lake in my mind’s eye, as I have painted it.

The Girl in the Red Kayak

Oil on panel, 11 x 14 inches

"Gratitude is the heart's memory." (French Proverb)

Links:

Shawnee National Forest – Cedar Lake

Cedar Lake (Illinois)

Explore - Question - Learn - - Enjoy, Jim 

Website - jimserrett.com 
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Landscape Blog - Pochade Box Paintings

Quiet Evening - Kinkaid Lake

This is one of those paintings that has been percolating for a while, I have done a couple oil studies and sketches at this location. And even though I have some good references I think the source of this painting or concept has been painted in my head several times. I think anyone that visits this spot and stands where I worked, would recognize the place from the painting. However, this piece is more of a memory painting of several experiences of this scene during the fall. I wanted to paint that crisp air of early fall, the mood of the transitional season and hopefully the essence of the land.

 Quiet Evening, oil on panel, 9 x 12 inches, © jim_serrett 

There are a lot of videos online about Kinkaid Lake, it's a big sport fishing destination. I found this interesting drone footage video filmed at Kinkaid Lake Paul Ice boat ramps from Eric Ripley. His drone hovers right over my painting spot and gives a great birds eye view of why this lake is so popular.

Eric Ripley - YouTube Channel

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The Artist and His Muse - Dutch Ridge, Cedar Lake

I paint what I see as I find it in nature, mostly. I never paint it exactly, I pick and choose elements I like, move a tree here or there, add more interest to the clouds. Do some rearranging and compose some harmony out of all the chaos to make visual sense to me.

What I always strive to do is stay true to the original idea, in it is the source of inspiration.

Without inspiration you are just making marks. No matter what embellishments I may add or take away in a painting, they must support the original concept. What is the painting about, is it the sky? If that is the inspiration, then everything supports that idea. When you know what to emphasize in a scene you understand what elements to manipulate to better communicate the feelings you have about a particular place or time. When its about the mood or feeling of a place then your choices should speak to that connection. That relation is certainly the hardest concept to focus on and express in a painting.

Dutch Ridge, oil on panel, 9 x 12 inches, ©Jim Serrett

This becomes the artist-muse relationship, that goal to capture something illusive, intuitive, private, visceral or complex. It becomes a creative force of its own having the power of moving the intellect or emotions.

I am not certain how many sketches and paintings from Cedar Lake I have done; I just know I am not finished.

“I'm not in control of my muse. My muse does all the work.” Ray Bradbury

Muse; noun: Muse; plural noun: Muses; noun: muse; plural noun: muses

1. (in Greek and Roman mythology) each of nine goddesses, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, who preside over the arts and sciences.

2. a person or personified force who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist.

synonyms:

inspiration, creative influence, stimulus;  formal afflatus "the poet's muse"

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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.

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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.

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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.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)

Available on ebay,

Click Here to Bid 

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Floating Clouds

A study of clouds floating over Cedar lake at dusk. I will never tire of watching clouds and their boundless display of color, shape, and size. One can gain a great deal of personal perspective from a little cloud therapy.  A few hours quietly contemplating them can open an entire new viewpoint, they just make me appreciate our beautiful and wonderful world.

                                   Floating Clouds at Dusk on Cedar Lake 5x7in oil on panel ©Jim Serrett

Link: The Cloud Appreciation Society

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Kayak En Plein Air Painting

Painting from a Kayak with a Cigar Box – Pochade Box

 “Life is a journey, not a destination.”

                                                                               ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

No saying could be any truer when it comes to painting on location in a kayak.

For several years, a favorite weekly escape for Linda and I has been exploring the lakes, streams and water ways of Southern Illinois by kayak. This has been the inspiration of many of my works. 

I have always been drawn to nature; I could never describe in words the peace and calm I gain when hiking or kayaking and just the sheer amazement I find in a natural wild place. There is something about being in nature that makes one live in the present.

And for that reason, I feel when painting plein air landscapes you have to try and capture that sense of place. You may just be painting light, color and shape, but what you are really painting is an experience. That is the language of art.

Our equipment for this outing is pretty simple, a couple of kayaks, a cooler with drinks and food, swim suits and a Cigar Box Pochade with a hand held umbrella for painting in the shade. 

Linda’s boat is a 14 foot Perception Spectrum, a great kayak with a foot controlled surf rudder which is both nimble and stable in the choppiest waters. She’s been paddling this boat for nearly fifteen years, just shows the quality of this vintage girl. (Girls?)  My kayak is a 15 foot Dagger Charleston, on flat water lakes this boat is a rocket. Both boats are touring kayaks with plenty of storage in compartment bulkheads and hatches for long day expeditions or weekend paddling and camping.

I use the umbrella so I can create shade and have equal light on my palette and canvas. Judging colors in direct sunlight is next to impossible; your colors will be overly saturated and you will constantly be compensating for the sun glaring on your painting and into your eyes. I call this retina melt down.

But somewhere during our adventure Linda decided to turn my painting session into a sailing session. It was pretty impressive that even in a light wind she was able to get a lot of speed by catching the current of air at different angles. I think we are going to have to keep one of these in both boats.

"Do not go where the path may lead, 

go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

                                                                                              --- Ralph Waldo Emerson

All three works are oil on panel, 5x7" and available in my Etsy Store. 

The little Cigar Box Pochade is after the design I featured here in an earlier article.

Cigar Box – Paint Box How to make a simple paint box.

The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson   RWE Org

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Cedar Lake Quick Studies

These small studies force you to “Keep It Simple” and concentrate on shape, color and composition. In the end simplification is about creating the feeling of the place without actually providing a lot of detail in the painting.

Suggesting a subject with a series of abstract marks is challenging and provides a great opportunity to explore and experiment. And I think you can learn as much from these small 4x6 thumbnail paintings as larger studio works.

Using one large No 6 or 8 bristle brush will force you to work on brushwork by varying the pressure and angle, using the width, broad end, flat edge and corners of the brush.

I like to refer to this as the brush dance, but it is probably closer to ballet or fencing.

 

Small studies will help you think abstractly and develop your color sense. The results can be the inspiration  for a larger studio painting or they can stand on their own merit.

Either way there is no better teacher than pushing paint around.

Cedar Lake is a 1,750 – acre (7.0km) reservoir in Southern Illinois located at the edge of the Shawnee National Forest, southwest of Carbondale. 


Although the primary purpose of Cedar Lake is to provide water to the residents of Carbondale, this scenic reservoir provides recreational opportunities to visitors beyond Jackson County. Because the Shawnee National Forest borders the southern portion of Cedar Lake, about half of its 30-mile shoreline is owned by the U.S. Forest Service. Hardwood forests, cedar trees, and sandstone bluffs line the shoreline.

 With 100 foot sandstone bluffs rising directly out of the water and abundant wildlife viewing opportunities, it is our favorite lake to kayak in Southern Illinois.

 

This is a pretty rare scene; a copper head, easily over two foot long in the water below the rock cliffs. It seemed to be hunting the small fingers of the bluff, we watched it for sometime before we lost track of her.

Oddly enough when we arrived at the swimming hole everyone was a bit apprehensive about diving in.

Have a great day, make great art.  Jim Serrett


Links:
The Shawnee Forest Illinois Hidden Gem
The Shawnee National Forest