Hello, I'm Buck Paulson, and I want you to notice something about my signature on that pochade.

And I want you to stay tuned because I'm going to show you something priceless.

[piano plays; bright in tone] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ So what's priceless about the signature?

I will show you.

Look at the board on the easel.

I have 3 signatures-- BP, B. Paulson, Buck Paulson.

And my thought was I have all these paintings and sometime somebody is going to come in and say we can't afford that one.

Do have one that isn't quite as good?

So I say okay, I'll put BP on the one that isn't quite as good and B. Paulson on the next one, and Buck Paulson on the premium one.

And then what happened was, I was afraid to look you in the eye there.

What happened was, my teacher says,"Every painting that you paint is your best."

Norm Cromwell said somewhat the same thing.

He said every painting is an accumulation of your total life's education and experience as you do it so you do the very best you can.

You'll notice back on the pochade it says "BP."

Let me just show you one thing further over here again.

On doing the BP, this is the way I do it now.

B for Buck my great mentor and friend.

Then I put the P down through it so we're combined, we're connected.

If I want to write out Buck Paulson, it will still have that combination right there-- the little brand, the little monogram.

That will be that.

There was a temptation once just in jest to say okay, I need just a small little signature.

If I put this down... that's Buck, isn't it?"

But that's the way we'll do it.

So do the best you can, and the signature says yes, I'm proud of it.

This is where we arrived at with our acrylics.

And now we are going to go ahead with the oils over it.

You can see again I have the pochade to look at.

That's the only thing I have to look at besides the floor director.

I don't have any finished painting.

We're goin' on faith.

We're goin' on faith!

Do you here me?

Are you there?

Yes!

Ok, let's go ahead.

We'll start with putting on some walnut oil, walnut oil.

As we said previously... previously on, "Buck."

We'll just splash a little bit around and then push it around with a paper towel.

I very seldom ever leave a lot of oil on.

If I need to have extra oil, I more than likely will add it as I pick the paint up from the palette.

Now I need to make a decision, and the decision is, how do we do it?

[laughs] Do want to have a Saturday night bath?

The thing about a Saturday night bath it kinda brings everything together just a little softer, and it tones it down just a little bit, and you can work into it.

And often because of putting that Saturday night bath on, there's certain areas that you don't have to touch any further.

So we'll do that.

I've used Van Dyke Brown.

I think what I'll do this time is, let's take some Alizarin Crimson.

Yes, Alizarin Crimson.

And the thing that I will find good about this is, we're doing a fall scene.

This time is one of those when I put a little extra oil in the Alizarin on the palette.

So when I put this on, it'll be a judging time whether I need to wipe any off or smooth it around a little bit.

So what's my thoughts?

What's my judgement time?

Yes, I'll push this around, then I'll work with it a little bit.

Isn't that scary?

When I teach a workshop, they say, [gasps] uhhh!

But then you wipe a little bit and you then you work into it, they say "Oh Buck, we love you, and we love your technique."

Okay wiping slightly.

When I do this, it's more to even it out and then decide where you want extra.

Boy, if we were to do a sunset-- can't you already see the glow on those distant hills?

Oh, yes!

But we might have to change that a little bit.

Ah, this is so wonderful!

And the wonderful thing was I didn't know I was going to use you, Alizarin.

I didn't know that, so I had to wait.

I almost feel like I've got a promoter in there, and they're saying Buck, now put your right hand up.

Now Buck, put your right hand-- it doesn't go that way.

But I'll tell you, painting with inspiration is so good.

But let me say this, you don't sit there and say well I don't feel like painting today because I'm not inspired.

Baloney!

Get up there and start painting, and the inspiration will come!

You don't wait for it!

This time it came just at the right time.

The easiest way will be to start in the middle of the sky.

It's kind of like a Perry Mason thing, you know, I have the right to recall after I go away from that.

So we'll see if we have to bring something back to that.

