Showing posts with label ken backhaus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ken backhaus. Show all posts

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Kenn Backhaus' Demo

After Kenn got to this point I left to paint. It would have been nice to see the finished product but the sun was out and I wanted to move some paint. I later scraped the painting I did after this demo! Kenn first put a trail in the middle of the foreground mass then corrected, noting " try not to divide a mass equally in half". Another good tip!

Here the masses are established. Kenn stressed the fact that after establishing the light condition as quickly as possible keep to it. The light changed during the demo via clouds and sun angle but he basically stuck with the original light unless compositionally something interesting could be achieved

Kenn first put in the darkest notes of the painting and then developed the main interest area first, including the light areas. The focus was on establishing the focal point and develope outwards


Kenn layed down a quick stain to give a bit of location to where he would sketch with pencil the buildings. He also gave great attention to the location of the pine trees and and how to arrange them. In reality they were tapered in height small to large. He chose to make the middle one the shortest thus breaking up the big bigger biggest repetition. Good tip!



The Chadds Ford Chronicles

Here is Ken Backhaus' sunny second painting

Here is Ken Backhaus' first Saturday painting

My gracious hosts for the evening, artist David Oleski and his Thai wife Porn cooked a fabulous meal that was a great end to the day. That is until Davids dog Frank got sprayed by a skunk and the scrubbing began.


11"x14" oil This is the second Saturday painting done between 1 and 3 pm. Probably around 50 degrees and sunny. The scene changed so much I decided to paint it again with a warm palette. With the bright sun washing out certain aspects of the creeks recession I added the two saplings to balance the composition. The early painting was defined compositionally by the zig zag of the creek. This one needs some work and it kills me to post it without a chance to see it in a mirror and correct some things. But it's hanging now and I can't do anything about that.



11"x14" oil This is the first work I did Saturday morning. Around 19 degrees f. and the Brandywine River was partially frozen. I used all cool colors.