How to paint a Hurricane

Hurricane Evacuation

Yesterday, I quickly packed to evacuate my island home and run from Hurricane Matthew. Hurricanes are scary. I grabbed a stack of art books to pass the time as I sit in my comfortable hotel room in Orlando while the storm passes.

Painting the Elements

So my best hurricane book is "Painting the Elements" by Kelly Messerly. She encourages us to analyze weak design and fix a bad painting. There are basics -- color, contrast, composition, and design, as well as sunlight, shadows. And very useful for me today is the chapter on clouds, mist, rain...

So how do you paint a hurricane?

1. Use great design and color. 
2. Understand how to paint.
3. Most of all, live it.

Living the Hurricane

While I can't really go out to paint plein air during the hurricane, I'm watching the swath of destruction on TV. I'm sketching while viewing through the window how the palms are blowing sideways (even in Orlando we're experiencing hurricane force winds).

I'm actively worried about how my house and gallery are faring. I'm eating too many snacks. I'm feeling this storm. It's personally affecting me to my very bones. Totally a way to create a meaningful "worried" point of view on canvas. I can't even think straight enough to paint, but I'm sketching and I'll eventually take the sketches to create paintings of dark, moody, and scary.

Stay dry!

--Mary Hubley

Distractions in Plein Air Painting: At the Carousel

Plein air painting includes many distractions - usually it's the cold, wind, heat, insects, and rain. But on this perfect June day at the carousel, little did  I know there would be different distractions than Mother Nature.


When I arrived, I toured the grounds to decide what to paint. There was, of course, the carousel. Front and center. This vintage piece of childhood goodness is a bit overwhelming to paint. Lots of detail. Way more red than I'm used to painting in a landscape. And it moves.

So... I considered alternatives. - there were trees. Everywhere. And children. Hmm. But the carousel would not let me avoid it, as much as I tried.

"You can't paint me - I'm too complicated for you,"  it teased.

I stood there and took a breath. I studied the structure. Hmm. I plunged into the carousel's challenge.
 
I started in on painting the carousel. My friends in the Anastasia Plein Air group joined me.



That's when the distractions arrived. Children. Running, jumping, yelling, throwing things. I ignored them and continued to paint.

They noticed us. They approached. Watched.

One said, "Hey, you're a good artist."

"Thank you," I replied.

A little boy took a fancy to me. He told me he was four. He reached out, picked up a brush and played with the bristles. He took a critical look at what I was doing and gave me pointers.

"You should put a kid in that painting," He said. "And other people."

"Thank you. I will."

He looked up at the carousel and squinted. "It should be redder," he continued.

"You're right. . . Are you an artist?" I asked.

"Oh, yes," he assured me. "I'll paint after lunch. I like blue."

What a super-welcome distraction. A delight. Refreshing. I took the boy's advice and added a kid, and made some deeper reds in the carousel. Best advice I've gotten in a long time.

-- Mary Hubley

 

Painting Demo: St. Augustine Lighthouse

This is what I painted during a recent plein air day in St. Augustine by the lighthouse. I've taken progressive snapshots of my painting process, below:

Above - here's the location where I'm painting - I'm on the beach at the St. Augustine Florida lighthouse, next to a big wide palm tree. In the foreground is my paint box and where I've set myself up in front of a lovely sailboat. Below, you see a close up of the very beginnings of my painting - here, I've done the initial drawing, added a few greens, and blocked in the darks:

 

It's about a half-hour later, and I've added the blue of the sky, a few pops of red, and have started to bring in some textural detail in the foreground.

And below is the finished piece. I've added the rest of the detail in the plants. I also added more paint, and at the very end created the lightest lights and redefined the darks:

"Palm by the Lighthouse" 8 x 10, Mary Hubley

To see more of my paintings, go to www.maryhubley.com.

I'll be posting more of these painting demos soon! Thanks.

