New Year's Resolutions Follow Up

Back in January I posted a some of my goals for 2011.  We're past the halfway mark to 2012 now and a new school year is starting, so I thought I'd take a moment and post my progress towards my resolutions:

• Paint! I'm still doing plenty of painting, although I'd still like to do MUCH more!  I have been working on larger paintings of Lake Mineral Wells and other landscapes, and gradually sinking my teeth into images from Caprock Canyon.  Now that the school year is starting I have a big project planned involving the students and events at the school I teach at in the Dallas ISD.  You'll have to stay tuned for more info on that once I get it rolling.
• Take advantage of non-traditional exhibit venues.  I've been lagging behind on this one.  I just felt like I needed to have a little more success in terms of my larger pieces before I tried to mount a show again.  I'm feeling like I'm ready now though, and I'm planning to contact the possible venues in the next few weeks.  Wish me luck! 
• Enter Juried Exhibitions.  I just paid my entrance fees and submitted images of some of my paintings to three different national competitions.  Two are for publications and one is an online gallery.
• Submit work to galleries.  I've still been keeping a list of potential galleries to approach, their submission guidelines, and dates that they review portfolios, but have been focusing more on getting my name out there online and developing a few current exhibits for my resume before I submit my work.  I have had one gallery contact me, although I didn't feel like it was a good fit.
• Amplify my internet presence. My website (http://www.marknesmith.com/) is looking better, and I've gathered a few followers for my Paint Daily Texas blog.  I added it to the Networked Blogs on Facebook and that's really helping my traffic stats.  I've also become quite active on Flickr and regularly post paintings among the many groups I participate in.  I've been leaving my virtual footprint all over the net, and even had a two-page article about my work in and online magazine.  I've been accepted into the Artists in Texas group (kind of a webring/co-op for Texas artists) and just need to pay my membership dues.  I think I'm starting to get to the point where Galleries and collectors can see that I'm serious about actively promoting my work again.

I think it's good to set goals, but part of the process is checking your progress towards those goals.  That's the part I've been kind of missing the mark on.  Every once in awhile it's good to re-focus on the target and clear our heads of all the extra junk that accumulates throughout the course of surviving in the real world each day.  I hope you've each had some success towards your own goals and resolutions, and remember, there's still alot of time left in the year to make it happen!

Winter Thaw

Winter Thaw, originally uploaded by Mark Nesmith.

As anyone who lives in Texas knows, this summer has been brutal! We've just had 40 straight days of 100+ degree temperatures with several days that topped off near 110! It's been so bad that Todd Brisbon from Tattoos by Todd here in Seagoville has been posting videos on Facebook of his rain dances around town. Here's my small effort to help with a little relief from the heat.

This past winter was really unusual for us here in the Dallas area. We had not one, but TWO major snow events! Snow is a rarity in North Texas, so I couldn't wait to get out and paint this new winter wonderland. I drove around for hours making sketches and taking photographs. I admit it was a bit reckless, especially since I don't have snow tires or chains, and yes, I did get stuck a couple of times. Luckily Texans are a friendly bunch and a few good neighbors helped me out with a push.

Well, with the heat this past month I've been looking for some relief, so I pulled out my reference material and set to work. With my a/c unit working full blast I painted this view just off of Hwy 175 near Crandall. I love this spot and return to it often throughout the year. The combination of the hillside with the tree line and the canal winding its way along like a snake is irresistable to me. I especially loved this spot in the snow. Snow has the wonderful effect of unifying the whole scene, and keeping a bit of color interest while maintaining the slightly overcast feeling is a challenge. It's amazing how many different tints of light blues, pinks, and oranges I discovered in the snow banks. The hint of blue sky and slight warming in the distance is the beginning of the thaw.  This is an oil painting on canvas and measures 18" x 24".

We're supposed to be back in the 100's again all week, and I enjoyed this snow scene so much I think I'll have to do a few more, at least until winter comes around and I start dreaming of travelling to the hot sand and salty breeze of the Gulf Coast again.

Island in the Clouds

Island in the Clouds, originally uploaded by Mark Nesmith.

There's a spot on Hwy 175 just past Seagoville where I often go to paint. It's just before the river where there's a group of trees on the hillside by a small creek. The area has recently been turned into a water reclamation project with rows of canals that give the effect of the salt marshes down near the coast. On this particular morning I arrived to see a brilliant display of clouds just over the tree line. Usually I focus more on the landscape itself, but this time I was entranced by the clouds. I painted a small, square version of this years ago in acrylic and donated it to an auction for deaf education. Here's a larger version (24" x 36") I just completed in oils. My original drawing and initial layer of color was pretty realistic, but as I went back to finish it today it turned into an excuse to play with my paint! The clouds at the top are fairly thick impasto and very loose in terms of brush strokes. Up close they disintigrate into painterly abstraction, but back away a few feet and they start to resolve into an image. I've been tentatively calling this painting "Island in the Clouds", but my daughter thinks it looks a bit like a cloud volcano. Maybe that would be a better name for it!

