Shoe Study in Burnt Umber

Acrylic on Canvas  11" x 14"

February 24, 2010. A value study primarily, this painting was done using only burnt umber and titanium white. The idea was to capture the still life in 30 minutes and focus only on dark and light. I find it helpful to do this type of exercise occasionally. It seems to re-focus the areas I notice when working on other paintings.  

Quick Portrait from Live Model #2

Acrylic on Canvas 15" x 12"

May 11, 2010. Golden Open Acrylic. A very quick live model painting. This one was noteworthy in that it is the fastest I have ever finished a portrait. We only had 30 minutes for this pose. There were a lot of short cuts taken in the process. I am somewhat surprised in how close it came to being complete. I think I could have gone back and filled in all the details with another 15 minutes. Sometimes it seems that I may be better off not having too much time on a painting - there is less possibility to overwork it.

Quick Portrait from Live Model

Acrylic on Canvas 18" x 16"

February 2, 2010. A more recent example of work done from a live model. This was an attempt to add more of a "painterly" look while still achieving a proper likeness. I am happy with the color in this one. It turned out to have a sort of mood to it - not sure I really planned that part.

St. Patricks Day Dress

Acrylic on Canvas covered board  14" x 18"

March 17, 2009. Live Figure at Bucktown Center for the Arts, Davenport, IA. Our model chose to wear a green dress for St. Patricks Day. I had just joined the group known as " A Fine Line " in January and was attempting to paint live models for the first time. Each night has one pose consisting of 3 - 45 minute sessions. This was one of the first paintings I completed that had a "likeness" of the actual model. There are alot of changes I would make to it now. I find that is easy to say after I am done and have the luxury of a little extra time to evaluate it. 

Bonsai

 Acrylic on Canvas 3.5" x 2.5"

October 2009. Experiment with Golden Open Acrylic paint. This painting was one of those you do while not actually trying to paint something. I had been working with very small stretched canvas' around this time and had just bought some of these new paints. I was planning to use them while painting outside and was hoping they would give me enough working time to do some oil-like effects. I had a very small bonsai tree sitting on my desk and before I really thought about it, I started to paint it. This new paint turned out to be different than the other acrylics I have used. It does give you more time to work. It also dries more transparent and glossy ( with some colors ) than I was accustomed to. Overall, I like the look of it and do plan to use it more often for some types of painting.

Watery Sunset

Watercolor on Arches 140lb. Hot Press  6" x 9"

Summer 1996. From balcony of Apartment in Hendersonville, TN. It was done in a late summer evening and I remember the heat and humidity. It was one of those days where it seemed that the air was heavy and still - like everything was pressing in on you. This painting has annoyed me ever since I finished it. That pine tree on the left with the curving top is my main problem. The actual tree and horizen did look like this but I wish I had not depicted it literally. It reminds me of the art in a Dr. Suess book. This reminds me that it is sometimes a good idea to adjust the composition - I think the problem is knowing that while you are still working on the painting.

Late Afternoon at St. Pete's in August

Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press paper  6" x 9"

August 1997. This was another early attempt at plein aire painting. Did this while sitting on St. Pete  Beach in Florida looking west in a late afternoon. We were there for a week and this was the build up for a quick rain storm that popped up every day at this time. It would come in fast and dump alot of rain then clear out to make way for a fantastic sunset. I never did get the darks - dark enough to make everything else pop on this painting. I remember planning to try it again the next day - don't remember if I actually did. 

Moo with Shell

Watercolor on Arches 140# Hot Press  4" x 4"

Summer 2003. This was a small study done from a photo taken while on vacation. She was balancing on her feet on the beach in a very shallow pool of water. Great reflections in this shot, however, I never did get that far with the painting. I was not happy with her face - it worked as a painting of a small girl but did not quite capture even a likeness of her. I think that is why I abandoned this one at the time.

Homage to Monet

Acrylic on Arches 140# Cold Press paper  7" x 10"

2001. This was done as an experiment to see how to get a watercolor look when using acrylic paint. I had wanted to be able to combine the look of transparent blending of color in the sky with the more opaque and "oil - like" heavy paint application in the foreground. I happened to have a print of this Monet painting on the wall in front of me at the time, so.. I decided to use it. I think this is the only time I have ever directly tried to copy anothers work. It felt wrong to do it even though I knew this was a time tested method to improve your own work. 

