Eric En Plein Air

- Welcome back to Eric En Plein Air.

I'm Eric, and today we're visiting Flat Rock Brook here in Englewood, New Jersey.

This Nature Preserve is located on 150 acres of land just two miles away from the George Washington Bridge.

I'm gonna be working with oil paint today while we learn more about this beautiful area.

Let's go paint.

(thoughtful music) I am here with Steve Wiessner who's the executive director here at Flat Rock Brook, and I'm so excited to be here.

Steve, thank you so much for your time.

- Oh, it's great.

This is very exciting, - The history of this location, everything you guys do, the preservation side, we'd love to hear more.

- It's a miracle that this place even exists.

You know, we're two miles from the George Washington Bridge here in Bergen County, bustling Bergen County, and we have 150 acres of beautiful forested land in this very urban suburban landscape.

There's so many different things that were supposed to happen.

A rail line was supposed to come right through the park.

This was, it was supposed to be a cemetery at one point.

- Really?

Wow.

- Yes, it was logged a couple times to build the railroad that went through downtown Englewood.

You know, it was used by all these different activities, camping, we had residential, there were plans to actually build this all out.

- Wow.

- And it, the only reason it didn't get built was because of the Great Depression, you know?

So they had already built a grid of, you know, streets through here and they actually cut it all out, all the- - So it was ready to go, and then it was- - Ready to go.

- Fascinating.

- And then the depression happened, all that land became kind of valueless.

- Okay.

- And it was condemned and put back into nature.

So- - Wow.

- It's kind of a miracle that this land even exists.

- Wow.

- Well, here at Quarry Pond, and the reason we call this Quarry Pond is because we're actually at the base of an old quarry here in Englewood.

This was an, actually an active quarry from about 1905 to 1925, in which they used to take the rock from the quarry and they would build the underlayment for railroads and for roads and things like that.

- Wow.

- And so we were actually dredged out this pond a few years back around 2012, and while we were digging it out, they actually found the old rails from the- - Wow.

- From the quarry.

- Yeah.

- It was hidden.

And, and you know, I got a historian to come over and they looked at the rails and they realized that there was a crushing station right by my office over there.

- Wow.

- In which they would actually take the rocks on a cart.

We found a cart in the rails in the pond, and it went to a crushing station.

They crushed the stone, and they'd take it on carts to really build the base of railroads and roads here in Bergen County, so.

- Wow.

So that really speaks more to the history of it.

I have my oil paint set up.

We've got a beautiful scene here at Flat Rock Brook, and I'm so excited to talk more about color, because color is one of those interesting topics where we could talk endlessly about it.

And there's a lot of information.

But I wanted to share some interesting tips about color that will help you if you're choosing color.

And these tips and these ideas are really universal.

So I'm working with oil paints, but if you're working with acrylic or watercolor or pastel, the same ideas apply because it's really all a topic called color theory.

For myself personally, it's an area of study where I focus on, because I'm actually colorblind and studying color is something that makes it a little bit easier to work with since the way I see is a little bit different.

So the scene we have today, we're outside, we've got this brook running.

It's a very natural kind of setting.

So the colors I'm using are a little bit more earth colors and natural colors.

So I'll go around my palette and talk about the colors that I have.

So I like to keep my white on the opposite side from my black.

And this is a pretty standard palette setup where you go from white through the spectrum of color to black on the other end.

So I have white, and the white I'd like to use for oil painting is either lead white or zinc white.

I like to have yellow to mix with my greens.

Then I have one of my favorite colors, one of the most useful colors, which is yellow ochre.

It's kind of a mustard color, but it's very useful for mixing earth greens.

And this is another earth color that is a very old color, and it's very, very useful for painting.

So burnt sienna.

The blue I have is ultramarine blue, and it's another color, very useful.

And I would recommend any palette of colors to have ultramarine blue on it.

Going down, we have a green, and the green I like to use is called viridian green.

Down below that, we have another earth color called raw umber.

And then the last on the palette that I have is ivory black.

And black is one of those colors that I use with mixtures, but by itself it can be a little bit strong and overpowering, and it can sort of take over a color mixture.

So I use it sparingly, but I do use it for other color mixtures.

When you're mixing color, it's important to think also of the color value.

So value is something I talk about a lot.

It means light and dark.

So if you have a light color value, it's something that's important to think about before you mix your color, because the value is really one of the most important parts of color.

Beyond that, you can think about how strong or muted the color is.

So if it's a very chromatic, bright, vivid color, you're going to want to mix that instead of mixing it with an earth color or a more muted color, like a black.

So let's turn our focus to the scene.

