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.

"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 #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

Cupcake 1

I love the daily painting movement and follow many artists who complete a small piece each day. Although I don't have the resources or time to be that prolific, I occasionally get to fit one in. I've been planning on painting this for a few weeks and finally got the chance. It took about two hours and was exceptionally fun to paint. I approached this piece armed with several ideas and goals. I forced myself to premix my main colors before I got a brush in my hand because I find that this way sets me up for a more accurate color mixture and saves me frustration later on. I also tried to limit my palette somewhat so the colors I mix are harmonious. For example, the background hue was made by mixing Cerulean Blue with some of the colors from the chocolate mixture. I really wanted to show the value change in the paper from dark on the bottom where the cupcake is flush against it, to the lighter top where the paper starts to peel away from the cake a bit. I'm quite satisfied with the result and plan on making this the first in a series.

First I sketched it in thin Burnt Umber, just

getting the placement and general shape established.

Then I block in the darks before finishing with the

highlights and background/foreground

After approximately 2 hours I have the finished product.

'Chocolate Cupcake'

Oil on canvas

6x6"

Detail:

The painting extends onto the four sides of the square canvas

so it can be hung without a frame if desired:

Delicate Arch

It's finished! I would have completed much earlier this week but I started a new job and that cut into my painting time significantly. I worried that the long breaks between painting sessions would cause problems because momentum really affects my painting. For instance, in the middle of this piece I read a book about landscape painting and I was dying to implement the things I learned but it wouldn't have fit with the rest of the painting. The first half or so of it went perfectly, without even the normal "I hate it" stage, but then I had to remix all of my colors and try to rediscover my rhythm for the last part. Thankfully, after only a brief struggle trying to pick up where I had left off, I decided to 'start over' instead. So I abandoned the wood palette covered in drying puddles of color and got a fresh glass palette (my preferred surface) to mix fresh colors. This way I could forget about trying to match my previous colors and focus instead on mixing the colors I needed. It may sound like a small distinction but it made a difference for me. Then things started working out again and I had a great time finishing it.

I learned so much from this piece its hard to even put it into words. Painting is interesting in that each piece can teach you so much along the way, yet at the end you can't even articulate what you've learned. One thing I read right before I started this piece, and subsequently tried to incorporate into my painting, was the fact that cool colors in shadow recede and warm colors in shadows advance. I also learned a lot about light, atmosphere and texture. Again I learned just as much from what didn't work as the things that did.

I started by sketching the scene using a grid. Then I toned the canvas a warm orange-red.

I began blocking in color

The real challenge was portraying distance. From the mountains in the distance to the arch and foreground and the three or four layers in between.

The smooth rock in the foreground was very hard to get right, and eventually I laid down the brushes and used my fingers to blend the paint.

The arch was one of the last things I painted and it started rough but once I remixed my colors and came back to it things went great.

Finally I finished things up and signed it. I'm very happy with how this one turned out.

'Delicate Arch'

16x20"

Oil on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

Although it has been signed, I'm leaving it up on my easel to look at and evaluate for a while so I might make a few changes.

Alterations

I find myself being torn in two directions. These small paintings, studies really, are not meant to be refined works so I try to not overwork them. I learn from the successes and failures and instead of trying to fix the failures in the current piece I file the lessons learned away for further use. Yet sometimes its so tempting to modify or rework certain parts of 'completed' paintings! But what if I end up making things worse? This is the back and forth which constantly vie for my attention. That being said, I have succumbed to the temptation and have made a few alterations of two recent pieces.

My latest subject of internal battle has been that of contrast, or more specifically my paintings' lack of it. My wife/critic/consultant helped me see this so it was with the goal of adding contrast that I put these canvases back on the easel. As usual I feel like a was able to improve a few things but in the process I created additional new issues. Maybe this will help me withstand the temptation next time - yet that tractor needs some work...

Before

After

Before

After

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!

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 :)