Does a white canvas scare you?

Then paint it green!

Green means go!

[piano plays in bright rhythm & tone] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ A white canvas, a green palette!

Should that be reversed?

No, we're gonna have some fun.

We're going to do a painting that I have not done before.

I have a little pochade as you can see on the easel.

And this will be the model, and down below I have kind of an early stages of it.

Of course, this will be the acrylics stage, and I'll do this on the white canvas and I'll also go a little bit further with it, with the acrylics before we change.

What I think I'll do, might be helpful, is dip in with a large brush; and this is just water.

And I'm going to put this on, and if it runs a little bit, so be it.

So was it.

[soft scraping] Okay then, I'll float a paper towel just a little gently.

This is the first time I've done this on TV.

So we'll see what happens.

All right, now we'll come down to the palette, and my thought would be to start in the middle kind of some yellowish, greenish yellow hues.

What would be best?

Let's take some Cad Yellow.

Don't you like the way that comes out saying here I am!

And this is Permanent Green Light.

That looks pretty good.

What I kind of like to do on this is to have it so it's not overly mixed.

Kind of broken color approach; and we'll put this right in here.

What I love to do with my grandkids is to have if there's 5 of us, have 5 sheets of paper and one person will make a little mark, same little mark, same little mark on each of them, and then we all go secretly try to make something out of it and come back and compare and then it's the next person's turn to do those little symbols and that.

So that's really what has kind of featured my doing paintings the same way.

You get brave.

[soft scraping] And see what you can make out of it.

Of course, this one on the pochade I know that I'm going to do that.

But as far as how I'm going to do it, I'm discovering it right with you.

Sure, Buck.

You think we believe that?

Yes you do.

Okay, that'll be enough there.

Then what I'm looking at is, let's put a little bit of the color down for the water and then we'll start with the darker greens around in the back, then the big trees.

So clean the brush.

Oh it's fun the watch that first one into the Saturday night bath, although this is just water, it's not a Saturday night bath.

Okay, so we said the water next.

I'll use some what are you?

You're Phthalo Blue.

And look as I do it on the palette even it gives me an indication what's going to happen as you thin it out up here, what can happen.

Now on the middle stage you can see down below there's a lot of white showing.

That's not happening in the pochade so it won't happen in our complete painting as well.

So we'll go just a little darker right in there, come over to the side.

I'm always thinking composition and values and so on, so composition means where the items are placed and they look pretty good.

The center of interest, of course, is with this dark mass against the lights in the middle, then you have secondary complementary things like the lights down here that we'll add to it.

And we'll see-- when we do paintings from a pochade we certainly can enhance it.

I'm not just trying to equal the pochade, I'm using the pochade to help me make a painting.

Isn't that great?

That's almost like watercolor, isn't it?

This is so much fun.

We're doing the acrylic stage, then next week we put on the oils and that will be another experience because we don't have any complete thing to look at.

The pochade is just there.

All right, now I'll take and we'll add a little darker green.

This darker green, and taking the Permanent Green Light.

Look how much I'm doing just with the brush, and mix some Burnt Umber into it.

That's pretty good, but let's put a little more green.

So I would call it 2 green and one Burnt Umber.

I let this sort of blend out a little bit into the sky.

It's not really a sky, but that's what I'm looking at.

This color all underneath, I have some there and there too.

So we have quite a bit.

[soft scraping] When you do this, you won't have studio lights, therefore it might stay wet just a little longer and there's also mediums for slow dry if you want that.

You find out very quickly what works best for you.

So let's push over in here... and softly in there.

Because we're having dark trees go on top of this, I have to make sure that I'm not too dark there.

Down through the middle.

And this goes along with, we've talked before with compositions what they call the lyre shape, l-y-r-e.

The musical instrument almost like a big U.

So we got, this will be my lyre shape and then I'll have some paint over there.

And we have bulk on one side, which is this one, then sort of distance in the middle there So one side's more powerful than the other as far as size.

[soft scraping] Let this mix down just a little bit into the blue that's there.

This blue won't really stay there because we have to have some banks.

Banks.

This is Burnt Umber, and I'm saying take it out straight.

When I do that, I didn't really clean the brush.

If there's a little green on it, that's fine so this will be where the bank will be.

