New Landscape "Summer Afternoon"

"Summer Afternoon" (tentative title)

20"x24"

Oil on Canvas

This was officially the largest painting I've completed so far. It was painted from a photo taken one afternoon while going on a walk around the neighborhood with my wife and daughter. I saw the view and was glad we had our camera with us because I immediately wanted to paint it.

My focuses during this piece were:

1) To capture the lush green of the scene and complement that with the splash of red.

2) Convey the afternoon lighting by keeping the shadows relatively light while still dark enough to contrast with the sunlit areas.

3) To create a visual path to draw the viewer into the painting. My intended path starts at the upper left corner with the sunlit shingles, follows the brightly lit flowers over the arch, jumps to the slanted shadow on the opposite house, proceeds down to the lit bush in the bottom right and then on to the patch of sunlit grass before passing through the arch and finishing at the bright triangle on the fence.

I enjoyed painting this one immensely and am very pleased with how it turned out.

Daily Paintworks Challenge - Paint what you paint with

'Ready to Paint'

8"x10"

Oil on Canvas board

This is my take on the current Daily Paintworks challenge to paint what you paint with, posted by Carol Marine. I approached this piece very differently from my usual style. The big differences were:

1) Use only one brush (the one pictured). I tend to get carried away noodling small details with a little brush so I forced myself to only use a larger brush the entire time.

2) Keep the strokes! I opted for a looser and more painterly style where I left the brush strokes unblended.

3) Alla Prima. I finished this one quickly, avoiding my occasional problem with losing my momentum when I come back to a painting.

It was very fun to explore a different style and I'm very happy with the result.

"Cherry Chip with Cherry Frosting'

6x6" Oil on Canvas

Here's the third in the series. This one was also very fun to paint, especially the cherry chips. My wife said I need to paint vegetables next so there aren't so many treats around! I decided to add one more to the series and just need to bake the final batch... Red velvet with white frosting.

Cupcake Triptych

I'll get a better picture of the newest one tomorrow when the lighting is better. I'm also thinking about doing one more...

Hawaii... It only took a year!

Last week I pulled this canvas that I started last summer out of the closet and decided I felt up to finishing it.

I could never get the foreground right and eventually I grew frustrated and put it away for a later day. This is the biggest canvas size I've used at 18x24", but that wasn't the problem. The problem, besides inexperience, was that I was trying to paint thickly with my painting knife. I definitely underestimated how hard it is! Sure it is easy enough smearing delicious mixtures of paint around but the hard part is keeping it from turning to mud and making it actually look 'finished'. I did a bit of work on the background to ease me back into the subject before I tackled the fence post, leaves and flowers. The posts worked out well enough, probably because I used a brush and kept things thin. The rest however, went through many stages, including some scraping and starting over. My struggle was to get the leaves to stand out from the grass behind them. I went to my wife/critic for help and she helped me realize I needed a lot more contrast. So I scraped the grassy area and repainted it with thin, light paint. Then I kept the leaves very thick but darkened them. The result is a VERY textured and expressive surface which is different from my usual style and which I quite like. I think this could be a piece that I modify off and on for the rest of my life unless I formally declare it finished and sign it. So that's exactly what I did. After a year in the making it feels great to have this piece finished!

(The colors are brighter than they appear here, I had a hard time getting a good picture)

Untitled

18x24"

Oil on Canvas with Painting Knife

Cupcake series so far...

Here's an idea of how the Cupcake series would look hung together:

Cupcake #2

I'm really enjoying this cupcake series! This one was spread out over the last three days and probably took me a little longer than the last one. My employed the same techniques here as with the first but my emphasis was different. Instead of focusing on the paper liner I wanted the missing bite to be the star here. Because of that I left the paper largely undefined and tried to have my area of greatest contrast at the bite. The cupcake itself is also very different. Not only is it yellow cake instead of chocolate but it quite wide compared to the last one. The frosting was also spread on instead of being piped on in a swirl. I'm finding it a rewarding challenge to try to nail down the texture of frosting as well as that of cake. I'm planning on doing one more cupcake to finish the series so stay tuned!

Here I've roughly blocked in the areas

And here is the finished piece.

"Yellow Cupcake with Chocolate Frosting"

6x6"

Oil on canvas

Again the canvas is painted on all sides

I'm hard at work...

I'm very excited about the piece I'm working on right now. I splurged and bought a nice 16x20" professional grade gallery wrapped canvas and its a joy to paint on. Now that I have a few studies completed and I'm back in the painting mindset I wanted to execute a larger and more ambitious piece. Things have gone great so far and I'd say I'm approximately 75% through it. As for the subject matter... anyone remember this lino print?

