Backpacker Painting

Oil DVD Now Available - Backpacker Painting: Oil on Location

2009-07-22T07:54:00.005-03:00

I'm proud to announce that the second of two companion DVDs to my book in now available. Backpacker Painting: Oil on Location again takes you to the red hills of Sedona, Arizona, where I show you how I paint the landscape en plein air using the medium of oil. You'll see how I simplify the landscape and along the way, I'll explain my approach to handling value, design and color.

Oil on Location is 52 minutes long and includes two bonus segments totalling 8 minutes.

Both DVDs are available for purchase on my website via PayPal for $40 (USD) each + $5 shipping (to US and Canada).

If you get the DVDs, you'll also want the book! The book contains lots of information that simply doesn't fit into an hour-long video. The book is available for $45+$5 shipping and can be ordered from the website.

By the way, you can combine shipping. Contact us and we will issue an adjusted invoice.

See a one-minute preview on YouTube here.

Painting Demonstrated:

"Camelhead, Backlit" 9x12, oil, en plein air

Pastel Companion DVD Now Available

2009-07-02T10:54:00.005-03:00

I'm proud to announce that the first of two companion DVDs to my book in now available. Backpacker Painting: Pastel on Location takes you to the red hills of Sedona, Arizona, where I show you how I paint the landscape en plein air using the medium of pastel. You'll see how I abstract the scene and "build" the painting using simple shapes. Along the way, I explain my approach to handling value, design and color - all so you yourself can use the same techniques in creating beautiful paintings on location.

Pastel on Location is 49 minutes long and includes two bonus segments totalling 8 minutes.

The DVD is available for purchase on my website via PayPal for $40 (USD) + $5 shipping (to US and Canada).

You can also see a one-minute preview on YouTube.

Backpacker Painting Now on Amazon!

2009-04-17T10:45:00.002-03:00

Both of my books, Backpacker Painting: Outdoors with Oil & Pastel and Through a Painter's Brush: A Year on Campobello Island, are now available on Amazon!

Here are links that'll take you directly there:

Preview - Oil Video Demonstration

2009-02-08T15:05:00.001-04:00

As many of you know, I am now shooting footage for the DVD companion for the book. I've put together a short (2:25) video preview of the oil demonstration. This is all my laptop can handle at the moment, so the full-length demonstration of 1 hour or so will be produced this summer when I have more capable equipment available to me.

It was a gorgeous morning when we shot this, but a bit of wind was kicking up in advance of a storm. You might see the easel move a bit!

This is "Camel Head, Backlit." Keep in mind that this is a very low-resolution, YouTubed version.

Book Done - And Calendar, Too!

2008-11-01T11:43:00.000-03:00

I'm proud to say that my new book, Backpacker Painting: Outdoors with Oil & Pastel, is finally available!

This 164-page paperback is packed with 12 demonstations, in both oil and pastel, and 72 paintings and 125 illustrations.

Click here to order or to learn more about it.

By the way, my 2009 calendar is now available, too. You can order from the same link and save on shipping.

In the book, I answer all the questions my students have asked over the years:

My approach to what gear is absolutely needed
How I cut excess baggage
How I capture the landscape quickly and accurately

...while still having fun!

For advanced painters, I include plenty of tips as well as special sections on how to bring your outdoor painting to a higher level.

The book has taken me over a year to write, but it's been a rewarding task. I think you'll enjoy it.

From the Introduction:

One of the most rewarding ways to paint en plein air is to go out with the least equipment and materials possible. "Backpacker Painting" sums it up. If I can squeeze whatever I need into my backpack, then I can paint anywhere my feet can take me.

But Backpacker Painting isn't just an approach to equipment and materials. It's also an attitude. If you approach the act of painting outdoors with the philosophy of portability, you can practice 'backpacker painting' anywhere. You don't have to hike into the wilderness and brave the bears. You can do it in your front yard.

There are many situations where you can strip down your gear, both mental and physical. If you can do the job with just a screwdriver and a pair of pliers, why take the whole hardware store with you? This book will show you how to simplify your painting life.