I'm sure we will because we'll want to emphasize the middle a little bit more.

Okay, I have on the palette-- I mixed a little bit already.

This is Yellow Ochre and white then just a touch of Thalo Blue in it.

Now you watch this jump.

And what I mean by that, I mean it's going to be a big contrast.

Wipe off the brush, so I put very little on.

I see how light it is, and then I'll pull this around.

Such control.

As I do this, the edges are softening into the Saturday night bath.

And I've mentioned before being raised on a farm, and we used to have Saturday night baths in the old tub.

Oh it was so great when you'd draw your straw, and you were the first one!

I know one family had 10 kids, and the last one, he felt spiritual.

He could walk on water.

Oh gosh, we're lucky to have what we have these days!

Alright, I'll blend this down towards the horizon not totally destroying that pinkish hue that has arrived because of the Alizarin Crimson.

Often you don't make the judgement right now as far as covering it all.

I still have the right to come back and put more on.

I'll find out as I work other places if there's too much Alizarin showing.

And if there is, then that'll be the time to remove it a little bit by pushing the sky color or the tree color into it a little bit more.

Now like before on the previous time, we're going to go and put some light in the sky, but we certainly have to change.

What is so surprising, and it's a good thing to remember is: when your putting light open in the sky in a landscape, it's much lighter.

You have to go a little darker when you put it inside what's showing through, because the contrast of the leaves will make it just pop out too much if you don't take it down a little bit.

So we'll take it down a little bit, adding some more Thalo Blue into the mixture that we just placed on.

I'll hold this up where I want it to go.

Yes, I think that will be good.

Although, I'm going to put a little bit of Alizarin Crimson into it.

It'll gray it slightly, not quite as raw blue.

I'll clean the fan brush.

Notice how I clean the fan brush.

Dip into the walnut oil, touch it on the edge a little bit, wipe it off on a towel so you keep your walnut oil quite clean.

And the neatest thing is the paints, the vehicle in it is walnut oil.

So it's very compatible.

It is not the "run down to the store and get some."

Use good equipment, it will respond and work for you.

Oh, that color is just right.

Adding a little of the Alizarin Crimson to it sure helps it be right.

And as we suggested last time too in the acrylic stage, is that you make some of these, almost a little more than you want, so that when you come with the foliage you can sort of cut into them a little bit.

It could work the other way too.

You could say okay, after you put the foliage on, we'll wipe a little bit of the foliage and just work a little bit of the sky holes in.

We have a little bit at the top.

We have a little bit over on this side.

Don't you like this already?

I just love it!

It just feels good!

And paintings aren't always like that.

Sometimes you have to really labor on them, and it's after a long while it looks like you've won the battle.

There was one artist who said that every painting he ever painted at one time was a failure.

But there are paintings I find that sometimes at every stage they're a winner, and that'll happen too.

It's potpourri!

You just do your best and see what's going to happen.

And I guess what I'm saying at the same time is, you are the artist.

The painting isn't a servant.

It kind of tells you what to do.

It tells you what to do.

And if you listen and not-- I'm going to put 13 of these in there, and I'm going to do this.

Go with an open mind, and you might put in 14 or what have you.

Now what I want to do is to put a little color on that distant hill.

They're ready to be done.

This is Turquoise Blue.

I think I've been calling you Thalo Blue so that's Turquoise Blue.

Likewise, let's put a touch of Alizarin Crimson in that and a little more white so you can see the difference.

It just grays it a little bit with the Alizarin Crimson.

I'm kind of jumping around on the palette.

I hope that's not too hard to follow.

Notice how it's a little lighter than what was there before.

What was there before felt good at the time, but it's too much contrast.

It would take away from the empty stuff above.

You have very soft edges.

You have the character on the edges, but there's not much happening down inside.

If I leave just a little here and there, you can see some through.

It makes it so it's not just a flat wall being painted.

There's a little bit showing over here.

I'll need a little extra paint.