Often when I paint a painting I very quickly establish the center of interest by putting some strong light in against the dark.

But when I see it right like that, it's already been established so I'm just kind of working up to that and putting the large patterns in first.

We'll come with the same Burnt Umber over on the left side of the stream.

This is a nice quiet little stream.

Santa Barbara has a beautiful place called Oak Park that I like to go to.

Actually Bob Dambach, one of the heads of the company here, came out with a cameraman a couple summers ago and filmed me at Oak Park, and we had a little conversation.

I don't know if you ever saw that or not.

But that was nice; that was the place.

I don't know then either if the water was running at the time.

It usually comes during the rainy season which can be from like December on towards March and April.

You just get a great flow through there, otherwise it's quite dry.

[soft scraping] So whether this was done during the season, oh, it probably was, or with imagination or with memory.

[soft scraping] And I've painted on location there.

I have no problem with painting from imagination, or from memory or right on location.

You do what you like and don't feel like somebody's going to say oh, he used a camera!

Yes, you find some of these paintings it will show the artist who has done the plain air, plein air, and then strapped to their waist is a camera.

That's not cheating-- whatever works for you.

Oh, I have some of this green coming through.

When I say "through," right across here.

Okay, now what I think I'll do, I'll put on some highlight, then we'll work some of the character into it.

Some of the tree trunks and branches.

So I'll clean this brush, and for the light through I'm going to select a fan brush, and we'll use some-- let's see, you're white.

It's always a question should I use Yellow Ochre or just plain yellow, and I've chosen Yellow Ochre... and white, and white.

It's just like at a dance when it's ladies' choice.

Who do I do?

They're both pretty good lookin'.

I guess I'll go with this one.

All right, the position for this.

Now this was just left, it wasn't covered, but it gives me a real good clue as to-- I would like to use that so I'm going to be a little off center.

Center if probably over here, and come up right in there.

Now this is kind of a low light, low in position on the canvas.

So I'm using this, this is Yellow Ochre and white, and I'm pushing this around; corner of the brush.

It thins out quite nice, the green might even be, well, it is, can you see that?

It's still a little wet, which is Ideal.

And if it was dry I would say, and it's dry and that's ideal!

Whatever works, whatever it is.

Okay, now we'll come down into the water-- this is, we said already that is going to be a help so we'll make a little light across there, and a little bit over on that side, but this is the path, straight down path.

All right, now we'll go ahead and put on some tree trunks and branches.

I'm going to use two brushes, they're both flat sables, one's just larger than the other.

So we'll take first the big guy.

I want to put just a touch of purple in that.

It'll be a little darker.

Okay, this is pretty straight, maybe a slight slant.

[in deep voice] Coming down, I'm the king of the forest!

Boy that's good, I like that guy.

We'll give him a good strong branch coming up here and I turned the brush to the side to get a little more narrow on that, and there's a little one there.

Now let's see, there's-- oo, you might be a little high, we'll keep you there though.

And keep wetting it, dipping into the water, he has a neighbor, a close relative.

Boy you sent the doorbell ringing early there.

Little drips... and then on this side.

See how that slants slightly just back the other way?

I kind of feel, let's see, we need to have a branch, there's a multitude of little branches in there.

One going out to the side here.

And there's one that comes up here.

All right let's go with just a little bit lower on this one.

Additionally.

"Cause that has such a nice curtain over the, do they call that the proscenium arch?

Isn't that a theater term?

Okay, then on this side I'm choosing to slant the tree a little bit towards that one, towards the big guy.

Now, this has a little stronger, and then it connects.

And this one comes down a little lower.

And I find that there are branches there.

I'm just wondering if I can use that.

It looks like this one is coming from off the canvas.

I'm going to, rather than do that, I'm going to make use of this one because it's very important to have one coming over and leaning down towards that.

Now, if I don't come from off the canvas, then I probably better put something else there to kind of protect that area.

And here I'll just widen that a little bit so it has a feeling of taper.

Some of these branches we'll make little teeny twigs, but that's not one of them.

On the back towards the middle as you can see here, we have a couple small ones, and I think they'll be quite helpful because they're close to this center of interest.

Use the old fingernail.

The fingernail technique!