Progress Report: Front Matter Draft

2008-08-07T16:04:00.004-03:00

I'm happy to say I've had some time to begin work on the design/layout of the book. For those of you in the industry, this is one of the most exciting phases of publishing. You have total creative control over the "look-and-feel" of the book.

I've put together a draft of what's called the "front matter." Below are screenshots of this first section. (You can click on the thumbnails for larger views.)

Late July Update

2008-07-27T10:13:00.006-03:00

It's been a busy summer for me so far, and there's no sign of it letting up! I've been teaching workshops every day since the end of June. In addition, I've been assigned two magazine articles to write with short deadlines, one for CreateBetterPaintings.com and another for Watercolor Artist. Finally, I've been organizing two events with Plein Air Painters of the Bay of Fundy - our annual paintout and exhibition, which will be in St Andrews, and a "Paint the Lighthouses" weekend on Campobello, both in early August.

So, you may ask, where does this leave the book? It's in surprisingly good shape. All the writing is done and nearly all the photography. I have begun work on the design and layout. At this point, I hope to wrap up the project in September.

Since you've all been waiting so patiently, I offer the following pastel demonstration: "Foggy Regatta." You can click on each image for a larger version.

I went out the other afternoon to Friar's Head, a summit that overlooks Friar's Bay. Fog drifted across the water in the light breeze, and, to my surprise, a whole slew of sailboats inched along down below. I'd gone out with the intention of painting a nice scene, and now I had some nice boats to add to it.

1. Here is my set-up. Because this is a larger painting - 12x18 - I decided to go with my French easel rather than just the Heilman Backpack pastel box with its optional easel attachment. I taped the 12x18 sheet of Wallis paper to the back of a 12x14 Ampersand Gessobord. The Heilman box is open on the easel drawer.

2. I made a quick sketch with vine charcoal. Because the boats below were involved in the annual Roosevelt Cup, they were doing their best to speed along, and I made sure to capture the placement, relative size and shape of my key boat.

3. Next, I blocked in the shapes with pastel. Because the fog threw such a cool light on the scene, I felt the painting would need an area of strong warmth to balance the coolness. With this in mind, I put orange in the foreground. By the way, lately I've been using a mixture of hard and soft pastels in the early stage, going more for the right color and value than hardness. I didn't put any pastel in the sky or water, as I wanted these elements to be as bright as the paper. I didn't want to dull them just yet with pastel.

4. Using Turpenoid, I scrubbed in the color with a short bristle brush. My goal here was to simply tone the paper and cover the white. Again, I left the sky and water untouched.

5. Now I began to layer in greens and blues on the closest trees and nearest islands, and blues and purples in the distant bits of land. I also began to put pastel into the sky and water areas. I used a variety of warm and cool greys for these areas. I carved out the tree shapes by painting the "negative space" around them.

6. I continued layering color. I intentionally covered up most of the orange foreground, since it still needed to have a certain, cool aspect to it. I did leave little bits and pieces of orange showing through for interest.

"Foggy Regatta"

12x18, pastel, en plein air
$475+$20 shipping, unframed - contact Michael

7. Here's the final painting. My sense of balance convinced me to supplement my key boat with two more. Also, I wasn't happy with the shape of the spruce tree standing alone in the right foreground, so I adjusted it. Finally, I added more calligraphic strokes to the foreground grasses and also added a dark strip to pull the eye into the painting. I'm so happy with this one, I framed it! It will go into the St Andrews show.

Detail:

Front Cover - Draft

2008-05-10T09:00:00.005-03:00

One of the real pleasures of creating this book is that, as the artist, I can do my own cover. I enjoy graphic design, and back in the early days, I did quite a bit of it as a freelancer. I designed menus and did all the calligraphy, created newspaper ads and logos, and so on. The following is my fourth draft of the cover. My wife, a quilter and fabric artist with an excellent sense of design and color, made several suggestions that went a long way to improving the three earlier versions.

Be warned: It may change again!

