Inspired by Dutch and Flemish Still Lifes

Considering that he didn't begin painting in watercolor until six years ago, and that he continues to spend three-fourths of his time as a member of a major architectural firm, Tennessee artist Laurin McCracken has achieved remarkable success with his artwork. This year alone, his paintings have been included in
competitive exhibitions organized by the American Watercolor Society (where he won the Hardie Gramatky Memorial Award), the Western Colorado Watercolor Society, the Watercolor Society of Alabama, Watercolor Art Society—Houston, the Texas Watercolor Society, the California Watercolor Association, the Northwest Watercolor Society, and the Georgia Watercolor Society. And as if that weren't enough, this coming November he opens an exhibition of several dozen paintings at the J. Proctor Gallery in Seaside, Florida.

To account for this remarkable success, one can point to McCracken's natural talent, which was evident in his youth and nurtured by his educational and professional development. But his exposure to watercolor and juried art competitions came later in life. No doubt his quick, focused, and organized mind is his most notable attribute. His example can serve others who are willing to learn from the set of guiding principles McCracken follows in his approach to watercolor.

• Set goals. McCracken can tell you as much about the paintings he expects to create over the next three months as the ones he has completed. He spends a great deal of time looking at paintings in museums and books, thinking about the qualities he would like to incorporate in his own work, and planning a way to achieve that objective.

• Learn quickly. Because of his demanding career as an architect, McCracken has only been able to take a few art courses in each of the cities where his job has sent him. He first studied watercolor with Gwen Bragg at the Art League School at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia; and later received advice from Alain Gavin at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. He was always an attentive, eager student willing to spend long hours at home practicing what he had learned and reading tips in art magazines and books.

• Work hard. As is evident by the reproductions of paintings in this article, McCracken is not afraid to invest time and patience in each of his paintings. His work as an architect predisposes him to that kind of detailing, but he also sees it as a way of creating paintings that stand out from a crowded field of contemporary artwork.

• Strive for excellence.
Because his goals are, in part, based on the paintings he studied in major art museums around the world, McCracken's mind is filled with some of the greatest images from the history of art. It's not surprising, therefore, that he is unsatisfied with paintings of average quality.

Selecting Materials
McCracken's choice of painting supplies and procedures is uncomplicated, but it has proven its merits through years of trial and error. He works on Fabriano Uno soft-pressed paper because he likes the fact that it is harder than cold-pressed papers but softer than hot-pressed papers, and it has a bright white surface. He uses primarily Winsor & Newton Series 7 kolinsky sable round brushes in sizes 1, 2, and 3, but he also has several larger brushes available (up to size 10) in the Winsor & Newton series for painting broad washes. His paints are almost exclusively Winsor & Newton.

Setting Up a Still Life
Even though he visualizes his still-life arrangements months in advance, it still takes McCracken several days of moving the objects around on a table and changing the lighting to arrive at the most effective composition of forms. Those lights are 75-watt color-corrected incandescent bulbs surrounded by 12" reflectors. "I don't need a strong spotlight because the digital camera can record a wide range of tones, especially in the lower register," he explains.

Taking Digital Photographs
Once the arrangement is set, McCracken shoots between 100 and 150 photographs of the overall arrangement and individual areas of the still life using an Olympus C-3040 digital camera with a 3.3 megapixel resolution, as well as a Canon EOS Digital Rebel single-lens-reflex camera with a 6.3 megapixel resolution. "I keep making subtle adjustments as I take the photographs," he says. "I may add or subtract flowers or pieces of silver, I may simplify the background, or I may move the objects further apart. I want to make sure I have recorded every possible alteration that might improve the painting."

Manipulating Images in a Computer
Selecting the best photographs from among all the digital images, McCracken works on the images in his computer, adjusting the colors, values, and contrasts to arrive at the best record of his still life. If necessary, he can combine several different photographs, eliminate details, or add color enhancements in the computerized image.

Using Large, Detailed Prints
Once McCracken is satisfied with the image he has resolved in his computer, he makes several large prints of the entire still life, as well as prints of individual details. "I use an Epson 1280 printer that can print on sheets of paper up to 13" x 19"," he explains. "I can isolate details, change the level of contrast, and make any other adjustment that helps me clearly see what is going on in each area of the picture."

Making Compositional Studies
In addition to preparing all of his mechanical reference material, McCracken creates small value studies with graphite on paper. "There is still no substitute for a simple sketch that identifies the basic arrangement of shapes and values," he comments. "It's the best way to determine how to build layers of overlapping transparent colors without losing the focus of the composition. I make a series of such drawings on tracing paper until I'm sure I know how the painting will progress."