--Mary Hubley

Plein Air Season in Florida

Plein Air season in Florida is just about over - another month or so before it gets too  hot to paint outside and once again I'll relegate myself to the cool cave of my studio. I have amassed many small plein air studies I'll use as reference for my larger studio paintings.

Painting Tree-Fort - photo of fort.

Final Tree-Fort Plein Air Study - subtleties are glowing.

I find that a season or two of plein air has brought me deeper into my art. Colors have appeared this year on my canvases that I've never spent much time with before - more purples, deep blues, and non-browns. Working only from photographs is limiting, and I'll never go back in that direction again. Sure. photos are great for reference. They provide you with a good basis for initial sketching and setting up composition. But snapshots don't capture color well - you can't see the purples in deep shadow, or the vibrancy of blue in the sky, or nuances in a green landscape.

It seems that plein air painting draws me out a few times a month. I go with my plein air group, Anastasia Plein Air, and join up with the Flagler plein air group as well. These take me all over the region, painting along back sandy roads, boat yards, and cobbled streets of the old city in St. Augustine, Florida.

Photo taken of Mary Hubley by St. Augustine Record during the National Park paintout in April 2016.

Last month I did two week-long paintouts. There was a National Park paintout celebrating the park system's 100th anniversary. I was asked to give the demo for the event, and I found my picture and an interview on the front page of the local paper. Then I won second prize at the Flagler Plein Air paintout. Yay! 


Next month, in May, the beginning of summer heat, I crazily have seven plein air dates scheduled, including two paintouts. A last hurrah before true blistering summer.

Demo at Washington Oaks

Mary Hubley - Painting Slideshow Demo at Washington Oaks 

Here's my first experiment with doing a slideshow demo of me completing a small plein air oil painting. The setting is in Washington Oaks, Flagler County, Florida. The state park is set at the edge of a wild river, and features a lovely koi pond and a rose garden. This scene is set at the top of the rose garden, looking through a Japanese-like portico. I was captivated by the shapes and the greens.

I loved doing a video because it shows the process from the very beginning of laying down the initial drawing to the completed loose painterly painting. It shows what I do in a thumbnail minute. In the future I hope to do this in speeded-up real video.

Plein Air Guerrilla

I recently bought a new Guerrilla Paint Box for plein air painting. I've been limping along for years, lugging pounds of unorganized equipment in and out of my car, back and forth from the wilderness in several totes to just do a small outdoor painting. Now I'm set.

Lugging of Paint Stuff

Not that I ever have to go very far from the car. It's just that the several trips and lots of bags create a barrier to even going out at all. It's so much easier just sitting in the studio.

The new paint box removes that barrier. I can now carry everything in one trip. It's still heavy, but I pack the box and tripod in one single small wheeled suitcase rather than in several totes.

What's in a Pochade

The Guerrilla box is a pochade box - pochades were originally cigar boxes re-engineered to act as a paint easel. It was small - allowing only a few brushes, a limited color palette, and small panels on which to paint. They were meant to be simple and portable. Over the years, these simple boxes have evolved and improved, and are available from a variety of commercial outlets.

The Guerrilla box that I use is one of the most popular around. The box lid holds the canvas or panel on which you paint, which is also the wet canvas carrier.

You can hold the box on your lap or mount it to a camera tripod. There's ample storage for brushes, small paint tubes, and a few small canvases or panels.

Everything you need.

I'm doing much more plein air painting than ever now. I love the setup and ease. A good sturdy pochade is a must-have for anyone considering moving out of the studio and into the wide open landscape.

Breathing Different Air Sometimes

Once, when I was in London, a young woman sat next to me at a theatre as we were about to watch a new play. The girl was a beauty from Southern Italy with a heavy exotic accent. "Why are you visiting London?" I asked. She theatrically took a deep breath, and made a grand motion with her arm. "Because I need to breathe different air sometimes," she said. Exactly.

Simple. Profound. You just need to get away. Different air is exhilarating.