Birds eye view

Watercolor on Arches 140lb. Cold Press paper  4.5" x 15"

August 1998. An early attempt at plein aire with watercolor - in fact, I believe this may be my first. I was on a family vacation to St. Pete's Beach in Florida and was trying to capture the true color of the water so that I could be more accurate when working on the actual painting. All work, at this time, had been done exclusively from photo's I had taken. I was surprised when this turned into doing an actual painting. I do not remember enjoying this process of working from real life very much at the time. The lighting, contrasts, and color seemed to be changing much too quickly for me to use my normal process.

Fountain

Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press  4.5" x 4.75"

Summer 1996. This was a purely play exercise. It was done with no planning as to what it would even be. I was just attempting to work with allowing the burnt sienna and french ultramarine to blend as wet wash a keep the center area as a retained negative image. I guess it turned into a fountian like thing. I was doing alot of experimenting with things like this - mainly to just see what the paint would do. It has helped alot with the confidence needed to allow things to happen. It is a reminder to me to keep up with these type of activities.

Shells

Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press paper  3" x 4"

August 1997. This one was done from a photo I took while walking on a beach in Florida during a family vacation. It was meant to be a study for a  much larger painting, however, I never did get back to that. It works as a small example of the style of watercolors I was doing back then. I was moving away from trying to control how the paint would flow while painting and more just letting it do what it wanted.

West from Little Terrapin

8" x 10" Oil on Canvas covered Board

A plein aire value study completed on 7/3/10. I was sitting on the back deck of a house near Cashiers, NC just before sunset. It had been very hazy all afternoon. The sun was about to set just over those mountains but still was not visible through the cloud cover. My goal for this quick painting ( approx 20 min. ) was to get the correct values - the different colors just sort of happened. I did not achieve the value separations that were intended, however, the study was not all bad. The finished work has sort of a good feel to it.  

Child Study 1

Watercolor and Graphite on paper  3.5" x 3"

1996? This is the first in a series of 5 little drawings I did quite a while ago. All 5 were done within a very short time - probably less than 1/2 hour. I was visiting at a child care center and was waiting for a while. I happened to have a sketch pad and one of those small watercolor travel kits with me. I thought I would see if I could capture a likeness of some of the kids as they interacted with each other. It was a play time so they were all running around. It was a challenge to work that quickly. Overall, I am happy with the results of this exercise. Some of them turned out better than I had expected. 

Child Study 2

Graphite drawing on paper  3" x 4"

1996? Second in the series. I may have had time to do this one in color but I am guessing she moved prior to me getting that done. I liked the way she was holding that crayon. The whole drawing just looks typical of a little kid to me.

Child Study 3

Graphite and Watercolor on paper  3.5" x 2"

1996? Number 3 in the series. This looked to me to be a painful position to sit in but it didn't seem to bother him. I had more time to get this down than the others. He sat there for quite a while like this.

Child Study 4

Graphite drawing on paper  3.5" x 2.5"

1996? Another in the series. Ever notice how kids at a certain age have big heads? My wife has explained that this is true of all toddlers. I remember thinking that his back, from the shoulders down, was as straight as the stick he was holding. Maybe his shirt was just too big.

Child Study 5

Watercolor and Graphite on paper  2.5" x 3"

1996? Another in the series. Sorta liked the expression captured here considering it was done in just a few minutes. Sometimes I think that is the secret to getting a "loose" look in my artwork. If I don't have the time to overwork it - I won't.

Runner Sled

Colored Pencil on paper  4" x 5.25"

December 1996. I was working on ideas for Christmas Card themes when this one came to be. It is the only thing I can find now that I had done in colored pencil. At one time, I was using prismacolor pencils to do a lot of stuff. Most of it was for product design concepts and packaging at a company where I was working at the time. I even did catalog and magazine lay-out concepts with colored pencil. I am not sure why I was not using art markers but there must have been a reason. All of those originals were the "property of the company" so I have none to show now. I may have a stash of some of them - will include those here if I ever find them. I do remember that they were better than this one.

