Jug and Oranges!

This is the first painting I've taught students for the past 47 years.

That's a lot of jugs.

[piano plays in bright rhythm & tone] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Hi, I'm Buck Paulson.

I've been doing these shows for 29 years, never repeated a painting, never repeated wearing the same shirt, but today, 26 years later, I'm doing Jug and Oranges again.

I did it with Bill Alexander back then, 1992, but now we're gonna make the next step.

So let me tell you about it.

I have a few other things I want to tell you about Jug and Oranges as well.

This is the project for today, but it's not the finished product.

I don't have a finished product.

We're going to work on top of it, and you'll see next week how we have enhanced it.

Over to the right, I have a canvas with a tracing on it.

It's a pink background, Naphthol Red and White, and then you can see on it, I've made lines, which are very helpful.

To some people, it might look like a pumpkin, but we'll make it look like a jug, and that's to have the values there.

So we'll start with taking color, this is Umber and Raw Sienna.

I'll call that number 4.

I like starting on the darks.

If you're doing watercolor, you work from the lights to the dark, but in oil painting, you don't have to, but I'll work from the darks to the lights.

And as I do this, you're going to find in some places, I let a little of the pink show through, and that gives a nice quality, evenness.

You know, just thinning out slightly here and there.

You'll see more as we go on.

Now the first time I taught this actually, the first painting I ever did had this jug in it.

Let me go down to number 3.

This first one was Umber, Burnt Umber, and Raw Sienna.

The next one is more Raw Sienna than Umber.

This is my number 3.

And so then I, for the recreation department-- I was a recreation supervisor for 8 years, and that's when I first started getting interested in art.

So the superintendent says, "Would you like to teach a class during the summer?"

And, of course, in teaching the class, I couldn't be paid for it because I was already on salary, so what I did to advertise, I had 10 weeks of art classes, $2.00.

How much is that?

10?

That's 20 cents a lesson.

So I took that, put it back into the supplies and gave to them.

Can you imagine how many people I had signed up at those prices?

50.

50.

So what did I do?

I made 50 Jug and Oranges.

Here I am, Raw sienna and White, with just a little Umber in it.

This is a number 2.

And I would have 25 in each class, so I'd go around.

I'd sit down and do part of the jug on one, 5 people sitting together for one of them, and then go to the next table and do the next one.

Then when I came back, I'd demonstrate on a different person-- Jug and Oranges at that table.

Oh, it was great!

And then at the end, the Adult Ed didn't want competition.

They'd been off in the summer, and they said no, we don't want him to teach anymore, 'cause we're both working for the city.

So there was one gal in the class that said, I'm gonna take lessons from Buck Paulson this fall.

I don't care what!

So she set up lessons, and it's funny how it just then developed.

Now I'm gonna take number one.

This is Raw Sienna and White.

You put this on very carefully, but you're going to enjoy the method of blending it.

Funny how this almost looks a little green against the pink.

Doesn't it?

Um... so I've had quite a few travels with my art.

I had a small studio and was thinking, well, where is this going to go?

I'd take paintings down to LA, try to sell 'em.

Ugh, it was slow.

Then somebody came in and said would you come down and do a demonstration for us and a workshop, 3-day workshop?

I said fine, so I went down and did it.

We had agreed on a certain amount of money.

When I'd finished it was twice that, and I thought, what's the deal?

She said, well, that's the number of students you had.

Boy, I thought that was great.

Now I'm going to talk less and paint a little bit here.

No, I don't talk less, but I'm gonna put on the oranges.

Now, on the oranges, I'm going to simplify.

I'm gonna have one large value and then a dark one, and then I'll show you how we work with that.

So this is Alizarin Crimson and Orange.

No, I don't want you.

Yeah, I do.

You're down here.

Okay, Alizarin Crimson and Orange.

And we're putting on, again, what we call the darks.

The orange, at this stage, will look a little bit like it's been around a while-- a little, little old.

So then when I taught down in Los Angeles, somebody in the class said, if I could get you a class down in my studio, would you come down, teach a workshop?

And I said, for sure.

Oh, I love that idea.

So I'd teach there, then there'd be somebody that said oh, I'm from Albuquerque-- this is pure Orange now-- I'm from Albuquerque.

Would you come over and teach there if I get you a class?

"Yes, my sister lives there."

And it went on and on like that, and then there was one gal that said, I've brought my cousin today, she's from Hawaii.

Would you come over to Hawaii to teach, if I could get you a class?