And I'm going to be painting this beautiful brook that has some water running, and it's a very natural scene, so there's not a lot of color variety, but I want to try to focus on the values and capturing those earthy, beautiful colors that we have.

So as always, I always like to start with drawing.

And drawing is something that will always be the backbone of a painting.

So I'm taking a little bit of oil, and I'm going to take just a little bit of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna mixed together.

This is kind of a standard color mixture that I use quite a bit for creating a neutral color.

And it's really useful for using when you're sketching out your composition.

So I'll thin out my color a little bit, and I'll sketch in this tree using just kind of a thinner brush.

And once I start painting, I'm gonna switch to a thicker, bigger brush.

And I'm looking at the formation of this tree and the way the root system is.

And it's really, it's really an interesting shape that I'm, I want to try to capture.

(gentle music) And the rocks are also a big part of this composition.

So I will put in these rock formations.

(gentle music) And when I'm sketching this out, I'm just thinking of shape.

I'm not worried right now about color or even value.

I'm just thinking about the shapes that I see.

And there's another tree on the left hand side that's more tilted over.

So I wanna try to capture the angle of that.

This type of painting, I really enjoy it because it's just kind of a quick, free and easy type of sketch painting.

If I wanted to, I could come back to this spot and paint more and add more detail.

Okay, so I've created basically a blueprint for my painting, and I want to now start thinking about the colors and the values.

So with always, always with painting, I think of things in terms of the big shape.

And then I start to think about detail.

Now's a good time to take a break, and we'll learn about some beautiful birds of prey that live here at the Flat Rock Brook.

So we're here with Rosetta Arrigo, who's a land steward, and she takes care of these beautiful raptors.

Rosetta, thank you so much for your time.

I'd love to hear more about these beautiful birds.

- Well, this one is Ms.

Jones.

Jones is with us, and all of our birds are with us because it cannot be released to the wild.

They're non releasable.

You can see she drop droops the right wing down.

- Oh yeah.

- She was hit by a shotgun.

- Oh, - It's a red tailed hawk.

- Red tailed hawk.

And I will show you, this is where she gets, gets her name.

- Oh, wow.

Yeah.

- When they're flying, you can frequently see the sun shining through them.

And you could see that the red in the tail.

- Yeah.

- But there are two other field marks.

They've got this band of feathers.

Along the belly, like a belt.

- Okay.

- The leading edge of their wings.

Well, you can't see it right now, is dark.

- Okay.

- Others, other birds have other, you know, wing patterns.

The young red tails, their first year, they have yellow eyes and she's got these beautiful brown eyes.

- Yeah, brown.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

And they don't have a red tail yet.

The tail is banded.

It's kind of cream colored and brown.

- Okay.

- And it's a little bit longer.

- Really?

Than it isn't a- - So it changes.

- Yeah.

- Wow.

What are the other types that you have?

- We've got a great horned owl.

- Great horned owl.

- Who is imprinted.

- And then we can hear her hooting.

- And you can hear her hooting.

- Yeah.

- Because she's jealous that I have another bird out here.

- Oh, okay.

- So this one is Tilly.

She's an eastern screech owl.

She is a red morph.

They also have gray morphs, which are more common farther west in their territories.

- Okay.

- And in the east, the red is more common.

- Really?

- And, I'm kind of biased towards the red.

- Yeah.

She's beautiful.

- She is.

But the screech owls are called screech owls because they actually make a- - A screech.

- Kind of a screeching sound.

Sounds like a horse whining.

- Okay.

- And then there's a trill at the end.

- Okay.

- She doesn't make it.

- Okay.

- I've never heard her make that sound.

Maybe she does at night, but I'm not here.

- This is true.

- So I have no idea what she does at night.

But one interesting thing about owls is that they fly silently.

- Yes.

- So they're, the leading edge of their wing is very frayed.

- Okay.

- And the wind - Takes the sound.

- Right.

- Wow.

Very interesting.

What you guys do here, taking care of these birds is amazing.

And I think as a community, it's important that we understand, you know, these are a part of the environment.

- One of our main goals with the birds is education.

They are education birds.

That's what our permits say.

- Sure.

- So we do a lot of programs here and out on site.

- Okay.

- A lot of parks, programs and things.

- So they travel.

- A lot of people come up and they say, I've never been this close to an owl, or I've never seen, you know, a- - Yeah.

It's amazing.

I mean, it's something you could see in photos, but to actually see a bird like this up close is something else.

So at this point, I am gonna switch over to a bigger brush, and I'm using a brush that's maybe about half an inch wide.

My canvas is not really that big.

So a brush about this size is plenty big enough to cover what I need to cover.

So let's take, we'll take some white, some yellow ochre.

