- Hi. Welcome back. I'm certainly glad you
could join us today. I thought today I'd do a painting that's a little bit different. So let's start out and have them run all the colors across the screen. While they're doing that, let me show you what I
got going on up here. Had my standard old canvas up here, and I've taken a little
piece of contact paper, cut an oval, stuck it on, then we painted the
inside with black gesso. We've allowed the black
gesso to dry completely. It's totally dry. Then over the top of that, I've added a very, very thin coat of liquid clear, just enough to barely cover it, and we've taken blotches of color and just went here and there. Every series needs a crazy day, and I guess this is it. We've taken a little red here and a little phthalo green, a little blue, and I've just put them together. The bottom I've just
covered with phthalo blue. So we've got red, phthalo green, phthalo blue. That's all. And, you know, if you've
painted with me before, you know for many years I lived in the beautiful,
beautiful state of Alaska. In fact, about 12 years I lived in Alaska. And way back in one of the early series, I did a Northern Lights painting, and I've had so many comments about it, and so many people have said, "Do another one." I thought today we would just do the Northern Lights. So I'll show you how simple it is. We'll start out, take the fan brush, and we just sort of lay out where these curtains of light will be. That's sort of what
they're called in Alaska is curtains of light. And I'm just tapping a little white paint right on top of all the
color that we have here. Alright. And you just sort of
figure out where they are. Now, to me, the Northern Lights are one of the most gorgeous phenomena that happens in nature. As I say, I lived for
two years in Anchorage, and then for, oh, nearly 10 years right outside of Fairbanks, Alaska in a little town called North Pole. And we used to go out at night, Jane and I did, and we would watch the Northern Lights, and they are one of the most
gorgeous sights imaginable. There. I don't paint them very
often on television because (brush tapping) unless you live in the far north, you probably don't get
to see these very often. But today, this is what they look like. We just make our little bits of color, and then we'll take and we'll begin lifting that up. Just lift it up. And that simple. That simple. We have instant Northern Lights. Isn't that something? That's all there is to it. (paintbrush tapping) Every once in awhile, I'll beat the brush just to knock off any excess paint that we've picked up. There. Recently my friend Rick
who lives in Alaska still that I used to paint with years ago sent me a videotape, I believe it was produced
by the University of Alaska, and I think it's called
"The Aurora Explained." It is one of most gorgeous pieces of film I have ever seen on the Northern Lights. There. But it shows things like this. But this piece of film
actually shows them moving. It's very hard to photograph them. I think they must have a camera that takes very high-speed pictures because I used to try and
take still pictures of it, and it's very difficult. See? That's basically all there is to it. That gives us Northern Lights in the sky. (paintbrush tapping) Alright, let's just wash this old brush, have some fun here. As you know, we wash our brush with odorless paint thinner. Shake it off. (paintbrush tapping) (laughs) And just beat the devil out of it. Alright. We have a few little Northern Lights, so in the back here, let's just start building some things. If you've never been to Alaska, it's one of those places that, if you have the opportunity, you are to go see it. I'm serious. It is, phew, as I've said before, when God made Alaska, he was having a good day. You know, some days, everything works, and I think when God made Alaska, He was having one of those days. It is fantastic. Alright. I'm taking a little bit of Prussian blue, a little bit of white, and we're going to make, oh, a blue color about like so. Doesn't much matter. That's pretty close, maybe a little darker. Yeah, yeah. That's it right there. I like that. Okay, then we wipe the knife off. And let's take, oh, we'll just use that same fan brush. Doesn't matter. I'm lazy, don't want to have to clean the brush. I'm going to load it full of this blue color, Prussian blue, and white. That's all it is. Okay. Both sides are full of color. Let's go up in here. Now, we have to make our
first major decisions. Maybe there's some little trees that live back here. I'm not even going to put
a mountain in this today. Alaska has some of the most
gorgeous mountains in the world. But there's also areas you go to where you don't see the mountains, especially at night. There. Alright. We'll just put a whole bunch
of little trees back here. See how easy they are? This will give you some
practice making little trees. Take the corner of the brush, work back and forth. Forth and back, just like so. Make all these happy little trees wherever you think they should live. And you put as many or as few