I went over there 8 years in a row, and I ended up later in Dubai with the Petroleum Wives Club, so I've been around!

I'm trying to remember, did the Jug and Oranges go to Dubai?

I think they did!

These were mostly southern women from Louisiana and Texas that were with their husbands in the oil fields.

What I did early on this canvas, I put some Walnut Oil on, and then kinda wiped it, so it's just a little moist.

Therefore, you don't see me dipping into the Walnut Oil to spread it out.

I think what I'll do, one more thing, I'm going to go ahead and put the handles on, and what I have on this, Alizarin Crimson and a little bit of-- oh, what are you?

You're Alizarin Crimson and a little Van Dyke Brown.

You get out of there, that's your spot.

Now this, I'm going to do this with the idea of that I'll have one value for the sides and one for the lights, rather than having a 1, 2, 3.

You're going to have in mind always that the form is there.

We'll talk about that as we continue on.

Here's a dark on this side, then I'll put the dark on that side.

I'm going to go ahead and put the lights on there, and in this case, it'll be just Orange and Alizarin Crimson.

It's very close to what's down there.

But you will love the stage 2.

And on the inside.

The way my teacher would tell me, when you think of form-- it's just like your nose.

You say, okay, that's one direction or one plane, side is the next one, and underneath, the next one, so that's 1, 2, 3. and you say well, it looks just as light under there as it does on the top-- that doesn't matter.

How does it appear to a blind man?

So same way here-- if you were to touch the side, the side, and this is different, so you constantly have form in mind, and you can apply this to portraits, and I certainly do it with oceans, with the big wave.

You think in form, and we'll, we'll talk more about that as we go in this series because there will be an ocean to do.

Okay, I'm going to do one small thing, and then we'll take-- this is background color.

What are you?

Burnt Umber, Raw Sienna, and White.

I'm going to put it just against this, and I won't take the time yet to spread it all the way around.

I just want to feature that, and then we'll see what we can do.

It's so great being back here.

I love PBS, and I love my Prairie Public PBS.

If I were at home with this, I would be turning this upside down, being right-handed.

See how I can come right against the lines?

So on the left side, and I haven't gotten to the left side yet, this is the left side, I need to be a little cautious that I don't nudge into the objects-- to the handles.

Go over that just a little bit, so the orange sits just a little bit above that back table.

The nice thing about this-- let me tell you the composition, watch this, and then, of course, there'll be a shadow here, so you go right up this line, up the side of the jug, around to the center of interest, and there you have a nice flow through the painting.

Then you continue down here, you pick up that little orange.

So it really is conceived on some strong, good principles.

Here's where I need to be cautious, cautious, cautious, cautious.

Okay, I think what I'll do is go ahead and blend that, and then you can see that this, of course, would spread out over the entire wall.

Maybe it would be helpful if I do just a little bit down below, and then we'll see.

How much time do we have left?

We got a lot of time, Buck, just do it!

Okay.

This is Van Dyke Brown, White, a little Raw Sienna, and I wanna put this on the top of the little block of wood.

So the other thing my teacher pointed out when I first did this, now I did the jug, it wasn't the oranges, it had a little bowl and some cloth, and I was with my great teacher for 13 years, and there's one day I accidentally bumped, and the jug fell.

And I wasn't painting the jug, but it was there, and I bumped it, and it went on the floor-- 83 pieces!

Prayer and glue, and I got it back together.

It looked so great, and I showed Claude, and told him, he says oh, now it's got good character, instead of saying what'd you do that for?

I still have that jug at home with all its beautiful cracks.

Okay, so I've put this on the table.

And I need to just come against that orange a little bit... both sides.

Okay, let me do some blending so we make sure that we get that done.

It doesn't matter where I start.

And I think what I will do, I'll start on the oranges.

So I'll zigzag, zigzag, very even zigzag.

When you get down to the corner here, make sure that you still have the zigzag and not just softening that way, so you have to turn the brush a little bit.

Very mechanically done.

And a soft brush, tap out the zigzags.

I'll tap in the middle and tap towards the dark.

Almost perfect.

Now I have a little bit of a line showing through there, but I'm not going to take time to correct that.

We'll do that in the next one.

Okay, here's the next oranges.

I started down low and coming around-- either way.

If you're left-handed, do it the way you want.

And the neighbor.

Now what's gonna happen on the neighbor?

Eventually it needs to have just a little bit of dark shadow-- this one onto this one.

Why don't you do it now?

Oh, okay.

Same dark, just down a little bit there.

Of course, when you have a cast shadow, you don't want to destroy it.