(click image for a larger version)

Backpacker Painting - Excerpt

2008-03-10T09:13:00.004-03:00

Here is an excerpt from the Introduction of Backpacker Painting: Outdoors with Oil & Pastel:

As a plein air painter, I paint mostly outdoors. Since you're reading this book, you're probably a plein air painter yourself. I don't need to tell you why I enjoy painting outdoors so much. There's nothing better than finding a little perch in the shade by a brook on an autumn day. The music of the brook washes away the troubles of the world, and the solitude gives you the space to unpack your creativity and play.

One of the most rewarding ways to paint en plein air is to go out with the least equipment and materials possible. "Backpacker Painting," the title of this book, really sums it up. If I can squeeze whatever I need into my backpack, then I can paint anywhere my feet can take me.

I've had the pleasure of painting in many places you can't get to by car. Once, I really stripped down my pastel gear. I stuffed a small backboard, just a little bigger than the 9x12 sheet of pastel paper taped to it, plus a set of pastels and a water bottle into my day pack and hiked into the San Juan Range of southern Colorado. An hour in, I sat down to paint in my lap while my wife, Trina, continued on the rugged trail. By the time she got back, I'd completed a piece. I'm proud to say it later was juried into a national pastel show.

But "Backpacker Painting" isn't just an approach to equipment and materials. It's also an attitude. If you approach the act of painting outdoors with the philosophy of portability, you can practice "Backpacker Painting" anywhere. You don't have to hike into the wilderness and brave the bears. You can do it in your front yard. Trina maintains a gorgeous wildflower garden in the meadow between our island home and the ocean. I've sat many times on the garden bench with my Guerrilla Painter pochade box in my lap to make small, 5x7 studies of the garden. It's another form of "Backpacker Painting," only without the backpack!

The attitude applies to all of your outdoor painting gear — even your mental gear. For example, remember the color combination charts many books instruct you to create as a way to forcing you to learn how to mix color? These are the charts where you take each color on your palette in turn and create a grid in which that color is mixed with every other color and also with varying amounts of white. If your palette includes a lot of colors, you can build up quite a stack of these charts. Although many artists use these in the studio to help them identify and mix color, you can't possibly take the charts into the field. Rather than create an unwieldy reference catalog of color mixtures, you should instead learn a few principles about seeing and mixing color and practice.

There are many other situations where you can strip down your gear, both mental and physical. If you can do the job with just a screwdriver and a pair of pliers, why take the whole hardware store with you? This book will show you how to simplify your painting life.

By the way, most of what I'll say applies to painting in the studio, too. "Backpacker Painting" is an attitude that should travel with you everywhere — outdoors and in.

"Backpacker Painting" means: Success and pleasure through portability.

Announcing the New Book

2008-02-01T08:59:00.002-04:00

My last book, Through a Painter's Brush: A Year on Campobello Island, met with such success that I decided to move forward to the next one. As many of you know, the first book was a collection of paintings of Campobello and mini-essays about my painting process. I had intended it for both collectors and students. Now, my students have asked me to do a pure instruction book. With that in mind, I'd like to announce my new project.

Backpacker Painting: Outdoors with Oil & Pastel won't be your usual instruction book. Although it will cover fundamentals, the main goal is to cover advanced topics, especially as they relate to what I call "extreme portability" in plein air painting. It'll be packed with plenty of information and demonstrations.

In addition to the book, I am working on a companion DVD. This hour-long disc will have two demonstrations, one in oil and the other in pastel. I expect to have both parts of the project completed sometime this summer.

One aspect of the book that is very important is the products presented. I wanted to make sure that I recommend only those that I use personally in my painting. I am fortunate enough to have support from Ampersand Art Supply (Gessobord), Gamblin Artist Colors (oil paints and mediums), Guerrilla Painter (pochade boxes and accessories), Mount Vision Pastels (pastels) , Kitty Wallis (sanded pastel papers) and Heilman Designs (pastel box and more.) You can find links to their sites in the column to the left of this page.

As of this post, the book is about half-written and shooting has begun on the videos. I'll post more news as it develops!