Tag Archives: watercolour techniques

Paint Shapes Not Things

I gave a workshop for the Calgary Chapter of the Federation of Canadian Artists last weekend. It was a brand new workshop for me so I was super excited to see how it would go. I’m really pleased to say that it was fabulous. It was based on some new ideas that I’ve been working on lately, namely Paint Shapes not Things. It’s a simple and very effective way to look at shapes. It helps simplify and organize the shapes. When you paint the shapes accurately you are painting the things accurately.

How to See a Subject as Two Shapes

Here are the first 2 demos I did. Both are based on seeing the subject as 2 shapes: One shape is everything in sunlight and the second shape is everything in shadow. Such a simple idea but what a difference it makes!

Painting When There is No Sun

This last demo is based on a subject where there is no sunlight. I have to admit that, for me, it’s the hardest to teach but the most fun. It’s a chance to play with colour and mood.

These are most of the student samples. All are works in progress.

Just a note. One participant worked in pastels and it was very interesting to see the watercolour instruction converted to pastel.

A great workshop and many thanks to the FCA!

Notan

What Is Notan?

Notan is a word taken from Japanese art. It refers to seeing a subject in terms of flat shapes of black and white. It sometimes uses just 2 values: black and white. More practically we can use 3 values: white, black and mid grey. You can of course use more values but I find the real benefit is to translate a subject into 3 values. It’s a fabulous discipline.

Why Bother?

The point is if the 3 value study works then you can be pretty confident that the painting will work. If your pattern of lights and darks doesn’t work it will show up in these quick little sketches. Notan is a skill that has to be practiced to master it. It’s very easy to understand it but not so easy to do it.

One thing we learn is that there are so many decisions that go into simplifying a subject. I guess I would say that simplifying is not simple. Not simple but very worthwhile.

Practicing Notan enables us to analyze a subject or photo before we paint it. This is part of the journey of improving our art.

Examples of Notan

Rex Beanland, Sports Experts

Rex Beanland, Notan Sports Experts, watercolour, 8 x 10

Rex Beanland, Exshaw

Rex Beanland, Notan – Exshaw, acrylic, 7 x 9

Rex Beanland, London– people walking

Rex Beanland, Notan – London, People walking, acrylic, 5 x 7

Rex Beanland, Stephan Ave bicycles

Rex Beanland, Notan Stephan Ave, acrylic, 7 x 9

Rex Beanland, Bow River Pathway

Rex Beanland, Notan – Bow River Pathway, acrylic, 6 x 8

The Benefits

Like any new skill it takes time and practice to master Notan. However, the benefits are truly worth while. It’s a lens through which we see subjects differently. It simplifies and focuses the way we look at a subject. It gives us a tremendous advantage when we come to paint a subject. Finally it’s quick and a lot of fun.

One of the main benefits is that Notan forces us to simplify the subject. When we simplify we learn that a lot of the detail doesn’t actually add much to the painting.

In Summary

Adding Notan to your arsenal of painting tools will, without doubt, take your painting to new levels. I really encourage you to give it a shot. It makes our painting process more intentional. It will lead inevitably to better paintings!

Rosebud Plein Air Weekend

I participated in a wonderful art event the past weekend in Rosebud, Alberta. Rosebud is a little hamlet that is almost totally dedicated to the arts. We’ve visited Rosebud many times to go the theatre but this is the first time I have actually stayed there, if just for a weekend. It felt great to be a temporary resident of Rosebud. I even participated in the drum circle and got to perform a couple of songs. I camped there and the sense of peace and quiet especially at night was wonderful.

Anyway, this is one painting I did. It’s based on my plein air study. It’s a view from the top of the valley looking down on Rosebud. I been drawn to this view for a number of years but I was never sure how to paint it. This style is something completely new for me which makes this painting super exciting.

This next image is a view of the ‘downtown’. Again I’ve looked at this scene many times and it never really spoke to me. This time I had a bit of time to kill and I wanted to try something so I just started with a little pencil sketch and all of a sudden I thought there was some potential. This really showed me that anything can be turned into a good subject. It’s all about the eye of the beholder. So don’t keep looking for the perfect scene. Work with what you have and turn that into a great painting. This is a plein air study.

It was a great time and many thanks to all the organizers who made me and all the other participating artists feel so welcome.

Gibsons Landing Workshop

I had the pleasure of offering my first in-person workshop in 16 months. It was for the Gibsons School of the Arts. They do a fabulous job of presenting quality art workshops every summer. They are a very vibrant and friendly group.

The participants in the workshop were also an especially great group to work with.

Rex Beaanland, Class photo, Gibsons — A great group of enthusiastic watercolourists

The Paintings
Piazza del Popolo

The first demo was of the Piazza del Popolo. It’s a great subject that teaches so many useful watercolour skills. We took a lot of time learning how to create a mass of background figures.

I’m including a detail of these figures. They tend to look unfinished when you look at them up close but from a distance they magically become figures.

Another thing that I use frequently in urban landscape painting is what I call ‘ghost figures’. They are figures in the foreground that are there to draw you in to the painting. I particularly like the way that their lower half sort of disappears.

The participants’ examples.

Granville St

The last demo we did was a scene from Granville St in Vancouver. We didn’t have time to finish it but you can see that everyone is well on their way.

Boats At Gibsons

We also did a painting of boats at Gibsons. This was a challenging painting but as you can see from our Wall Of Fame it was also well done.

Rex Beaanland, wall of fame, Gibsons — The Wall Of Fame

The workshops are now being held in the High Beam Dreams which I believe was originally a church. A great space.