You just soften it, so that's the difference between a blend and a softening an edge of a shadow.

See how that is?

I really don't want to lose that feeling.

Okay, let's look at the big one.

And when I do this, what I sometimes do, I'll take a little bit, in this case number 3, the lighter of the two colors-- I'm gonna blend together, and that's right in here-- so I'll zigzag, and I'm using kinda just the edge of the fan brush.

It's a stiff fan brush, so it works very well.

Then I'll wipe, and then I just blend.

If it needs to be more than that, then more gently, then second time through.

Now for your benefit, I drew those lines kinda dark.

I'm not gonna try to correct them.

You can see in the next stage that they're gone, so that'll give us the clue how to do it.

Okay, now a number 2.

I'm always mixing the lighter of the two, so this is a 2 and a 3, so I have 2 on the brush.

Again, it may not look like it, but I'm using probably about half the brush.

Why?

I don't know.

Saving the brush, I guess!

And then you might sweep down.

If it needs any more correction, then rezigzag, just a little bit where it needs it.

On the next, the lightest, the 1, and the 2.

So I put on number 1, as we said, the lighter of the two you're doing.

This I'll start over here.

You're always conscious of form so it doesn't end sharply there.

I'm going to just go through that a little bit.

Then let's take the same number 1, and we're coming over on this side.

Then I have a brush that I think I've grown up with.

It's called a bunny brush.

Ooh, do I love that brush.

I'll just sweep across, just ever so gently.

Now you're going to find just a little bit of rush here, which means there may be some things that aren't quite as accurate as they could be or should be.

On the handle, the only place I'm going to blend is my dark and light there... just a little bit.

The rest all has a definite change.

It's a sharp line there, so we would not want to blend them.

The other preparation would be, okay, the light is coming down, it's hitting this, this, this, this, so there's my number 1 here, and then it comes out here.

The other place it will be is, it goes right through, and it'd be right in the middle there.

Isn't that nice?

And then at the top, you have a little bit there, a little bit here, and then there's the smallest amount because you're just seeing a little bit of the opening there.

And then on this side, a little bit there and a little bit here.

So that's the preparation of the handles.

Now on the oranges, you're not going to see much difference, but I'm wiping so that there will be a dry spot there to work into.

Okay, to work into that, let's take just a little Yellow and White.

You must've missed the bus.

How come you weren't out there already?

Okay, now this is number 1, number 1, number 1.

Consistent light direction on every object.

Okay, then we'll take and blend that around a little bit.

I think the mop brush will do it very well.

Actually, I'm gonna take and put a little touch of Yellow on the mop brush, so I don't remove it.

Just a little bit like that.

Looks more like an orange now, doesn't it?

Ooh, that looks luscious!

Love the good colors.

And the next one.

So I'm not going to finish that, but I do want to put a couple things more on.

If I take Burnt Umber-- I don't see it on my one there-- but it sure would've helped if I'd of had just a little bit of a cast shadow over there.

Boy that's kinda confusing, Buck.

Well, sorry.

Okay, number 4, which I used on the jug.

I'm putting down here, and in this case, to make sure that I can see it, I'm leaving just the thinnest, small line between the two, and then, of course, this has a nice softness.

I do want to have one special thing here.

You're showing the shadow from that orange, and you're showing it there.

See, this is what we spoke of.

We said that this line comes right up alongside there.

There's a little shadow that goes in here.

And same thing-- you're always softening, softening where that meets.

This is a blend, this is softening, so there is a difference.

One's for form, and one's for quality.

Okay, what else can I tell you?

Well, we could do a little bit over in here.

This is a cast shadow from the block of wood, and then I'm going to use more dark.

And I will go up just a little bit higher there, so you can see what's gonna happen on that cast shadow.

This is going to end up a little raw, but I hope that you have gotten the idea of what's happening.

Let's take a little bit of this same grayish that we put there-- Yellow Ochre, and Van Dyke Brown, and White.

The thing that I want to remember here is the see-through underneath the oranges.

So between the oranges, there would be just a little bit like that, and then I'll have that shadow that comes from this orange over here.

So what I want you to see there is make sure that you can see between two round objects, as they touch they certainly don't make it solid.

Well, I feel good about it.

There's work to be done, and you come back because we're gonna make that thing sing!

And I think this one-- he sang a little bit, but I hope you get the idea of form, of composition, of blending.

So we'll see you all next time.

Thank you for watching.

[piano plays in bright rhythm & tone] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (woman) Funding for "Painting With Paulson" is made possible by...