If The Sun's Out, Let's Go Paint!

by Marian Fortunati on 2/23/2010 7:04:10 PM6 Comments

"Japanese Garden"
8"x16" on RayMar Panel
If you are interested in purchasing this painting, "Japanese Garden", please click HERE to contact Marian.

Tuesday was the day scheduled for our San Fernando Valley Art Club paint out. In past years the club's paint outs had been scheduled irregularly and always on weekends, so I never managed to go. This year, with our new paint out chairperson, Trish Bennett, they have been scheduled well in advance each month and so far they've been planned for weekdays. Unfortunately, on our inaugural 2010 paint out in January, it was pouring rain. CANCELED!

The weather reports have been quite inaccurate in the last week or so, so I wasn't sure if it was a go or not, but luckily today there was no rain.   We went to a place I never knew existed, called "Gardens of the World" in Thousand Oaks. This is a privately run beautiful area in the middle of Thousand Oaks near the Civic Center. The public is welcome but must sign in and agree to obey by printed rules which we had to read and sign before entering.

Additionally we were able to enjoy club member and friend, Janet Snodgrass's watercolor and photo show which is hanging in the main salon area of the grounds. Her opening is Saturday, March 6th, from 2-4 p.m. if any of you want to go to enjoy her paintings.   I will be in Mexico so I'm glad I got to see it today.

The grounds include an old a "California Mission" area, Japanese gardens, and several other beautifully landscaped and arranged areas representing parts of the world. It wasn't the wild abandon natural landscape that I love to paint, but it was beautiful and after wandering around and taking photos, I finally settled in to the Japanese garden area. There were about ten other painters from the club and I think we all had a good time.   I got to chat with Carol Tator, Trish Bennett, Janet Snodgrass and Chuck Kovacic.   George Malone, whom I had invited, painted in the California Mission area with a few other people. Unfortunately I had to leave after about 2 hours of painting in order to pick up Tyler, so I couldn't stay and chat during lunch, but I still enjoyed myself.

I apparently didn't follow the rules as right after I blocked in my painting, I was asked to move.   After getting over it and moving on, (grumble, grumble) I dug in and enjoyed painting.   I had decided to try one of my 8 x 16 panels, and thought the result was okay given the limited time we had. Unfortunately I didn't put it in a good place in the car on the way home and it got a bit mushed, but I spent a few moments at home cleaning it up and am able to say to myself... "That was a good day of painting!"

****

I have a technical question for those of you painters who wish to chime in.   I've been painting and painting and have decided to do a TRIPTYCH.   I'm using three of the 16x8 panels (vertically) and am hoping that what I am planning will work.   All of the panels include children at the beach or on their way TO the beach. The sizes of the kids on the two outer panels will be larger than that of the kids in the inner panel.
Here is my question:.... WHAT exactly are the rules for a triptych???

Does it have to be ONE painting on three panels, or can it be ONE theme on three panels?
Does it matter about the relative size of the figures on the panels??? What do you think???
After I'm finished I'll show you all three and then you can chime in with more opinions, but I wanted some opinions before I'm finished as well.

THANKS...

6 Responses to If The Sun's Out, Let's Go Paint!

Michael Donegan
via web

24 months ago

Hi, Marian...

I think we've met through either the San Fernando Art Club, or the Valley Artists' Guild, or VIVA gallery, but I'm a relatively new subscriber to your daily blog. Unfortunately, since I have you send it to my standard email address which uses Yahoo mail your illustrations and photographs always obscure important portions of the text through some quirk of the system. If I resend it to myself at one of my gmail addresses, or even if I select it as if I were going to make a reply, everything gets sorted out, but I rarely check those mailboxes or tend to make the extra effort. I guess we all are creatures of habit to some extent.

I have been pleased to read of your recent paint-outs, especially since I used to frequently lead these outtings for the SFVAC and VAG back in the 1990s. When I saw today's painting, I was surprised to learn of the Gardens of the World because I haven't personally painted there, though I will certainly make a point of visiting next time I'm in the Thousand Oaks area. It was more surprising to me because I was certain that the structure was located in the Japanese Gardens in our nearby Woodley Park, which is probably quite similar, but for me has the advantage of being within a short bike ride or nice walk's distance from home environs. It's worth a visit if you haven't been there, especially since reservations are no longer required to enter within their normal operating hours.

