Neal’s Hats Painting Demo Part 2

Step 4 – (Upper left) – Wednesday evening I started filling in the top and four lower hats. When I paint, I mix on the canvas – scumbling in one color into another. In this painting I am applying one color to each hat, then adding another darker color, then a lighter color and white.

Step 5 – (Upper right) – Saturdays I paint at Adobe Gallery and greet gallery visitors. Today we several international travelers – I met people from Britain, Germany, and an artist from Denmark, I believe. I added more color to the hats, then the black, and the upper right. Looking at the original photograph, you won’t see the upper right hat. It was added it to balance out the top of the composition. You can also see that I corrected the curve of it’s brim. There is now a small problem in that two hats of similar color are together. In the next session, I will darken the top hat with a darker blue gray that is truer to the color of the photograph. This will help to balance with the lowest dark hat. It might be a good time to remind folks that as a color blind artist – I chose to change up colors to my liking. I am not a realist painter, so exact color representation in not critical. As I paint, I load up my brush to get thick strokes of paint. For my brushed paintings, I feel texture is equally important as color in telling the story of the subject on the canvas. Today’s colors include Grumbacher Indian Red, Alizarin Crimson, Burnt and Raw Umber, and Naples Yellow, and Ivory Black.

Step 6 – With each of the hats blocked in, I painted the background white. The paint again is brushed on thickly, but loosely – blue beneath is allowed to show through. This will be the 2nd of (probably) 3 layers of color. I like to layer backgrounds with color allowing each layer to peek through here and there. It allows the color to blend optically. In the next session I will continue working with the hats.

[Back story] Neal – the owner of this collection of hats – is retired after 20 years from the United States Border Patrol. Neal has worked his share of hot days and cold nights doing a job that many wouldn’t do. His temper can get up, and he’ll “spit his bit”, but he is a solid guy – he’ll let you know where you stand in no uncertain terms. He recently returned home (Lubbock, TX) and fell deeply in love with his high school sweetheart Deb. Up there on the Caprock, under a sky full of stars, they are both living large as Texas.

- Mark

Unfinished business (or, The 7% Problem)

THREE HATS, 2009, acrylic on panel, 30X30 -Mark Scantling

This one of paintings – you know, troublesome. It shouldn’t be hard. The subject and composition are simple – no problem there. It’s that “color thing”.

It’s that 7% thing.

In the U.S., 7% of males are color blind. I am one of those 7%. Yeah, that makes me a color blind artist. I don’t know the percentage of artists that are color blind, but I know of at least one other who is. He is also, by the way, a Pop artist working in a different medium.

At age 21 I was convinced that I could not be a painter. I put down my brushes, and picked up an assortment of cameras and black & white films for the next 25 years. At age 46 I was convinced I COULD be a painter – with limitations. Pop art allows me to use bold, bright colors – with only as much or little color mixing as I care to do. My wife, or CCO (Chief Color Officer) has always been nearby and willing to share her color sense – though I sometimes reserve the right to forgo her opinion and go with my own unique color sense. And as it turns out, people seem to like bold, bright colors, especially during rough economic times.

For this painting – “3 Hats”, I have stepped away from my silk screens, and have picked up a panel and I am painting at the easel. And this is where I begin wrestling with my “7% Problem”. Painting at the easel is very open to exploration – or “what ifs”. Get the painting going, then step back and look. Add this, subtract that, bake at 350 until done – allow to cool then serve. Being color blind, it, for me  is the subtle colors that I never get to add to “the recipe”. But that is ok – because I AM painting.

For “3 Hats”, I took one of my cowboy hats, made a few quick sketches, found my composition with the rectangles – all SOP. Then – I had to paint. Now – each color has 6 to 10 layers of previous colors underneath. First, second, and third attempts at random color relationships, and I am only now getting to the point where I am satisfied with the color harmony (such that it is – or, isn’t). Tomorrow I will make one more change, tighten up the lines, redo my edges with black gesso, and sign it. It is time to be finished. I have new works to begin, and new opportunities to deal with my 7% problem.

-Mark