"The Orange Forest"

"The Orange Forest"

By James Swanson/ Traveler Barry

12"x 24" Oil on Panel

How this painting was painted.

Been there, done that, and doing it again! When ever I go outside to paint - plein air painting-and find a good spot to paint there is usually another good place to paint close by. Sometimes you hit the jackpot and never move more than a few feet all day.

Return to Half Moon Bay

This is what happened in this series a little while back when I painted a photo from Traveler Barry.

Traveler Barry editor of the Coastsider.

I had a good experience painting this one from Barry and knew that the other photos that he had sent me were just as good.

"Beachwood at Half Moon Bay"

This painting won a best in show award.

I planned to paint a few of those photos, but was just waiting for a place to fit one in. The chance came not too long ago when I wanted to try out painting on a gessoed wood panel.

Some of the photos I received by Traveler Barry.

Traveler Barry's Story: Barry was working on a story for his Coastsider Magazine about a vacant piece of land called Beachwood and it's development in Half Moon Bay. He took some wonderful photos for the story, and I happened upon one and was able to contact Barry about being a Traveler.

The vacant land that is fought over.

Barry on the parcel of land -The city wound up taking possession of the property for $18 million. They will most likely seek to develop it as profitably as possible. It'll probably take a few years. A lot of the landscape in you painted should be safe because it does contain wetlands, but until the wetlands are delineated and the Terms are agreed upon, we won't know.

Update: In the November election, the slate representing the current city council majority swept the field, so they now have all five seats. While Beachwood was destined for development in any event, I expect the result to be a very aggressive move to develop the property faster and more thoroughly.

The photo from Barry that I will work from.

Traveler Painting " The Orange Forest" Traveler Barry was able to catch some beautiful early evening light on this field. That is what drew me in to paint this place at Half Moon Bay. The warm light of morning or evening is really the best time for photos., ask almost any photographer.

The Sketch: In looking at the photo I decided to add a little more roll to the hills, and I wanted the orange lighting on the trees to stand out- re the orange forest name.

The translated sketch to the gessoed wooden panel. The paint that is laid down on this panel is grabbed by the surface. It sticks and doesn't slide around much. A good feel.

As always I start with the darks to set up the structure of the painting.

Painting in the sky and ground.

Painters Tip: Structure of a Landscape painting - It's pretty simple idea, the Sky will always be the lightest light. Next lightest is the ground, grass, flat horizontal things. The lightest after that are, angled thing like slopes of hills, or rocks, and boulders. The Darkest areas of the painting are verticals, like trees and sides of buildings. Things that see that much light.

Painting is all blocked in. All areas are painted now it's time to adjust the colors.

Adding the house: When I had the painting to this point, it felt heavy on the right side. All the interest was there and it needed to be balanced off a little. To even the load I added the house. A human element in a landscape painting is like adding a tree. The viewers eye will go right there, so making the element small like the house will draw some attention but not keep it from the rest of the painting.

Done. There weren't any clouds in the photo, but the sky need something to give it space. My first try with the clouds was too illustrative. Yeah the looked like clouds, but didn't match the rest of the painting feel and stood out to much. Simple clouds, simply painted,with not much detail is what was called for.

Details of the painting

Finished and Framed

"The Orange Forest"

By James Swanson/ Traveler Barry

12"x 24" Oil on Panel

They say a good artist can find beauty in anything and anywhere. In this little undeveloped field in Half Moon Bay Traveler Barry found a lot of beauty. My thanks goes out to Traveler Barry again for this fine find and his updates on the land. I hope it not re-zoned for a strip mall.

If you would like to become a traveler in this painting journey contact me here or at the web site www.TheArtistAndTheTraveler.org and have a story to share. I am currently looking for Travelers who have been to The Isle of Man in the UK and Africa.

Thanks for looking in, and I'll see ya on down the road with another painting journey.

The Pentlands

"The Pentlands"
By James Swanson / Traveler Dave H.
15"x 26" Oil on Linen

Out with the Old and in with the New. That's usually how most things work, but not in Edinburgh UK.

Edinburgh from Arthur's Seat
All photos by Traveler Dave H. all rights reserved

A place where history and the world of today walk side by side. And who would know Edinburgh better than our next Traveler Dave H.

Traveler Dave H ( self Portrait" Meshface")

Dave lives and works in Edinburgh, in fact Edinburgh is his work. Dave has photographed pretty much the whole city and countryside of Edinburgh for decades.

Waverley Bridge 12

Going through his web site is like taking a personal tour of the city. It's well organized and nicely photographed, but what would you expect from a professional photographer. I highly recommend taking a look at his fare city site.


Traveler Dave H Story: Climbing the Pentland Hills to the south of the city. They're less than 2000 feet high, but I know that would be impressive near Chicago! It' just a favorite place with good views.

Corstorphine Hill and Granton are visible in the distance, through the snow-clouds drifting by.

I Panned the camera slightly left to catch the pool of sunlight on Sighthill district.

This is the photo of Traveler Dave H that I chose to paint.

A telephoto shot from the same standpoint. The water is the Firth of Forth (Forth estuary) leading to the North Sea.

