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The Blog &
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2009 entries
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May 18,
2010
Adding
Wildflowers
Well, I
couldn't stand it - just had to put wildflowers in the painting
'April Oaks'. You can see the 'before' image below in the March
31 entry and here is the finished piece with lots of bluebonnets
and some Indian paintbrush.
Got another
wildflower piece on the easel right now and will post it as soon
as I'm happy with it.
May 7, 2010
Daily
painting project
For the
last week or so I have been doing small (8x10) field studies in
the evenings. The days have been clear lately with nice warm
light at sundown and this has prompted me to do studies of trees
and evening light. Of course, I try to paint every day, but
don't always meet that goal, so having created this little
project has helped with the discipline. And I have been learning
more about tree structure and color as well. No thoughts of
finished paintings, just exercises. It's been great
practice. Here are a few examples so far.
It looks like
we're in for several cloudy days now, so the focus will have to
shift to softer, cool light with emphasis on the character of the
trees.
I have also
found a way to display small unframed paintings in the studio for my own
analysis and comparison that is cheap and efficient. I mounted
on the wall some plastic trim found at Home Depot. I'm not sure
exactly what this stuff is made for, but it works well for holding small panels on thin
board (like these on Gatorboard). Just cut it to length with
snips or a knife and
screw it to the wall - couldn't be simpler.
April 26,
2010
Another
attempt at flower painting
Well,
I'm back from another attempt at finding wildflowers - this time
around the Ennis/Waxahachie area south of Dallas. It was an
Outdoor Painters Society trip, and I am sorry to report
that the attendance was pretty low this time. And the flowers
were a bit scattered and sparse as well. However, there was one
spot we found that had an incredible display, a real feast for
the eyes, probably more than a finished painting could carry.
The three 8x10 studies below were painted there.
The two
horizontals took about one hour each, plus 15-20 minutes each of
touching up in the studio. The vertical took a little longer
because the clouds couldn't decide whether they should cover the
sun or not. I started the painting with a cloudy motif and was
nearing completion when all the clouds vanished and the scene
was bathed in continuous sunlight. It looked much better that
way, so I did what usually doesn't work and changed the painting
accordingly. As a result, it probably took an hour and a half on
site to bring it to near completion. A few minutes of touchup in
the studio finished it.
Not much to
show for the trip, but between the spring studies I've done and
the photos I've shot, I may be able to produce a few larger
studio paintings. (Maybe I'll study some of John Gamble's work
before I do.)
I may make one
more attempt before the spring color has faded. If so, I'll show
any results here . . . probably.
April 19,
2010
New
paintings and a disappointing trip
A couple of weekends
ago I
ventured out to find subjects in my home area - something
usually difficult to do. I say that because this area is
pretty heavily wooded with large oaks, pines, hickories, etc.,
being at the western edge of the forests that run across the
southern United States from the eastern seaboard to the great
plains. Most of the open areas around here are rectangular hay
fields surrounded by walls of trees, making it difficult to
build interesting compositions. Of course, John F Carlson
worked in a forested area and did beautiful paintings of the deep woods, but he usually had
snow to provide large simple shapes and variety in values -
something very rare around here.
Occasionally,
however, I find a scene that, to my eye at least, looks
paintable, but it is often more dependent on interesting lighting
conditions than on any intrinsic characteristics of the scene. Here are a couple of recent 8x10 field studies, one
done in the morning and one in the evening. Each took about one
hour to paint. (You can click on the thumbnails to enlarge.)
Last week I spent a
couple of days in the Brenham, TX, area looking for
wildflower subjects. And although there were plenty of flowers, the
light was not good when I was there, so I never did even wet a brush.
When it was clear, the sun was overhead making the scenery
pretty dull and at the beginning and end of the days it was
either cloudy and dark or that pesky changing light as clouds
come and go - very difficult to paint in. So I took photos of
the fleeting light and maybe I can do some studio work from
them.
This week
I'll be joining the
Outdoor Painters
Society in the Waxahachie/Ennis area for another attempt at
wildflower painting. Hoping for nice, consistent light this
time.
March 31,
2010
New
paintings
Here are a
couple of new pieces. I have called them 'April Oaks' instead of
'March Oaks' even though they were painted in late March simply
because it has a nicer ring to it. And, heck, just a bit further
north they'll look like this in April, right?
This is the
12x16 version which I did as a demonstration in connection with
my show at the Museum of East Texas.
And here is the
9x12 study done two days before the demo.
During the
recent Outdoor Painters Society paint-out in Brenham, TX, we had
a day of rain, wind and cold temperatures, so we worked in the
comfortable studio of LaNell Arndt. This is the 10x8 still life
I did.
Chatting it up
over art books and wine with fellow artists Fran Ellisor and
Christy Kidwell surrounded by LaNell Arndt's beautiful
paintings.
Photo by Peggy Kingsbury
March 5,
2010
New
paintings
I've just
finished two paintings, Farm Truck and Mount Abram.
(You can click on the thumbnails to see a larger image.)
 Farm
Truck, 14x18
Farm Truck
is a scene from the Uncompahgre River valley just north of
Ouray, Colorado. Of course, it's not a painting about a truck at
all, but about evening light and the shadow of one mountain
being cast on another mountain as the day ends. I have tried to
convey the feeling of the progression of day into night.
 Mount
Abram, 10x12
I have long
wanted to do a portrait of the stately mountain that looks down
on the town of Ouray and, to me at least, seems such an
ever-present symbol of the area. This is the first such piece
and I will do more as time allows.
February 21, 2010
Back to
Colorado
My wife Kathy
and I (along with our Schnauzer, Mitzi) took a winter trip last
November to the beautiful San Juan Mountains, staying in Ouray
for a week or so. We actually stayed two days longer than
planned just so we could catch the snow storm that we knew was
coming. And it was worth it, too. Mother Nature dropped 10"-12"
over a two-day period, blanketing everything. I had painted
several plein air studies in the preceding days, but didn't
paint after the snow fell, just shot a lot of photos - 278 in
all. I'll paint the first piece from those in the coming week
for submission to a show.
OPS matters
The Outdoor Painters Society will be going to Big Bend National
Park this month, which has become a regular February trip for
the group. I won't be able to make it, but I do plan to paint
with them around the Brenham, TX, area next month hoping to
catch some bluebonnets in bloom. But even if we miss the
flowers, we'll still find good landscape subject matter there.
It's a beautiful area.
And speaking of
the OPS, I have resigned
from the board (again ... was talked out of it in '05) to concentrate on painting. Since founding it
with Bruce Peil in 1996 I have been active in all aspects of the
organization, sometimes taking on more than I could reasonably
handle. But I have enjoyed doing it and am grateful to have had
the opportunity. I have said before that helping start the group was
one of the best things I've ever done and I still believe that.
I have met some great people and had some wonderful times with
them, and I intend to continue participating in OPS events. But
I won't be involved in any other capacity as soon as I can
transfer my few remaining duties to others. I'm looking forward
to being able to concentrate more on just pushing paint around.
Never a dull
moment!
On the
2008 page of this blog you can find some comments about past
hurricanes coming through Lufkin and doing damage to our house.
Well, last December 23 a tornado blew through the neighborhood
about 10 pm, missing our house by less than 300 yards! Lots of
damage and a few minor injuries, but amazingly no one was
killed. And we are glad to have been missed this time. Lufkin is
getting to be a dangerous place to live!
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