Michael Chesley Johnson - A Perfect Day

It was a beautiful day today, and I decided to go out and shoot footage for the pastel video. (As you may recall, I plan to release two videos as companions to Backpacker Painting.) Everything went right today. That's a rare thing in outdoor painting, and even more rare when a painting session is combined with a recording session! No wind, no interlopers, no air traffic and a good painting. Here's the painting I did:



"A Perfect Day"
9x12, pastel
Michael Chesley Johnson - www.MichaelChesleyJohnson.com

and here's a little trailer I put together. Enjoy!

Michael Chesley Johnson - Picking the Right Color

"Red Rock Crossing Hues"
5x7, pastel

I've seen many students agonize over selecting "just the right green" from their pastels or mixing "just the right blue" with their oil paints. The implication of this is that they're trying to duplicate the scene before them photographically by painting exactly the colors that they see.

The problem with this approach is that we are often faced with a world of dull or monotonous color. Too much green in moist New England, too much brown in the desert Southwest, too much grey in the foggy Northwest. Duplicating the scene may give you a painting that doesn't quite work. We all remember those fantastic scenes we've photographed, only to look at the photographs back home and sadly learn that the camera failed to capture the feeling. It's the same with painting.

Here's a better approach. Pick a color that's close and works well with your other colors. Think of getting the color relationships right, not the exact colors.

Above is a case in point. Under the hazy, almost-overcast light, the red rock slab had a little more orangey-red in it than I've painted it. I didn't have quite the right pastel color. Still, the colors all work together.

Michael Chesley Johnson
www.MichaelChesleyJohnson.com

Michael Chesley Johnson - Rain in Sedona

The day before, we had rain, which is an uncommon but welcome event in this dry country. Needless to say, we painted from indoors, but looking out at the view.

I chose pastel to do two small sketches. I was interested more in color and value than anything else. I worked especially on the cool reds and greens in the distant hills and the relationship to the warmer foreground greens. For the distant hills, I chose two pastels of the same value - a rather vivid red-violet and a blue-green. After blocking in the hills, I layered the complement of each over them to neutralize the rich color somewhat. I also used a bit of "real" grey to cool them down further.

For both of these pieces, I used the "Belgian Mist" color of the Wallis Sanded Pastel Paper plus the hard Polychromos pastels. Having the paper already toned a warm grey helped warm up and harmonize the cool, sometimes discordant colors I used in the underpainting.

Michael Chesley Johnson
www.MichaelChesleyJohnson.com

Michael Chesley Johnson - Red Rock Crossing Rush

"Red Rock Crossing Rush"
5x7 pastel en plein air

I'm teaching a workshop this week, and yesterday, I painted four small pastels.  By the time I got to this one, which is the fourth and last, I was pretty tired.  The left, verbal side of the brain had switched off, and I was painting purely from the right side.    My color choices were automatic, going straight from the eye to the hand, bypassing that part of me that consciously articulates and narrates.  This painting, as they say, painted itself.   I like the movement and dynamics of it.  I wish I could paint like this all the time. 

Pastel, by the way, is wonderfully suited to this kind of "automatic" painting.  The color choices and the value choices are all right there in your box -  no mixing required, no brushes to clean between strokes.  When I want to go out and paint simply, I choose pastel over oil.

If you haven't heard, I'm teaching two pastel workshops for the Sedona Art Center this winter. On Saturday, January 31, I'm teaching a one-day studio workshop for beginners. I'll show you two of the methods I use to paint in pastel, and we'll have lots of time to work with different materials and techniques. Then the week of March 23-27, I'm teaching a five-day outdoor workshop for all levels. I'll show you how best to use pastel in an outdoor settin, and we'll have fun exploring some of my favorite painting spots. I hope you'll join me for one (or both!) of these workshops.  

Michael Chesley Johnson
www.MichaelChesleyJohnson.com

Libby Caldwell - Once upon a time...

8 x 10 oil on panel NFS
The inspiration for this piece came from sketches in my journal.
January 2009.