Ah, this is gorgeous!

Okay, I think the next think to do would be to go with the greens.

This would be the foliage.

You'll find that this isn't going to change much from what's there.

The change more so when I look at the pochade, and I'll point out, is that some of this kind of golden tone is there.

So I'll put a little greenish tone on, and then I'll put some of the orangy and Raw Sienna look into more the middle part, so we get a true fall season.

So here is Sap Green.

Do we want anything else besides Sap Green?

Let's take a little Umber-- did you come along?

Oh, Van Dyke Brown!

Okay Van Dyke Brown and Sap Green.

You're a long ways away, but sometimes when you get these people acquainted, that's good.

Now I'm going to reach over and get a little bit of oil, because I noticed that this was just a little stiff.

Sometimes your paint will be the reason that you need some oil, the stiffness from paint being left out overnight or something.

There may be several reasons why it is a little stiffer.

Okay, I'm pushing this around, and I don't mind as I touch into the sky, I touch into the edges, and it kind of softens slightly.

I do like some of the darks there, so we'll try to retain those.

And those I'm pointing out, those are some of the darks that I'm saving.

We'll come over this way, and we'll sort of jump across the street.

We don't have much over on the left side.

I think we'll put a little Alizarin in there too.

Alizarin and Sap Green and Van Dyke Brown, about equal.

This is quite dark.

I wipe the brush a lot, so once I put some on I just don't it too solid so I'll keep wiping the brush and move around what's there.

I need a little more down below so picking up the same thing, coming there, hitting the corners of the canvas.

Ooo, I just love the way that that looks.

Let's put a little bit of this through here.

Not too much because I do like that reddish feeling which is felt.

You know, I can feel warmth-- the painting yeah, but myself, just the enthusiasm for this subject, to watch it develop.

There's no finished painting.

All we have is a pochade.

The pochade is beautiful, but it's the inspiration to try and match it and go a little higher, at least enlarge it.

Now we're going to take some color and go in the middle of the canvas.

Let's see.

I have some Yellow Ochre, and let's put a little Alizarin Crimson with that.

Just a little more.

There we are.

And I'll put this ever so gently, just touching that.

What it does it gives a nice golden tone up there, and it softens a little bit of the branches.

And I'm adding more.

I'll let some of this come down, cross a branch into the sky so it becomes the edge of the foliage against the sky rather than the green.

I do like some of the green, and that will happen over on the right side so I'll kind of go right by that at the moment.

Over in the right side, we have a nice spot right here that needs to be quite golden.

And then we'll come back and touch some of the branches so I might have lost a few branches in doing what I just did.

Come over on the left side.

This is down below.

You recall what we also said last week, how you have that nice movement through here and the grace of this.

So in one respect you're kind of losing a little bit what we had.

You say well I liked it better before you started doing what you're doing.

We haven't come with the character in there that will bring back some of those nice silhouette trees because they are the real strength of the picture, that tree against the sky.

Let's come with a little bit of yellow and green.

This is Sap Green.

I'm picking this up.

Sap Green and we'll use a little bit-- I was going to say yellow, but let's change our minds and go to the orangy color.

The yellow, I think, would be just a little too raw.

See this is with orange, and this is plenty colorful.

You have a little green showing in the fall.

They haven't all said goodbye yet.

And a little bit on this side.

I was telling somebody, I don't know if I pronounce it correctly, Sudoku or Saduko.

I love that aspect of logic and so on.

And I find that when I come to a painting that I use those same principles.

You say okay, a little bit over here, then logically, logically, we'll put some over here.

Logically we'll come with a little up above.

So I love things that cause you to think.

I'm going to add just a little Alizarin up there too.

I put some of the greenish tone, but I need to soften it down just a little bit so it stays in its place.

It doesn't scream and say, "look at me!"

Okay, I want to go a little further by putting some of the light down in the stream.

Let's see, what do we do.