"Skiff" (c) Mary Hubley

I recently made a pilgrimage to my old lake house in New Jersey. It had been 10 years since I'd been home. The house now sits empty, and I'll be selling it soon. I went back to breathe the old air. I cried a bit as I looked through ancient photos of loved ones long gone. I walked breathless outside to experience the misty presence of the new morning air at the dock.

This is where I had my beginnings as an artist. Painting at the kitchen table. Getting ready for shows. My mother and I would venture into the dark pine barrens to paint old haunted places hidden in the woods.

The air was a memory, yet because of distance and time, it was new and exuberant. I so wanted to stay. But after a few days, I had to get back to things. A breath, and then go.

I'll head back again a few more times before it sells. I'll take my paints to do some plein air work. Gladly. I plan to bask in the memories. And paint with new air that I welcome into into my soul.

Painting Authenticity in Historic Places

White Window (c) Mary Hubley

St. Augustine History

I live in old St. Augustine, Florida, a place that abounds with historic colonial Spanish, French and British sites. There are grand Victorian hotels, a couple of authentic old Spanish forts, and a tall black and white spiral lighthouse. The maze of ancient homes on old-world streets is an artist's dream.

Yesterday, friend Wendy and I did a photo shoot of hidden St. Augustine. We trekked the hidden cobbled streets that most people never see. We took photos of the private gardens, dark shadows of mossy walled courtyards, and secret alleyways. I've lived here for 20 years, and I still find places that are new wonders waiting for me to paint.

Use Photos as a Reference

Yesterday's photos will become references for some new paintings. I'll sort them to find the most promising. I'll make a few sketches. Then, I'll finally go back to the best places later on, and reconnect in person with pencils and paints. I'll sit there for a few hours to do some plein air painting. You can't get any more authentic than sitting and painting right at the source of the inspiration.

When painting a historic site or a recognizable place, you need to consider everything - perspective, color, contrast, composition, just like in every other painting.

St. Augustine Lion (c) Mary Hubley

Authenticity

There's one big difference, though, when painting something everyone recognizes: you need to be authentic. Paint everything that's there - even the seemingly insignificant things. Keep in all the messy stop signs, telephone lines, trash cans, and mailboxes. Why? Because it's authentic. It's a part of the historic fabric of a famous landmark. And, removing ugly details from a well-known place will be noticed. People will pick apart the details and judge your painting by all the wrong reasons.

I actually like the messy little details. They add character to the piece. They're authentic.

You can sometimes make slight changes, though. Move a trash can a bit. Downplay contrasts, deaden a color. Or if all else fails, hide an intrusive object behind overgrown grass, a car, or a passing pedestrian.
 

How to Paint Sunsets

Sailboat Sunset (c) Mary Hubley

Some of my students have asked how to do a great sunset. Gradients are difficult for them. Some of their skies end up neon with the foreground in flat black.

The awesome drama of changing color sours to a muddy mess. What to do?

Sunset Painting Tips:

• Paint plein air -- outside as the sunset is happening. Go there. Arrive at your scene an hour before the sunset begins.
• Lay out all your paints and materials. Get ready for the show. 
• Mix colors (oranges, pinks, purples) you think you'll use beforehand so you don't waste a lot of time doing this while the sky is changing. To avoid the neon look, do not use colors right out of the tube; mix your colors to tone them down a bit.
• Before the sky changes, work on the preliminary painting -- I generally paint the under painting first - I do the paint sketch and initial color blocks done before the light show. 
• Once the sunset starts happening, work quickly. Use large brushes. Use long strokes and paint loosely.
• To smooth the transition of different bright colors, try using a large soft dry brush and a soft stroke to feather colors together. 
• Foregrounds are never pure black, except for in photographs. Really look at the landscape before you and try to capture the subtle colors and tones in the shadows.
• Don't forget to stop for a second here and there to enjoy the scene - your impression will be passed on in the painting.
• Get a photo for reference later on in case you need to finish in your studio.

