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12×24″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on canvas covered hardboard
SOLD! Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com to inquire about a similar painting.
This painting was done this morning at sunrise at Cold Spring waterfront park along the Hudson River. It was sooooo cold. Brrrrrr!!!! Storm King mountain was initially shrouded in fluffy pink clouds. It was an awesome sight, but the clouds had risen by the time I was set up to paint.
10×8″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on sized Canson board
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
Painted on location in Acra, New York.
16×20″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on sealed, primed hardboard
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
This was painted on location in Cold Spring, New York, facing Storm King Mountain. I paint all over the Hudson River Valley, and the Hudson Highlands region certainly rates as one of the most dramatic along the river. I had to wait a long time for the clouds to break before they struck the mountain, but once the sun broke through it was quite spectacular.
For those who like to see some of the process, here is a photo of the Quinacridone Gold underpainting that I did for this one:
Click image for a larger, clearer version:
18×24″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on canvas covered hardboard
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
This painting was done from a photograph and a small color study of the scene that I painted a few weeks ago. You can see the color study here.
It is a fall view overlooking the Hudson River from private property in Garrison, New York. I may still tweak a few things on the larger version and will try to get a better photograph of it soon!
6×6″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on linen, mounted on rag board to frame as an oil painting (without glass)
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
These little wooden figures are so much fun to paint. I paired them with three small, old books for my Full House painting.
Click for a clearer, larger image:
5×7″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on clear-sealed linen. Can be purchased beautifully double matted in ivory/gold to 8×10″ to fit any standard 8×10″ picture frame
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
This was so much fun to paint!
My palette for this painting was:
Cadmium Primrose
Cadmium Yellow Medium
Pyrrole Red
Ultramarine Blue
Phthalo Blue
Titanium White
Click to enlarge:
24×18″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on canvas covered hardboard
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
This large painting was done using my plein air study, “The Base of Kaaterskill Falls”, as a reference image, along with a photo I took at the scene. I did a value underpainting in Transparent Red Oxide before going in with local color. One of the things I love about the Golden OPEN paints is the way the underpainting shows through without mixing and muddying the color. I would have had to wait for my oil paints to dry before continuing in order to achieve some of the effects I got here with Golden OPEN.
This was one of the spots painted by many of the old Hudson River School painters, and many of the new ones too! This painting is just the bottom tier of the falls; there is another tier above!
Four artists who have been using the new Golden OPEN paints were selected to do interviews with Mark Golden for his online magazine Just Paint. I was one of the lucky few who shared my experiences with the OPEN acrylics in the article. You can click here to read a full color, PDF version of the magazine with images, or instead you can read a text version with no photos on the website. Either way, I hope you enjoy it!
You can post any comments you have to me about the article by clicking “comments” below.
6×8″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on sealed, primed hardboard
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
I once knew a wonderful painter named Mike Pacitti, who passed away a few years ago. He used a few different colors to underpaint with. One of them was called Burnt Carmine, made by Rembrandt. I remember it as a strong carmine/crimson color mixed with black. Even with black in the mix, I was surprised by how strong the color was when I saw Mike use it, and yet his paintings were filled with beautiful subtleties.
I decided to try something like that while waiting for clouds to break along the Hudson River in Cold Spring. I mixed Quinacridone Magenta half and half with Carbon Black, and used that to do the underpainting for this little plein air. It was much stronger than the colors I normally use to lay out my composition and values. No matter what you use to paint over it, the magenta seems to work its way through. Part of me thinks it still comes through too much. Another part of me thinks I’m just not used to it, and that I kind of like the effect.
What do you think? (Please click “comments” at the bottom of this post to let me know rather than emailing, because I’m getting swamped! 
)
12×16″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on Raymar smooth canvas panel
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
This was painted late in the afternoon on location in Cold Spring, New York. It was one of those perfect pre-fall days, filled with the glow of the late day light and the Hudson River breezes. I took the photo below after completing the painting, so the light and shadows had changed somewhat from the time I started. I kept going out to the car to get more things, so you can see that by the end of the day, I had accumulated enough stuff on site for three artists!