Traveler Painting "The Pentlands" I liked a lot of Dave's photos and knew many of them could be made into nice paintings. The one I chose to paint though wasn't even in the mix when I started researching Dave's photos. It was summer, 90 degrees outside and I didn't want to think about winter. Well, it fall now and winter is real close and I haven't painted snow for a wile now. So here we go.

The sketch. Dave has done a lot of the work for me. A good design, nice lighting and interesting color.

The sketch on canvas. Here I've decided to give myself some lea way with the painting. Instead of painting on a stretched canvas, I'm painting on canvas that is just tacked to a board, and I will size the painting later. Leaving me freedom to try and explode into the painting.

Laying in the darks first, I want these darks to shoe through from underneath. I also want some of the drips from the oil wash to show in the painting.

Here I'm laying out the city in the triangle of blue. I'm painting this painting fast as I would paint a plein air painting. Everything will be mostly indications of color and strokes.

Putting in the sky. I'm laying in a Turquoise type blue knowing most of it will be covered up by purple clouds.

Snow time. I can't paint any farther with out the highest key colors being put in. I was trying to paint the snow thickly with the brush, nut the linen I was painting on wouldn't grab the paint from the brush.

Painters Tip: Painting Darks and Lights - This is an old rule of thumb for painters. Paint your darks colors first and your lights last. You want to keep the light high key colors as clean as you can get them. They will dirty up if put in too soon.

Work the clouds in over the turquoise sky, and adding details to the foreground.

Finishing up with a little more sky coming through and cleaner snow. I ended up putting in the snow with my palette knife to get the paint thick enough to feel like snow.

Details from the painting

Done and Framed

"The Pentlands"
By James Swanson / Traveler Dave H.
15"x 26" Oil on Linen

That was a whole lot of fun. Painting just on canvas with no framed edges holding me in. The only problem I really had was how to crop the canvas, but the is pretty easy to look at in Photoshop.

I'd like to thank Dave H for being a Traveler here and showing me around Edinburgh through his web site. Dave put up with me changing my mind on what I wanted to paint very nicely and gave me some very unique views of his city. And I someone out there has some interesting views of their cities or countryside, give me a holler here or at www.TheArtistAndTheTraveler.org I 'd like to take a look.

Well that's about it, I'm off to our next location and to meet up with the next Traveler. Til Then Tally Ho!

And The Heart Grows Fonder.

"Plockton"

By James Swanson and Traveler Jim & Maggie

24"x18" Oil on Panel

Watch the Journey of this Painting .

Curiosity killed the cat, but it did help make a nice painting. A few paintings ago I mentioned that I was looking for the village that's in the books of M.C. Beaton to paint. The Village was Loch Dubh, but there was no village to paint there at all, just rocks and Creag .

M.C. Beaton's " Death of a Witch

The Traveler at that time David told me about the Village of Plockton, and it is where the TV series was shot.

Village of Plockton, Scotland

Well, being the curious mind that I am I had to take a look see, and this is where I met our next Travelers Jim and Maggie.

Map of Plockton

We first visited Plockton years before it was immortalised by Robert Carlyle and the rest of the cast of Hamish Macbeth. One of the white houses in the left centre of our picture was used as the police station in the series.

Hamish Macbeth TV series

When we go touring in the Highlands we often take English friends with us to introduce them to the often stunningly beautiful scenery (yes, I'm biased, but if you saw it I think you would agree). As some of our compatriots say, Scotland is "God's own country".

Maggie's photo I chose to paint from

Traveler Painting “Plockton” I came across Jim and Maggie when I was researching the village of Plockton. Maggie’s photo reminded me of an impressionist’s painting. Always a good sign for me that it could be a nice painting.

The Sketch: The first sketch I did from the photo was a horizontal composition and I knew it would work that way.

But after I stepped away from it I could only see it as a vertical in my mind. I had to go with what’s in my head, so it’s a vertical composition.

The painted sketch on paint toned prepared panel. You can see the Z design of the painting. The Z or S design are really good composition solutions for landscapes. These designs move the viewers eyes all around the painting.

Here I'm putting in the darkest darks of the painting.

Here it is at the blocked in stage. Just a few clouds to put in.

Now that it's blocked in it's time to defining the areas more.

Painters Tip: Painting reflections in water. Reflections can be as clear as a mirror or broken up in ripples, but either way the reflection should be darker in the water than the land image. They also should have softer edges.

Working on the wall trying to soften it so the eye can get past it and back into the painting.

Here I've decided to add to the wall in the foreground. It just wasn't strong enough and needed to be bigger in front to make the village and mountain sit back farther in the painting. The sailboats have also been added. The color also has being cleaned up.

Done. Color and a few design changes is all it took.

Deatails of the painting

Finished and Framed

"Plockton"

By James Swanson and Taveler Jim & Maggie

24"x18" Oil on Panel

A great Thanks goes out to Travelers Jim and Maggie for letting me journey along with them in Scotland.It was nice to paint some water again, and Maggie is right about photographing and painting in Scotland, the quality of the light is excellent. You can tell they have by their web site that they have their heart in Scotland, and that they are right, Scotland is " God's own Country".

It's that time again the load up my painting gear and slip slide away. Off I go to meet up with our next Traveler, if you are interested in join this painting adventure just give me a holler here or at www.theartistandthetraveler.org. Ta ta for now.