Genre: Landscape
Painting Name: Sailboat Sunset
Size: 8" x 10"
Media: Oil on Canvas


-- Mary Hubley

5 Ways to Get Your Painting to Stand Out

Bell Tower at Carmel Mission (c) Mary Hubley

How do you decide what to paint, when everything in the landscape is screaming for your attention? Here, at Carmel Mission, I was faced with a stimulating landscape that overwhelmed me. The gardens billowed with color, and the rugged Spanish architecture was over the top.

Standing in one spot, I did a slow 360-degree turn, and at each angle I imagined a different masterpiece. Everything vied for my eye.

But when everything stands out, nothing stands out on the canvas. A painting with too much going on is unfocused and jumbled. So, what to do?

5 Ways to Get Your Painting to Stand Out:

1. Focus. Decide what's really important. I study the view and determine what I love the most - in this case, it was the flower and sky colors, and the shape of the bell tower.
2. Edit. Narrow it down. Don't paint everything. Focus on just the most important aspects of a scene.
3. Create a strong composition. All my paintings start with a single-color under-painting to work out the composition first, before adding the complexity of color.
4. Block in the values. With the same color as the under-painting, block in the darks, then lights, and finally the mid-tones. Create the highest contrast in the area where you want the eye to go.
5. Use a limited palette. Finally, add the color. And don't overdo. Too much color everywhere can end up looking like a jumbled muddy mess.

Genre: Landscape
Painting Name: Bell Tower at Carmel Mission
Size: 20" x 16"
Media: Oil on Canvas


-- Mary Hubley
mary@maryhubley.com
www.maryhubley.com

How Gray Days Can Inspire You

Bodega Mist (c) Mary Hubley 2014

Gray days are moody and soft. Relaxing. Sip a cup of coffee and look out the window. Inspiring.

• They're dark and mysterious. Get up for finding the magic.
• Gray is elegant.
• Grays are neutral. They get along with everyone. Gray days are benevolent and approachable.
• Gray inspires more caffeine. Take a few risks, listen to blues music.

After your gray-day morning coffee, sink into the mood and start painting something more moody than normal. Get into it - drink in the air of the day and express your mood on canvas.


Genre: Landscape
Painting Name: Bodega Mist
Size: 12" x 12"
Media: Oil on Canvas


-- Mary Hubley 

Ready, Set, Action: On Location with a Film Crew

Plein Air Painting on St. Augustine Beach

Here are a few photos from a very special plein air painting session I taught yesterday. Special, because we were met on location by a film crew taping a promotional video. They met us on the beach to film us -- me, Sheree, Nancy, and Ellen -- painting on the beach.

The weather couldn't have been better. As luck would have it, the fog had just lifted and it turned out to be one of the first beautiful warm days of the year. The sunshine drew the sunbathers out - they were busy soaking up the rays. We painted that deep blue umbrella, seagulls, and people playing by the waves.

Close-up of my quick study of the beach

The cameras are at the right, taping us as we're painting. See the Beach pier in back of us.

As we painted, we moved, we stopped, and we started on queue from the filmographers. They took views of us as a group, with the luscious blue sky and bright beach backdrop. Then they moved in for some closeups of my hand adding paint to the canvas, scanning out to the scene I was capturing in front of me. Eventually, the film is intended to be part of a promotional video for the St. Johns County Cultural Center.

Janice and Donald Jones, our videographers from CycleHereMedia

It was fun! Thanks so much, Janice and Donald Jones, our videographers from CycleHereMedia! Hope the day's filming makes it to the final cut!

--Mary Hubley
www.maryhubley.com

How to Paint Moody Days

Bodega Grasses (c) Mary Hubley 2014

Painting A Misty Day in Bodega Bay

Plein air painting is best when the air temperature is perfect, there is no rain, and there are no bugs. Comfortable artists are happy artists. A perfect day in Bodega Bay, California. I set up shop at the edge of the campground. I liked the sun on the hills in the background and a cheerful cerulean blue sky.

That was over fast.

Mist set in, clouds appeared. and we got some rain. Oh well.

So how do you paint a moody day?