as you want in your world. Wherever. Wherever. Maybe one more right here, what the heck. We can have as many trees as we want. And there's some right here, so you can see right through them and see the lights behind them. You know something, unless you've ever seen
the Northern Lights, it's very hard to imagine. They go some time from horizon to horizon. They are just one of the
most spectacular sights, and they can be any color of the rainbow. I've seen everything from red to green to yellow. Just, it's hard to imagine
unless you see them. And on a very, very quiet night, if you get far away from town and all the city noises and et cetera, you can hear them. They make little crackling noises. There. My mother, when she was still with us, came to Alaska and stayed with me for nearly a year. And I think that was one
of her most popular sights. She would stay up (laughs) until two or three o'clock in the morning just to go out and watch
the Northern Lights. There. Alright. Maybe one more little tree right there. It's our world, we can
put whatever we want. Okay. Now I'm going to take-- I'll get another fan brush up, I've got several of them going here. Take a little bit of white, and we'll put some phthalo blue with it, so we've got white and phtalo blue. Phthalo blue is a much lighter blue than Prussian blue. Sparkles. Let me wipe the old knife. Maybe I'll take the least
little touch of liquid white. The least little touch, just enough to thin this a small amount so it'll stick easier. I'm using a number three
fan brush right here. But you use whatever size you want, it doesn't matter. I'm loading it back up full of color. Okay, and let's go up in here. And let's just indicate a few highlights, I don't want a lot. I don't want a lot. Just a few, just a few. Use just the corner of the brush. Just a few happy little highlights. Make these little evergreens sparkle. There. Okay, here we are. Then we're over here. This little tree needs something. With sparkling, he'll stand out from the lights that are behind him. There. Isn't that something? Very simple. Okay. Alright, there we go. A few over in here. But once again, I'm trying not
to kill all the dark areas. Don't want to kill all the dark areas. Just enough to put a few little sparklers. That's enough. That's enough. Okay, let's have some fun. We'll grab another fan brush. I have several, so I don't have to spend all my time just washing brushes. We'll go into titanium white, just pure color. Load a lot of color into the bristles. Something like so. And let's go up here and maybe, you see the Northern Lights
mostly in the wintertime. And there's a very easy reason for that. In the summertime, it doesn't get dark, so you couldn't see them. They're probably there, probably there, but you just can't see them. There. In the wintertime, it's dark a lot in Alaska. Where I lived, it got down to
under four hours of daylight. Phew, yeah. You'd go to work and it was dark, you'd come home and it was dark. And that bothers a lot of people, but I didn't mind. I find as much beauty
in the winter in Alaska as I did in the summer. It's just different. And being a little Florida boy, I was raised in Florida, I had never even seen snow
before I went to Alaska. I actually thought that ice was something you just
grew in the refrigerator. I didn't know it actually
grew out here on the land. But I went to Alaska, and I was so amazed because it was so radically different than everything that I had grown up with that I just sort of went crazy over it. And I'm still fascinated by it. I want a little cabin out here. Shoot. I've always wanted a
little cabin in Alaska. I'll show you how easy it is. Take your knife, just scrape out a very basic little idea of where you want the cabin to be. This does two things: It allows you to lay the basic shape out, and it removes excess paint so your next layer sticks much easier. So you've sort of got a layout there, and you're absolutely not committed. I'm going to take a little Van Dyke brown and a little dark sienna and mix them together. Get a little roll of paint, and let's build us a cabin. We'll do the back eave first. That easy. We'll come back, and we'll just block it in. In other words, we're just
putting it full of color. Van Dyke brown, dark sienna. Alright. Over on this side, (makes swooshing noise) color. See that? As I say, it really doesn't matter. You can take your knife, scrape it off, start over at this point, and you would not have hurt a thing. Not a thing. Okay, let's see here. Let me find a place to work. I've used up all my space, even on a palette this big. Take a little dark sienna, a little white, mix them together, cut off our little roll of paint. Let's go up in here. Touch, just like you're putting
snow on the mountain. Barely, barely touch. Barely touch. Just graze it. Want it to look like
old, old weathered wood. It's like me, it's had a rough life, tired. There. Now a much darker color for over here because, in my mind, if the Norther Lights
are producing our light in this painting, wouldn't this much hit over here. Little bit of Van Dyke brown on the knife, and we can just touch the canvas and make the indications
