Lilian Westcott Hale

Born in Hartford, Conn. in 1881, she started her art training at Hartford Art School in 1889, she attended William Merritt Chase’s Summer School in Tory Island and ended up at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  She studied With Edmund Tarbell and married Philip Hale in 1902, a faculty member at the school.  Philip, 15 years her senior and a well known and established artist gave Lilian a lot of support.  In 1908 she held her first solo show and sold out, even before it opened.  Known for her composition, Lilian showed at the Grand Central Galleries in New York and was awarded a bronze medal in the Buenos Aires International Exhibition in 1910, a gold medal and medal of honor for drawing in the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915 and prizes from the National Academy of Design.

After her daughter was born in 1908, most of Lilian’s work revolved around motherhood and the interors and garden of her home.  In 1931 she was accepted as a National Academician it was also the same year that Philip died.  Lilian never quite recovered artistically following his death, she continued to enjoyed work on portraits of her family.  In 1955 she moved to Virginia to be close to her daughter and spent her summers in Rockport, Mass.  She died unexpectedly in 1963.

Doing small color studies can help work through those ideas and can even generate new ones.  I generally work out an idea with thumbnail sketches in graphite, 3 x 5 inches or whatever shape best fits the idea.  After doing 5 to 8 of these I pick the best one and do small color studies in the shape that works best, generally under 8 x 10 inch size.   This process can spark more ideas but the big benefit is the growth and confidence from working through the problems in your head.  Coming up with compositions, lighting, color schemes & technique.  The image here is a small color sketch for a night scene; the landscape is a real place.  I worked out the value and color change to fit the lighting and found photos of chuck wagons to give me the detail I needed.   To see more of these types of sketches visit my Phil Starke Small Works Gallery.

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Masonite or hardboard is a great surface.  What I like about it is the warm, dark tone as a background to paint on, but we usually prime it with white gesso.  Ralph Mayers’ book,  The Artist’s Handbook of Materials and Techniques: Fifth Edition, Revised and Updated (Reference) on materials mentions shellac as a primer to paint on.  Shellac needs to be thinned with denatured alcohol or grain alcohol (Everclear).  When it’s thick it becomes too slick and oil paint won’t adhere to it, but when thinned to a watery consistency it produces a textured surface that seals the wood.  I use it for smaller boards, 6 x 8 to 9 x 12.  When the surface is bigger it becomes more slick and harder to paint on.  You can also use the spray which is thinned and easier to use.  You need to use it in well ventilated areas.

Study paintings to see how other artists simplify shapes or how heavy or thin they apply the paint is helpful in developing your own view of nature. Don’t study just one artist, but as many as you can. Look at how they treat edges, hard or soft. Look at how they see color, do they push temperature contrast or emphasize muted color harmony.

Studying the way other artists deal with composition is helpful too, or how they deal with detail. I think that’s why I enjoy looking at certain paintings, they have solved problems I struggled with. So don’t try to re-invent the wheel, with the internet an infinite number of good and bad examples are at your disposal.

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In his early 20s he returned to Europe where he studied in art museums across the continent. He was especially influended by Constable and Turner who had an effect on how he portrayed light and atmosphere. If you’d like to learn more about Sam Hyde Harris, you can find a great book on Amazon by clicking here Sam Hyde Harris, 1889 – 1977 a Retrospective: A Pictorial Biography of His Life and Work. . Posted at http://www.betweenthepalettescrapings.com

You can use it where the 2 colors are forced into the values of the painting like this John Carlson stream painting, or an overall color of a scene with the complement as an accent like a green grove of trees with a red roof as an accent.  It’s very forceful and can create a strong painting.   Posted at http://www.betweenthepalettescrapings.com