The Fallen

The Fallen, originally uploaded by Mark Nesmith.

Here's a new painting I just finished (still wet) but I just couldn't wait to share it. I'm pretty pleased with it, and it's one of the most successful large paintings I've done in a while. It's 24" x 36" and is oil on canvas. This is another image from my family vacation at Lake Mineral Wells. I think I've managed to have a nice marriage of subject and technique. These larger paintings are really making me miss my DSLR. It's in the shop, and it's very difficult to take good photos of oil paintings with a point and shoot.

Water Lillies (Last Kiss)

Water Lillies (Last Kiss), originally uploaded by Mark Nesmith.

Here's one of the larger paintings I've been working on (24" x 30" oil on canvas.) When I first moved to Seagoville I spent many weekends driving around exploring the landscapes to get familiar with the territory. One of the first places I discovered was Cedar Creek Lake. It's about a 45 minute drive past Seagoville out Hwy 175. In the spring the water near Hwy 175 is literally blanketed with water lillies. I've always been drawn to the scene, but I wouldn't allow myself to paint them (too many references to the famous series by Monet.) A few years ago I did a couple of pastels that my wife loved, but I never finished them (they just seemed a little too "sweet" at the time.) Recently I was looking through some old files and found the pastels and some reference photos I took years ago. Since my wife and I had an anniversary coming up, I decided to paint a large water lillies painting as a surprise. Turns out I enjoyed it so much I'm planning to do a few more. This is a view from late in the season when Spring is giving way to the hot Texas summer. Many of the pads are getting a bit tattered at the edges and starting to brown at the fringe. Amidst all of this there's always still a few blooms that aren't ready to die yet. My wife loves Pearl Jam's cover of "Last Kiss" and it kind of seemed like an appropriate name for the couple of buds at the front that are in an embrace.

Caprock Canyon Pastel

Caprock Pastel, originally uploaded by Mark Nesmith.

Here's a small pastel of Caprock Canyon. I'm doing a few more pastels these days. The dryer feel of pastels seems appropriate for the canyon, and the reds and earth tones in pastel are so vivid. I think when I return to oils to paint Caprock again, I'm going to work on a larger scale. I've been doing a few larger pieces lately (Water Lillies at Cedar Creek Lake and some more images of Lake Mineral Wells) and I think the vast expanses of the canyons kind of scream for a larger size.

Caprock Afternoon

Caprock Afternoon, originally uploaded by Mark Nesmith.

This is a small oil painting of a hot afternoon at Caprock Canyon. I've been doing a few paintings off and on of my trip there last summer (I keep getting distracted with other subjects--Texas just has so many wonderful vistas to paint!) I'm trying to work out capturing the blistering hot sunlight at Caprock in the summer when the incredibly vivid colors of the bluffs start to seem kind of bleached out. If you ever plan trip to Caprock Canyon State Park in the summertime, make sure you pack plenty of water, sunscreen, good walking shoes, and a wide brimmed hat (and the strongest bug spray you can find - the deer flies are notoriously big and love to bite!) Outside of our tent there was very little shade, especially once we started to hike up the mountains. Don't get me wrong, the canyons are beautiful anytime of year, but I think my next trip there will be in the Fall or Spring. Much cooler temperatures, and the cactus will be blooming. This painting is 8" x 10" and is oil on canvas.

What's in a pallet anyway?

