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 Blog #2 Atmospheric Perspective
One of the most common problems my students have is with perspective. In this blog I’ll discuss atmospheric perspective. (Linear perspective will be the focus of a future newsletter.) The brain and how it works in regards to how and what we see always amazes me. It’s almost like our brain refuses to believe what we are seeing. The effects of atmosphere and the degree to which they effect things is something painters have to learn to see. This fact, that we always need to be open to learn from life and that we can never assume to know what color or value something is, is what keeps our work fresh and ourselves ever humble.

If you want objects in a still life to feel like they are sitting deep in a 3 dimensional space they need to look different than objects in front. If you want to paint a landscape where things in the distance are even much farther away you also need to paint distant shapes much differently than anything in the foreground. No matter the genre the same rules apply. Background shapes should have softer edges, less chroma, and are effected by objects or things around them. The quantity of distance should be felt by lowering the chroma and having every thing effected by the color of light and shadow and amount of air.

In a still life the surrounding wall, table top, objects, and amount of air will have a reflective effect, giving everything in the distance some similarities. In a landscape, the properties of the air can take a dark green mountain and make it pale cool grey depending on how far away it is. A red brick building in the distance might be a pale warm grey but a strong red/orange close up.

Edges are also heavily effected with distance. A strong or sharp edge is an eye catcher and works well where you want it but the same edge becomes a soft blur from far away. In still life, soft or blurred edges describe less important and distant objects. In landscape, think of a soft cloud of light grey/blue blanketing things far away. The farther away something is, or the more moisture in the air, the stronger influence that pale grey/blue becomes.

It’s very helpful to use an "isolator" to see color. I use a mid tone grey cardboard and punch a series of holes punched in it. You can also use the  center hole of a view catcher.  I use a single hole to look at one color or two holes to compare two colors or values. The series of 5 holes in my cardboard held up to isolate spots in the sky or a wall in the distance will make it clear that everything is markedly different than our naked eye sees on its own. It is always a surprise to see how one color in a still life will effect objects or the table around it. Our naked eye doesn’t pick up the degree of that effect but the isolator reveals it loud and clear. I’ve had many students paint a distant tree dark green until I have them look through an isolator to discover it’s much closer in value and color to the mid tone grey of the isolator.

Probably the most difficult issue is seeing your painting as a whole with values and colors not as they are but in relationship to other things. As we stare at something to paint our retina begin to take in more light, things becomes lighter in value and with more details. It becomes hard to tell the value of one object in relation to another. That's why one always needs to squint, close your eyes for a moment, or turn away and re-look at the whole picture you’ll see a hierarchy of value, chroma, and edges that relate to where things sit in space and that’s what should guide our decisions. You are the director of your painting and can make clear to your viewer how much distance you want to create in your work.

Take a few minutes in the beginning planning stages of your painting to pay attention, even make notes, to the hierarchy of values, chroma, and edges and you’ll have a much better painting with believable atmosphere and distance.

Blog #1

In March of this year, 2019, I had a wonderful and interesting two weeks in Mexico at Casa de los Artistas. The Casa is run by Robert Masla who attracts many top painters as instructors for workshops. I signed up to study with Jim McVicker and then saw Randall Sexton was teaching the week before so I jumped on the opportunity to do a double header with 2 painters that I have long admired.  Although I’ve been painting for years and teach also, I love the opportunity to learn from others who paint in a way I admire. Spending time watching these two awesome painters plus all the new sights, sounds, and experiences shook me out of my usual habits and gave me some new perspectives. This was unlike any workshop experience I've had before.
The Casa is in a territory just across the river that descends from the mountain and runs to the sea at Boca Tomatlan, just south of Puerto Vallarta. There are no roads past the river at Boca in order to preserve the forest that rises from the sea. To get to the Casa one could wade across the river (the short way) or take a bridge at the edge of the town and then walk along a path that connects all the homes and small hotels until I reached The Casa. The path continued for miles leaving the river inlet and continuing along the ocean, connecting shacks, magnificent homes, and stunning resorts. The locations further along the path were more easily and quickly accessible by boat. I arrived by cab from the airport and eventually found someone holding a sign. I handed my suitcase to a local helper on his boat then, not being dressed for wading, walked the 10 min. to the Casa on the path that consists of dirt, stone, cement, over a front porch, through chickens and lots of dogs. The Casa was attractive throughout with a huge room for gathering and meals and a top floor giant studio space. It was definitely the most interesting entrance to a ‘hotel’ ever.

Town of Boca Tomatlan, Mexico                               Randall Sexton starting a painting                                                          Randall Sexton's Botanical Garden painting
 

The inlet at the mouth of the river in front of the Casa was filled with the constant activity of fishing or delivery boats. The outlet to the sea was a moving snake that exited through the sand at the entrance to the sea and changed daily. One day we’d have a big beach in front of the Casa and the next day we might be waterfront. There was an endless amount of beautiful and interesting visual material for painting which, for me, made the workshops so special.

  Always moving, outlet to the sea at Boca Tomatlan                                Changing river flow  
                                                                                           

Flowing river from Mountains to Ocean                                                  Fishing and supply delivery boats
                    

The Casa schedule began with breakfast at 8:30 (all meals were vegetarian and delicious) followed by heading to paint around 10. Painting days were spent at the beach just in front of the Casa, at the beautiful Vallarta botanical gardens and a third day at the beautiful village of El Tuito.  I was able to see some wonderful demos that Randall did the first week which were very helpful. The workshops are set up as a vacation with painting. One day was a coastline tour with snorkeling with lunch on a beautiful beach and another day was for visiting Puerto Vallarta. After following the schedule the first week and not getting much painting accomplished as a result, I skipped most of the activities the second week. Influenced by Jim, who is a painting machine and also wonderful to watch, I set my alarm for sunrise before breakfast a couple days and stayed in our gorgeous area to paint while others went boating or shopping. 

The locals, especially the kids, often gathered to watch us paint. The sounds were lively and filled with music. The only real difficulty was being able to sleep while music continued to blare till 2 am plus, followed by barking dogs and roosters. White noise on my phone and earplugs saved me. In all, it was a unique and rich experience.
Here are some of the paintings I worked on during my stay.