The Great White North.

"Still Water"
by James Swanson / Traveler Eric
8"x 10" Oil on Panel

See the journey of this Painting.

When it rains it pours, and what do you do when you're in the middle of a hike and this happens?
My new Traveler in this painting adventure Eric knows.

Traveler Eric

Traveler Eric, is another new friend of mine that I've never met in real life. I kind of stumbled across Eric while I was doing research for another art project, and it was a very lucky slip on my part.

One of Eric's photos from this hiking trip.

You see Eric is an avid hiker from Canada-The Great White North, get it? sorry- and he has hiked, biked, or caved everywhere there and also loves to take photos to document the trips. A perfect fit for this Traveling art concept.

Just a walk in the woods?

Eric has agreed to let me paint a few of his wonderful adventures, and I'd like to say, I am very happy to have Eric on board for for this painting journey. He has a very nice eye for his photography and gets to places I could never get to also.

The start of this journey.

Traveler Eric Story: Gros Morne North Rim Traverse Hike (Newfoundland)

It's hard not to remember that place. It was about a 2 hour hike thru grass higher than our waist

- and all of it sopping, dripping with dew. We were soaked within a few minutes.

A little bit of dew.

Then there was the climb up the canyon walls. The best part was coming down a day later - in the rain - and coming down waterfalls while hanging onto trees and whatnot.

Here are pictures at the campsite at the end of the pond. We just had a day of fairly heavy rain and the sound of water coming down from the plateau is all around you. Where there was dry rock the day before there are now waterfalls.

The image I choose to work from.

Traveler Eric's Painting: "Still Water"

When I came across Eric and his photo's I was blown away by where this guy has been and how he got around. My feet hurt just looking at all his photos. Since I have just finished my vacation of Plein Air Painting I thought I'd keep it going a little longer and try and painting one of Traveler Eric's images in that style.

Like always, I start with the sketch. I try it get familiar with my subject before I dive in.

Since I'm painting this Plein Air style I'm going to work small 8"x 10" on a wood panel I prepared.

Artist Tip:One of the best tips I ever received in Plein Air Painting is to mix the main painting colors that you see in the subject before you start to paint. That way I paint fast and can capture lighting effects that probably drew me in to paint the scene in the first place. I use this idea in all my painting, it's good way to plan out the painting before you paint.

Moving fast I block in the darks for the structure of the painting.

In Plein Air Painting you have to work quickly or you will lose the light. Working this way brings out big bold brush strokes, because there is no time to dilly dally here. Here I am putting in the sky and water.since the water is reflecting the sky this goes quite quickly.

Fully blocked in. Time to go back in and adjust some colors.

I added a sky hole just to add a little more interest to the sky and water and to lead the viewers eye around.

Done pretty much just need to work on the paint edges. Paint edges are really important, they are almost as important as color. Hard edges of paint strokes come foreword soft edges recede in space.

Done. Here are some Details of the painting.

Framed and ready to go.

"Still Water"
by James Swanson / Traveler Eric
8"x 10" Oil on Panel

I painted this pretty fast, not as fast as if I were in the field, but pretty fast. I had the luxury of the sun not moving and the rain not hitting me.

Thanks goes out to Traveler Eric, for his time and images for this Traveling art adventure. We will be seeing a lot more of Eric I'm sure, because like I said earlier he's been a hiking all over Canada and what not, and he has some real nice photos too.
If you had a great trip somewhere and have a story to tell about it, go to my web site TheArtistAndTheTraveler.org and let me know. From here I'm going to be mozy-ing on down the road to meet up with a old friend but new Traveler in the San Juan Islands. Watch your top knot.

A Little Plein air time.

"Three Apple Trees" By James Swanson
8"x 10" oil on Panel

Even the Artist needs a vacation,
here are 11 Plein Air paintings I did on my time off.

And what does this Artist do on his vacation? Yep, I went to our summer cottage and paint in the early morning light and play in the water with the kids the rest of the day.

The Artist with his painting buddy Amber.

The Cottage, not too far from South Haven, MI.

I was on vacation for 11 days and got in 11 paintings and a lot of fun with the family. Plein air painting is a great way to paint because it’s so spontaneous and fast.

Finding the right spot to paint is usually the hardest decision to make while you are out there.

Vacation Day 2 Painting “Boats on Rack” 8”x 10”

The thing about painting is, it's addictive- sort of like hitting a golf ball to a golfer. You know, you go out and hit the little ball around for 17 holes and totally suck, but then you hit one great shot and you are a golfing god and ready to turn pro. Well painting is like that, one perfect brush stroke can make a painting and then you think it's easy. And just like golf, you find if you don't keep working at it often enough you go backwards real quick.

Vacation Day 4 Painting “Blueberry Fields Forever” 8”x 10”

So while I'm here near South Haven MI, I'll be doing some plein air painting, hopefully every day. I'll take my paints and brushes and paint out side. The one thing about painting outside is you find out the sun moves real quick. Shadows change so fast, you have to get a move on.

Vacation Day 6 Painting “Pink Flowers next to Shore” 8”x 10”

Vacation Day 9 Painting“Tree Farm” 8”x 10”

Plein air painting is very rewarding for something that is done so fast. The paintings always seem fresh like the paint is still wet. They might not be perfect but they usually have a lot of expression. And even if a painting does not turn out, you can get some nice color notes to help other paintings in the studio later on.

