One Year Anniversary

One year ago today I launched this blog; my goal was to keep a record of my work, to get motivated, and to grow as an artist and develop a self study program. This year has been tuff, but still a good one. With the loss of my job I now have more time to paint. That is what God has given me to do and I will trust in Him.

This coming year I will concentrate on oil painting and marketing my work. This is the back drop for our children’s Christmas program at HBC. I finished it early this year. This is now the ninth time that I have painted these same panels

Clever Supper Market

The Clever Supper Market closed this year, another victim of this failing economy. Commissioned by the owner’s daughter for a Christmas present, I hope it will bring back memories of a more prosperous time.

Fall Colors

This was painted for a client who wanted to have a lasting memory of how these trees looked before they were destroyed by a winter ice storm.

Cowboy

Zebras in the Heat of the Day

This painting is 16” x 20” another in the series of African animals that I’m currently working on.

Meeting at the Waterhole

This painting is 12” x 24” and I hope to finish it today. I worked on the Zebra’s stripes last night. I’m using a limited palette of Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, French Ultramarine, and flake White. This is the first in a series of paintings I’m doing of African animals.

My Son The Firefighter

Between commissioned works I was able to finish this painting of my son. I started it March of this year and had to set it aside. If you want to see the beginning stages you can click the March (3) link under BLOG ARCHIVE. As with all of the images on this blog, you may click on the image to see a larger view.

Canadian Geese

After painting at Sequiota Park I feel that I really need to loosen up! That painting is tight. So I had some photos that I shot with the intension of painting some wildlife. Same park different day. Here’s a painting I did Saturday, a water color 12” x 16”. Simple and loose, a little tight in the head and neck area, but I think it works.

Sequiota Park

I got outside again with the SPA (Springfield Plein Air) group. This week we painted at Sequiota Park. The Canadian Geese were anticipating a feeding from a family holding a bag of bread. I had to sketch them in fast they were on the move. I love to paint in the open air what a beautiful day.

Charles and Rebekah

This painting was commissioned. I was given a photo dated 1996 and was asked to add a hat on Charles. I had to rearrange the figures by putting Rebekah in front and lower, she was standing and he was sitting in the photo.

On the Finley at Linden

Standing on the flat bed rock in the Findley River, I’m foot loose and fancy free, what a beautiful day to paint. Life is good. I could get use to this.

Gazebo at Grand Avenue Cemetery

Today’s Painting: a watercolor done En Plein Aire. IT’s good to be back painting with the Springfield Plein Aire group. It looks like I’m going to be painting more now because I was laid off Tuesday. Now it’s time to get busy no excuses about not having the time.

This year’s VBS theme was Boomerang Express from LifeWay. I painted this back drop using their beautiful design as a reference. I cannot take credit for the composition, but it was all done by hand no tracing or projector was used here.

The photo of the train in process was painted last Saturday. For some reason the power was out in Halltown MO. The only light source I had was coming through the double doors facing the north. It was an awesome time; God always provides all that I need.

I finished it, about a week late, but that’s OK. I’m glad I did not rush it. I was able to spend all day Saturday working on it. This week I will be painting for VBS.

This drawing was started in hopes of getting it finished for the first Springfield Regional Arts Council’s Members Show. It opened First Friday Art Walk July 3. I did not get it done. That seems to be the norm for me right now.

I have little time to get any art done, and that’s not an excuse, it’s just the way it is. I need to change my priorities. God has given me many opportunities, and now I need to do my part. VBS is coming in July so my painting time will be focused on that.

Here is the local color lay-in. I am still painting thinly here and with the colors I’m beginning to model some of the figure detail.

This picture shows the monochrome under painting. I used Burnt Umber thinned with Turpenoid. This was taken after the second layer of paint was applied making corrections to the original drawing.

OK my last post was too negative, but I was really down. This week I managed to pull out of my funk, and start a new painting. This is a painting of my son the fire fighter. He posed for me with his gear so I could take reference photos.

I tried a process that I have read about. Where you start a painting by drawing on the support before applying any paint. I used vine charcoal here. For me, other than the fact that I love to draw I think I could have skipped this process. Here is a picture of the composition sketch, reference photo, and drawing on a 16" x 20" canvas.

Self Portrait

Yesterday was a bad day for me. The company I work for laid off 84 people and cut my pay. I guess I’m one of the lucky ones. Last night it was hard to get motivated. I decided to do a quick sketch to capture the way I felt, comfortably numb.

Portrait Drawing

It has been weeks now since I have made an entry here. I think about art all the time, but can’t find the time to do any of it. Having a full time job and being involved with other activities that take up my evenings I have little time left over for my artistic endeavors. Never the less I will forge ahead.

Yesterday I went to draw portraits at the Veteran’s home in Mt. Vernon. I try to get there every other week. I’ve been at it almost a year now and have done over fifty portraits. These are quick studies where I try to capture their likeness in about 30 minutes. Yesterday I did 4 of them. It was a tough crowd but still worth the trip.

I’m convinced that working from life is the best way to learn how to draw and paint. I was motivated yesterday to get back to work. Not having a model to draw, I worked from a photograph that I had taken of this gentleman in Mexico.

Got any grapes

Another still life, I started last Saturday and painted all but one night through the week. I hoped I would finish it working in the evening. This Saturday I painted all day because now I was painting in natural light. Using a medium of one part Stand Oil and Two parts Linseed Oil I painted over the entire painting making color and value adjustments.

What I thought would be a simple still life, turned out to be a challenge. My focus was to capture the green bottle and make it look translucent. The place mat in the background had been folded in a triangle and I liked the starburst pattern the folds made. The grapes well they were a lost cause. I wanted to add a complimentary color to work with the green, but I wished I had used real grapes.

A Quick Sketch

I did a quick sketch last night, because it has been too long since I have done any artwork. I’m posting it here not because I’m pleased with the results, but because I need the motivation to get busy. I bought this bust for the purpose of learning the Sight-Size approach to drawing. This was only a sketch. When I get the studio set up I will start that training.

Painting finished

Here it almost finished. I worked on it about 8 hours Saturday and 2 hours Sunday. I painted it by building up thin layers. If you click on it you can see a large view. You will see that I painted the saucer, spoon and tea bag a little looser than the tea kettle. I was going to try a technique called glazing on this painting, but I think I will give it a coat of varnish and call it finished.

Painting in Oil

I switched gears and got out the oil paints. I have not painted in oils now for some time. I have been doing some work in graphite, and before that I was painting in watercolors. Here is the setup and the rough block in stage. I use a brush to draw with burnt sienna adding some Dammar Varnish thinned with turpenoid. At this point I had about ½ hour painting time invested.

Orange study

First painting for 2009. Our house was in chaos most of the day with the taking down of the Christmas decorations. Not having a studio makes it hard to find a place to work. It was late when I set up this little still life, but I wanted to give the oil pastels another try.

This time I used a 6"x 8" Masonite panel that was primed with gesso. I used a #4 filbert with some odorless Turpenoid to do some blending. I liked working on the panel because it has a smoother surface.