Highlight: Manganese Blue

It's a well-known fact that manganese blue is, or at least almost is, an extinct species of pigment.

At the time of this writing, it's still available in dry pigment form from Cornelissen Pigments*, and in watercolor tube by manufacturer Old Holland* at some online retailers and in pan form from the boutique paint maker Pen Holder Arts*(at least occasionally).

Side by side swatch of boutique vs large manufacturer

For interest's sake I got my hands on both available brands of genuine manganese blue and compared them. I found they were similar except for pigment load, that is to say that you need far more of Old Holland's manganese blue paint to approach what Penholder Art's can achieve with so much less. Another point of interest is that Penholder's is a pan paint but much more easily wet and disolved in water than the tube paint from Old Holland, which struck me a touch odd.

As a side note: I recently discovered that one online retailer, Jackson's*, seemed to no longer carry the PB33-only variety of Old Holland's, replacing it with a Manganese Blue Extra(a multi-pigment paint). After communicating with interested parties on the subject, I found that Old Holland ran out of PB33 more than a year ago, and consequently, remaining retail stock is running out.

Though rare, this pigment is widely regarded for its hue, granulation, and low tinting characteristics. Handprint's author said of it "This crystalline synthetic inorganic pigment, a near perfect cyan hue, imparts a lyrically coarse texture even after extensive milling. Though never a popular paint, I feel this is of the loveliest blue pigments ever used in watercolors: it imparts a unique poetry to sky, water or landscape greens when used in diluted mixtures that put its granulation on display. "

4x6in Plein air piece from Union Street Railroad Bridge in Salem, OR - Steven Drenning Jr

The above piece illustrates PB33 in all it's glory. Used singularly and only in the sky here, you can see it's lovely granular quality starkly contrasting the quite similarly hued but non-granulating PB17 of Holbein's Irodori Antique Turquoise in the water below. 

*links may break

Tonalism - Just a Taste

'Cloud Kissed Land' - roughly 4x10in
My 1st attempt at painting en plein air in the vein of tonalism

It was fairly recently that I came to appreciate tonalism. I'm not exactly sure where I found out about it, but right away I recognized it's bearing a similatude to the beloved impressionist movement, and very much liked it's calmer treatment of subject matter. Actually, it immediately reminded me of the ambient music genre(Brian Eno, Aphex Twin, etc...), insofar as that the relaxed and studied pieces did not seem to vie for attention, but could be engaged thoroughly by the viewer for their poetic treatment of subject or appreciated in the background by their lending of mood to a room.

Tonalism was a movement of the late 1800s into the early 1900s that was characterized (generally) by it's amalgamated synthesis of landscapes rather than site specific rendition, translated through a mid/low tone and value palette in the diffusion of atmosphere rather than with a strong emphasis on detail.

Blogs that go over this subject exceedingly well include:

Trio Fine Art

Principle Art Talk

Stapleton Kearns

One contemporary tonalist I appreciate is:

Michael McCarthy

And a useful list of artists in the movement:

Artcyclopedia

Zion Adventures

I feel like eventually travel bug hits everybody a little bit, and having a bit of time off to myself from working on a factory boat up north, I found it caught me rather strong this season and it only took one of those pretty pictures of Zion somewhere online to convince me that a plein air expedition was in order :-)

I was a touch saddle sore after that ride

So nearly 500 miles from San Diego later I found myself ascending the East Rim of Zion surrounded by some of the most beautiful and expansive terrain I've ever seen.

Just a bit above the trail head

I'm sure there are words to do all that came before my eyes justice, but without descovering them, I'd rather only offer up praise to God for the incredible things given in nature for which we've been opportuned to experience :-)

Protip: avoid even a slight incline when setting up your tent :-P

Once I reached the top, I looked about some, took picture and set up camp for the night. Morning greeted me with the new found knowledge that I had been the only camper up on the ridge that evening and I was free to find the best spot I could to sit for some plein air painting.

My simple painting setup cliffside 

I tried to choose a discreet place to the side of the photo-op spots while still having as best a view as I could, and was shielded from too much attention by being just a bit below the main cliff area. Here and there I was afforded the opportunity to chat with curious onlookers, which I found to be a most welcomed experience as I was on a solo trip, and a few people even offered to snap a picture for me :-)

Pre-painting sketch

Observation Point in Zion

Simply marvelous

As it turns out, while my goal was to paint some plein air pieces, nothing I did turned out, and only later did I put anything to paper worth sharing :-P I suppose it's good to remember not every attempt will be a resounding success! However, it was still a trip of a lifetime and I wouldn't trade it for what would've been a home stay otherwise :-)

Metamerism

Metamerism -
"...the capability of the human eye to recognize two colors as the same under a certain light though they are recognized as different colors under other light."

More from Anticschcolar(pdf link)*

*links may break