New Book -Chasing Shadows



Chasing Shadows by Rick Howell

Rick Howell is completing a book on his direct approach to plein air painting, scheduled for release in Spring of 2011. If you would like to know when the book is available and receive a signed copy, please click "Contact the Artist" and provide your e-mail address.
 

Introduction

The experienced plein air painter knows better than to chase shadows while out in the field, so why use the title Chasing Shadows for a book on plein air painting? I chose the title because it not only applies to the paintings we do, but also to our lives as artists.

No matter how much we progress as painters, we continue to strive to make each painting better than our last. Complete mastery of painting continually eludes us - that is what makes painting so wonderful: that constant challenge to get one great painting.

Plein air painting has its own set of challenges, from the weather to insects, to exploring the unbelievable amount of information presented by nature and trying to select a portion of it to bring home on your canvas. It humbles even the best of painters.

However, when you do capture that moment of time, it feels as if you are returning with a jewel. For the landscape painter's development, plein air painting is essential. It is the foundation you are building for all of your future work.

Through Chasing Shadows, you will learn to select only the essential elements within the landscape without losing the mood or feeling of the subject. You will also learn to create a strong design by simplifying the big masses. Within that design, you will learn to paint with light, which will give solidity to your paintings.

You will learn to guide the viewer through the painting with the strength of your edges. Your paintings will have harmony with regard to color, which will give them class and believability. Because plein air painting is so immediate, you will learn how to pace yourself to capture the subject quickly and know when to pause and step back to evaluate your progress.

I realized early that with all of the complexity of the scene and fighting the elements, I needed to simplify not only my paintings but also the painting process. Ultimately, your willingness to develop the skill of plein air painting is connected with your own personal journey.

Each painting will be a reminder of that feeling of being out in nature and will live as an image of how you, the artist, recorded that moment of time. The paintings you leave will be a record of the challenges you faced and the problems you solved as you chased the shadows of your own perceived limitations.




Chasing Shadows - Chapter 1


"I don't believe in making pencil sketches and then painting your landscapes in the studio. You must be right under the sky."

William Merritt Chase


Below is the first chapter of Chasing Shadows, describing what it's like to be outdoors with your paints, the shifting light, and just you and the landscape in front of you.




Chapter 1

You look out the window; it's a beautiful day. The odds are against you from the start. You know the difficulties that you are about to encounter. To go out into nature with a blank canvas and return with a completed painting; this is the goal.

As you start loading your easel, paint, and bug spray, the excitement builds. First comes the quest to find a subject that inspires you. One that you, and only you, can see the beauty in. Do you paint it? Of course you do. You have no choice.

As you start setting up your easel, the excitement continues to build. You squint your eyes at the subject and can already see it as a painting. All you need to do is translate what you see and feel onto the canvas as simply as possible.

You begin quickly covering the canvas with all that is before you. Then suddenly you sense that you are finished with it. Three hours have just passed, and you were unaware of time.

For those three hours, you almost had become a part of the scene you were painting. You know every detail of the scene and could probably repaint it from memory. The creative part of your brain is exhausted, yet you feel a slight exhilaration at the same time.

You have just completed a successful plein air painting. This book is concerned with what takes place in those lost three hours: the actual process of painting en plein air.