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.  

You can see all 30 paintings at my Pochade Box Painting blog.

Explore - Question - Learn - - Enjoy, Jim 

Website - jimserrett.com
Studio Blog - jimserrettstudio.com 
Landscape Blog - Pochade Box Paintings


LINKS:

The Barbizon School:French Painters of Nature

Jean Baptiste CamilleCorot

Charles-Francois Daubigny

Isaac Levitan

Ilya Repin

Day Twenty of the Thirty Day Challenge

It is twenty days into my Pochade Box Painting challenge. And a few of these sketches I will certainly develop further into larger studio pieces. So far I have enjoyed the process and gained some gratifying hours of pushing paint around. Can’t beat that.

Click here to follow along at Pochade Box Paintings.

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim 

Website - jimserrett.com 
Studio Blog - jimserrettstudio.com
Landscape Blog - Pochade Box Paintings

Day 9 of the 30 in 30 Challenge.

Day nine of my thirty-day challenge, thinking about the fundamentals of landscape composition and focusing on mark making with these alla-prima studies.

Click here to follow along at Pochade Box Paintings.

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim 

Website - jimserrett.com 
Studio Blog - jimserrettstudio.com 
Landscape Blog - Pochade Box Paintings

I have been wanting to do a painting challenge with my Pochade Box for some time now. And figured I would just go for it this spring, with all the color changes it is one of my favorite times to paint on location. I also think because of studio projects I have neglected somewhat, my plein air work and this would be a great way to get those painting chops back up and going.

The procedure will be to produce and post daily, a Pochade box painting. The technique will be mainly wet into wet (alla-prima) completed in one sitting. However, I never underestimate the power of a good glaze.  I will post the finished works on my Pochade Box Paintings blog and at auction on Ebay.

Painting on a daily basis will allowed me to focus on the fundamentals, drawing, value, design and color and hopefully learn something new every day. That synchronicity is my goal, the more I paint, the more I learn about painting, the more I see as an artist.

Experience is the most powerful means of learning.

At the core of evolution is challenge. It is the trial to overcome an obstacle. Creative evolution does not occur in a straight, steady progression but is marked by false starts and dead ends, random leaps in different directions, and periods of fruitless activity.

It is a slow progression.

And there is something else, it takes discipline. That artistic mastery we all strive for in our life requires a constant push. So this is the idea, and the Thirty Day Manifesto, I hope you will follow along and see how I do. 

Click here to follow along at Pochade Box Paintings.

Explore - Question - Learn - - Enjoy, Jim

Website - jimserrett.com 
Studio Blog - jimserrettstudio.com 
Landscape Blog - Pochade Box Paintings

Buddha Baby

There are things we do or experience in life that seem to fit with our psyche, they just feel comfortable and natural to us. I have always drawn, filled notebooks with Army men and monsters from Mars, I was the kid in class that everyone would ask, “Can you draw me a...”.  I still remember, like it was yesterday the first real paintings I saw in a Museum. They blew my mind, and yet somehow I knew I had to figure out how in the world they did it. And later, the first time I pushed a puddle of oil paint around on a palette, I knew, oh yeah…this is it.

Joseph Campbell wrote, “If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”

Joseph Campbell

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim

Website - jimserrett.com 
Studio Blog - jimserrettstudio.com 
Landscape Blog - Pochade Box Paintings

Short and Stout

This little ceramic teapot has such a nice warm brown glaze on it that I found it to be just an interesting subject to paint. I like the images reflected into it and really enjoy the subtle colors. I am using the red and white napkins as a design element to bring a pop of color into the motif. 

The teapot is a small 2 cup pot that is painted just about life size. My thoughts were to paint an intimate painting about a cherished object representing a quiet moment in one’s life. Now if all of this metaphor comes through the painting, to the viewer I would be surprised. But I do think the emotional intent comes across.

I'm a little teapot

Short and stout

Here is my handle

Here is my spout

When I get all steamed up

I just shout

Tip me over and pour me out

I am a very special pot

It is true

Here is an example of what I can do

I can turn my handle into a spout

Tip me over and pour me out

Short and Stout oil on panel 8 x 10 inches © Jim Serrett

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim 

 Website - jimserrett.com
 Studio Blog - jimserrettstudio.com 
 Landscape Blog - Pochade Box Paintings

Brown Teapot - WIP - Underpainting Techniques

I am laying out the image on the canvas panel with a thinned mix of brown made from umbers, almost a sepia tone. Wiping out and editing the lines as I go, attempting to get as accurate a drawing as I can. What I want is the basic structure and design over which I will lay my first color pass.

You can find more information and demos on underpainting techniques here.

Links:

Underpainting Techniques

Bistre Method - wipe out

Grisaille underpainting

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim 

Website - jimserrett.com
Studio Blog - jimserrettstudio.com 
Landscape Blog - Pochade Box Paintings

Thanks for Listening 2015

There is probably no real way to put into words the appreciation I have for the community of artist and patrons I have had the privilege of knowing through this blog. It has been your ongoing support, encouragement and exchange of ideas that have made this venture so satisfying.

For those of you that have given one of my works a home, thank you.
As an artist, there is no greater compliment than to have someone appreciate your work enough to make it their own.
For that I am truly honored.

My sincerest gratitude.

Happy Holidays and have a great New Year.

And to my loving wife, my biggest supporter, my greatest friend, the center of my universe, my inspiration…...
Linda, I could write all day but there are no words written that can fully express my appreciation and love for you.

Happy Anniversary my love.

Jim

"If I could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint."

                                                                              Edward Hopper

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim 

Website - jimserrett.com 
Studio Blog - jimserrettstudio.com 
Landscape Blog - Pochade Box Paintings



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Fall Flowers - Japanese Anemone in Antique Bottle

The shorter days and chilly mornings seem to be of little concern for the fall blooming Anemones in the garden. My wife Linda is busy putting the garden “to bed” with her ritual fall clean up and preparation for next season. Yes, there is a lot of work to prepare the garden for fall and winter. Flowers, herbs and vegetables all require patience and tending to guarantee a healthy vital garden next spring.

There is a real art to it and I can understand why gardeners are such passionate people.  A garden is a fascinating living creation and a creative accomplishment, a kind of living art with all of it's transforming colors and shapes. Linda’s garden has been the inspiration of many a painting and probably will be for many more. I may not know much about gardening, but I am learning something new. I however do know, you have to do the things you are passionate about.

“Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.”

 ― Leonardo da Vinci

Fall Flower Japanese Anemone in Antique Bottle, oil on panel, 9 x 12 inches

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim 

Website - jimserrett.com 
Studio Blog - jimserrettstudio.com 
Landscape Blog - Pochade Box Paintings

Tea Pot and Mayer's Handbook - WIP

First pass on new set up, yet another tea pot. I like the shapes in them. The green book is a very old copy of Ralph Mayer’s The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques. Mayer’s book is a excellent reference book for artists, it opened my eyes to a lot of the traditional procedures and materials of oil painting. If I had not discovered this book years ago, buried on the University library shelf, I would have probably quit art school.

The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques by RalphMayer (1895–1979)

You can find it as a free download in several places online.

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim 

 Website - jimserrett.com 
 Studio Blog - jimserrettstudio.com 
 Landscape Blog - Pochade Box Paintings