There can be subtle or significant factors that can effect the color of light. As an artist, one must be certain to observe these diverse factors and treat them with respect. Learning to portray these subtleties will enhance a painting and make it much more believable.
Albert Bierstadt: Yosemity Valley, Yellowstone Park 1868
There are many great artist that have mastered painting environmental elements that affected the color of light. Although the artist, Albert Bierstadt, was often criticized for enhancing light, he did not fail to properly portray it in his many beautiful landscapes.
Of course the quality of air is affected in nature by humidity. The more humid it is, the denser the air. Objects tend to be blue or gray in the distance. Exactly the opposite is true when there is no humidity in the atmosphere. The light is clear. The darker colors do not fade into blue or gray as rapidly.
Segment of "The Red Truck"
While painting “The Red Truck”, I had to keep in mind the graying of the colors as they became affected by the atmosphere. Clouds play a major role in the color of light. They may entirely or partially block the sun.
In the case of the painting, clouds completely blocked out the sun. The color of light on the snow was mostly gray-white rather than yellow-white as it would have been had the sun been shining on it. Shadows were warmer with touches of pinks and lavenders. The trees barely a block away were disappearing in a curtain of blue-gray-pink cast.
As artists, we must be good observers because we see what most people simply take for granted. It is the color of light that creates many of our moods without us realizing it. As an artist, we learn to portray the colors we see. Therefore, we have the magic to create moods.
If you see the up close posts and the height of the near by tree, house and barn in the painting, “The Winter Farm,” you realize perspective plays a huge part in an artist’s compositions, especially if the intent is to be somewhat realistic.
As an artist, you have to paint what you see, not what you know. For example if the posts are six feet high and the height of the house roof is approximately five times as high, how much trouble would you be in if you painted the posts one-fifth the height.
You will always have trouble if you draw or paint what you know instead of what you see. Trust your eyes and believe they will always keep everything in proper perspective and keep it looking realistic even when some things do not make any sense.
All artist will, from time to time, use their artist license to complete their paintings. However, when it comes to properly painting perspective, be very careful not to take too much artist license. Even a novice will know when something does not “feel” quite right in a painting.
Of course, many artist, especially the Naive artist, with their childlike simplicity in subject matter and technique clearly did not place a lot of emphasis on perspective. It seems many had no clue about perspective. And, yet, they painted wonderful and beautiful paintings with lovely colors and compositions. Which only goes to show that if it is on purpose and it is art…then it is art.
Edward Hicks, The Peaceable Kingdom (1826)
All an artist needs is a thought inside their mind, and the tools and medium to take it from the mind and place it on a substrate. It may be beautiful…at least beautiful to them, and it just might turn out to be great to the rest of the world.
I’m certain that when the Naive artist, Edward Hicks, first began to muse about “The Peaceable Kingdom” he did not concern himself so much about perspective. However, he did concern himself about the overall composition. This is evident. He made a lovely work of art.
I’m sure most of us artist prefer painting a complicated outdoor scene in the soft illumination of a cloud covered sky rather than the extreme contrasts of light and shadow caused by the bright sunlight of a cloudless day. It is so much simpler without the sharp shadows complicating the scene since the forms are in their true colors without striking contrasts of bright to dark.
I’ve often been pleased to note that the colors tend to be more pure–you might even say, brighter–than they do in dappling sunlight.
For example, in the process of painting the “Old Woodie,” I’ve had to spend more time concentrating on the proper color mix and the effects of shadow and the decision to use my artistic license when deciding to show contrast. I haven’t even gotten to hard decision of the value the shadow will cause that is naturally beneath the car. If I do not do it correct, it could change the value of all the other shadows in the picture. The sun is coming in about 1:00 p.m. and the shadow is on sand.
RDBurton: unfinished segment of The Old Woodie"
For the sake of discussion, ignore the unfinished portion of the tires, and concentrate on the unpainted shadow beneath the car and behind the man. If you have read some of my earlier blogs I made mention this painting came from a small black and white photograph taken sometime between 1948 and 1950. The man in the picture is my father filling up “Old Woodie”, a nickname we gave the car.
My dilemma is that the photograph and the full sized pencil drawing I made of this picture has the values too extreme and contrasting, and it would not be anything that would work in this painting the way I decided to paint it. So, I chose to soften the contrast. I’ve taken photos of a 1:00 sun and a model with a western hat and shadows beneath a car and it isn’t near the contrast as the old black and white photograph.
Art Center Information has received photographs of four more paintings from artist, Lynn Burton. We are proud to present them here.
Lynn Burton: ParrotsLynn Burton: Untitled
As you can see, these paintings are completely different in subject matter and colors than the paintings that were previously posted. This only shows the variance and scope this artist has accomplished.
