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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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

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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

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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.

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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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The Last Gleam

I have been painting a lot of sunsets lately, there is something about the magical hour just before the sun disappears over the horizon that has fascinated people for eons. For good reason, when you get the bounce of light, the last gleam, under the floating clouds it can be incredible and mystical. I wanted to capture that random sense of order, the character of the light and convey that feeling into the painting.

The Last Gleam, oil on panel, 9 x 12 in, © Jim Serrett

"Paint a little less of the facts, and a little more of the spirit."

  Link --Harvey Thomas Dunn (1884-1952)

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Sunsets and Training the Visual Memory

The dynamic horizon at sunrise or sunset is the hardest to capture, you have either to chase the light with the brush or prepare yourself for the event. My approach has been both, to do pencil sketches and color studies on location, to use them, and my memory of the experience to create/finish pieces in the studio. The library of information I gather from observation helps me understand what I am seeing and hopefully interpret it in a meaningful way.  As I remember and conceptualize the landscape I attempt to make informed decisions, based on my observed details and the nuances of nature. However I try to be as truthful to the experience as possible, to keep in my mind’s eye that which inspired me in the first place. 

Waxing philosophical, I believe our brains are conscious of almost every experience in our life and every encounter we have, and that stored among those billions of neurons in the brain are endless images and impressions. That it is not only possible to train ones visual memory but a necessity for the artist to do so. Up until maybe the later part of the nineteenth century memory exercises of some type were part of most academic art educations. If it be as simple as practicing blind contour drawing or copying prints of sculptures as in the Beaux-Arts tradition. They recognized the importance of a highly trained visual memory as a skill an artist used in companionship with the direct study of nature. 

There are some fascinating books floating around on the subject. TheTraining of the Memory in Art and the Education of the Artist by HoraceLecoq de Boisbaudran is an interesting read and more current Memory Training for Painters by Richard Lack is well worth downloading. Also a book I have mention several times on my blogs, and on my highly recommended reading list, Harold Speed "The Practice and Science of Drawing" 1913. This is a link to his chapter The Visual Memory.  “Let us assume that you have found a subject that moves you and that, being too fleeting to draw on the spot, you wish to commit to memory. Drink a full enjoyment of it, let it soak in, for the recollection of this will be of the utmost use to you afterwards in guiding your memory-drawing.”  Page 262 Harold Speed

I see memory training as another tool in my tool box helping me interpret what I see in front of me.

Technically I've been able to slowly build glazes of color to explore those atmospheric effects I am after and was the initial inspiration.

I love this quote by Edgar Degas on the subject, “If I were to open an academy I would have a five story building. The model would pose on the ground floor with the first year students. The most advanced students would work on the fifth floor." I can imagine the advanced students dashing up and down flights of stair as they study the model and dart back to their easels to make their marks.

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Images:

Jim Serrett, Lake Murphysboro Sunset, oil on panel 5 x 7 in

Jim Serrett, Perseids Sunset, oil on panel, 5 x 7 in

Graphite Sketch on toned paper. 

Sketchbook page

Links:

Memory Training For Painters by Richard Lack from the Classical Realism Quarterly 1990

Download pdf Here

The Training of the Memory in Art and the Education of the Artist

Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran – Author

Find it here on Internet Archive. Org

"The Practice and Science of Drawing" by Harold Speed

Available ebook here at Project Gutenberg

Information about:

Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran (1802-1897)

Harold Speed (1872-1957)

Richard F. Lack (1928-2009)

Beaux-Arts - École des Beaux-Arts

Lake Murphysboro State Park