Leaning on the canvas.

Do you ever get problems, have problems from doing that?

Yes, you might leave a little mark here and there.

And this has a kind of a nice one, where as you see there, it looks real close to the glow, the strong glow back there.

Now, let's see what we need to do.

Okay, what would help would be very early to put some lights.

When I say "lights," a little bit lighter light on the trees.

I'm going to first take, what are you?

You're Yellow Ochre, and you're Burnt Umber, and you're white, and just a little bit of red.

So that's my mixture.

I hope you caught that!

Oh, the thing that I often do at this stage is go just a little stronger than it might be when you finish it, but it makes it so if you put a glaze over you can make use of the colors.

You know, you put a glaze over, you'll still be able to see it.

Let's put some of this down a little lower.

I kind of feel when I look at that, I have this branch, and yet I have that one just a little lower.

I'm wondering maybe I don't have to have this one quite as strong, but I do need to have one there.

That makes it just a little bit more together with what's happening back there.

Okay let's go further with some more of the red and this ochre and what else was it?

White.

There's a consistency in the direction of the light.

It's shining so each of these have light on the left side.

Even though it's small trunks back here, I can put a little bit there too.

You can see that it's not much.

On the other side, the other trees over here, we have some lights as well and then a little bit coming down here.

There's going to be a few incidental branches that we'll have to put on there.

I think what would be helpful now if we put some just a little texture detail on the bank.

So let's see what we do with that.

This is the Permanent Green Light.

Oh gosh, let's see, what should we do on that?

Here's some Phthalo Blue and some white.

What will happen if we join those together a little bit?

We get that!

So that's Permanent Green Light, Phthalo Blue, and white I'll pat this on with the knife.

[soft tapping] That's nice.

Let me point out what I'm saying is nice.

You have kind of a broken color.

You got a little greenish tone, you got a little blue tone.

That's what I like-- the broken color.

Okay, now I can take a little bit of this on the other side over in here.

Love that knife, it does a lot of work.

Doesn't it?

Let's take the knife, and we'll take, this is green, Permanent Green Light and white.

Just a little blue, not quite as much as before.

In other words, it has a little more white in it.

So as we go back, it's just a little lighter there.

What's really helpful here see, I said we had the blue and the green, then you say well you got yellow there too.

I did!

He must have snuck on the bus.

I like him though.

Thank you for coming!

[soft scraping] I don't remember how I put that highlight on but for now it's going to be with a knife putting some impact in there, then when we get to the oils, we'll make it even stronger.

But that's pretty strong, isn't it?

Oh there's nothing like vitality, there's nothing like leaving fear behind!

Okay, I want to take some of that same color Yellow Ochre and white maybe a touch of yellow and come up in this area.

Oops I need to be lighter, or more paint.

So we're putting just that little see-through.

And you know, if I cover up on this painting, on the pochade, if I cover up that top, sure that has impact, but it has more so, it has a breathing quality by having the little lights showing through.

I'll take that down, down, down right over to there, which is in here.

This is good there, just a little bit through there.

Oh, it's so much fun to do!

It's so much fun to do experimenting.

Experimenting.

Let's take just a little bit more of this bluish-green that we put down a few places.

We'll have just some walking across there.

I'll go right across the trunks of the trees a little bit.

It's so important when you paint the landscapes that you have a feeling-- some of the foliage coming across.

When did you come across?

In 1930.

Oops.

"Oops" meant that I just wiped away a branch.

Big deal.

You either put in another one or you wipe for what's still going to work.

Huh, you didn't work, so anyway, it was a good thought.

So we'll take the umber and put that on.

There, see?

Fooled you didn't I?

I got it.

We're just about ready to put this to bed, and we'll be doing the oil portion next time.

And you won't want to miss that.

I don't want to miss it that's for sure, I'll be here.

Let's see, what about up above.

We have a little bit of a gap between there, so if I have some of this... see that joins together just a little bit, the two of them.

And we can even go stronger now on the highlight in the water.

As we've said before on pochades you use them as a guide.

I don't have to equal it, but it has a lot of good things in it.

It's got composition and everything-- representation and expression; and we'll see you next time!

The oil stage of "The Quiet Stream."

Bye-bye.

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