Ola, Yell County

Ola

9X12, Oil on Panel

SOLD

Ola is a tiny town the sits between the Arkansas River Valley and the Ouachita Mountains.  This is not the most memorable view in Ola but I felt like doing some rural decay.

Dickey Stephens Park, North Little Rock

Dickey Stephens Park

17" Home Plate

The above painting is available for online auction from now until October 27, 2010 at http://jimelder.org/auction/item.php?id=60.  Dickey Stephens Park is the home of the Arkansas Travelers minor league baseball team.  The Jim Elder Home Plate Heroes fund provides money to organizations aimed at providing opportunities to local underprivileged youth.  Other paintings being auctioned can be seen here:  http://jimelder.org/auction/

The Soul of Blues

I don't really practice any precise "-ism" but if one were to ask me what type of art it is I create, I suppose I would answer with the term "tonal impressionism."  I say this because I think that colors have specific moods and qualities and when used together in certain manners, a synergy can be achieved that sets the stage for the subject matter.  The subject matter is somewhat secondary to the general overall impression of mood which is achieved via the interplay of carefully selected and limited color palettes.

It is from this standpoint and mode of thought that I conclude that the selection of blue in a painting is perhaps the single most important aspect in the color palette.  I am finding that while I may use several yellows and possibly a couple of different reds, one single blue produces the best result for me.  Two blues are competitive with one another.  The intrinsic mood or soul of the painting is contained in the blue.  I do think that sometimes a second blue may be used if in very small quantities for a specific purpose.  For instance, I will sometimes find myself needing a touch of cerulean to give a summer sky a bit more power but other than that, the second blue is very very rare.

Some of the characters that I find in blues are:

Cobalt (PB28) - Earthy but bright and warm
Ultramarine (PB29)- Cool and serene
Prussian (PB27)- Unpredictable, wild and moody
Phthalo - I don't have much experience at all with pthalo and it comes in both a red (PB15:1) and a green (PB15:3) shade.  But painters I know who use it exclusively tend to have results that are soothing and deep.
Cerulean (PB35)- powerful and transcendent but being opaque and high value out of the tube not a candidate to carry a painting solo.  This is the only blue that will augment another well.

There is also the difficult to find Manganese blue that while I've never used I would probably put in a similar category with cerulean.  It is relatively opaque and high in value compared to other blues and this makes it difficult to wield in the shadows.

Phthalo is considered to be a Prussian replacement.  Due to the unpredictability of the pigment for Prussian blue, it can vary rather wildly in character from batch to batch.  Also, it behaves very differently in tints from phthalo which retains it's character more readily while Prussian can have a tendency to get smokey when highly tinted.

I want to caveat the above information:  these are my impressions from my experience with mixing and working with color.  Even if you have used the same pigments as I have, you may have an entirely different mindset on how you want to accomplish your goals and this may be totally useless to you.  But from how I approach and think about color and the goals I want to accomplish, these are my conclusions.  I also want to state these characters I perceive are really only useful when you consider how they mix and interact with other pigments and not on their own.

Monroe County Courthouse, Clarendon, AR

Monroe County Courthouse

8X10, Oil on Panel

SOLD

I was recently invited to the town of Clarendon by the wife of the mayor to do some painting.  Clarendon is in the Delta of eastern Arkansas and is smack dab at the confluence of White  and Cache Rivers.  

Clarendon suffers from the same ills as most of the rest of the Delta: lack of industry and jobs that drives the young to the cities.  There is a great wealth of farming in the Delta, from soybeans, rice and still some cotton, but not enough jobs associated with that industry to sustain the communities.  Still, some people know what these communities used to be and are doing everything that can to save them.  Clarendon recently was awarded a matching grant for beautification of the downtown area.  They also hope that a change in how the Cache River channel is managed will improve fishing and bring more commerce to the area.  I hope so too, the town still has charm but may not for much longer if the decline cannot be reversed.

I took quite a few pictures while I was there and hope to do more from Clarendon in time.

Enon, Contre-Jour

Enon, Contre-jour

14X18, Oil on Panel

Available

This little church is just a mile or two from the house I grew up in.  I used to ride my bike past it all the time.

Hardboard Panel Prep

As I mentioned previously, my substrate of choice these days is plywood.  I find it to be durable, cheap, and about as convenient as possible considering I have to do all of the prep work.  I use both storebought "art" plywood and hardware store sheets.

The "art" plywood is baltic birch and comes in packs of 5 cut to size.  The advantage of this material is that the cuts are perfectly clean and the board should be very square.  The downside is that they are only available in 1/8" thickness.  This means that sizes are relatively limited without cradling.  In fact, I will only use this material up to 12X16.  That may actually be the upper size limit available, I don't remember offhand.  One of my favorite things about painting on board is that it is extremely easy to frame these paintings with only a point driver.  Having to resort to a cradle for large sizes eliminates this ease and also adds a lot of weight to the finished piece!

For larger pieces, I go with good old hardware store sheet plywood.  I usually use 1/4" oak panels.  It is also available in maple and I think birch may be available as well.  The 1/4" thickness resists warping in sizes up to 30X30.  I have found that propensity to warp is a function of the individual sheet more than anything and is probably due to insufficient curing at the factory or a defect in the internal plies.  I have had some that warp up badly and some that stay nice and flat no matter how or where stored.  If you buy a sheet that wants to warp, you will be forced to cut smaller sizes.  But I'd say in more than 90% of the panels I've bought, I've had no issues with warping at all.  A good stable sheet might could be cut into sizes larger than 30" but only if used in a fairly square aspect ratio.  The longer the aspect ratio, the more likely you are to see some warpage.

After cutting my panels to size, I use coarse sandpaper to remove burrs and smooth the cut edges.  At this stage, you will have two edges that cannot be smoothed very well.  These edges are cut against the grain of the internal plies and will look porous.  I'll fix that later.  I will also lightly sand both faces.  You'll notice that one face is slightly smoother than the other.  That's the face I usually paint on but not always.  Sometimes I might find a flaw in the smooth face or maybe I want that rougher surface for some reason.  After wiping the faces down, it's time for gesso.  Using the precut baltic birch, I avoid all of the previous steps.  I use acrylic dispersion "gesso" from Liquitex, the relatively thin stuff.  I use 3 coats on the face I intend to paint on and usually one or two on the back side.  Whether or not I gesso the backside is sometimes dependent upon time and how impatient I am to use that size.  I do not sand between coats unless the panel is small and I have large brushmarks left.  I have learned that the brushmarks usually are aesthetically pleasing to me in large sizes but distracting in smaller ones.

I know that some artists use a primer or sealer but I do not and I have a very specific reason for that.  Most artists use what's called GAC100 from Gamblin as a primer.  I also know of at least one artist who uses one coat of clear gesso first and then 2-3 coats of the standard gesso over that.  Remember now, when I say gesso, I am referring to acrylic dispersion primer and not traditional, real gesso.

On a hot day here in Arkansas, I can do all 3 coats in a single day.  The longer, more difficult part is sealing the edges.  This is not a necessary step but I like to do it.  It produces a more professional product I think.    I will gesso all 4 cut edges and sand them as smooth as possible.  It may take several coats for the rough edges cut against the grain of the internal plies.  I still use only coarse grain sandpaper.  I don't think you need to use anything very fine, all you want is a sealed edge with no burrs.  This step is something you shouldn't bother with if you are using the precut 1/8" panels.  With these panels, they are so thin you will only succeed in building up a bead of gesso on the face of the panel and it won't do anything for the cut edge.