Savannah

“Mad Dogs and an Englishman painting in the noon day sun”. Well perhaps that should have been the headline as my hosts Jack Russell and I made our mark in the first of several countries I have been so kindly invited to paint in over the near future. Budapest, Switzerland, Siberia, but firstly to America and Savannah’s very individual beauty. I had six weeks to determine subjects and views that I felt, as a foreigner, would capture the essence of my impressions most succinctly. If you have seen my earlier work then you will know I mean that phrase, “impressions” literally as I to try to avoid illustrating, but try to capture the atmosphere, moment and work about colour, light and remain sensitive to the medium I am using. The first scene that impressed me was the interior of my hosts home. Due to the summer heat which affected the choice of interior decoration and lighting the place had a very colonial feel. Low soft light glowing through the windows over antique furniture and dark against this, Mr. Sherman, senior. I decided to warm up with a Watercolour of this as I felt the medium best suited the affects of light. It proved quite a challenge and I had to wash off a lot of work under the tap part way through in order keep the tones closer.

I felt it was time to strike out into oils and had visited one of Georgia’s State Parks on Skidaway Island. Savannah is situated near to the coast and surrounded by marshes, a paradise for anglers boat owners, bird and wildlife enthusiasts. I took some wonderful photographs of Eagrets, White Herons, Anhingas, Cardinals and even Alligators, to mention but a few!

The park is mainly sub tropical woodland and marshes. Ones immediate attention is drawn to the Live Oak trees (an American Oak), the Cabbage Palm trees and the Spanish moss that drapes over so many trees, especially the oaks. For those of you that have seen the film, “Gone with the wind”, well you have the image.

I decide to get off the path and just away into the trees. Set up my little stool and a wooden easel and worked on a twenty by thirty Canvas. I had purchased a pre-primed roll of Canvas from Windsor and Newton 60”x 6 meters in England, literally cut the roll in half to fit my suitcase, purchased 2”x1” timber when in America and drawing pinned the pieces I cut to size on temporarily. Materials in America are way over the prices charged in England, especially for “Mounting” or “Matting” as they call it.

Such a busy and complicated scene made me start with the mid and background tones, then gradually work forwards becoming more detailed, warmer and intense with my colours as I did so. One’s first choice of colours is very important when doing this as all others will become relatively stronger as you increase the values. So if you start a little stronger you will end very strongly and having to use purer colours. If you wish for a much softer pastel painting then adding a lot of white or “body colour” to begin with will keep those values low key. You may, also of course, keep your tones very close, colours similar, limit your palette, use the colour circle, intensity, tone or broken colour to gain the affects of light you require.

In this case I worked, as I so often do, Alla Prima and fat onto lean very rapidly. I need to try and complete a painting in a few hours partly to catch the moment and partly because my back cannot remain in one situation for too long! I make sure that my distance will work by being aware of my cooler colours firstly and then add my warms as I come forward.

Upon completing this work I was on my way out of the Park when I was set upon by one of the Rangers, Eda Kenney, clearly an art lover and such a wonderful character, who in fact turned out to be art qualified also. “Hi there, are you from S.C.A.D.?” (Savannah College of Art and Design). “Er, no I’m from England”. “Oh wow, can we use you”?

My mind boggled, was I to be used for Alligator bait? Were these natives friendly? I soon found myself rapidly organizing several courses, being on the television news and in the press!

In the next few days I found an Alligator pond surrounded by pine trees, the water dark and, dare I say that foul word, almost “black” with tannic acid.
I decided to return to the delicacy of watercolours and the use of masking fluid to catch the evening light.

We had visited a place called the “crab shack”, you guessed it, outdoor seats, a vast plate of blue, white crab, prawns, shellfish, crayfish, etc whilst dolphins and pelicans played in the river out front of us. I have some interesting shots to work from later. On the way to this we stumbled on a delightful little road into a marsh. Here I decided to produce a large pastel in a little cove of a scene where the trees made a natural frame around the marsh view. I experimented with a sheet of glasspaper that has been tested by an art supplier for permanence and I had taken expressly for this purpose. It’s tooth enabled me to lay several fresh layers of colour rapidly without muddying and on a large work had definite advantages. I could blend in preceding coats and add over the surface without loss of freshness. As I finished this a large F.W.D. van (nearly all cars are these over there it seems) drew up and the owners commissioned me to paint a double portrait, had this completed a week later, helps pay for the crab shack bills!

I like Unison Pastels with their creamy bright colour range and decent size. My Oils I carry in an old wooden suitcase with all I need in it. My pastels in a case that I have made similar to many commercial designs with partitions in pastel sizes, but one larger one for pastel pencils, putty rubber, tube of acrylic etc. My watercolours in a large plastic tool box with removable trays.