Vacation Day 11 Painting“Tree Farm Barn” 8”x 10”

Artist’s Tip: When you go out to plein air paint check Twice that you have everything that you are going to need- Paper towels, oil medium, canvases, brushes & knifes, paints, trash bag, and your easel set up. You start to take these simple things for granted in the studio, because they are always there. In the field if you’re missing one of these items you’re in for a long day.

Vacation Day 7 Painting “Rainy Day at the Lake” 9”x 12”

I kid you not. Try painting with out your oil medium and see how far you get, or how frustrating it is to paint after you forgot your easel. That happened to a buddy of mine I was painting with, so packing for the field is really important for a good plein air day. It’s like the old carpenters saying, “ Measure twice and cut once.” well check and make sure you have everything twice and pack once.

Vacation Day 1 Painting

“Yellow Paddle Boat on the Lake” 8”x 10”

Plein air painting is a great way to loosen up your paintings. You can learn so much from painting from life, I highly recommend it. Now I will put these vacation paintings to good use as field studies that will help me paint the Travelers pictures better and faster. Thanks for checking in I’m going back on the road now to meet up with my next Traveler. Check out the new web site www.theartistandthetraveler.org

“Strange Smoking Man ”

"Strange Smoking Man"
By James Swanson/ Traveler Greg
24"x 18" Oil on Linen

Watch the Journey of this Painting.

Ever get the feeling that something is out of place?

Traveler Greg's randomness

Happens all the time with me, but usually all it means id it's time to clean up the studio.

My New Traveler Greg is a Texan transplanted to Chicago. Greg is a senior art director for a advertising agency and a good friend of mine.

. Greg and his wood.

When I told Greg about my idea of Traveling the World in Paintings Greg said "cool" that means- he liked it. Then I asked him about some photos he posted and about one photo that jumped out at me. It wasn't because it was beautiful or anything just really out of place I thought. Greg laughs, and goes into this long story of how he took the photo.

Taos New Mexico

Traveler Greg's Tale: August, three summers ago, we took a spontaneous drive up from Aledo, TX, through Carlsbad, NM and up toward Taos for a little hiking and cooler air. On the last leg of the trip, we dropped down from the mountains and stopped into Taos for a couple days.

I generally take tons of pictures, mostly of food, and things we want to remember. That afternoon was spent walking the side streets, checking out the local architecture when we walked by a patio and almost missed this guy.

He was just sitting, staring into the distance, having a smoke. So stoic...and strange. Almost like a wax figure. We stopped just past the opening to his patio, so I quickly peeked back around with my camera and snapped a picture.

Greg's photo titled Strange smoking man.

I’d say ten seconds had passed since I first saw the man and he remained in the same pose in that span of time. That’s it. Never talked to the guy. No reason to. Seemed he was content being a part of the Taos scenery being dressed the way he was, so I didn’t feel the need to ask permission for the shot. Had I done so it wouldn’t have been the same.

We returned to our little motel—the next picture in the sequence was our room’s door with a Post-it note taped to it from the owner: “Dog deposit due! $50.”

They had the biggest cottonwood tree I’ve ever seen in their parking lot.

"The Smoker" by Paul Cezanne

Artist's Note: When I saw Greg's photo it reminded me of a old painting I once saw by Paul Cezanne "the Smoker" and I wanted to paint from it. There was something timeless about it and charming, so here I go again. This is how I went about painting Greg's travel picture.

Strange Smoking Man painting: Painting a portrait is kind of different for me, I like painting landscapes with water and beautiful skies. Portraits, are a lot tougher to do but are rewarding in a lot of ways- I use my brushes differently, paint colors on my palette and the color combinations are different. Paint edges the soft edge and the hard edge are not as easy to pick out as a landscapes.

The Sketch: as always starting with a sketch to figure out the composition for the piece. I decided to lean the man back a little and have him flow diagonally in the painting. I also want to concentrate on him no the background as much.

Here I'm using a linen canvas that comes with a clear coat acrylic on it. I like seeing the raw linen showing threw so I going to leave a lot of it showing.

I'm putting in my darks first and then my lightest light color. I then started working the blues into the painting.

With the shirt blocked in it's time for some skin tones. Next I worked on the hat and vest. The vest was so interesting in the photo so I wanted to hit that hard and make it pop with the least strokes possible.

Time to put the pipe in. In the photo the man was smoking a cigarette, I dislike cigarettes so I changed it to a pipe- artistic license. After the pipe it was time to tackle that background. I didn't want that flowery background to over power this man, so I just put in a feeling of background colors.

A couple of fixes to his hat brim and I'm there. I thought I was done with this painting, but the hand holding the pipe bugged me, so I had to take another look at that.

Details

Done and framed.

"Strange Smoking Man"
By James Swanson/ Traveler Greg
24"x 18" Oil on Linen

This was my first portrait that I've done in a while and I knew it was going to be great fun to do. Greg went out of his way for this shot and I felt I should do the same. Greg said that this trip to Taos NM was one of his family's favorite vacations and the way Greg lit up telling me the story I'm sure it was, thanks Greg for your time and travels.

Thanks for stopping in I'm heading North of the border for my next Traveler meeting. Also check out the new web site for this blog www.theartistandthetraveler.org