A Moment of Joy

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Matthew M. Schulz’s painting, Hues of Sherbet, presents a beguiling vision of the natural world.

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A majestic Snowy Owl launches into the air on a late winter afternoon, rising above snow-covered dunes into the thick yellow light of a setting sun. In the distance, a shadowy tree line dissolves into a soft haze. The owl itself, caught at a gloriously energetic moment, is transfigured by the light, which has enhanced the shadows on its body with vivid violets, aquas and blues. The illuminated areas of the bird blaze with oranges and yellows, while the sky above picks up a more muted version of the yellow.

The resulting multicolored light gives Hues of Sherbet— selected by the editorial team for the Grand Prize Award in the 40^th Annual Artists Magazine Art Competition—a strong and unusual atmosphere, something sweet, otherworldly and amazing. It also explains the title. “I had the finished painting in the studio,” Matthew M. Schulz says, “and thinking about a possible title, I realized the color reminded me of the colored sherbets that my mother used to give to me when I was a child.” 

Worth the Wait

Schulz, who lives on Cape Cod, Mass., and has a lifelong fascination with nature, says that the genesis of the painting began with the Snowy Owl itself. He knew that a family of the birds was nesting not far from where he lives and resolved to go out and photograph them. “The Cape had just had a snowstorm, and the temperature was in the 20s,” he recalls. “The weather was relatively clear, so I thought there wouldn’t be many people following the birds. I’d be able to go down and have a bit more time with them. I was wrong. There were more than 100 people at this location to watch the Snowy Owls; it was an experience unto itself.” 

Schulz takes reference photos for all of his wildlife paintings, generally using a Nikon 300mm 2.8 lens for birds. He’ll sometimes sketch through a spotting scope, and he’s not averse to taking some trouble to get his material. “If you want great reference, you need to get close to your subject matter, within 50 yards or so,” he says. “Sometimes that means grassing up in a ghillie suit and slopping through the mud in a predawn marsh or using a layout boat. Other times it’s driving down the road and swinging into a pull-out with no signal.”

In this particular instance, all that was required was to wait. The birds, however, remained in the nest for much of the day, presenting little of interest to the artist. “At the end of the day, when most people had packed up and were leaving, I was still on the beach because I knew the light “Although it was cold, there was a lot of humidity in the atmosphere. The setting sun began to rake across the snow-encrusted dune, and two Black Hawk helicopters on their way to Joint Base Cape Cod appeared in the sky off to the north. You could hear the thumping of the rotors as they approached.”

Through the viewfinder, Schulz could see an owl bob his head up and down and square up his body. “I knew that this was a sure sign he was going to go,” he says. As the helicopters flew over, the owl exploded from the snow, his wings pulling at the air with each beat. “I knew I had something special to work with,” the artist notes.

Taking Flight

Knowing that he had captured the scene via some striking photos, Schulz let the idea for a painting ruminate. He was working on another piece anyway and felt that allowing a little more time for his ideas to germinate was important. “I didn’t start the painting until months later, after I had the opportunity for things to solidify,” he says. “Sometimes I get overstimulated with information from being out in the field, and it takes time for things to settle. I don’t begin any painting until I visualize the finished product in my head; otherwise, I’d never finish it.”

The artist’s first consideration was the size of the painting. He eventually settled on 24×36 inches. The first painting task involved placing a colored ground on the Claessens No. 15 single oil-primed Belgian white linen canvas. “I began with a ground tone of yellow ochre pale and scrubbed it in with liquin to dry,” he says.

The next task was to make a line drawing of the owl, which would involve determining the scale and exact placement of the bird. The environment would be built around him. “All proportions are keyed off the size of the owl,” says Schulz. “This image is offset to the left while moving toward the right. The majority of the bird is left of center, and some part of the wing will cross the center line. The most successful and stable compositions have the subject off-center but within the painting, not flying off.”

To make his line, the artist mixed a little cobalt blue with the same yellow ochre pale he used for the ground, making a color just blue enough to be visible. “I thinned it with mineral spirits and drew freehand with a No. 3 or 4 red sable flat or mongoose bright,” he says. “I prefer natural fiber brushes, as they hold and release the oil better than synthetic bristles; they also have a ‘snap’ to them. With flats and brights, you can create a chiseled edge, which is great for drawing with paint. You get clean, sharp lines. The only drawback to natural brushes is that they don’t last long.”

Once he was satisfied with the outline of the owl, Schulz began to work on the background, preserving the area of the owl as raw ground. The idea was to build the painting in layers, back to front, with the thought that this would be most likely to make the bird ‘pop’ forward. “I like to begin with the sky and distant tree line to set the mood, then work toward the foreground, treating each section of the painting as a separate plane,” says the artist. “It’s methodical, and it left the owl for last.”

While the light on the owl is the most dramatic part of the painting, Schulz points out that the subtle tone and color of the background are perhaps even more important in creating the light and atmosphere of the piece. The artist also did some editing, removing a house from the tree line and simplifying other elements.

When it came to painting the owl itself, he deployed a wet-into-wet technique in which he premixes much of the color on the palette before blocking in the major shapes. He then knocks it down somewhat by dragging the brush through it before returning to add more color, carefully developing the color gradients across the form.

“I use a delicate touch,” the artist notes, “and this allows me to lay on just the amount of color I need.” Skillful manipulation of the oil paint—Rembrandt and Winsor & Newton—allows the artist to blend the color while keeping the various hues separate and active.

A Sense of Wonder

The resulting painting has an extraordinary unity in which a powerful “color world” reinforces a sense of wonder and amazement at the apparition of the owl. It conveys a sense of joy in its movement and flight.

“My first concern in painting is composing a stable composition, one that’s dynamic yet peaceful, that has movement but isn’t too busy,” the artist says. “The painting needs to ‘sing’ in natural light; it needs to pop off the wall and grab hold of the viewers. They have to love looking at it. If I accomplish those things, then it’s successful.”

Get inspired by the other top prizewinners in the Artists Magazine 40^th Annual Art Competition.

About the Artist

About the Author

John A. Parks is a painter, a writer and a faculty member of the School of Visual Arts, in New York City.