of some little boards. Something about like that. And we need a door in our little cabin, so we just take a little dark color, a little brown, Van Dyke brown. (makes popping noise) That easy. And we'll put us in a little door. Take a little light color and just sort of outline it. There. Now we can come back. let me wipe the knife off here, and we can come back and work on our perspective a little bit. See, we can do a cabinectomy and just cut it off wherever we want it. It's our cabin, we can cut it any old way we want it. Now, we're going to do a little
bit of the titanium white, and let's put some snow
up here on the roof. And back here. There we are. See? Now very gently, just pull it down. (makes swooshing noise) Over here. (makes swooshing noise) That easy. That's all there is to it. You can just smooth it out a little. There we go. See there? And that easy, we've got a happy little cabin. And we need a little bit of snow on the other side of the roof because it's thick, thick snow. There. Straighten these little edges out. And you can make this very smooth or you can leave it rough, it's up to you. It's up to you. Sometimes I like to leave it rough because the snow gets like that, especially if you have a fire in the cabin and you don't have very good insulation, part of it starts melting. I'm going to take my liner brush and just dip it in a little liquid white. Look at that. We've got the indication of some icicles hanging off here. Whoo, really cold. This is just liquid white. There we are. See? That's all there is to it. Now, go back to our little fan brush that had the titanium white on it, and we can lay in our snow again. We sort of messed it up when we did our cabinectomy. But we just put it back in. No big deal. In our world, we can change things any way we want to whenever we want to. And maybe be brave, maybe there's another little, a little hill right there. That easy. You can put it in. See there? (makes swooshing noise) That's all there is to it. You can just put in these little things wherever you want them. In your world, you have
total and complete power. And you can do these things. There. That's a natural place for a little pond. Maybe we'll put one in there. Alright. I've got one fan brush left. Clean off a little spot to work. I'm going to take some
black and Prussian blue. Something like so, and let's take-- we're going to take the old fan brush, and let's just load it full of color, a lot of paint. A lot of paint. Okay. And let's go right up in here. Alright. Maybe in our world there lives a tree right there on that little hill by the little evergreen. Probably not going to be able to see that against the dark, but it's there. Okay. Now, as I get into that area right there, there's already paint on the canvas. I'm going to add a small
amount of paint thinner to my brush and go back through the paint. That thins the paint, and, as you know, a thin paint will stick to a thick paint. Thin to thick. Thin to thick. There we are. And we'll put a little tree
that lives right there. Something about like that. Let's give him a friend. I think everybody needs a friend. Load a little more paint. His friend lives right there. Right there. There. Alright. And you can take the brush and go straight in and give it-- I'm gonna bend it upward. See? That's all we're doing. Just give it a little upward bend. And we can make a little grassy area. Shoot, who knows, maybe there's one over
here on this side, too. Just something around the little cabin. This guy's probably like me, he doesn't cut his grass very well, and it's growing up, and in the wintertime, it dies and just leaves all those little things in there. There we go. Now, let me wash that ol' brush out. I'm gonna wipe it off first. (water splashes) And we just-- it's not as much fun to wash the fan brush as it is to the big brush. It doesn't make near the mess. There. Okay. Take a little bit of that
Prussian blue and white. We'll just put the indication of a little tree trunk here and there. I don't want it to be very distinct. There. Maybe a little one here. I know that's hard to see, but it is there. Now we take a little bit of white, oh, there it is. We had a little phthalo blue and white left up here. There. Load a lot of color into the bristles. There. But see, both sides of the bristles are good and full of color. There we are. And let's go back up in here, and we'll highlight this little rascal. There. Now, now he stands out. Now he stands out. Okay. Add a little paint thinner to that. Once again, there's a lot of paint there. Add a little paint thinner. Paint thinner will not change the color, and we'll just pop in some little indications, a few little highlights here and there. Maybe a little more white so it shows up better. Gonna dip the brush into the
smallest amount of liquid white just to thin it once again, and you go right back over that and pop in little things. There. A few little things up here. Yeah, that looks better. I like that better. Little snow-covered grassy areas. There. A few right in here. You need that dark underneath, though, to make them show. Alright. Script liner brush. A little paint thinner, a little bit of that. This is phthalo blue with a-- just a touch of phthalo blue and titanium white, and then I took paint thinner. Load the brush full of paint, turn it in that thin paint. That'll load the bristles very full. There we go. Something about like that. And we can take that, and we'll just put in a
