2020-06-01_The_Artists_Magazine

62 Artists Magazine June 2020

Gilkerson has avoided the use of solvents for more than

20 years. “Teaching a course with 18 or 20 students all

using solvents led to a high degree of fumes in the studio,”

she says. “I got rid of the solvents and substituted walnut

oil as the cleanup material.” When painting outdoors,

however, if the temperature is low enough for paint to

stiffen, she’ll use a solvent to make the paint workable.

Working the Landscape

Before beginning a painting, Gilkerson likes to spend

considerable time observing. “I prefer to concentrate in

a way that allows me to become very familiar with the

place, almost like falling in love.” She often returns to the

same spot under different weather conditions and at dif-

ferent times of the day and year to see the change of light

(see Two for One, page 61). Crucial to this process are her

sketchbooks. She studies the landscape through a series

of thumbnail sketches, experimenting with value ranges

and designs. Once she has settled on a design, she creates

a two-value notan for maximum impact and then copies

it onto her canvas, using the scene’s dominant shadow

color for the dark value. She then divides the notan into

a half dozen simple shapes. For each shape, she identifies

a unique color in the scene before her—but she doesn’t

paint anything just yet.

Instead, she first mixes colors. Unlike many oil paint-

ers who mix on the fly, Gilkerson considers mixing color

a distinct step in the planning process. After identifying the

color of a shape, she mixes that color, as well as a lighter

and darker version of it. She does this for all the shapes,

which establishes her palette. “One of the things I’ve found

in plein air painting is that, while the value pattern will

3.Whenworkingenpleinair,Gilkersonusesonlypaletteknivesfor

applications,whichalsoquickenedthecompletionofSummerGreens

(oilonpanel,6x6).

FAST WORK

1. Afterselectinghersubject,
   Gilkersontonedhersurfacewith
   yellowochreandthencreated
   a notan(two-valuesketch)ofthe
   majorshapes.

2.Gilkersonthendividedthe

notanintoa fewcolorshapes.The

actualpaintingprogressedquickly

becauseshe’dmixedallofhercolors

inadvance.