16×12″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on canvas covered hardboard
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
I’m one of those lucky plein air painters who has a default painting location right outside the studio door. In previous years, I painted here by the lake quite a bit. This year I seem to be traveling more and painting at home less. I think it may have something to do with the fact that my favorite tree to paint was decimated by a storm during the winter. Somehow, painting here just isn’t the same without that tree, but it made me turn my attention today to a different tree.
This little point juts out from the shoreline, with a charming willow tree at the end. I love painting willows, with their graceful clusters of leafy branches, and subtle color and value shifts. The wonderful early morning light and serenity made me realize that I need to paint here more often!
6×6″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on Ampersand Gessoboard
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
Above is the completed painting, and below is an image of the work in progress. I’d initially planned to put in foreground grasses, but after doing that, I felt the painting was more effective without them. So, I worked on it yet a third time, and took the foreground grasses out!
It’s interesting how much the color of light affects what we see. The image of the finished painting was taken with the corrected light of my photo box, but the progress image was taken in cool daylight. The actual colors in paintings vary according to the lighting conditions where we view them.
I did the underpainting for this work with a color I’d not tried before from the Golden OPEN line—Quinacridone Gold. I love the warm glow that it brings to the work. I could get hooked on this color!
This is painted from a photo I took down in Constitution Marsh on the Hudson River. It’s been in my file of things I want to paint for a long time! With fall on the way, it seemed the right moment to pull out this lively autumn scene.
I’m still using an expanded palette because the paint is still wet from yesterday, and I’ve even added a few colors to the large assortment I was working with. So far for this painting I’ve used:
Titanium White
Cadmium Yellow Primrose
Cadmium Yellow Medium
Naples Yellow
Cadmium Red Light
Pyrrole Red
Ultramarine Blue
Transparent Red Oxide
Quinacridone Gold
Carbon Black
Jenkins Green
5×7″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on sealed, primed hardboard
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
I’m starting to go through fall images, thinking about places I’d like to go for plein air painting this upcoming season, and simultaneously doing some small color studies for large studio works. This beautiful view of the Hudson River was painted today from a photo I took last fall. I love the look of the Hudson Highlands as the trees lose their leaves. They take on the most beautiful pinky-violet color until the greens of summer re-emerge.
5×7″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on Ampersand Gessoboard
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
A few weeks ago, my husband and I drove to the other end of the lake to get western views of the sunset. We took loads of photos. This is my first painting from that series of images. I managed to stop myself a few times along the way to take some photos and post a demo.
I set up to paint with more colors on my palette than usual in order to get the more highly saturated sunset colors.
As you can see above, I used a more expanded palette for this painting than usual. My color choices were:
Titanium White
Cadmium Yellow Primrose
Cadmium Yellow Medium
Cadmium Orange
Cadmium Red Light
Pyrrole Red
Quinacridone Magenta
Ultramarine Blue
Jenkins Green
Phthalo Blue
Carbon Black
When I paint on a small board like this 5×7″ Gessoboard above, it’s hard to hold it and paint edge to edge. I use “blu tack” and affix it to an 8×10″ board. Then I can hold the larger board and be able to paint all the way to the edges without getting paint on my fingers, or I can set it down on a little tabletop easel.
My computer monitor yields stronger, more accurate color and chroma than a printed out photo, so I like to set up like this for small works and paint right off the computer screen. I use the old telephone book on the right to wipe my brushes before rinsing. It’s a great way to conserve paper towels and simultaneously recycle and old phone book. When the page gets filled with paint, I just tear it off, toss it, and go to the next page.
When a painting has areas of light, highly saturated color, I always put that down first. That holds the chroma, and then I can paint into it. It’s a lot easier to dull down strong color than it is to get this kind of brilliance on top of a grey or dark color. You can see how I reserved all the areas of strong color here:
Once the base colors and values have been laid down, I can start painting into them, creating variation, adding details, and adjusting edges. From the step above, it isn’t a long way to the finish line:
I have 22 freshly varnished oil and acrylic paintings in these drying racks. Over the past several days they’ve been getting isolation coats and varnish coats. Many artists who paint in both mediums have asked me for information on my varnishing process, so I thought I’d take some time today to describe my process.
There are several different products that can be used to obtain a variety of finishes depending on personal artistic preferences. I love gloss varnish. It pops the colors and values and gives a shiny, professional appearance. I have chosen products to yield that result. There are many other good products on the marketplace too.