few little sticks and twigs and all those little
things that live back here against the tree. Isn't that neat? Peapod, my little pocket squirrel, he wouldn't like it here. It's too cold. Although there are little squirrels that live in Alaska. Little gray squirrels live there. Yeah. All kinds of animals live there. When we lived in North Pole, there used to be a big moose, a big cow moose, that would come and graze in our yard two or three times a week. I have just gobs of photographs of her in the yard. And we would just stand there. She was almost on the verge of being tame. (paintbrush tapping) You couldn't walk completely up to her, but she literally would eat in the yard. What a sight. She must've weighed 1,000 pounds or more. And to have a great big moose right out there in the yard eating was just unreal. Take a little bit of titanium white here, just a small amount. I want to turn this into water. Maybe there's a little pond here. We don't know for sure if it's frozen or maybe it's just awful cold, we don't know. Pull straight down. Straight down. Something about like that. And then go across. That easy. There. Maybe just a little more. I want a little more right there. Now, let me get a little
more color on the brush. Yeah. There. See, we'll just reflect
that right into the water. Something like so. And then gently go across. It's important, though, that these reflections go straight down. If they don't, they just won't look right. There. Alright. Take a little touch of the liquid white, pull it out very flat. Very, very flat. And take the knife and cut across. I don't know if you can see that. Let me try that again. Pull it out flat, and cut across. There's just a small little roll of paint up on top of the blade right here, just a little, and with that, I'll go right up in here and just cut in a happy little water line. There. There we go. Just a little one right up in here. There we are. And maybe right on out through here. Wherever you think it should be. There. Okay. And we take our little fan brush that has the white paint on it, and we can go back over in here, and pick up a little more
of the titanium white, and we're just gonna load
the brush full of color. There we are. And let's go right up in here. Maybe there's a little, maybe there's a little
rock out here in the water and it's all covered with snow, and all we can see is just snow. There, now see? And we'll reflect a
little of that down here. Take our brush, pull that down just like we did up here. Same thing. Go across. And we can take our knife with a little bit
of the liquid white on it and just put a happy little
water line around it. That easy. And you can put as many little
stones out here as you want. Totally and completely up to you. You can cut through the
paint here and there and let some of that
black canvas show through, and it looks like little sticks that live right in there, see them? And you didn't have to do a thing. Alright. Maybe, maybe right over in here. Up to you. You decide where all these
little things live in your world. Okay. And you could really get even crazier. Shoot, let's have some fun. We got a second left here. Maybe, maybe we could take a little bit of, I've got Van Dyke brown on
the little filbert brush. Maybe there's what remains
out here of an old fence. Maybe just right out like that. Not much of it remains anymore. Take a little brown and white. Put a little highlight on one side. There. And we can come right back. Maybe there's an old (makes groaning noise) still on there. Maybe there's only one on that one. Something about like that. Let me take liquid white, just straight liquid white on the brush, I'm gonna put the indication that there's some snow laying up on top of this old fence. And it's sort of pulled down, there's a little up here. Let it just hang over
like there's icicles. Whoo. Make it cold. Whoo. There. A little more of the liquid white, and maybe there's a little up here. See there? That easy. Just put the little rascals in there wherever you want them. Okay. Back to our little brush
that has the white on it, clean the foots of this fence up. Shoot, I think we're gonna
have a finished painting here. Alright. (paintbrush tapping) Tell you what, the moment of truth. Let's pull the contact paper off and see what our little
painting looks like. (paper tearing) This is always the time
that I look forward to. Alright. Look at that, the Northern Lights are doing their thing. I'm gonna take a little bit of red, a little paint thinner, script liner brush, and I think we'll sign
this little painting. I really hope you've enjoyed it. If you get a chance, try painting the Northern Lights. I think you'll find it exciting. It's one of the most beautiful scenes, and it's very, very simple to do. And until next time, from all of us here, I'd like to wish you happy painting, and God bless, my friend. (slow instrumental music)
