The Birth of a Painting

Encountering the Piping Plover

  … Further down in this entry, I will detail the process of creating a painting from this encounter. 

Last year in late August, I went to one of our beaches where the Piping Plovers like to feed and store up reserves for their long flight down south.  I shortened the legs on my tripod as short as I could, and plunked myself down in the sand, to do some photography.

These little birds are so cute and animated that I kept finding myself grinning from ear to ear and chuckling to myself as I watched them running back and forth, with the rhythm of the waves.  They kept themselves just ahead of them, apparently not wanting to get their feet wet.  The beach was covered with kelp and I started to notice how intriguing it could be.  As I would shift the direction of my camera lens,  I began to see something beautiful coming to light.  As the sun would reflect off of interesting shapes, swirls and curls, my imagination began to be captured and I could feel that creative energy coming to life as a painting was being born in my heart.

And then it happened!  Very rarely do I ever paint from one photograph.  Most of my work consists of many photos, sometimes many, many photos and drawings in the field to create an overall painting.  Most of my paintings take years to complete, but once in a while it seems as though I receive a gift from heaven, and this was one of those moments.  

One little piping plover came running up the beach straight towards me.  He was distracted by the desire to stay out of the waters flow,  as he followed each waves edge. All of a sudden he looked up and saw me.  He ducked down a little and the sunlight caught his wings as they popped out from each of his sides.  The expression on his face was priceless.  I smiled and snapped the picture.

Piping Plover with Wings to the side
Piping Plover on the move

As I looked over my camera lens,  I mouthed the words, you are just so sweet.  He relaxed and trotted right past me.

I went home and immediately began to develop this beautiful rendition of a moment in time,  sitting on a beach, sharing something special with one of God’s most delightful little shorebirds.  We begin?

~   The Birth of a Painting  ~

Where do we begin?  We begin with the composition.

Plover - Initial Sketch

Where do we begin?  We begin with the composition.  I decided to make this a horizontal linear, as I felt it would enhance the beauty of the subject. I cropped off the end of the kelp on the right to help carry the eye from the bird through the painting and beyond.  Nature is so much bigger than a canvas and to take the eye past the edges and into the world beyond, creates mystery and possibilities which stimulate the imagination.

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How the Eye Enters the Composition

We tend to read from left to right, and if we enter this composition in this way, the 1st thing we come to is a piping plover, which is the focal point.  Generally, our eye would not go past this point, so this painting would really be made up of entering the canvas on the left to the bird, a few inches in.  This would be undesirable.  So I chose to use the kelp as a secondary focal point to help carry the eye through the canvas and by cropping of the right end of the kelp, hopefully take the eye off of the canvas and beyond this little window of space and time.

Secondary Focal Point Supporting the Primary

Plover Drawing

My goal was to make the secondary focal point supportive of the primary focal point, and not overpower it, or compete with it.  Have you ever looked at a painting and found your eyes bouncing around and not really centering in on anything and then not finding a path through it, or a place to rest your eyes?
In my mind a good composition works.  There is harmony, it is active, and yet there can be rest.  It’s so exciting to create mood and personality in a composition It all starts right here with the drawings.  

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Blocking in color and a few light washes

Plover - Beginning to fill in the color

Come and share with me the birth and growth of a very special painting as I share my thoughts and the process of watching this rendition come to life, of a wonderful day on a seaside shore of our Atlantic coast.  I start by blocking in color and a few light washes.

Working with 3 compliments in this piece. [Orange – blue], [yellow – Violet], [red and green]

Plover - Color compliments

As I work the colors, the painting begins to come to life.  I decided to work with 3 compliments in this piece.  [Orange – blue], [yellow – Violet], [red and green]

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Working out the color scheme

Plover Painting Progresses

As I work out the color scheme, it is 60% orange – blue, 30% yellow – Violet and approximately 10% red – green.  This is what I will try to achieve in this painting.

Plover Painting - Deeper Hue

I am concentrating on the focal point here, with deeper hues and the plover begins to pop.

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Plover Painting - Kelp

Next I work on the colors and shape of the kelp.

Plover Painting - Fine tuning the image

As I finish up, you can see how the photo is used as a tool, but the image doesn’t end there.  To help the plover be the strongest image on the painting [as it is the focal point] I deepened the colors behind him, so that the sunlight hitting his wings would be more accentuated.  Also to create life and drama, I painted in this area with light loose strokes to create movement and an impression of other shapes on the beach, to create a more painterly look to the artwork. I added some of the kelp and growth on the beach, but I change their position to create more interest.  I also removed any other obstructions in front of the bird giving a clear path to the viewer’s eye to help strengthen the focal point.

So my desire was to draw our eyes into the focal point [piping plover] and then to the right towards the secondary focal point which is the kelp.  I made the colors a little stronger at the right end of the kelp to encourage our eyes in that direction and out the canvas.  The smaller pieces of kelp in the front of the peace help to draw the viewer back into the painting.  Notice how they lean towards the plover.

This helps encourage the eye to move to the left.  The grass is on a different level and closer to the plover.  This creates interest as the forward kelp and grass are not on the same line as they are on the photograph.  Also notice how the grass is pointing a little to the right.  This helps to bring our eyes to the plover.

Piping Plover - Finished Painting

Finished.  I am thrilled with this painting as it represents my heart captured on canvas.