My ever present foe

I have a problem. I have to finish a painting in one day, maybe two if I'm lucky, or else I lose the groove of the painting and it goes downhill. This painting is just one example. I snapped a picture of my farmer neighbor on his tractor as he passed and I was very excited to paint it. I also thought it'd be fun to show the progression of this one so on Saturday I started.

Below is the painting sketched roughly in Burnt Umber, so far so good.

Now I've blocked in the major colors and shapes, still going fairly smoothly.

Now its Monday, my painting has been sitting on my easel waiting for me to finish it. I begin to refine things, starting with the farmer who I want to be my focus. At this point I'm struggling to regain the momentum I had on Saturday and hoping I can enjoy what should be the most enjoyable part of the process. Yet my foe raises its ugly head in the form of dried paint on the palette, forcing me to re-mix my colors, which rarely ends in a satisfactory way.

I hit the "why am I even trying to save this hideous painting phase", struggle through it to a "hey maybe this will work out after all" phase, and then end somewhere in between at a "well I better quit before I get too far behind, I can live with this" phase.

'Backyard Farmer'

8x10"

Oil on Canvas panel

2 more!

Now that I have the easel back out I'm putting it to good use! I had a blast today for about three hours straight listening to good blues and painting these two one after the other. The first is from a picture I took from our back porch not too long ago. The second is from a picture I took a couple of years ago at Bear Lake. Interesting note, I painted the same scene en plein air last summer, as shown below. This is my first time painting the same subject in a different season's costume and I quite enjoyed it. Neither are masterpieces but it feels great to be stretching the painting muscles again.

'Telephone Lines'

Oil on Canvas Panel

8x10"

My inspiration for this one was Michael Naples, an artist who I greatly admire. He has done several similar wire paintings including his latest. His really put mine to shame though.

'Bear Lake in Winter'

Oil on Canvas Panel

8x10"

Here is approximately the same view in the summer:

What's this, a new painting?!

After nearly a year hiatus I'm back at the easel. A very busy school year and an adorable new daughter have kept me busier than ever before so unfortunately my painting had to be put on hold. I got my guitar back out to help fill the void but I've been dying to paint again. Its an odd thing, being an artist. After not painting for awhile I'm almost wary of starting again unless I know I'll be able to paint frequently. Thats why I can't paint during the semester because its too hard for me to start and stop randomly, with weeks going between sessions. The initial "withdrawal" is the worst, then it becomes a dull ache for time and finally builds back up again until I can't take it anymore. Finally I'm back in the mindset and have some time to paint again, though not as much as last summer.

I painted this today while little L took a nap :) It took me about 2 hours looking out the back window of our apartment for a wanna be 'plein air' piece. My approach was a quick and simple landscape with a limited palette. I ended up using more colors than I hoped but its a start. The sheep weren't very cooperative models so I had to hurriedly block them in at the start. I was really happy with it at that point and slightly less happy with the end result but oh well it was great just to push some paint around again and get the warm up out of the way. The lighting also complicated things because it started out overcast but the sun came out towards the end so the painting is a confusing in-between. Yet I'm still happy with the result and I've known I had to paint this since we moved in last August. I picked up more canvases today so look forward to much more soon ...if anyone still reads this blog!

'Backyard Sheep'

8x10" Oil on Canvas board

May 26, 2011

Oh and this reminded me a lot of this prior painting from three years ago...

After much deliberation...

I've decided that rather then keep these two that I'm particularly fond of for myself, I'll give someone else the chance to enjoy them.

Classic Literature

11"x14"

Oil on canvas board

$100 plus $10 shipping

St. George near Tuacahn

24"x16"

Oil on Canvas

$75 plus $5 shipping

Now available!

Summer Watermelon

11"x14"

Oil on canvas board

Purchase securely through PayPal for $70 plus $7 shipping

Lilacs

9"x12"

Oil on canvas board

$40 plus $5 shipping

Cup of blueberries

8"x10"

Oil on canvas board

Promised sale price of $35 plus $5 shipping!

And now for something completely different...

Stained Glass Still Life I

Oil on canvas board

9"x12"

Available when dry

This piece is a lot of things: A drastic attempt to force myself to eliminate detail and focus on basic shapes, an experiment with a style completely different from any I've explored, and an enjoyable hour of painting. I've always been fascinated by stained glass windows and think that their creators are vastly under appreciated. They were one of the inspirations to try something like this, and while the result may be a bit simplistic, it has intrigued me and I believe I'll explore this idea more in the future. I think that if I did a larger canvas filled with many carefully arranged objects, it could really work.

