Class Notes: David Montgomery's Class Demo FINISHED

A few weeks back David Montgomery did a painting demo for my class. As he painted, he explained his process and technique, color mixing and painting philosophy. The time was entertaining and informative, and though saw we much of the process - as shown below - we never saw the piece actually completed.
Here it is - the finished
and framed 8" x 10",
and of course, for sale; a perfect Mother's Day gift.

SQUARE Show Sale

"Ladies in Painting"- my 7"x 7" homage to PAPNM (Plein Air Painters of New Mexico) was part of the SQUARE Show, currently hanging at the Milagros Coffee House Gallery in Alamosa. This piece sold last week, which I am happy about, but the good folks at Milagros could not tell WHO bought it. If by chance, it was purchased by a blog reader,
I would so like to know who you are.
Thanks so much.
The Square Show is a representation of work from the SLV Painting group and so far we have sold almost 10 pieces, possibly more since the ARTwalk. I am very happy to have sold 2 myself.

Shipping that REALLY Big Piece

At some time or another, most artists will face the shipping dillema.
I ship plein air paintings to galleries and shows during the year but a large painting is a whole different animal.
I am currently preparing to ship the painting above "Whispers In the Wood" off to a buyer in Texas and thought it would be a good chance to talk about how I prepare a painting to travel the distance.
In the past, most of my large work sold out of a galleries to buyers responsible to take it away themselves.
Then ONCE, I learned a very hard lesson about trusting a gallery to prepare and ship a big painting sold to an out of state buyer.
This is not a rag on galleries but I realized then, that everyone has a different standard about what is "good enough".
Said painting arrived at the home of the excited buyer with 2 corners destroyed 6 inches into the painting. When I saw the damage, I felt literally sick, not to mention sick at heart. Damage like that could only happen if a box was THROWN off the truck.

Rule #1 - never use Fed Ex. They may be great for some things but not for my art. And by the way, that piece was insured BUT, I could only make the claim if I was willing to forgo getting back my art.
I passed on the insurance money, took back my painting and restored it;
no easy task.
Rule #2 - work over 30"gets crated in wood, no exceptions - and only ship UPS. I think at first this whole idea was so daunting I didn't even want to look at it but when I saw my hard work destroyed, I wised up quick. It was empowering.

The painting at the top of this post is 48" high by 36" wide.
I try to find, or buy a box that is at least 4 to 6 inches bigger all around. We have a U-Haul place in town and I like to buy, what they call a Mirror-Boxes designed for moving art. Two boxes can be cut at the ends and extended for longer work. The painting itself gets wrapped in several layers of bubble wrap (big bubbles not small bubbles) until it fits snuggly in the extended box. Every corner should have at least 2 inches of bubble between the painting and the box.
I then build a frame of one bys around the box so all corners are covered. It is all held together by wood screws. The drill bit shown below will be sent, via regular mail to the buyer separately, so they can use a drill to open the crate.And if you are wondering about the cost: 2 Mirror boxes were $12.50. Lumber, 1 x 4" and 1 x 6" was about $35.00 and misc wood screws and the bit brought the total to $51.57.
Once the piece is crated, I take it to UPS with the address; they weigh, measure and give a price that includes insurance that covers the price of the art. I won't ship yet though.
The UPS price together with my crating materials is then communicated to the buy who will add it to total price of the piece and hopefully, send me a check. Then I ship.
So my shipping costs for this painting were $185.00. YIKES!!
And I admit sometimes that is my response.
When I communicated the price to the buyer however, their response was both gracious and grateful, for caring enough to make sure the art got to them in good fashion.

To my mind, delivering and, personally installing a painting is the first and best option - but not always possible.

Here's a final tip straight from a UPS guy: drivers know what packages are worth the most by how much insurance has been paid. These get handled the most carefully.
Sigh. . . . . . in the end you get what you pay for.

Class Notes: Seeing the Shapes of Things

Snow has finally come to Southern Colorado - see last week's post. We got plenty of cold as well - our temps last week went down to 30 below ZERO - which kept my husband from riding his bike to work (zero is his cut off temperature), and definitely kept me out of the landscape. Though the San Luis Valley is at high altitude the surrounding mountain ranges have, so far, kept most of the snow from getting in; but not today. We have been hit with a storm that closed roads into the valley and closed businesses. It is hard to imagine an early Spring in our neck of the woods, no matter what they say in Punxsutauwney.
So last week, the very night our temps hit the basement, I ventured out in the blistering wind and cold to teach an evening class that my husband predicted would be all no shows. He had just ridden in from the afternoon commute.
Thankfully, non of my students ride a bike to class.

So what will induce people to leave a warm hearth and go out when the bottom of the thermometer has dropped out?
I don't know. I do know how much better I feel afterwards.

These four photos follow our class exercise that served 2 good purposes - I like that.
First, seeing SHAPE, and second using MORE paint.
The first sketch shows our little set up of pears and oranges broken down into the SHAPES of form shadows and cast shadows and I encouraged students to squint in order to see only the big shapes, not every nuance of reflected light and shadow. Click on the photos to see them larger.
In the second sketch I have numbered all the shapes. There are 13 in all and after outlining and counting them we mixed paint: one light pile and one dark pile for each color - or in this case, a light and dark for the pears and the same for the oranges - BIG piles. If you are doing this - don't be stingy with the paint.
Photo 3 shows how we used the paint to fill in each of the numbered shapes- in ONE stroke. Yes, you will have to tweedle the brush abit, but it''s fun; thirteen shapes, thirteen strokes.
This encourages discipline in the brushwork and keeps us from making RANDOM strokes; you know, the ones that scream "I'm lost".
In the final photo I have taken the liberty of softening the edges, adding some reflected light and highlights - hopefully, all with the same sense of restraint.

This is a fun exercise. Set up something simple, put a lamp on it and try it for yourself.

And finally- a great quote: "When you go out to paint try to forget what object you have before you - a tree, a house, a field or whatever. Merely think, here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact colour and shape, until it emerges as your own naive impression of the scene before you." Claude Monet.