I start with Golden Soft Gel (Gloss) and relatively soft, synthetic brushes to do an isolation coat on the acrylic paintings. Oil paintings do not require this step. I use the small container shown above to measure. The Gel gets diluted two parts Gel to one of water. I mix it up thoroughly in a styrofoam bowl.
I clean off the painting surface with a lint free rag to be sure there are no dust particles on the surface. Then each dry acrylic painting gets a thin coating, following the direction of the brushstrokes. One coat is generally enough to seal a relatively non-porous surface, such as my sealed, primed hardboards. Rag paper and matboard, even if sized before painting, generally requires 2-3 thin coats. You can tell when you’ve put on enough coats because the surface develops a soft sheen.
Many acrylic painters make the mistake of eliminating the isolation coat. That results in too much varnish penetrating through the surface of the support, and can cloud your painting. Also, it will leave an uneven finish. Putting on enough isolation coats to prevent penetration of the varnish yields a beautifully even gloss. It is well worth the additional steps! The second isolation coat can be applied several hours after the first if necessary. Be sure the first coat is dry, and not tacky.
I like the Soluvar Gloss Varnish a lot for both oil and acrylic paintings. Be sure your oil paintings are completely dry before varnishing. That will generally take 6-12 months. Acrylic paintings can be varnished as soon as the isolation coat has cured. In dry, room temperature conditions, that should only take a few days.
Soluvar varnish is removable for cleaning, non-yellowing, and gives a great sheen. I used to use Gamvar, but found I had some adhesion problems on sections of some of my oil paintings, and the varnish would bead up as it was applied. I have not had that problem with Soluvar. I use the large, natural hair brush above for paintings 12×16 and larger, and the smaller natural/synthetic blend brush for smaller works. You need to work quickly with varnish before it dries.
I pour a small amount into a ceramic pot that I reserve for varnishing. I dip the bottom section of the brush in and wipe some off on the side of the pot. Varnish your painting section by section, overlapping sections as you go. I lie them face up once done until they are tacky. Although varnish should be applied too thin to drip, I always take that precaution. It’s better to be safe than sorry!
I got inexpensive, small letter holders (above) at Staples, and each can hold five paintings upright. They are only a couple of dollars each, and about 4″ tall. I bought them a couple at a time as I needed more and more of them. Once the paintings have tacked up, I set them in the letter holders. The first photo in this post shows what the paintings look like when they are set into a series of these letter holders.
You can also see on that first image, that a fan above the paintings draws the solvent fumes out of the room while I work. I have another fan on the other side of the room, by an open door to the garage, that helps push air across the room and out. That way, my paintings will dry faster and I can simultaneously vent the fumes out of my work space.
Once the paintings are varnished, I give them a couple of days to dry fully (in dry weather) before framing them. I hope this little demo helps some of you who have been struggling with varnishing. If you’ve been avoiding it, you’ll find it’s a lot easier than you thought, and the result is well worth the little bit of time and effort. Your paintings will glow with a new life!
You can read more about varnish application techniques in this article on the Golden website.
9×12″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on Arches 100% rag hot press watercolor paper. Painting is double matted in ivory/gold to 16×20″, to fit in any standard 16×20″ frame.
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
This was painted here in the Hudson Valley, by the lake next to my studio. I was so excited about getting out to paint that I ended up getting up at 4:30, while it was still pitch black. I dawdled at the computer and then all of a sudden realized it was already getting light out! Hoping to not miss my opportunity, I raced out the door just in time to catch this dramatic lighting on the lake and in the sky.
My palette for this painting was Hansa yellow opague, Ultramarine blue, Phthalo blue, Napthol red light, and Titanium white.
8×10″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on Canson board
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
This beautiful cove sits nearly deserted beside the major road, Route 3, that runs along the shore of Mt. Desert Island as you enter from the mainland. I spent a quiet morning painting here with Gail Ribas (head of the Acadia Art Workshops) and her mom. It was a hazy, still morning, filled with serenity and subtle colors.