Color Pattern 1

Watercolor on Strathmore Imperial 140lb. Cold Press Postcard 4" x 6"

1996?  Okay, so not exactly a good rendition of "abstract art" but that is what I was attempting at the time. I was thinking that anyone could do abstract stuff - just throw some paint down and call it art. I was very disappointed after doing this and realized that my previous conviction was not correct. There is more to it but I am still not sure what the answer is. I decided to include this on the blog more as a personal reminder. I need to do some more investigation into what makes this abstract concept work.

Ball Study

Graphite on Sulphite Paper 2" x 2"

Spring 2009. Demonstration for children on shading. I placed a ball on a white cloth and used strong light positioned from above and left. The goal was to achieve a very clear contrast from dark to light. I intended it to be a very easy exercise. It was not as easy due to the reflected light off of the white cloth. They were good sports about it and seemed to have fun. I will have to try it again but re-think the lighting.

A Knights Victory

Watercolor on Arches 140 lb. Cold Press  12" x 16"

Completed in 1996 - If I remember correctly. This one is representative of my early days in working with watercolor. I had attended a rennaisance faire in Triune, TN and had taken photo's with the idea that they would be good source material. This painting was one of several I did with those photo's. I remember being pleased with some of the details on the knight but not with the tree line in the background. That part was quickly done without alot of thought. I consider it now to be a good "learning moment" for me. Another issue I have now is that there was little thought to the composition. I think that is what bothers me most is that the painting as a whole doesn't make sense. Oh well ...

Green Pepper

Oil on Canvas board 9" x 12"

Completed 11/15/98. This was the first time I ever tried to paint anything with oil. Other than just trying to see how this stuff worked, I do remember a desire to see how green I could make the pepper look. So...lets just surround it with all that red! That red, by the way, took what seemed like a year to dry completely. It made me think that oil was not the way to go. I have since altered that original impression and now enjoy this medium. I still sometimes think it takes to long to dry but I realize that this can be an advantage.

Coffee

Pigmented ink on bristol 3" x 3"

October 2009. I was looking for possible themes that would work well when thinking about fall and cold weather. I guess coffee just came to mind. This could have possibly been inspired by the Starbucks I had that morning ( and others ) but I will not say that this was the cause. Never did do and actual painting as was the purpose of this but thought it was fun to look at anyway.

Maple leaf

Pigmented ink on bristol 3" x 3"

October 2009. One more in the series of small illustrations designed to work out ideas for a possible painting. Thought this one might be good to zoom in on even more and do a large format painting. I am sure it would turn out very abstract but yet familiar. It could work well.

Oak leaves

Pigmented ink on bristol 3" x 3"

October 2009. Another composition study for possible painting subjects. I like the illustration look to this. It was interesting to look that close at something as simple as a leaf. There was a lot of possiblilies for showing contrast, color, and texture with these.

Brown Acorn

Pigmented ink on bristol 3" x 3"

October 2009. Another in the series of small illustrations of items for fall. This also was composition to test ideas for possible paintings in the future. I was more interested in painting this one - liked the crack and slight opening at the end. I thought I could do more with this in a painting. Once again, never got that far. Maybe I will return to this at some point.

Green Acorns

Pigmented ink on bristol 3" x 3"

October 2009. Working on compositions for fall painting subjects inspired this illustration. I never did actually convert it into a painting but did like the way it looked. Thought I would include it with the rest of the stuff here just to give an idea of the process I sometimes will go through to test out an idea prior to painting. Other times I will just launch into a painting without this step. I guess it just depends on my mood at the time.

Fall Meadow

Oil pastel on smooth bristol board 4" x 4"

This was a quick study done in the fall of 2009. I had been playing around with smearing / blending the oil pastel on the smooth hard paper and found that I liked the effect. I decided to try it out with a photo that I had recently taken while out driving. I used part of the subject matter in the photo and made up the rest - including some of the wild colors. I never intended to actually do anything with this other than experiment but in re-discovering this little painting decided that it was kind of interesting.  Thought I would put it up just to show some variety of stuff that I have been working on.

Max

Acrylic on canvas 20" x 20"

This painting was completed on March 1, 2010 and is a commissioned work of an english bulldog puppy. I was sent a group of photo's and this composition was taken from a cropped version of one of these with color choices made by comparing several other photo's. I was happy with how this one turned out. It seemed to elicit smiles and laughter to those who saw it. I was kinda hoping for that effect when I chose this format. It actually turned out to be a very good likeness of Max and the owners were very pleased with the painting.