In today's blog you mentioned an interest in creating a "TRYPTIC" and asked if there were any rules about making them. I just wanted to throw in a couple of comments aiming to be helpful:

First, you should spell the word as "TRIPTYCH", meaning a set of three (3) panels or canvasses or compartments side by side, bearing pictures, carvings, or the like;

Secondly, you should decide if your individual panels or canvasses are going to be hinged or connected at the rear and displayed as one large image, or if they will be individually framed and merely hung in a specific linear order adjacent to one another. Will it be framed or frameless? Flush to the wall or floating or standing on the floor? Practical (as in a dividing screen) or merely ornamental (like most murals and wall paintings).

Thirdly, the "rules" you refer to are entirely arbitrary, and are going to vary widely by artist, by period, and style of painting. An abstract triptych may be able to be arranged in a variety of ways and still be meaningful and pleasing. A traditional representational triptych probably needs to adhere to more linear concepts of composition wherein there is a left, a center, and a right panel, all of which contribute to the overall image and composition. That said, the most successful triptychs I have seen have always been most pleasing when the individual panels or canvasses were able to be separated, and were successful as independent paintings when viewed independently. That's a real eye-pleaser. And it is true whether it was an Andy Warhol series of 3 Marilyn Monroe portraits screened in different color keys, or a Gauguin painting depicting a biblical allegory using Tahitian models, flora, and scenic elements, or a Matisse line drawing in cycloramic form. It seems like I frequently see a lot of modern commercial watercolor artists making triptychs of swimming koi fish where the overall composition, painting style and coloration is meant to depict one pod of fish in the same water at the same moment in time, but can be separated to make three separately strong individual portraits or compositions when divided. That works, too, I guess.

I don't have a particulary good example in mind at this moment which I think would fit well with your style, but I'll try to do some research over the next several days and send you a couple of images that other artists have successfully made.

In the meantime, good luck with your project. Do something stunning. I'll look forward to seeing the end result.

Kindest regards,

Michael Donegan

	Michael Donegan via web	24 months ago
	Marian: You might find this wikipedia link helpful as you beging researching "triptychs": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triptychhtmlquote href=htmlquotehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triptychhtmlquote>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triptych Be sure to also google the proper spelling of the word. If you look at the Google image collection you'll find lots and lots of various successful examples, including Francis Bacon's 1976 triptych which sold for $76 million, but probably would not hang in your home. Regards, Michael Donegan

	Laura Wambsgans via web	24 months ago
	HI Marian, I haven't told you but I always open and read your updates first because you make me feel like I was there and happy. So reading your last question about the trip-tic, my opinion is, that you are the artist. Once you have the 3 done, I would place them to your pleasure then declare them a set, because you are the artist and it's your work of art. Love ya, Laura

	Marian Fortunati via marianfortunati.com	24 months ago
	Hi Michael, WOW... Thanks for your thorough and interesting answers to my question. I also appreciate the link, although I have looked it up in the past (probably with the wrong spelling) with inconclusive results. (NOTICE I'VE CORRECTED THE SPELLING?) I look forward to meeting you in person at one of the club meetings in the future and thanks so much for taking the time to research and write this. Thanks to you too, Laura, for your always enthusiastic and supportive friendship!!!

	Dad via marianfortunati.com	24 months ago
	I too first thought it was the tea house in the Sepulveda basin Japanese Gardens. Anyway I immediatelyliked it . It's a very nice painting. As for triptychs, as Laura said, you are the artist. If displaying them as a triptych attracts the viewers eye more readily than as individual paintings, you have your answer. Love Dad

	Robin via marianfortunati.com	24 months ago
	Hi Marian - I think you can make a multi panel painting be the same continuous scene, broken up as if looking through a window. OR It could be different views of a similar subject. I think if I were doing them all the same size, I might have the figures similar, or at least balanced. Maybe the two ends similar in scale, but the middle larger or smaller. ? I really think it is up to the artist and what you think when you see the works all sitting close together. But some continuity of color/theme will keep them related and more pleasing. Best, Robin

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