Carmel Yum!

"Carmel"

By James Swanson / Traveler Andy
20" x 16" Oil on linen panel

Watch the journey of this painting

If Caramel is candy for the soul, than Carmel is eye candy for the senses. Our next painting project takes us to Carmel by the sea in California, where we meet up with our New Traveler Andy.

Andy's photo that I first saw,
and all these photos comes from Andy.

I came across Andy just by chance. I was picking out some pictures for this blog a while back, and came across a photo of Andy's that I just loved.

Hearst Mansion indoor pool

So of coarse I had to meet the person behind the camera.
Traveler Andy only had a few words about the shot I chose to paint.


This is the Carmelite mission as shot from across the bay, from Point Lobos State Park. The town of Carmel gets its name from it.

California road trip in 2009. Highway 1

The Travel Painting- "Carmel" Ever since I met Andy, he has always impressed me with his shots.

Point Lobos

He has a natural flair for photography and shares his flair freely.

This is the photo that I chose to work from.

Now it's my turn to share. The shot of Carmel by Andy when I saw it stopped me. I could feel the air and sea in his photo and knew it would make a great candidate for a painting.

Again I will be painting this painting as a paint a long demonstration with my painting class.

The Sketch: I like Andy's composition in the photo, but for making a painting I wanted to make it a little different. I started off by making it a vertical instead of a horizontal design. I then pulled a few things in from the sides for better layering. And finally what drew me in was the little tiny bench under the trees looking out at the sea. That is what my focus was going to be. The mountains and mission would take second.

The sketch on canvas: The canvas was rubbed with a paint mixture of Burnt Seana and Raw Umber. I like starting paintings on a toned canvas to get rid of the glaring white.

I painted in the darkest colors first. The cliff is the closest so it would have the darkest and most contrasting colors.

The hills I wanted to rough in next to give me the right balance in depth for the painting.

Now the middle tones are filled in. These are the dark shadows for the distant trees. A lot of air between the cliff and the hills, so a lot of the shadows turn to blue in color because of it.

The water and rocks are next. Working the contrasts here, trying to make the cliff and water come forward.

The painting is pretty much blocked in here. Painting on the cliff now.

End of class. I got a real good start on this painting I thought. My students did too.

Student painting from the class. Nice start Karen.

I thought I was about done, but after going away from the painting I saw it with a fresh eye I knew I wasn't.

Artist's Tip:The hardest thing about painting is to know when to stop and when you have to keep going. It's hard when you've been working on a painting for a long time, to make changes. But that is what makes it yours. It's your ability to know something isn't right and keep going and making the right choices to finish the painting.

Done again, but a lass no. I liked a lot of the painting, but it just didn't hold together right yet.

Now I'm Really, Really, Done. I thought I was done so many times on this painting, but now I am done. What turned this painting around was a comment from a Italian Traveler who liked the painting at an earlier stage. In reading her comment, I saw that the painting had a ton more life to it. So I went about to bring it back.

Details from the Painting

Framed and ready to go.

"Carmel"
By James Swanson / Traveler Andy
20" x 16" Oil on linen panel

What a beautiful place Carmel is, trying to capture it wasn't as easy as I thought it would. Thanks to Traveler Andy and his California road trip I gave it a good try. Andy is now traveling in Europe and I'm hoping he keeps me in mind I can always use some great shots from there.
And if you have some great shots you want to share send them along to me at www.theArtistandTheTraveler.org and maybe me get a painting out of it.

Until next time Hang loose.