Drawing the Image
In order to get the photographic image onto the watercolor paper, McCracken has a local photo processor convert his digital images into 35-mm slides he can project onto the surface of a sheet of paper that has been soaked, stretched on a board, and allowed to dry. Using a 2H graphite mechanical pencil, he spends as much as four hours tracing the outlines of the major shapes and details. Then, using one of the large-format photographs, he makes corrections and adds details to the drawing. "I avoid making more erasures than are absolutely necessary so I minimize the changes to the surface of the paper," he explains. "I'm always careful to lay a piece of paper under the ball of my hand to avoid transferring oils from my skin. Even as the drawing process is under way, I may still make changes in the still-life arrangement."

Masking Large and Small Shapes
Because of the complex arrangement of hard edges—reflective surfaces in McCracken's paintings of crystal and silver objects—he relies on a few different products to mask out areas of the watercolor paper. "I paint Incredible White Mask liquid frisket into large- and medium-sized shapes while the paper is still unpainted," he explains. "I never apply the frisket over painted shapes because some of the pigment will invariably come off when I remove the dried masking fluid. For fine lines or small details, I use a Masque Pen that has a small nib like a fine technical pen. The minute highlights such as those in the bracelet in the painting Ottoman Still Life were preserved with that pen.

"For large areas I use acid-free drawing tape," McCracken continues. "Drafting tape doesn't leave a residue on the paper and is thin enough to read the pencil lines through it so that details and edges can be cut with an X-acto knife. Sometimes I mask each object in the painting with tracing paper and masking tape before I paint the background, especially if the background includes draped fabric that must be painted with rather wet mixtures that can flow beyond the defined edges of the background."

Painting Difficult Areas First
McCracken begins painting the area of a watercolor he considers to be the most challenging. "Unless there is a reason why one shape needs to be painted before another, I prefer to tackle the toughest parts of a painting first," he comments. "If I get that right, then I know it's worth my time to complete the rest of the painting. If I'm not happy with it, I'll start over again."

Anchoring a Dark Background
To capture the same sense of drama he admires in Dutch and Flemish still lifes, McCracken often paints dark backgrounds behind the silver and crystal objects in his displays. Experience has proven that the best way to develop that rich, dark tone is to first apply a light wash of a color—usually a magenta or blue to set the overall feeling—and then to apply one layer of what he calls a "soup." "I found that building up three or more layers of dark color invites the risk of having the gum arabic binder in the paint rise to the surface and create a distracting sheen," he explains. "It's better to paint one wash of a dark soup from a combination of Prussian blue, Holbein's permanent violet, permanent alizarin crimson, and some light red. The exact mixture depends on whether I want a predominantly warm or cool tone to the resulting color. I then float that onto the paper, relying on the frisket to confine the dark tone." He paints some of that same mixture in areas of the glass crystal or silver since some of the background will be visible through the facets of glass or reflected off the polished metal.

Looking for Hidden Colors
Painting silver and crystal calls for a palette of colors that includes a wide range of grays and small amounts of colors that may be reflected by the angular surfaces. "My most basic gray is made from a combination of cerulean blue and light red," McCracken explains, "but I use many other combinations to create a richness in a painting. I also add small amounts of pure blue, red, yellow, pink, and green depending on whether the glass or metal is reflecting the flowers, leaves, or other objects."

Painting From Shape to Shape
McCracken usually completes the painting of each still-life object before moving on to another, using sheets of tissue paper to protect the sections that aren't being painted. He keeps his paints fluid so the colors will remain transparent but intense, and he tries to work from light to dark values.

Balancing With Washes
Toward the end of the painting process McCracken may find it necessary to apply a light wash of color over the background or several of the middle-ground shapes in order to maintain the sense of depth and spatial division in the painting. "In the painting Glamis Castle Rose, for example, I applied a light, transparent wash of warm gray over the two background objects to push them further back in space so the roses and teapot would come further forward," he explains, adding that it is essential to use a pure transparent color for this kind of wash.

Adding Finishing Touches
After lifting all the masking material from the painting surface, McCracken tones many of those shapes with light washes of color, leaving just a few sparkling highlights of pure white paper. He also intensifies some of the dark accents within the crystal and silver to add one final bit of drama to the painting.

The Artist's Background
McCracken studied architecture and urban planning at Auburn University in Alabama, Rice University in Houston, and Princeton University in New Jersey, and served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He has been associated with architectural firms in Chicago, Washington, DC, Dallas, and Memphis, and he has served in various leadership positions with the Society of Marketing Professional Services, the International Association of Corporate Real Estate Executives, and the Urban Land Institute. He is currently the Marketing and Strategies officer for Looney Ricks Kiss Architects in Memphis; and his paintings are shown by www.art4business.com, Jean Efron Art Consultants in Washington, DC, and the J. Proctor Gallery in Seaside, Florida. For more information, visit McCracken's website: www.lauringallery.com.