A kneesel, (my American students showed much interest in this as a new item to them) an easel, stool, purchased half inch ply boards out there for drawing boards, sketchpads, bottle of Indian ink and pencils and I have a studio! But, and I mean BUT, although this lot will fit into my suit cases certain airlines have different regulations about carrying oil paints, some do not allow them at all. Do check before hand, I am partially disabled and have difficulty enough with this let alone arguing at the airport even after doing as thorough a check as possible and having verbal confirmation.

Of course I had to do a couple of paintings to say thankyou to my hosts for their kindness and when doing these did a quick study of the mad Jack Russell Ziggy, who had adopted me by then! I used a hard charcoal pencil, followed by watercolour as I felt this would capture his alertness.

Back to Skidaway Park and I found a lovely path with an almost tropical feel to it. Sunlight dappled over the silver white sand and palms of different ages fenced in the perspective. I decided on 24”X18” and was filmed for the T.V. news whilst painting this.

I had been looking at the very distinctive buildings and houses about Savannah. Many were very ornate, nearly all of wood with a lot of wrought iron work taken from the ballast of old sailing ships. Choosing one that seemed to most typify the feel of the place I chose the Gingerbread House.

I had already seen a lot of paintings of it, Savannah has more art galleries than I ever seen in one place! So many of them concentrated on the decorative angle and illustrative design side, I decided to take a more unusual viewpoint perhaps reflecting its now more contemporary setting.

On a larger canvas, 24” x 30” I decided the only way I could just sit down there in public and “go for it” was to simply treat it as a whole, work out my composition and then follow the advice I so often give to my students when they look frightened at the start of a challenging work. “Paint the right colours in the right relationships in right shapes in the right places and your painting will appear, don’t worry about individual parts.” There was a lot of foreground but a lovely patchwork of light on the road through the trees from behind to lead the eye in. Good grief, I actually had to spend two afternoons on it and go back for a second session!

While I was photographing from the top of a tower at Skidaway one evening I had noticed how the sunset would be in a perfect position from several viewpoints so decided to make next evening a sunset session. I had a watercolour paper stretched and medium sized sandpaper taped down, a bit over A3. I started laying the watercolour washes as the sun dropped and in the most dramatic ten minutes grabbed the pastel board to let the watercolour dry, did the pastel and then completed the foreground of the watercolour and hard edges just as the light faded. I trundled back up that spooky woodland path in near darkness with all sorts of beasties making my hackles bristle, and I used to be a gamekeeper!

I had seen an interesting composition near to the river at Skidaway Park and had a student who wished to paint strongly and loosely in oils that day. If I were not painting about heat, vibrancy of colour and light, or perhaps if I had students with more traditional needs I may have chosen Yellow Ochre for the foreground sand, but decided to be joyous and go straight for Lemon Yellow and Chrome Yellow which then gave me the chance to play with opposites and make things sing! We both enjoyed ourselves.

As the weeks progressed into spring the most gorgeous show of Azaleas began to emerge throughout the many beautiful and formal parks in Town and the many gardens. My present oil palette consists of Yellow Ocher, Lemon Yellow, Chrome Yellow, Titanium White, Prussian Blue, Cobalt Blue, Cerulean Blue, Ultramarine, Viridian, Chrome Green, Emerald Green, Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, Alizarin Crimson, Cobalt Violate, Cadmium Red, Cadmium Orange. Now suddenly I was struggling, I could not get the vibrancy of the pink and purple Azaleas! I had managed with watercolour studies, so what was missing? A top art Gallery in town had already been kind enough to look at my folio and take on the work I had done whilst there, they also owned an art supplies shop. Permanent Rose was the missing link, lay on the cools with Cobalt Violate and the pinks over the top with Permanent Rose. The warmer red flowers could be done with the addition of Cadmium red and Cadmium orange and White. I did one more 20” x 30” of these and, nearly at the end of my trip, wanted just one painting to bring back for me! I decided to do a woodland scene from the back garden, the different Azaleas were quite delightful, (reminds me of how “quaint” the Americans found me, — me quaint!?). “Alrighty then , you guys, I am having a nice day” and back to painting. A 24”x 18” canvas, working Cerulean blue down to the horizon, then blending in greens by mixing Yellow Ocher and Ultramarine. Gently and subtly ghost in distant and middle distance tress and branches with Alizarin and Ultramarine. Then pick up on the stronger foreground colours, tones and textures. Virtually finish with the Azaleas in cool shadow and highlights catching the evening
sunlight, only needing to balance out a few problems.

A holiday to remember, my thanks to my hosts (I hope all the jobs I fixed around the place, my cooking and the paintings make up for the chaos) and all those so friendly Americans, especially the fisherman who gave me some of his lures, Eda, and Julian Weitz at Friedmans Fine art, 28 West State Street Savannah, Georgia 31401. For his encouragement and where the work may be viewed. Also to the group who wish me to run a course there next April. But as the only fly in the ointment, not the intransigent lady at Savannah airport who charged me $110.00 for my paints as extra baggage, on the return journey only, after the airlines had requested they be transported that way! Be warned the unwary, get everything in writing!