The New Palette Magazine #81

THE

NEW

PALETTE

Issue #81 2022

MAGAZINE

Sterling Edwards, TWSA, CSPWC, WPA, NWS - Bold and Bonsai - Watercolor, 22" x 30"

the New Palette #81

Stylize ItBy Sterling Edwards, TWSA, CSPWC, WPA, NWS

Are you tired of painting the same way as everyone else? Are you ready for a challenge? Do you feel a little adventuresome? If so, read on

Like many of you, I have spent years learning the basics of drawing and painting. I have worked in just about every medium that you can think of, and I can honestly say that some of them were much more appealing to me than others. I have been painting since I was twelve. That is when I began taking art lessons at a gallery in Kansas City, Missouri. I decided at an early age that I wanted to be an artist. It just seemed like the natural choice because I was always either drawing or reading about art. I guess that you can say that it was in my blood.

Like most artists, I was convinced that the more I could draw something that looks exactly like the photograph that I was using as a reference, the better an artist I was becoming. I know without even asking that a lot of you have been down the same path. It was time well spent because it taught me a great deal about dimension, perspective, form, shading, and a host of other skills that are necessary to create

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Bold and Bonsai - Watercolor, 22" x 30"

a “good” piece of art. The problem that I eventually faced was one that a lot of experienced artists face. Once you know how to do something well, you begin to miss the thrill of discovery. That feeling of “wow, I can actually do this” that you get when you have practiced and worked hard to learn something and suddenly it works. Now what?

It’s okay to pat yourself on the back because you earned it. But after a while many artists begin to look beyond copying what they see and want to experiment with creating more interpretive works of art. They begin to find creative ways to infuse their own personality and thoughts into their work. It’s a natural evolution for many artists. I should point out that I am not just telling what I personally experienced, but what a lot of my students have told me that they experienced as well. I had to make a conscious decision to change the way that I was painting.

I started reading about some of the early abstract

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expressionist artists that began the abstract movement in New York in the 1940’s. At first, like many people, I did not understand abstract. It seemed to break a lot of the traditional “rules” that I had spent years learning. But one thing made an impression on my way of looking at many of the abstract paintings. It was the freshness and spontaneity of the brushwork in many of the pieces. Even though they were mostly non-representational, I would often find things in them that I seriously doubt the artist put there intentionally. Instead, they presented me with visual energy and let me use my own judgement and imagination as to what it was or what they were saying in their paintings. They allowed me the opportunity to fill in the blanks however I chose. This was something that I never really knew that an artist could do. After all, I had spent so many years learning to tell the viewer exactly what to see and think about in my representational paintings. I was essentially showing them something thatthey already knew and could easily relate to. They were attractive paintings, but they didn’t challenge the viewer to interpret or become mentally engaged with the painting. That was the point where I decided to allow myself to evolve as an artist and do my own thing. After all, people want to know how the artist sees the world, not just what they can readily see themselves.

So, I begin to intentionally distort the shapes in my paintings to make them unique but still interpretive. To achieve this, it was often necessary to look for the individual characteristics of shapes and then

exaggerate them with expressive brushwork to suggest movement and rhythm. It took a while to break free of my more traditional style, but I eventually made the transition. Another thing that needed to be conquered was the concept that everything needs to be painted in its natural, local color. For example, an apple must be painted red. But what if you paint the apple black?

If the shape suggests an apple, the viewer will see an apple regardless of the color. In other words, the shapes will tell the story much more than the colors. This new way of thinking opened a wide doorway into using expressive colors if I wanted to; and relying on the shapes of the individual elements in the painting to guide the viewer to a conclusion. This also gives the artist permission to embellish the elements to whatever degree the artist wishes, because after all, the viewer is seeing what the artist envisions, not just what the artist sees. How refreshing and,in my case,

Lake Living 15" x 22" watercolor revolutionary. Paintings executed in this manner are generally referred to as “Stylized”. I personally refer to them as “Representational Abstracts” because there is enough traditional design to make a correct judgement about the subjects of the painting, but it is also a borderline abstract work of art. You would never see anything quite like it in real life.

The painting, “Lake Living”, (center) was inspired by a group of homes clustered on the shore of a lake. There was nothing exciting to see here but I decided to paint the scene using my newfound

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stylized way of painting. It goes without saying that all my years learning about perspective were tossed aside when I began making the shapes of the buildings. I intentionally painted them out of perspective to add an element of abstraction. By overlapping the shapes, I was able to suggest depth and dimension. The values range from areas of white unpainted watercolor paper to very rich dark blues and even black. The strong contrasts in value give the painting drama and dynamics that are designed to pull the viewer into the painting. You’ll note that there is also a dominance of negative shapes that make interpretive shapes such as the docks on the water. I was particularly attentive to having a balance of warm and cool colors throughout the painting.

