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



Join Creative Commons, http://creativecommons.org/
Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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

Ripe Pear

I have been working on some alla-prima studies, which is a more direct wet into wet painting technique, I work this way mostly on location when doing plein air work / landscapes but it is a good approach in the studio also. It allows you to apply paint in a looser and often more expressive, direct way. Plus there is a lot of instant gratification in this method.

Ripe Pear, oil on panel, 5 x 7 inch © Jim Serrett

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim 

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

Bottle Collection III - WIP and the constant reminder

I am constantly reminded -  just because you have looked at something, doesn’t mean that you have seen it. Painting is often a practice of being present and that focused attention is a type of discipline that runs directly counter to the high-speed, plugged in digital world we live in.

So I wondered if I would have this still life done in time for a post this month but instead of rushing along, I decided to slow down and take a longer look at it. I think it could stand another pass with just a bit of nudging here and there. For such a simple arrangement of objects there are a lot of things going on. Some very subtle reflections and color notes. And to observe and capture those unique nuances has been a slow go.

At this point I think I will let it live a while there on the easel and wrangle with it just a little more. It’s like a small military campaign and the battleground is my palette and the canvas the spoils of war.

 “If There Is No Struggle, There Is No Progress”  Frederick Douglass

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim 

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

Happy Independence Day

In the painting Independence Day, Andrew Wyeth portrays his longtime friend and neighbor Tom Clark sitting on a porch alongside a billowing American flag. Clark lived in a small African American community in Chadds Ford known as “Little Africa,” which had originated as a Quaker stop on the Underground Railroad. Beginning in 1957, Wyeth produced numerous drawings and watercolors of Clark, whose physical features captivated the artist.

The composition and lighting are dramatic and suggestive of the times. Painted in 1961 an important year in the civil rights movement I cannot help but think Wyeth was making a social comment here. I like this analysis of the work, “The composition isolates Tom Clark from the flag, but this flag is broad and expansive, and capable of extending freedom to all Americans.”

Happy Independence Day !!

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) Independence Day, watercolor on paper, 14 x 20 inches

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim 

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

Astonishing Mango

“I Will Astonish Paris with an Apple.”  Paul Cézanne

What strikes me most regarding Cezanne was the way he spoke about and communicated form and space, changing the structure of planes of objects to express that idea and drag the viewer into his reality. I think his quote “I Will Astonish Paris with an Apple.” was not about the apple but showing a different perception of the world and expressing it in a meaningful way. And, is that not the biggest mission of an artist or at least one of its rewards?

I will be fine just astonishing myself with a Mango on a piece of plywood. I truly enjoyed painting this fruit, the color and form with it's gradations and transitions, it was fascinating to paint. All the nice weaves of complementary color with interesting neutrals – just the thing to get some palette mixing nirvana going.

When you find the truth of a thing, you will find the beauty in it.

The mango painting was done with a limited palette of Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Yellow Light,

Ultramarine Blue, and Burnt Sienna

This limited palette is a color triad of high chroma and fairly vivid hues, however when mixed with white or neutralized and grayed down it is a remarkable balanced and harmonious palette. There is a nice range of transparent dark's and opaque lights representing a wide range of values. With the addition of a earth color or gray you will be surprised at the broad spectrum of color you can achieve with this limited palette. Overall a great compact palette that will teach much about color mixing and can pretty much reach anything you want.

You see many artist producing color charts to gain understanding of color mixing, which is a great exercise and should be done. But nothing accelerates that understanding more than practical experience of color matching and observation.

Keep in mind that all color is relative, every color has an inherent characteristic when seen in isolation such as a red that is warm leaning towards orange or a blue that is cool with a bias to green but those cool or warm attributes will change with the interaction of the colors surrounding it.

You must ask yourself comparative questions, what is the name of this color? Literally name it on the color wheel. Then ask is it a cooler version or warm version of that hue? Is lighter? Darker? How intense a color or how gray?

Color is always comparative and relative ………..

Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) Biography

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim 

Astonishing Mango oil on panel 8 x 10 inches ©jimserrettstudio

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