My brother, artist, Lynn Burton, and I continue our conversation. This time Lynn took the lead.
Lynn: All right, why is it taking you so long to finish the painting you call the “Old Woodie?”
Richard: I do a lot of things that take up time. I do a lot of research for my blog. I blog. I write articles. I visit art galleries on the internet as well as visit galleries around town. I’m involved with art groups and I’d like to find some wannabe artists with talent and help promote them on my blog. Maybe do some interviews. The “Old Woodie”, is just something I come back to when I’m painting or drawing something else. I’m painting it for myself. It’ll probably be finished in a week or two.
Lynn: Now the main focus in the painting is Dad back in 1949 or 50, right.
Richard: Yeah.
Segment of "The Old Woodie"Segment of "The Old Woodie"
Lynn: Now, you paint in watercolor and acrylics, right.
Richard: Yes, I haven’t tried oils, yet. I’m not really set up for oil painting. I don’t have a good place to work with them. But I really like acrylics. I can do water color style, wet in wet, and I can do it where it really looks like oil. For example, my painting, “Serenity in the Keys” has a look of oil painting. It’s hard to see in a photograph but I think you can see it when I snap a picture of a close up segment.
Segment of "Serenity In The Keys"Segment of "Serenity In The Keys"
I don’t know if you can see it, but these do show brush strokes. With the different modeling techniques you can actually get all kinds of different textures in the paintings with acrylics. I didn’t really try to get anything but a feeling of oil paints here.
R. D. Burton Painting: "Serenity in the Florida Keys"
Of course, the flash of the camera makes it look like the sun is low in the middle of the painting. I learned a hard lesson. You have to photograph paintings before you put the varnish on them.
Lynn: Was your painting, “The Red Truck” in oil painting style?
Richard: Yes it was. If you feel the Close up building you’ll find that I put the stucco on with about a thousand pointillisim dots.
Lynn: I don’t think it’ll get to a museum. Seems like a lot of work.
Richard: You know me, I get something in my head and I have to do it that way.
Segment of "The Red Truck"Segment of "The Red Truck"
R. D. Burton Painting: "The Red Truck"
Lynn: Are you doing the “Old Woodie” in oil painting style?
Richard: No. Actually, I’m trying to make it in more or less an egg tempera style. I’m using a 50:50 matte medium to paint mixture making it very thin and transparent. Then I over paint my work, building the color. After this I gently sand it with a 600 paper until the surface is real smooth. It seems to be coming along.
Lynn: All I can say is I’m going to have to teach you how to get loose and slap that paint around.
Richard: Oh, I can do that. It all depends on the subject and what I’m trying to accomplish.
Here at Art Center Information, my artist brother, Lynn Burton, and I discuss some of our art.
Richard: Lynn, you mentioned on our last conversation that you like to take photographs during old western movies while they are in motion. What do you mean by that?
Lynn: Yes, I do. What you get is some natural poses, like a horse maybe with his head outstretched in an unusual pose, like the picture I painted with the cowboys on horseback by the fence.
Lynn Burton: Untitled
The different body motions of the cowboys and the horses are not posed and stoic. People come up and stare at the painting-kind of like they’re saying-“what in the world?” It’s just a whole lot of fun, you should try it.
Richard: I might just do that. The Southwest paintings you did of the American Indians, did you get them to pose for you.
Lynn: No. But I tell you what I did do. I got the clothes and beads and everything that I painted and I had them close so I could touch them, try them on and imagined them. If you are a real artist you have to that. You have to live what you’re painting. It has to get in your head and breath when you breath.
Richard: You are talking about musing now…right?
Lynn: Yeah, it’s musing.
Lynn Burton: UntitledLynn Burton: "Chief"
Richard: Is this Pocahontas?
Lynn: No…maybe, yes. I’m not so certain that I was thinking of Pocahontas when I first had the idea. But what I was trying to do was work with colors that worked together in harmony and the symmetry and balance of the composition.
Richard: Now you’re over my head. I think I know what you mean, because I feel it when I look at the painting.
Lynn: Don’t try that-“I don’t think I understand.”-nonsense on me! You know what I’m talking about. As a matter of fact, let’s talk about a couple of your paintings. You still working on that “Old Woodie” you’ve been blogging about. If it was me, I would of had that thing finished a long time ago.
Richard: Yeah, I’m still working on it, but let’s not discuss it today. Let’s talk about it tomorrow. This Blog post has gone long enough.
Artist, Lynn Burton, has sent Art Center Information another painting. I recognize this because it is like his mural that he painted at five locations throughout Texas and Oklahoma for a restaurant chain. The idea was taken from one of Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry Murals.