The painting, “Vibrations”, is unquestionably a stylized interpretation. The inspiration for this painting was a tree of Tulip Poplar blossoms just outside of my studio. I painted this piece relying heavily on negative overlapping shapes and a mix of warm and cool colors. Using large flat brushes, I was able to create a feeling of vibration in the background with sweeping brushstrokes of color on wet paper, adding to the abstraction. There are areas of white unpainted watercolor paper and the richest dark values in the center of interest. My main objective with this painting was to offer the viewer something different and dynamic. If they can identify what kind of flower this is, wonderful. If they can’t, does it really matter?

“Vibrations” 22" x 30" Watercolor

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The painting, “Windward II”, was inspired by an ancient tree that was nestled in a rock out-cropping in Canyonlands National Park in Utah. What attracted me the most about this tree was the beautiful movement of the trunk and branches. The sweeping motion of the tree was balanced by the more rigid and somewhat geometric shapes and edges of the rock outcropping. As I typically do, I relied heavily upon negative shapes for the lower part of the tree where the exposed roots of the tree are anchored in the boulders. Leaving areas of white unpainted watercolor paper in my center of interest and placing rich dark values and colors next to the white areas created a dramatic statement. Everything else in the painting was a combination of hard and soft edges, and an exaggerated variety of colors.

The painting, “Laid Back”, is a still life that depicts a familiar setting of wine bottles, glasses, and fruit. It was a fun piece to paint because I was able to intentionally distort the elements in the painting as much as I wanted while still leaving enough for

“Windward II” 22" x 30" Watercolor

the viewer to make a proper interpretation. As always, I looked for opportunities to overlap shapes and use rich contrasts of value with my colors. Even though the table setting is somewhat typical, the angle of the table allowed me to create some strong diagonal lines that contrasted well with the more rounded shapes in the painting. The background was a wide-open area that was easily dissected into various geometric abstracted shapes. This further added to the overall abstraction of the painting.

“Laid Back” 22” x 30” Watercolor

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Floral Demonstration

The following demonstration takes you through the process of analyzing a subject and breaking it down into a stylized and interpretive painting.

As you can see, there is a lot of information in this photograph. Most photographs contain way too much information in my opinion.

As artists, we can make choices of what to include or delete to make our painting stronger and more dynamic. That is what I have done in this demonstration. The main reason I took the photograph was to capture the beautiful and exotic tropical flowers and rich colors.

Photo of red tropical flower

I began this painting using a #2 pencil to draw a quick sketch of the main flower and some of the stems and leaves on a full size sheet (22” x 30”) piece of Fabriano Artistico 300 lb. cold pressed watercolor paper that was secured to a mounting board with 1” masking tape. My sketch only took about five minutes because if I do too much sketching, I will be tempted to get the small brushes out and start painting within my pencil lines. My center of interest will be the larger flower.

Sketch on 300lb cold pressed watercolor paper.

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Photo of Wet into Wet Painting

To start the actual painting process, I wet the entire surface of the paper thoroughly and began using wet washes of colors applied with a 2” wide stiff, flat brush. The colors that I applied are Quinacridone

Scarlet, Permanent Violet, Prussian Blue, Permanent Yellow, Cadmium Yellow, and Hooker’s Green. I used the large 2” brush as long as I could to block in my initial shapes and colors then I switched to a 1” flat, nylon brush with a sharp edge to introduce some more controlled edges. I was very careful to stay away from areas of the painting where I wanted to leave white unpainted paper for highlights. At times, I used a barely damp 1” flat, bristle brush to soften edges as I painted. I kept introducing shapes and colors until I noticed that I was getting some dry brush textures which meant that the surface of the paper was getting dry. At that point I stopped and thoroughly dried the paper.

My initial “block-in” was complete. When working on wet paper it is often necessary to work quickly so that you can get most of the initial shapes and colors blocked-in before the paper dries.

On dry paper I introduced more of the colors that I had used in my initial wash but, since the paper was dry, I was able to focus more on introducing hard edges where I wanted them. By introducing some rich, dark values and incorporating some additional negative shapes to suggest leaves and movement in the shapes of the flowers, I was able to see just how much more was necessary to finish this painting. I was very careful to leave a lot of the soft edges from my initial wet on wet block-in.

Photo of working Wet on Dry

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“It Grows in a Jungle” 22” x 30” watercolor

To complete this painting, I used a #6 Rigger brush to add a few calligraphic lines in some of the stems and pedals. I also used a #12 round nylon brush and a mix of Hooker’s Green and Permanent Violet to add a few more of the darker values in my center of interest just to make it more dramatic. Lastly, I added a tiny bit of dark splatter applied with my #6 Rigger brush and a signature, and it was finished. The last thing that I did on this piece was to erase a few of my pencil lines specifically on the white areas where they were the most noticeable. I don’t even know what kind of flower it is. I took the photograph

years ago while teaching a watercolor workshop near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Quite honestly, it doesn’t matter what kind of flower it is. It’s a colorful and stylized piece of art.

Hopefully this has opened your eyes to some new possibilities that we have at our disposal when we paint. These techniques and concepts work with all mediums. All that you need is the inspiration and commitment to go outside of your comfort zone. Try stylizing a few paintings and see just how far you can go. You never know, this might be right down your alley. �

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