And this is something that I always kind of think is similar to cooking.

So if you're mixing up a color, it's sort of like you're creating a recipe and then you test it.

If it's not quite right, you adjust it.

So let's take, let's take some color and put it down on the canvas and see how it looks.

And we can always change it.

A little too yellow.

So I'll take a little bit of some other colors just to mix into it.

And the landscape like this has a lot of texture and variety.

So that's something to think about too when you're painting, just try to build in the textures or the variety of the water, the feeling of the water flowing.

Think about it while you're painting and it will help you paint.

And there's a little bit of an orange color in the landscape from the trees, from the leaves that have fallen.

So I can create kind of an earthy orange by mixing my burnt sienna and yellow ochre to create that earthy tone.

(gentle music) I'm going to create a different color mixture for the rocks, because the rocks have sort of their own color palette.

But before I put that in, I want to cover a little bit more of this river bank.

(gentle music) And the, I think one of the most important things about painting is just putting something down and seeing how it looks.

Test it.

You'll, you can never really quite tell until it's on the canvas, but once it's on the canvas, you can always make adjustments.

So at this point, I am going to switch to a different brush.

And this brush is a little bit smaller, but it will give me a little bit more freedom to get more specific shapes with the rocks.

(gentle music) And the shape of these rocks is really specific.

And I enjoy trying to get, capture the shape of these rocks as accurately as I can.

(gentle music) And there's a rock down below that's a little bit lighter in value, and I want to try to capture that value as accurately as I can.

(gentle music) And it's good to look at, when you're looking at a landscape, try to understand where the brightest parts are, where the lightest values are, and where the darkest values are.

(gentle music) And the rocks, I'm using quite a bit of what's called impasto.

So impasto means thick paint.

And for areas like rocks or anywhere where there's a real structure, thicker paint will actually help capture the feeling of the rock.

(gentle music) Okay.

So the next step is I'm going to add some water, and then I'm going to go back and work on the trees because there are some beautiful trees in the landscape that I really want to capture the feeling of.

So I'll switch back to my big brush.

And the water is pretty dark in value.

So I will create sort of a darker value color mixture for it.

I'll use a touch of black.

This is a good use of raw umber because raw umber is a really good sort of murky color for water and things like that.

Oh, it's a little too brown.

I'm going to add a touch of blue.

(gentle music) That looks better.

It's pretty dark, but the water is very dark.

So I want to kind of be aware of that when I'm working.

(gentle music) And you can see the painting is starting to kind of fill out now.

we're getting started to get more coverage and we can get a little bit more specific with the paint.

Just a general rule of thumb is always go from general to specific.

And then there is an area where the water's flowing over the rocks and creating sort of a ripple.

So I'm going to put down a color and then I'm going to go over top of it with some white to create that kind of rushing water effect.

So we'll take some white, and although I say it's white water, it's really more of a grayish tone.

So I will have to subdue it just a little bit.

(gentle music) And I'm just using the point of the brush to create this feeling.

With areas like this, it can be easy to kind of overdo it, but sometimes if you just leave it as a single brush stroke, it'll actually create that feeling more.

Now's a good time, we'll take a break and we're gonna speak with a photographer who draws inspiration from here at the Flat Rock Brook.

James, I'd love to hear more about your work and what motivates you - As an educator, I really strive to make sure I bring the world to my students and to my community as well.

- Okay.

- And you know, even though I have left the classroom officially, I still tie in education with my photography.

- Okay.

- And what's nice about it is the fact that we in a sense, we become this like a digital storyteller in a way.

You know, giving a voice to the voiceless.

- Okay.

- And in this case, birds, nature, wildlife.

And especially when you have these organizations that give such a, you know, you know- - They do a lot of good- - They give a 1000% of their time, their effort, their blood, their sweat, literally.

- It's important.

- Yeah, absolutely.

So, and then I give them a voice, you know, a platform to help what they're doing.

Yeah.

I'm happy to do this.

- Being in natural settings, I know for myself as a painter, it's always inspiring.

Is there a particular subject?

Is there something that really inspires you especially?

- Yeah.

Well, you know what?

Truth be told, listen.

I see, you know, I'm not prejudiced when it comes to any animals out there or wildlife, but my heart really belongs to the birds.

- [Host] Okay.

So the birds we saw, definitely.

- Absolutely.

Yeah.

The Tilly, Josephine, Jonesy.

Yeah.

They're just absolutely amazing.

But when it comes to warblers, shorebirds, I do a lot of traveling as well.

- Oh, okay.

- And I also try to bring that to, you know, those stories to the people who've never been to those areas and never seen these birds.

- Right, right.