8×10″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on Canson board
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
Sand Beach is one of the most beautiful spots in Acadia National Park, on Mount Desert Island, Maine. We settled in for a morning of bright sunlight and strong wind—too strong to use my beach umbrella for shade. The rocky slope and blue-green water were a challenge to paint of the very best kind! I set my painting chair in the sand and used my lightweight painting box to capture the scene.
5×7″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on clear-sized Old Holland linen
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
One of the summers I was in Maine, I looked all over Little Cranberry Island for the perfect scene to paint. I finally came upon these wonderful boathouses, set in fields of Queen Anne’s Lace, just before the boat was to leave and I had to head back to Mt. Desert Island. It was too late at that point to pull out my paints and capture them en plein air, but at least I was able to get some nice photos to work from. Painting this scene brings back wonderful memories of my time there.
This linen is wonderful to paint on. I sealed it clear, and leave some of it exposed beneath the paint surface. The texture and color make me not want to paint on anything else!
My palette for this painting:
Titanium White
Titan Buff
Naples Yellow Hue
Cadmium Yellow Primrose
Pyrrole Red
Ultramarine Blue
Transparent Red Oxide
5×7″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on Fabriano Artistico 100% rag watercolor paper
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
I am painting a number of views of this charming red barn in the Platte Clove area of the Catskills. One of them will become a large painting at some point this year. I’m testing out a number of vantage points, crops of the scene, and colors on my palette on small paintings to decide which I like best. I am liking this one a lot!
8×16″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on canvas covered hardboard
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
This is the third in my series of paintings from Platte Clove in the Catskills. This road to the distant mountains, with the tall post entryway, in the strong, late day light, provided a view that was truly irresistible to paint!
6×8″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on Raymar smooth canvas panel
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
Anybody who’s taken a drive through the Platte Clove area of the Catskills understands the incredible beauty that abounds at every turn and offshoot along the road. This was one of the spots where my husband and I just had to jump out of the car to take photos! I didn’t have time to paint on location there, but I’ll be doing more from my photo references for sure, and plan to make it a point to allow time for plein air work there next time around!
8×6″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on Raymar smooth canvas panel
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
I’ve finished posting the plein air paintings from my Hudson River School trip, and am now beginning to work from the photo references I took. Many of these are deserving of large canvases. I’ll be doing these small ones now, then selecting from these scenes to do big paintings once the weather turns cold and I’m in the studio for the winter.
This charming red barn by the stream in the Platte Clove area of the Catskills yielded lots of potential paintings, so there will be more to come from different vantage points of this charming little burst of color amist the greens. The stream there was the icing on the cake!
8×10″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on sized, “Pearl” Canson board
SOLD! Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com to inquire about a similar painting.
Many Hudson River School painters, including Thomas Cole and Jasper Cropsey, painted from this spot high above North South Lake. I can see why they derived so much inspiration from this location.
Although the view faces west and offers spectacular sunsets, my husband and I opted to make the one mile climb up there in the early morning to beat the heat. I sat on a large rock slab in the shade provided by the huge Sunset Rock, and used my small, foamcore pochade box, which was a real godsend on this trip!
8×10″, Golden OPEN on Multimedia Artboard
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
When Hudson River School artist Thomas Cole painted from this very spot, he had both eastern and western views. Now the western view is overgrown, but the eastern view still goes all the way past the Hudson River to the Berkshires.
The Catskill Mountain house was a popular resort back in the early 1800s, but like most of the Catskill resorts, later fell into disrepair as tourism in the area declined. All that remain are two stone pillars leading to the site, and of course the awesome view.
My husband and I set up by this ledge overlooking the valley. I was painting and he was taking photos. What a peaceful way to end the day.
8×10″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on “Pearl” Canson board
Email Jamie at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting or a commissioned version in any size.
Hudson River School artist, Thomas Cole, painted from this very spot for his painting, Lake With Dead Trees. All those dead trees around the lakeshore are now gone, and if anything, the lake looks even more pristine than it does in his painting! North and South Lakes used to be separated by an earthen dam, and South Lake was private property. Eventually the land went to New York State. The dam was removed, and the area has since been referred to as North South Lake.
This spot was, gratefully, very easy to get to. It’s right near the Recreation Center for the Catskill Park, run by New York State. Visitors can rent kayaks, rowboats and paddle boats to use on the lakes. There are swimming beaches and campsites. Although there was plenty of activity, there was also a beautiful serenity there.