Lynn Burton: Study for Mural (oil on board)
The artwork to the left is an oil painting study that he created to sell the job to the restaurant owner and is 72″X96″.
Whereas the mural that he painted was over thirty feet in length and twenty some odd feet high.
Below, I am re-posting a picture of the mural which was featured in a former blog post.
In the few paintings that represent cowboys, he did his favorite thing to get art ideas. He photographed off of the television while the movement was in action. In other words, he did not stop the picture. He feels if he can get movement it keeps the picture from being posed. He said you get all kinds of different actions, body movements and expressions. It’s fun trying to make something out of it.
If you saw the last Blog Post, you know my brother, Lynn Burton, sent me a picture of his latest painting entitled Adam and Eve. I was curious about it so I got him on the telephone and discussed it. The conversation went pretty much like an interview, so I am going to put the blog script in a loose interview format. Before I do, however, I’ll give you some background about the artist besides being a family member. Lynn began his sign business almost fifty years ago and has had a paint brush in his hand even before that. For those of you that follow my blogs I have posted pictures of his wall murals that he painted in restaurants and malls throughout Texas and Oklahoma. He also has painted hundreds of fine art paintings, many which are in private hands or galleries.
Interviewer: How long did it take you to paint your latest work, Adam and Eve?
Lynn: Well, if anyone ever asks you, here is what I want you to tell them–and I mean it, too–tell them it took me forty years.
Interviewer: Come on, seriously?
Lynn: It’s what I want you to tell them, but let me explain what I mean. You know how I’ve been traveling all over the place for the last fifty years. Well, I’ve gotten to know all these little mom and pop restaurants and grocery stores and they’re always asking me, “Lynn, what are you painting now,” and I always tell them–you know how you don’t really want to get too involved in talking about your work–anyway, I always tell them that I’m painting this picture of Adam and Eve, and it’s a real doozy (Texas slang for outstanding). Anyway, for the last umteen years every time I see them, they ask me, “Got that picture of Adam and Eve finished yet, Lynn?” I say, nope, but it’s coming along, should be finished one of these years. Then we all have a good laugh. Well I decided I better paint it after all this time.
Interviewer: So, you painted it because you wanted to prove you were really painting it?
Lynn: No, not really. Actually I’ve been thinking about it for some time. I first blocked it out for a T-shirt about 11×13 in black and white. And then I showed it to some tattoo parlors that were around town and some liked it. You know how these young people have
Lynn Burton: Black and White sketch-"Adam and Eve"
skull and bones and demons and some pretty creepy things for tattoos? Well, I thought I might give them another side of the story. Anyway, I thought about it, and the more I thought about it, the more I decided to go ahead and make a painting out of it.
Interviewer: I notice you had apples and different leafy vegetables lying around.
Lynn: Yeah, I had two different apples, a cabbage and spinach. I wanted the foliage to have the light color yellow that you see in cabbage and that real dark green you get with spinach. Whatever I’m painting, I want something to represent it nearby. If you’re going to paint a rock, go out and find you a rock as close to what you’re visualizing as possible. If you paint water, go sit by a stream to paint. If you have to, jump in and get wet. Trust me, it helps if you can use all your senses you can when you paint.
Adam and Eve in process
Interviewer: Is it oil or acrylics, I can’t tell in the picture.
Lynn: It’s oil. I some times under paint in acrylics, and paint over it in oils. A lot of artists do that. You can’t do it vice versa, though.
Interviewer: We’re past the time you said you had. I did want to get into some of the other paintings you sent me.
Lynn: Yeah, there are a couple interesting things about them. Let’s talk sometime…maybe next week.
My brother, Lynn Burton, from Lubbock, Texas, sent me pictures of one of the pieces of work he recently finished painting. He calls it “Adam and Eve” and looking at it you can certainly see why. He also sent some different stages of getting it to a finished painting.
Lynn Burton: Black and White sketch-"Adam and Eve"
Here is one of the beginning stages for the painting (left). It is in black and white and basically graphical and balanced.
Lynn Burton: Blocking in color for "Adam and Eve"
To the right, you see the color going into the painting and the wrap of foliage and a large apple at the bottom keeping the balance in the painting and emphasizing the apple eve is being fed by the hand of the serpent.
To the left you can see more color and detailed being worked into the foliage. Under painting of the large apple to detail the light and dark values is apparent.
Please note the apple on the floor and the angle it is turned to get the exact lighting and reflection of its skin. Also note the size of the painting.
Below is the finished painting. Lynn Burton’s, Adam and Eve.
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