Are there any tips you could maybe share for taking good photographs or anything that maybe people can learn about that would help their own photography?

- [James] Absolutely.

The first thing I always tell everybody, patience.

- Patience.

- Patience, patience, patience, that is key.

So many people just wanna get the shot and leave and that's it.

But if you have a little bit of patience- - Yeah.

- You'll be able to get the shot that you love.

- Oh, okay.

- And that's a big difference between that.

- Yeah.

So you gotta wait for it a little bit sometimes.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Listen, there was a turtle actually in this pond.

- Yeah.

- And it took me 45 minutes to get that shot.

- Wow.

- I sat crouched down.

- Just patient.

Yeah.

- Just waiting for that turtle to get onto that particular log.

- Yeah.

- 'Cause I knew it would get there, eventually.

- Yeah.

- But I waited there with my camera in hand, and when it finally did, the light was on it perfectly.

I got the reflection, and then that's when I got it.

There are days where I'm focusing on birds.

There are days I'm focusing on insects, and then there are days I'd go in there and say, what's gonna inspire me?

- Okay.

- And so you have to be open to it.

If you're gonna go in with a set mind and that's it, you'll end up losing out.

- You know, James, thank you so much for your time.

You know, I love being able to relate with someone and see the world in a different way.

And those tips really help.

So I'm excited to now kind of explore more and think about things in a different way.

- Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And thank you again.

- So I'm gonna go back now and I'm actually going to focus on the shapes of these trees and then get more of a feeling of the full composition because the trees are an important vertical element in the composition.

(gentle music) With a painting, it's good to have a, a variety of lights, darks, and middle values that really create more of a harmony within the painting.

(gentle music) And I'm just trying to kind of simplify it.

There's a lot of variety here and a lot of detail.

But I don't have to put in every little tree and branch.

I can kind of focus and be selective about what I want to show.

I'm using kind of a smaller brush now, just a brush so that I can get some more details and be a little bit more specific with my brush work.

(gentle music) And you'll reach a point in the painting where it becomes a little bit more enjoyable because most of the work of covering the canvas is accomplished.

And then you can just kind of have fun with it.

And I like to work on a toned canvas.

So the tone of the canvas that I had was sort of like a light kind of green, but it gives me something that I can work on top of and can fill in some spots so I don't have to cover every square inch of my canvas.

(gentle music) And when you're working on a scene like this, just trying to enjoy it and enjoy the moment and trying to find just the beauty of the surrounding that you're painting is a big part of what makes painting enjoyable.

(gentle music) I am adding some more variety to the rocks on the right hand side, and then I'm gonna fill in a little bit more in the middle area.

And I think that will be a good, good painting to capture this scene.

(gentle music) And I'm really interested in the way this roots are growing and I could definitely spend more time getting it more defined, but I will try to simplify it as best as I can and just kind of create the feeling of those roots.

And down in the water, I think this is what we'll finish on, is some reflections of what's above.

So I will add a little bit more variety to that, and then we'll take a look at it.

And I think that will be good.

(gentle music) Whenever you're painting water, always think about the reflective quality.

It's really like a mirror that reflects what's above it.

Okay.

I've reached the point where I've really captured the essence of what I've wanted to paint, these trees, this root, this flowing water.

I enjoyed being here in this environment.

And the, these types of paintings, to me, are always really about representing nature as well as I can, and showing the variety and the beauty of each scene.

- We have a very simple mission.

Now, it's a dual mission, is to preserve the 150 acres that we manage and to provide environmental education to the community.

So the way that we do the education part is we have field trips coming in the spring and the fall.

Almost every day buses are coming through here.

- That's great.

- Kids are going out in the woods learning about nature, you know, why does the forest do, you know, do certain things why is the certain wildlife, you know, they use camouflage or, or they use adaptations to survive in nature.

So we teach that.

And the only, the best way we call this a living laboratory because this is the classroom for us, is this beautiful woods.

And kids tend to learn better when they're actually hands on in nature.

- Yeah, definitely.

And engaged with it.

- Definitely.

Definitely, for sure.

We try to bring community to our place, to really kind of enjoy this beautiful kind of oasis in nature here.

So our job as an organization and a staff is to maintain this beauty, to really share it with the community.

- I hope you enjoyed today's visit to Flat Rock Brook here in Englewood, New Jersey.

Natural areas like this are inspiring places to paint, but also to find peace.

It's important to find time to reconnect with nature by visiting areas like this.

I'm Eric, and I'll see you next time "En Plein Air".

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Visit us online at EricEnPleinAir.com to learn more about our program, workshops with Eric, or to purchase original works of Art and prints featured in this series.

Thank you.

(gentle music)