Go with the flow. If the day turns gloomy, you could pack up and go home, but I love to challenge myself when scenery changes.

• Change your painting on the fly. If it clouds up, great! Just adjust. I wiped off the original blue sky in my painting, and started the sky again in a brownish-gray.
• To make the background misty, just use a soft, dry brush to smooth the edges. Use delicate strokes, as if the brush were a feather.
• Don't be afraid of gray! Moody paintings need a good bit of it. I was taught that gray and brown are muddy colors, and should be avoided. To the contrary, I've found that great artists use well-mixed browns and grays to tone down some areas. These so-called "muddy" colors give the painting room to breathe, and make the more vivid areas come alive.
• Moody doesn't mean boring. In this painting, the trees and the grasses are hinting that there might be a little wind involved.

Genre: Landscape
Painting Name: Bodega Grasses
Size: 7" x 5"
Media: Oil on Canvas




--Mary Hubley
www.maryhubley.com

Art Opening: Paintings of The Monterey Coast

Monterey's Fisherman's Wharf (c) Mary Hubley

Paintings of The Monterey Coast by Mary Hubley

 

Introducing a New Series of Paintings at GNG Gallery

 

We had a wonderful opening! Thanks to everyone who came, browsed, and had snacks!

When:     Saturday, January 10, 2015, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Where:    GNG Gallery,  11 A Aviles Street
                 St. Augustine, Florida 32084

Here are photos from my art reception showing my new Monterey series.

Rachael Bennett and Mary Hubley, with "West Coast Color" - SOLD!

Elise T. and Mary

Mary, Rachael Bennett, and Andrea Samuels

Diane Vespucci and Mary Hubley

Dan Hubley and Joel Bagnel

Mary Hubley, "Coastal Color" with Dennis and Marjorie Bernhardt

Mary Hubley with Nancy Willoughby

5 Common Misconceptions About Painting Color

"Coastal Color" (c) Mary Hubley

An orange sky? Purple weeds? "Coastal Color" breaks some color rules, huh? I know the rules. Too boring. I choose to break them. What a feeling of release. I feel like a kid sledding down a steep hill with abandon, laughing all the way.

Guess what? My paintings immediately got more interesting.

Here are some of the rules I've broken - misconceptions, it seems, that were drilled into me by my earliest teachers. Things that are helpful to know, but absolutely revolutionary to remove from my painting life:

Misconception #1. The sky is always blue. It's not blue during sunsets or on overcast days. Purples hug the ocean horizon and orange skies can happen on hazy days.

Misconception #2. Color rules are inflexible. I have a big whoppin' book that explains color theory. Yikes. I barely made it through the first chapter. I've spent a lifetime working with the traditional theories - hue, value, intensity, secondary, complimentary, ad infinitum... But I ditch 'em when it comes to painting. Instead, I go with what nature suggests.

Misconception #3. Paint the colors you see. A good rule for realists. But I ain't no realist. I love orange skies and purple grass.

Misconception #4. More colors the better. Too complicated. I limit my palette. I work with about 6 colors and mix the rest. 

Misconception #5. Color is the most important thing. Composition is everything. Color is just an after-thought. A sepia painting that's well-composed is more interesting than a throw-up of a badly-composed colorific disaster.


This painting is available - please contact Mary Hubley for details.
 
Genre: Landscape
Painting Name: Coastal Color
Size: 24" x 24"
Media: Oil on Canvas


--Mary Hubley
www.maryhubley.com

Painting Workshop in Wisconsin

Wisconsin Painting Workshop - Student Work October 2014.

Photo of original scene

Painting Fall Colors

Last month, I gave a Fall workshop in Wisconsin, where trees broke all the rules. I drove from the airport overcome by vivid autumn colors. They were ablaze. I was overwhelmed. Too much yellow! Too much orange!

I love trees in chaos. But chaos is hard to translate onto the canvas. Too much intensity means that nothing stands out. If nothing stands out, a painting can be, well, undramatic.