I've had a couple of questions about my pallet, brushes, medium, etc., and while I wish I had some amazing story to tell, I'm really a pretty simple guy when it comes to paint.  The picture above is of my setup.  I'm using a plain old piece of glass on top of a set of plastic strorage drawers with wheels from Wal-Mart.  I've always used glass because it's easy to clean even when I leave paint sitting for too long (guilty as charged), and the plastic drawers were a cheap way to get the pallet waste high and have some storage for brushes, paints, and other supplies.  I've been using Utrecht or Daniel Smith paints, although I'm fine with just about any brand as long as they have good pigmentation.  I'd love to try Williamsburg paints but that'll have to wait for my lottery winnings to roll in!  Ha!  As far as colors, I stick pretty much to basics.  Starting in the bottom right hand corner of the photo and moving clockwise there's Titanium White, Naples Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red, Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue, Viridian, and Pthalocyanine Green.  I'm thinking of adding a few colors, probably starting with Cobalt Violet, but for oil painting I really prefer to keep it simple and mix any colors I need.  When I need black (or rather something close to black) I mix it from Alizarin Crimson and Pthalocyanine Green. That way I can push it towards the red or green spectrum depending on the needs of a particular painting.  I try to have no more than three colors in a mix (the first two get me in the right hue family, and the third is for tints and shades.)  I pretty much stick to bristle brushes and have an assortment of flats and rounds, although recently I'm using the rounds for most of my work.  My medium is a traditional mixture of damar varnish, stand oil, and turpentine.  I mix up large batches at a time and then fill small squeeze bottles to keep on my work table.  For my first layers of painting I use a 1:1:3 ratio (oil:varnish:turps) and then a fatter 1:1:1 for subsequent work.  After experimenting for many years with different techniques and mediums (including alkyds and acrylics) I've pretty much returned to the materials I used in my first painting classes with at Lamar with Larry Leach (a FANTASTIC painter and teacher and my first real mentor.)  I've still been painting on gesso primed canvas that I tone with acrylic paint, although I'm kind of itching to try some primed birch panels again.  Larry recently told me about Winsor's Artists Oil Painting Medium and I'm planning to check that out as soon as I'm out of my current batches of medium.  That's about it, pretty simple I think, especially considering that I've met painters who keep dozens of colors on their pallet.  For me I tend to find that less is more, and after all these years I've come to believe that painting has more to do with how you see and feel than what you use.

I'd be interested to hear what you all consider to be "must have" items for your paint box.

Texas Sky, Lake Mineral Wells (Crosstimbers Trail)

Texas Sky, Lake Mineral Wells (Crosstimber Trail), originally uploaded by Mark Nesmith.

Here's a lesser known side of vacationing at Lake Mineral Wells State Park. On the North side of the lake, the Crosstimbers Back Country Trails offers hiking, biking, and horse trails that take gentle to moderate slopes through grassy hills and woods.  Some are partially paved but most are gravel/dirt combinations. The area was a training ground for chopper pilots during Vietnam. There's a few small memorials of soldiers who served, and lots of clearings that were used to train the pilots to airlift soldiers in and out of combat. After a day of hiking the rocky and more rugged trails around the lake, my family and I often hike these trails in the evening and watch, awestruck, as the sun begins it's descent and the woods give way to beautiful expanses of Texas sky. This is a 12" x 16" oil on canvas painting, and I have to honestly say that the colors are much more vibrant and beautiful in person.

On the Rocks

On the Rocks, originally uploaded by Mark Nesmith.

One of the things I love the most about traveling in Texas is the wonderful variety of landscapes. Where else can you go from beaches to pine forests to rolling hills and desert canyons without crossing state lines?  Often a single location offers a multitude of landforms. In the last year I've painted lots of pictures of Lake Mineral Wells. Most have focused on the wooded shores with their rhythmic grasses growing out of the water, but there's much more to see at this state park. One side of the lake is a rock climbers dream. There are caves and cliffs to explore that are an easy to moderate climb. My kids have a wonderful time acting like mountain explorers, and for the skilled climbers there are even permanent anchor spots for ropes at the top of the scenic outlook for repelling. There are many hiking trails that explore this side of the lake, and the shoreline of Lake Mineral Wells is dotted with these wonderful boulder outcrops that make perfect resting places when you're tired or just want to relax and contemplate the view. The inspiration for this painting was an early morning hike when the lake was calm and the sky was just starting to take on a soft glow. At one time I was very into square paintings, and every once in awhile I still enjoy returning to this format. This painting measures 12" x 12" and is an oil painting on canvas. If nothing else, I hope my artwork inspires you to look to the wonderful beauty of Texas and consider exploring some of our state parks for your next vacation.

Choppy Day on the Lake

Choppy Day on the Lake, originally uploaded by Mark Nesmith.

This is one of the larger paintings I've been working on lately. It's 18" x 24" and is oil on canvas. I wanted to give the feeling of those light filled, breezy days on the lake with the sounds of the waves lapping against the shore. I've tried to keep the loose, painterly feel of my smaller pieces, and have been resisting the urge to go back and clean up some of the waves. I actually went and bought a couple of larger round, bristle brushes (a 10 and a 12) to help keep me from tightening up on these larger canvases. This was painted in two main sessions, with a little additional time spent evening out a couple of transitions in the water. Kind of funny, I used to paint really large pictures (3 or 4 feet was SMALL back then), but now I'm painting smaller and smaller. When I do approach a little bigger format, I'm really aiming to have the look and feel of my smaller scale paintings. Go figure!