My demos

Here are the paintings I did. I finished them off at home.

Rex Beanland, Piazza del Popolo Gibsons — Piazza del Popolo

Rex Beanland, Boats at Gibsons, watercolour, 20 x 15 — All Quiet In Gibsons

Rex Beanland, Granville St, watercolour, 15 x 20, Gibsons — Granville St

Thanks

I just love teaching art so it was a wonderful experience being in Gibsons. Many thanks to everyone who participated for making it such a great experience. Thanks also to Dee for being my excellent assistant!

Plein Air Painting

After the workshop Susan and I spent a week meandering to the end of the Coastal Highway (about 150 km). I did a few plein air paintings which I super enjoyed. I remember so much more of a location when I paint it then I ever do from a photograph. It’s the greatest way to visit new locations.

Rex Beanland, Lang Bay, watercolour, 9 x 12 — Lang Bay

Rex Beanland, Saltry Bay, watercolour 9 x 12 — Saltery Bay

Rex Beanland, Historic Town Site, Powell River, watercolour, 15 x 11 — Historic Town Site – Powell River

Rex Beanland, Pender Harbour, watercolour, 11 x 15 — Pender Harbour

It was truly a great experience!

Zoom Demonstration!

On Thursday, Nov 19, 2020 I did my first zoom demonstration for the Calgary Sketch Club. It was a fairly stressful process simply because I got a new, powerful piece of hardware that I hoped would make the experience better for the viewers. I worked beautifully.

Here is the painting as it was when I finished the demo (1 1/2 hours).

I spent about another hour in the studio and this is the final version.

I’m really happy with the painting and I’m over the moon with the process. I think I can use this technology to continue my teaching in this most challenging of times.

What’s Your Story?

I try to make sure that I include play as an important part of my painting process. This is where I just try things to see what they look like. I find I learn a lot in these ‘fun’ times. This painting is a beautiful case in point.

This is a painting of the Empire Building in Edmonton. This painting just uses the basic shape of the buildings as they actually are. I wanted to see if I could completely change the lighting to go with this extreme sunrise theme. I also wanted to see if the building were interesting enough shapes. The painting turned out absolutely fine, but nothing special.

Rex Beanland, Empire Building, Edmonton 1, watercolour, 11 x 15

I thought both the sunrise theme and the shapes of the buildings were fine but then why isn’t it very interesting. The thing that jumped out was that the buildings in the background are as detailed as the closer buildings. This gets the eye wandering down to the background too much. I asked myself what is my story? Where do I want your eye to go? For me the story is the life on the street in the front so in this painting there are too many distractions.

So I redid it with the clear intention to push the background buildings further back and keep the detail only in the closest buildings.

Rex Beanland, Empire Building, Edmonton, watercolour, 11 x 15

In this version your eye is definitely drawn more to the foreground. It’s a more focused and comfortable visual experience.

Lesson learned!

Experimental Watercolour Workshop

I recently had the opportunity to teach a fun workshop at a location that I really love – The Leighton Centre.

It has been a while since I taught this particular workshop and once again I came to appreciate how much fun it can be and yet how many useful watercolour techniques are involved.

It was a great group of participants and we formed a very supportive and enthusiastic group.

The three main activities were a fun way to do figures, a painting of Haystack Rock and a painting of a pond near Cameron Lake in Waterton Park.

Rex Beanland, Leighton Experimental Workshop, Class with Haystack Paintings

Rex Beanland, Leighton Experimental Class with Cameron Pond paintings

As I mentioned it’s always the people that make the workshop!

These are just a few shots from the workshop.

Rex Beanland, Leighton Experimental Workshop, Students

Rex Beanland, Leighton Experimental Workshop, 4 Students

Thanks to everyone for a great workshop.

Thoughts On The Painting Process

The top image is the result of my interest in the work of Nita Engle. She is an American watercolourist famous for using experimental techniques to create realistic effects in watercolour. I love the work she does and the effects she is able to get by throwing paint, using special tools and really playing with the water. She also has a way of stretching the paper that ensures that it won’t buckle at all. My one hesitation with her process is her extensive use of mask. In some paintings she ends up covering almost half the paper with mask and on large works that is a lot of mask. She also takes ages to finish a painting because of all the steps involved and the drying time between stages. In this image I followed her process entirely including stretching the paper and masking out all the snow and all the highlights in the background. Doing it this way does free you up to get more spontaneous mixing in the water and the background. This was my first attempt at using her process completely. I used an image that I’ve painted many times: the creek right at the top of Elbow Falls. I learned lots by doing it and enjoyed the attempt. The painting has some good points but overall it’s not very successful. I think I’m at my best when I paint very directly and feed off being in the moment and I get lost when I have to wait overnight to let various sections dry. Also and for me, most importantly, when using mask I get locked into the shapes I mask out before I’ve even started painting. This process doesn’t allow the chance to respond to what happens as the paint is applied.

The bottom image above is a similar scene but it was done completely in a direct manner. In this one rather than masking out the trees I lifted them out of the wet wash. I could lift them where I felt they needed to be according to what I had already painted. I added the light streaks on the ground that pass behind the trees after the painting was finished using gouache. Using this process I can add the lights where the painting needs them rather than where I thought they should go before even beginning the painting. As one of my art heros, Stephen Quiller, says frequently, ‘listen to the painting’. It will tell you what it needs.

Overall this is just part of the art journey. Explore, experiment and then keep what works for you and discard the rest. That’s what makes this such a fascinating journey for me.