Focus on a Single Object

The next day, I gathered my students and found a spot at the edge of a rural road for us to set up, right in front of this lone yellow tree. This was a subject that was approachable. Against a dark background, that little tree pops. If the trees in the background had been the same brightness, this tree would not have been the star.

By framing this little beauty in darker color, it became the drama queen.


-- Mary Hubley
www.maryhubley.com

Installation of Beach Bike Painting

Beach Bike (c) Mary Hubley

Beach Bike was a wonderful commission painting, which I installed in a private home last week. The new painting happily sits in the new owner's guest bedroom, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

I started the project by preparing a mood board, which matched a basic photoshopped photo of this scene to the colors and patterns around the room. The key colors were coral, beach sand white, and sage green, and you can see some of the patterns that were on the pillows, above. I painted the bicycle in the coral colors, and interspersed these colors in the sage and white dunes. The bike sits against a sand dune fence, and the grassy dunes are in the background.

It was remarkable to see the painting installed. View the painting and turn your head to the windows on the left, and the colors perfectly matched the home's beachfront and dunes.

Beach Bike (c) Mary Hubley

Beach Bike Installation
33" x 44"
Oil on Canvas
SOLD

--Mary Hubley

Painting Workshop in St. Augustine

Painting at the Fatio House in St. Augustine Florida

A beautiful day in November! My painting workshop was held at the Fatio House in downtown St. Augustine, in a large garden surrounded by 18th century buildings. Here, I'm working with my workshop students as they're working their way through their paintings.

Second painting of the day! Painting Workshop

I generally do a quick demo for my students in a workshop, showing them how do do the underpainting and then applying blocks of color. Then, I move between them as they're working, offering hints and suggestions.

At the end of this day, we walked over to GNG Gallery, which is just around the corner, and took these photos of the day's work:

Painting workshop with Mary Hubley

--Mary Hubley

A New Way to Think About Painting Still Life

"Moonshell" (c) Mary Hubley

Still Life = Boring?

Still life means Still. Dull. Mundane. A bowl of boring fruit... A vase of dead flowers. Sigh. Poor still life. What a wretched reputation.

But I still believe. I hope my still lifes accomplish energy. I try to animate the still objects that I pick up on the beach. Seashells are energized with light and color. Flowers are explosions of composition, mood, and light.


Here's how I switch the mundane still life to extraordinary:  

• Connect with the subject. I paint things that mean something. Combine Grammy's old bowls and fresh cut oranges. Those oranges smell great. Happy. Paint the memories. 
• Treasure hunt. Go to the beach and find a pocket of the shells, stones, and sea glass. Get in the car on Saturday for a couple hours of garage sales.
• Set it up. Experiment. Move things around for an hour or two before you get started. Go for unusual angles. Make objects go off the page. View from above or underneath.
• Contrast. Use strong lights and shadows. Place a shiny object next to something furry; something organic against something man-made. Place patterns in the background.
• Practice, huh? Getting good means you need to do it. Jump in.

This painting is available - please contact Mary Hubley for details.
 
Genre: Still Life
Painting Name: Moonshell
Size: 6" x 6"
Media: Oil on Canvas


Mary Hubley
www.maryhubley.com

Painting a Monterey Cypress

Monterey Cypress (c) Mary Hubley

Plein Air in California

I recently took a plein air painting holiday in California. What a concept.

I sat at the edge of the cliffs overlooking the Pacific ocean. Hard to get to the painting when I was overcome by the jagged rocks and dark Monterey Cypress trees hugging the rugged coastline. This is scenic to the max. A painter's dream.

 Painting Monterey Cypress

This small painting, called Monterey Cypress, was started somewhere between Pacific Grove and 17-mile-drive, in Monterey, California. The Monterey cypress is almost black. The tree-tops are often flat as a result of the strong winds in the area.


Genre: Landscape
Painting Name: Monterey Cypress
Size: 10" x 8"
Media: Acrylic on Canvas


-- Mary Hubley