Painting dawn to dusk, next gouache class, and holiday commissions reveal
For this month I’m going to reveal some of my holiday commissions, share my recent explorations in both dawn and dusk, and announce the date of my next gouache class!
Happy new year and welcome back to my artist newsletter!
I have had some technical difficulties this month, so I switched up the way that I am sending this out, but we will be back on the regular schedule for the 15th of every month starting in February. If you are now joining us through Substack, welcome!
For this month I’m going to reveal some of my holiday commissions, share my recent explorations in both dawn and dusk, and announce the date of my next gouache class! As always you’ll get a little treat at the end in the form of a picture of Ruby.
Though I remained pretty busy over the holidays, one of my favorite artists, Heather Ihn Martin, inspired me to try something new: sunrise paintings. I am not a morning person, but I got up, grabbed a thermos of tea, and went out into my neighborhood to give it a try. The changing conditions pushed me to paint quickly. It was freeing and fun, and I felt so full of energy for the rest of the day! I did a second painting right away in the early morning light, and a third one later that afternoon. I’ve been out early once more since then. Here are all three sunrise/early morning paintings:
You can read Heather’s blog post with tips on sunrise paintings here!
This month I also tried the opposite of a sunrise painting– a nocturne. I have been hoping to try nocturnes for a while, but was finally motivated to get out and try it when I found out that the legacy bar, The Uptown, was closing down. On its last night I went there with my easel. The community was saying goodbye and I had a lot of lovely chats with people. I found it extremely challenging, and ended up giving it three tries. Here is my favorite one:
The months leading up to December are full of making holiday commissions that I can’t share until afterwards, so I thought I would take this opportunity to reveal some of those pieces! This first one is a portrait of a beautiful San Francisco Victorian, which is always among my favorite subjects. The client was specifically drawn to my recent painting of the Sausage Factory, which was faster and more gestural than usual because I was quickly losing the afternoon shadows.
Since he was attracted to that style, I did my best to replicate it with this home portrait. I pushed myself to focus on big forms and light and shadow, and I surprised myself with the results. This is one of my favorite paintings from the whole year:
I also took on a larger painting with unusual subject matter just before Christmas. This painting is 24”x18”, and done in acrylic instead of gouache. I made the panel myself from reclaimed wood. I’ve been working on my figure drawing consistently for about a year and a half now by attending Sketchboard sessions, and it really paid off in this piece:
If you missed out last time, I have another opportunity for you to take my Cityscapes in Gouache class at ARCH art supplies! We are scheduled for Saturday, February 24th from 11am-4pm, with a lunch break.
It’s been amazing to see students from the last class continue to explore gouache. In particular, I want to highlight Karen Fiene, who I painted with at last year’s Frank Bette Paint out. She’s an award winning watercolorist, and already her gouache paintings are so exciting. She has a solo show coming up, "Urban Perspectives," at the Center for Architecture + Design, from January 22 - March 1, with an opening reception on January 25! You'll be able to see her work in both gouache and watercolor in person.
Since there are only ten slots available, I’ll be teaching the same class as last time. A few of the students said that they wanted to take the class again, so in case that’s you, I decided to change up the limited pallet so that you’ll get a different set of colors. The class comes with $50 worth of materials, including four tubes of Windsor & Newton gouache paint. This time we will try it with primary yellow, Winsor red, and phthalo blue, and the same permanent white because you can never have enough of that. Here is the description for the class again to entice you to sign up:
Cityscapes in Gouache will dive into the potential of gouache as a versatile plein air medium. Nathaniel will guide you through his approach to gouache painting on panel, from subject choice, composition, and thumbnailing, to value, atmospheric perspective, and color mixing. This intermediate class will focus on simplifying your subject matter and learning to work with gouache, whether you are coming from watercolor or oil.
Using photo references provided by Nathaniel, students will first create compositions with thumbnail sketches, then move to blocking in the painting, and lastly to a final pass of thick gouache paint. Through that process we will cover atmospheric perspective, value, and color theory. Nathaniel will provide an instructional packet for students to take home and refer back to later. Students should leave the class with a working knowledge of gouache as a medium and the process of creating a painting, which they can then take into the field to paint from life.
If you are hoping to see some of my work in person this month, I am currently part of the group exhibition at 2358 Market, "For the Love of..." which is all about appreciation for the cities of the Bay Area. I have three pieces in the show, at least one of which has already sold. It is the last remaining piece in my "Transit Interiors" series, so far: MUNI Bus.
Now is your chance to see it before it goes to its forever home! I am also proud to be showing two other pieces in the show, "Blake Garden View" and "Architectural Abstraction: Purple". Swing by the gallery to see these and more visual love letters to our beautiful cities from a variety of artists!
Thank you for joining me for another month! While you await the next newsletter, you can check out my website to see my portfolio of plein air paintings, still lifes, block prints, tiny scale model houses, murals, and you can also find information on commissions! Please feel welcome to email me and ask about any ideas you have that aren’t covered on my commission page, I’m always willing to discuss!
Stay tuned for next month, and let me know if there’s something you’d like to hear about in the newsletter in the future!
Lastly, as always, here's Ruby!
Thank you!
-Nathaniel J. Bice
he/him