Playing with Scale

Over the past nine years, I have produced between 100 - 120 paintings annually. Out of that large number, there are only 4 pieces that I will not part with because they bring me enjoyment. One of them is a little 4" x 6" piece titled Harbor Lights. It hangs in our home where I see it frequently.

I thought to myself, why not produce a much larger version of this same painting, where the scale takes on a whole new meaning?

Thus, Harbor Lights #2 was developed. It is a 30” x 30” piece and the scale of this tiny town at the water's edge is emphasized. The surrounding hillsides appear huge as does the twilight sky. All of this was done to show how small this little village and its evening lights reflecting on the water, really appear.

A gallery owner told me that a painting needs to make sense viewed from 13’ away as well as 3’ away. This painting meets those criteria.

Enjoy!

Rick

Try, try, try again.

How many time did we hear our parents tell us “if at first you don’t succeed, try again”. Actually by now most of us have probably used this same phrase, or at least the concept, on our own children.

Well last year I treated myself to an expensive set of paints, which were all ‘grayed down’ in the tube. This means that the blue is a blue-gray color, the green a green-gray color and so on. I thought I would love the idea of using these paints.

In the first version you see above, I used those paints exclusively. Although it could be argued that it’s not a bad painting, it’s just not representative of my work and style. So after it dried, I went back and ‘made it mine’.

Hope you like the revised, blue sky version better. I know I do.

Cheers!

-Rick

Morning Clouds

Quick, what color are clouds?

Everyone answered white, am I right. I said the same thing just a couple of years ago. But then you listen to these incredible artists, and you see things in a new light, no pun intended. Clouds have warm gray, blue-gray, yellow, orange, purple, pink and more! Isn’t that incredible. So the next time you’re looking out your windshield, look closer than you ever have before, and you’ll start to see colors you’ve never paid any attention to before. It’s quite amazing!

Morning Clouds. available here : https://bit.ly/3mumQ4z

Cheers,
R

Sunset Clouds, before and after.

Sunset Clouds has gone through 4 revisions, and I am finally happy with the outcome. I struggled with how to show the late day light on the water. This last iteration lends itself to the phrase ‘a quiet painting’. Of course, I included the seagulls to move your eye around the piece and to add a sense of life. Enjoy!

available here https://bit.ly/3gXUkW0

Before and After

Knowledge is a beautiful thing!

I reorganized my 3” three ring binder this past weekend, and it’s now down to 2”! It is comprised of workshop handouts which I’ve attended for the past several years, as well as my own notes from those events. Then I dove back into what they had to say. My take-away for today is to learn to be bolder and to be willing to make mistakes. So I grabbed this nice (but maybe lackluster?) painting and added the cows, strengthened the shadows on the buildings and added the purple which is in the field, into the cloud formations.

All in all, a better result. Enjoy!

Spinnaker Pole

So from the age of 35 to 55 I raced sports cars, on tracks all around the Midwest. The last 15 years of that time period, I instructed people how to get the most out of their sports cars on a race track and they walked away feeling like a real race car driver. One of the interesting things about being an instructor, was that you were giving your student the best advice for each corner of the given racetrack. In doing so, sometimes I would say to myself, ‘so why don’t you follow the advice you’re giving your student!’. The next time I went out, I followed my own advice and guess what, I usually improved my times.

Earlier this year I was asked by the Oil Painters of America to write an article for their monthly blog. My topic was about adding motion to your painting, and by doing so you elevated the emotional response from the viewer. Well, that large area of sky to the left of the sailboat was quiet; perhaps too quiet. I had added alizarin (dark red) to the blue to give the sky some vibration, but it still wasn’t enough. Then the lightbulb went off and I added the three seagulls. They provide motion and perhaps more importantly they also keep the viewer’s eye from wandering off the canvas. Clearly the boat itself provides motion, but I think this little touch compliments what is happening to the right side of the canvas. I hope you agree. Cheers!

Spinnaker Pole

20" x 20"

available here https://bit.ly/3pMnY2t

Another Day

So I premixed the 5 puddles below for the fields in the background of Another Day. After each painting is completed, I scrape the unused colors together and mix them into a beautiful gray.

I used that gray pile and tinted it to get the 5 puddles below which are all now tied together by the ‘mother color’. I think it holds together nicely because of this. Enjoy!

Available here https://bit.ly/3ljSaie

Drying Time

You’ve heard me say this before, but one of the things I especially like about the sport of painting is that you never stop learning. One of my personal struggles has been in regards to correctly rendering shadows in my pieces. I think that shadows ‘anchor’ a painting, or at the very least they anchor the object which is casting a shadow.

In the initial version of Drying Time, my shadows were too dark and, quite frankly, lifeless. So I went back into the painting and lightened them and added a bit of blue to the mix, which added that lighter feeling than was originally painted. I think the shadows make this painting what it is, and I feel much better about the revisions.

Enjoy!

Orange Buoy

So I grabbed this one off the shelf and decided to see what I could do to improve it.

To begin, I minimized the left side of the rowboat, which kept it from ‘tilting over’ in the original version. The sky and the water were not only the same value (dark/light) but they were also basically the same color. So I added some warmth in terms of yellows and oranges. I then let that orange reflect into the water, which helped to break up that large mass. Lastly I added some detail in the foreground water, with dabs of violet and blue-green.