Let's take first this Sap Green and Van Dyke Brown and a little Alizarin, and we'll come right in close there so we're narrowing the opening of the water just a little bit because a lot of this is being shaded by the trees and that above it.

Oh, I have a nice brush, a mop brush!

Now watch what I do with this.

First, we'll just kind of blend with it.

How often I repeat saying that the difference between a professional and an amateur is the blending ability.

And it's not ability, just the knowledge I need to do it, the willingness to do it.

That's not the only difference, but sometimes it's just that subtle.

What a difference in quality if you blend.

Okay, let's go ahead with a little water lightening.

That sounds-- did you say that right Buck?

"Water lightening."

Lightening in the water.

Okay, I have a strong light Yellow Ochre and white.

Strong light right there... and a strong light right down there.

See, where we narrowed this little pond, and then we're having just a nice quiet spot right there.

I'll go pure white in that spot because it's the closest to us, and I really like what that does.

Because of that, I will take and put just a little bit of white-- when I say white, do I mean white?

I say white, and I mean a little yellow and white.

This will be for the lightest part in the sky.

I said earlier we are not showing the sun as being a bright unfettered look.

It has a little haziness to it.

It's such a compliment to all the bright colors we have.

Okay, I want to take now and sweep through with some-- let's see, let's take Alizarin Crimson and a little-- so this is Sap Green and Van Dyke Brown.

Ooo, now watch what's going to happen when we start getting some of this being strengthened again.

It makes such a difference.

Here we go through there, but you skip a little bit so there's some foliage on top of the tree.

While I have that area, I'm going to take a little bit of that greenish tone that spoke of.

Here we had kind of a tint with colors.

Here we have just a little bit of the green showing out on both sides.

I want to take that same fan brush, and we'll go just a little with the kind of character of grass along there.

Isn't that pretty?

If the camera is shaking, that means somebody is saying yes.

Let's go up above in here, and I want to have just a little bit of the character of leaves.

Same thing, "same thing" being let's make sure we have some blending done of this.

I'll have to put some more branches in because we're a little short of those, the trunks and the branches.

So, very quickly let's put a few of these in.

This is another time where we come through a little bit.

You skip slightly.

We don't have to come down lower because then it gives the feeling like the foliage is covering what's there.

I'm going to let a little bit of this become the small twigs that we spoke of.

Would you like to do your job?

Yes.

So we come further with the darks for the trees.

And I'll put one in there.

There wasn't one there.

That looks nice.

It kind of balances so you don't have just that equal spacing between them.

We don't have a lot of time left, but we've got a lot of love left.

I so love you guys.

I so thank you for being there.

I couldn't do it without you.

So I love you, and I love PBS!

Okay, let this come down lower.

We just put a little bit on the lovebirds here.

They were kind of ignored.

Everybody left the wedding and said you're on your own.

Oh you know, this up here-- we have this nice branch, but we'll add just a teeny bit of a cross ones there, and we just want just the smallest little one touching here.

See, it all kind of points to what's there.

I want to take just a little more green, just a touch here, kind of touch right across.

It'll soften that branch slightly.

So, on the left side, what are we going to do?

More trunks?

Okay, I'm going to do one last thing, I think, but we'll keep doing it.

Watch how I smash that brush.

Then you come up to the canvas and smash off.

Well, you don't smash off, you touch off the smashes that you had.

Little red, little red, little red, little red!

Mixing in with what's there.

We've got a lot of nice fall colors.

This is the time to visit this country.

Fargo, PBS, ah, thanks for not filming in February.

And some of this it will be helpful to have just that same type stroking up there.

Go back over any of these where it looks like it was too mechanically done.

This is a fall season.

You get out and enjoy the colors.

And you use your imagination.

You use your memory.

You see more than you saw.

I will see you next time, and after this, it might even be snow!

We'll see you next time.

Bye, bye.

Thanks for watching.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (woman) Funding for "Painting With Paulson" is made possible by the members of Prairie Public.

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