After our strenuous hike up to Kaaterskill Falls, my husband and I found a shady, quiet spot along the lakeshore to spend a quiet afternoon.
10×8″, Golden OPEN Acrylic on “Pearl” Canson Board
Please email Jamie at JamieWG@aol.com if interested.
This is the second painting that I did at Kaaterskill Falls in my quest to follow the trail of the Hudson River School painters. Just as I was completing the first, the sunlight began to hit the falls. Tempted as I was to move on to another location at that point, I decided to stay and paint the falls from the top while I had the light. There were lots of hikers climbing up at this time. I was surprised that most of the hikers didn’t go early to beat the heat like I did!
10×8″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on “Pearl” Canson board
This scene is available as a studio/commission original painting in any size/price range. Please email Jamie at JamieWG@aol.com if interested.
What is the tallest waterfall in New York State? Niagara? Nope, guess again. It’s Kaaterskill Falls!
My first opportunity to paint on our trip, following in the footsteps of the old Hudson River School painters, was after climbing a half mile up to the base of Kaaterskill Falls. You wouldn’t think one would have to climb so far uphill to get to the bottom of a waterfall, but it is indeed far up the mountain. I don’t think I would have made it without my new ultralight painting box in my backpack. I didn’t have to carry a thing, and my pack was nearly weightless. Here’s a photo of the new painting box and my palette for this painting. I’ll be posting more photos of how the box was constructed in the week to come. You can see that I’ve added an extension to it, which can hold my brushes and palette cup.
In the early morning light, most of the fall was in shadow, so I chose a scene that focused on the waterfall/cascade right at the base, where the light was strongest. By the time I was finishing up this painting, a little light was just beginning to hit other parts of the falls. I stayed to do a second painting that included the top tier of the falls as well. I’ll be posting that one tomorrow, so stay tuned!
Thomas Cole and many of the Hudson River School painters painted from this very spot. There are beautiful cascades all the way up the trail to the base, inviting a series of paintings. In fact, the beautiful Bastian Falls is right at the bottom before the trail even starts to ascend, but it’s definitely worth it to make the climb to the top to experience Kaaterskill. I’m sure I’ll be coming back here many times in the years to come to take advantage of other locations along the way.
We intentionally went the day after a heavy rain, figuring that there would be a significant increase in the amount of water coming over the falls and the drama it created. We were right! Most of the paintings and photos I’ve seen of this waterfall display a far narrower stream of water. We chose the right time to go, even if the way up was a little wet and slippery!
Edit: I just checked the image above on a different monitor and it looks a little too light, so depending on your monitor, this image below may be more accurate:
12×16″, Golden OPEN on canvas covered hardboard
Please email JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
A member of our plein air group got permission for us to paint very early in the morning at this fabulous location beneath the Palisades in Nyack, New York. It’s not long before the sun travels high enough to dim and cool the light on the cliff face. Although the sun was in and out of the clouds (mostly in), we did get some good color on the rocks. It was a fabulous location. I’d love to return in fall!
I just returned from my trip up to the Catskills, where I painted in the footsteps of the old Hudson River School painters. I visited the locations depicted in the paintings, and had an amazing trip doing my own versions from those famous spots. I’ll start posting photos and paintings from my trip beginning tomorrow. I’m still photographing the paintings and sorting through images. Please stay tuned!
8×10″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on Canson board
Email JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
What was I thinking? I sat in the blistering hot sun at Tilly Foster Farm for hours to paint this. Even with my large beach umbrella for shade, the heat was too much today. When I was finished, I walked over to where my smart friends were painting, under the shade of a huge tree! It felt 20 degrees cooler there. The great subject matter of this old truck was more than I could resist, even in the heat. The hay bales were glistening in the morning sun, and the large barrel of flowers provided the final, beautiful touch. There’s an old car there now too; I’ll have to go back to paint that one as well!
My palette for this painting:
Naples Yellow
Cadmium Yellow Primrose
Pyrrole Red
Transparent Red Oxide
Ultramarine Blue
Phthalo Blue
Jenkins Green
Titanium White