Watermelon

Watermelon

Oil on Canvas Board

11"x14"

Available when dry

I started this yesterday and it smelled great, but then I finished it today and the watermelon smelled like jack-o-lanterns two days after Halloween. Who knew? The painting, however, went smoothly and I enjoyed it. I sketched out a few possible compositions in my sketchbook before I started and that prevented the blueberry problem. I've been dying to put a knife in a still life for a long time. I wanted to have a reflection on it and this painting was perfect for it. The last time I had a knife with fruit was my Mate with Orange seen in this blog's header. This picture is very unsatisfactory and I hope to get a better one soon because the watermelon color was pure joy to mix.

An imperfect process

So I had this picture I took in Hawaii that I knew I'd eventually paint, but I had been waiting until I felt I could do it justice. The other day I was feeling pretty good after a few successes but I wasn't really in the mood to start a big, detailed painting. Yet I did anyway. Why? I still don't know. Early on I about called it quits in favor of something small and immediately gratifying. But I kept with it and suddenly saw potential that fueled my efforts.

Things were going well for a time...

but after that came another trying period of temptations to quit.

Yet I fought valiantly on... well okay I gave in and painted one little canvas in between but I couldn't resist! Afterwards I was ready for more slaving in front of my ill timed project.

I began the finishing process in the background and worked my way forward, making good use of my painting knife. At this point I was feeling pretty good again, thinking I could pull it off.

Alas I made it through the foreground but was left very unsatisfied. It's not finished, but I don't know exactly what else to do. So I'm posting the process thus far while my canvas sits on the floor and I contemplate my plan of attack. Any tactics would be greatly appreciated.

Lilac

Lilacs

9"x12" Canvas Board

Available when dry

I've been planning on painting lilacs for awhile and last night I snagged some from my in laws. The colors in this photo are a little saturated as usual, but what can you do? I now have wet canvases laying everywhere and I'm running dangerously low on blank canvases.

Cup of blueberries

Cup of Blueberries (Still wet)

8"x10" Canvas Board

Available once dry enough to ship for SALE PRICE of $35 + $5 shipping

On my never ending quest to try more subjects and styles I was excited to paint some blueberries- perhaps too excited. I wanted to get started even before I had thought through my set up and plan. So before too long I had to make some drastic changes and run with them. Things came together at the end and it was challenging and fun to keep the whole thing lavender. The only small canvas I had was already toned a tan yellow, which I initially thought would cause problems, but it ended up being perfect because it reminded me of the color of the inside of a blueberry.

Cross

Not yet titled

8"x10" Canvas Board

Collection of the artist

Several years ago I drew a crucifixion scene with my only available tools- printer paper and a regular old pencil. I really liked the drawing but wanted it on something more permanent since the already cheap paper was already wrinkled and worn. So today I re-sketched it simply in oils on canvas board. It was a new challenge doing it monochrome using only Burnt Umber and using my paint brush more like a pencil, but I enjoyed it. The photo is unsatisfactory but I'll take a new one when it's dry.

Impressionist

Footprints in Hawaii

9"x12" Canvas Board

Available for purchase for $55 +$5 shipping

I recently finished the book Monet's Landscapes by Vivian Russell and was amazed at how hard Monet worked to master the depiction of light. He was obsessive and sometimes had up to ten canvases in progress at a time, setting apart specific times of the day for each one depending on the daylight and weather. Yet he was rarely satisfied and at times even had to wait until the next year when the conditions for his 'motif' were back to finish them. I have even more respect for him now and dedicate this little impressionist canvas to him.

He also mentioned a feeling that I can relate to...

"...every day I am discovering more and more beautiful things. It's intoxicating; I so want to do it all, my head is bursting." -Claude Monet

Everywhere I go I constantly see things in terms of painting. I try to figure out what colors I would use to depict something, what style would suit a specific scene, and what paintings different things remind me of. With all that swirling around in my head I try to combine it into actual ideas for future paintings and sometimes when I think of something that I HAVE to paint or see something that truly inspires me, I feel like Monet. Before reading this quote I had decided that the best way to describe this feeling was a combination of an adrenaline rush and a panic attack. It certainly doesn't sound like a pleasant sensation, and maybe it's not really, but it keeps me going. Unfortunately it seems like this mostly happens when I'm lying in bed trying to sleep :)