Blog | Yax Art

YAX ART

Become a Patron

Our Recent Posts

Plein Air Painting Tools

Little Cactus

Art classes

Archive

Tags

"Yellow Flower" oil on panel

Prairie grasses

Prairie grasses

West of Humphreys Peak, at the base of Kendrick is the beautiful grasses of Government Prairie in Parks Arizona, just down the road from Flagstaff. This captures yet another view of the falling horizon deep across a vast ever expanding grassland. The dew drops left on each blade of grass in the morning leaves an ocean of sky reflections like none other in nature. Below there is a video of the 12 hour painting spree compressed down to 3 minutes. The grasses & flowers really

Ancient Bull Fountain

How running taught me to paint.

How running taught me to paint.

Everyone has run long and far enough to hear the voice that says, "stop, your going to die". The initial protesting that the mind puts you through is agonizing. It tells me things like: You don't know what you are doing. Your going to hurt yourself. You can't run like this, your knee is going to snap. You just injured your back, permanently. That's not sweat, that's spinal fluid. If you can ignore that beast, and explain to your knee cap that it's actually just fine, and t

Photographing thick heavy brush Oil Paints -resolved.

Photographing thick heavy brush Oil Paints -resolved.

The Glare, oh the glare. I can't stand it when the blacks show up as nothing but reflective light. Oil paintings are so hard to photograph. I've gone through all the how to's, youtube videos, books. You name it, and everything I tried failed. Except one thing. I tried getting professional lighting with the huge expensive bulbs and the stands and the box frame with the cover. That's helpful, but then what? Where do you put them, what angle, how close etc. The internet

First Canyon painting

First Canyon painting

I went to the Grand Canyon today with all my gear. There was a problem. Let's start with a quick checklist: Easel Chair (as if I'll ever relax enough to sit) Hat Umbrella (just in case) Indian Red *finally gonna use it* Ultramarine Blue (of course). Yellow Ochre Ivory Black Burnt Sienna Cad Yellow Cad Red Palette Knife Brushes (all filbert -of course) #10, #8, #6 Paper Towels Water Bottle for me, and my water mixable paints. Medium W, Linseed oil. And here's the sticky bit

Where's the red.

Where's the red.

For my first post I thought I would go over some of the things I've learned about oil painting today. I love the science of art, how the light passes through the atmosphere, how it reflects and hits your eye. Things like frequencies that make it long distances, and those that disperse. There are so many sciences involved at once. Sciences like Geology, climatology, chemistry, so many. Psychology of course, how a color makes you feel, or why a composition or design puts us

What's in my studio

What's in my studio

Who am I kidding, I don't have a studio. Great looking images come from whatever you have on hand. I have a tote filled with layers of things I have to pull out like Russian dolls. The tote holds the art box, that holds the plastic box, that holds the brush cleaner box. What I have is a french easel with brushes, paints, and a glass palette. I don't yet hike with my setup. I'm going through a cleaving process to pear down everything to the bare essentials. I'm not ther

Ultralight Plein Air gear.

Ultralight Plein Air gear.

I will be posting more on this subject. My goal is to have the perfect light weight setup for hiking multiple days while painting. I want to be able to stop anywhere that inspires me and start to paint. And, here's the hard part, I want to be able to bring all the paintings back when I'm done. That means, not only do I need a light weight easel, but everything, including my palette, and the canvases. I'm starting to think about this now, so I need to start writing about it

Woven Grasses

1

2