Amazing what effect that has on the overall piece. Enjoy!

Orange Buoy

16" x 16"

http://bit.ly/2IR0mpq

Tickled Pink

Yesterday, when I was creating this piece, I had an orange and yellow sky in the upper part of the canvas.  When it was all done I stepped back to admire the finished product and that sky just did not fit in with the pink of the could formations.  So I scraped it off.  This morning, while it was still a bit tacky, I laid in a blue sky mixed with radiant violet which actually set off the pink clouds.  Well in some areas, I had a very light hand with the sky color which allowed that yellow to come through.  That is called a ‘happy accident’.

Then I had it framed and was taking shots of it for my website, when I realized that it could use the movement of adding some seagulls.  I dropped in 3 of them which helped to keep your eye moving around the painting.  They also add detail and depth, both of which I really like.  I hope you like it as well! 

Cheers!

Leelanau Farm

After recently spending 4 days under Roger Dale Browns tutelage, I have come to the realization that most of the really good artists are working on a dozen pieces at any given time.  They think about them, and look for ways to improve those pieces in progress and then put them back up on the easel and have another go at them.  If you Google ‘iconic scenes from Leelanau County’ I’m proud to say that Leelanau Farm is among those images.  However, that said, there is always room for improvement.  I reworked the entire painting but primarily I was looking for ways to accentuate the light.  I hope you enjoy the changes!

Heading Home

I customized this scene to include the Sleeping Bear Pyramid Point as a reference in the distant background.  This helped to establish a scale that was lacking in the photo reference.  I also added my own colors to the sails and the sailors.  They are heading home after a day of sailing.  Enjoy!

Silo Sisters

So all too often we hear “New and Improved!”....but we have heard it so frequently that it now gets little attention.  Well folks, I’ve learned a lot in the past 3 years of painting, so I took a just so-so painting and applied some of what I’ve learned since 2017. 

In the new painting, you will see; better shadows...better clouds...better detail in the foreground and middle ground...and more darks.  Look at the barn door with the dark interior, much better right?  I hope you enjoy my journey in this new sport....I love to see these differences over time.  Cheers!

Basking in the Glow

The first time I painted this scene it was a plein air piece that was 14x11.  At a later time, I painted it in the studio at 24x18.  The area behind the barns is actually a hillside that climbs up to the treeline behind it.  I obviously did not render it very well and the painting languished in the gallery and did not sell.

So I brought it back to see if I could salvage it from the dumpster.  The first painting is the original version.  The second one I changed many colors and values of the scene, but the hillside was still there.  I sent it out to my painting group, the Hog Bristles, asking for opinions.  One of my friends said that I needed to work on ‘the field’ behind the barns.  I said to myself, what field?  Then I saw it.

So I decided to render it more accurately as a field of crops, which also added a great deal of depth to the scene.  I downplayed the little (and unimportant) building to the left and added the fence to mentally separate the field from the grassy area.  Thanks Phil, I think it works better now!

Cheers!

Popsicles!

So Sandy likes to tell our friends that we have two people living in our house, an artist (me) and an art critic (her).  No truer words have ever been spoken. When she comes into my studio while I’m painting, I somewhat cringe because I know a critique is coming shortly.

Well, that happened when I was laying out Popsicles! but it was fortunate for me that she happened by.  I had the first row of popsicles laid in, and she said to me “they look like hotdogs on a popsicle stick”.  That is when I realized that the sides of a popsicle are not parallel but rather they flare out towards the bottom.  It was a really small change that had a really huge impact. 

Thank goodness that she came by when she did. Love her!

Barreling Bison

The bison is a fierce animal and while I typically do not paint animals, I found this guy charging in the snow to be an energetic scene. If you listen closely, you’ll hear him snorting as he goes by.

Enjoy!

Leelanau Farm

On our way from Leland to Crystal Mountain to go skiing each winter, we pass by this interesting farm.  The complex of buildings basically makes up the perfect composition.  Typically, we artists have to move this or that in order to develop the best composition, but not in this instance.

Enjoy!

Underway!

In the first painting, I painted what I saw; a boat in the harbor.

In the revised edition, I painted what I wanted the viewer to see. Removed the harbor. Put the boat in motion. Highlighted the whites. Softened the sky.

Enjoy!

The Boathouse

So I’ve painted the iconic Boathouse in Leland many times, but this time I was able to paint from the dock on the opposite shoreline from the Boathouse.  I usually paint in the grassy area which is about 6’ higher than the dock, so my perspective was greatly enhanced.  Only during this quite time of year, was I able to actually occupy the dock for a couple of hours to complete my painting.  Enjoy!

Batter Up!

Ok, so one thing I’ve learned is that in order to get to the point where most of your pieces are decent (ie; you’re happy with the end result) you need to do a lot a really bad paintings first. An example of that would be the painting in the first image. So I grabbed that bad boy, and painted over it.

I painted Batter Up! just a couple of weeks ago, but I was wondering what it would like in a larger format. The original was 6x8; this one is 16x20. I’m not only pleased it’s the outcome, but now I know that I have a lot of canvases that I can use in this same manner! Sweet.

Enjoy,
Rick Koehler