CE and Mary's Lake House

Watercolor on Arches 140lb Cold Press 18" x 24"

Spring 1997. My wife's grandparents had always wanted a painting of their house. I decided to give it a try and at this time - it would be the largest painting of any kind I had ever attempted. I was very accustomed to working in small format watercolor and was prepared for how quickly to add more or additional colors to a wash before it would get too dry. This one was entirely different. I was still trying to work with the small brushes I was used to and I found that to be difficult. They would not carry as much water and pigment that was needed. I am happy with how this one turned out. I believe it may have been among the last paintings I have done in this very tight style. I am also surprised that it worked as well as it did considering that I was very close to overworking it with those small brushes. 

Rainy Beach Shoreline

Watercolor and Arches cold press  6" x 9"

August 1997.  It seems now when I go back to look at all these "experimental" watercolor paintings that I did during this period of time I had the notion that a beach must be a great landscape for painting. It is also possible that I was waiting for this supposed perfect time to paint when I had alot of time and nothing to interfere. This is not a favorite painting but does bring back these images of a time of transition for me as a painter. It reminds me of the things I used to worry about while painting that I now do not even consider. I am not sure if that is good or bad - just an observation.

Light House Shoreline

Watercolor on Arches cold press paper 6" x 9"

Summer 1997. This painting was just a grouping of scenes from photos I had taken in various places. It started as an attempt to make more interesting cloudscapes. I remember being very happy with the depiction of the sky and then decided to add the other elements. In retrospect, I never did any actual planning of what composition would really make this work. This is another of the early paintings that I do not like now. I still like the sky.

Surf Fishing

Watercolor on Arches cold press paper 6" x 9"

Late Summer 1997. Another example of early plein aire watercolor painting. I do not like this one but in going back to look at all the early stuff I noticed that this may have been the first time I had ever used a knife to scrape out highlights. I believe that this was done during the time I had been reading alot about Winslow Homer and JMW Turner. I was amazed at all the different techniques they would use to get a desired effect. The knowledge gained made it into this one in the spray of water from the fish and in some of the wave crests. This painting is interesting to me now in that I was very much struggling with how to use watercolor for quick outdoor studies. I had previously been very accustomed to doing everything at home where I could take as much time as needed to prepare and plan every brush stroke. This was sort of a "freeing" moment for me when I made the step to not worry about these highlights and just paint. I had alway had the impression that I must preserve every highlight in advance - so how would I ever be able to doing anything without alot of pre-planning?

Painted Paper Airplane

2010 Watercolored Paper Airplane - Ok, not sure this should really be included on the art site, however, I had been "warming up" getting ready to do some watercolors. I was using just a normal sheet of paper from the printer to just play around with different brush strokes and the layering of transparent colors. This is when I recieved the urgent request to show how to fold a paper airplane. Well, this sheet of paper had already served its purpose so it seemed a likely candidate for the job. It flew fantastically! Must have been due to the proper application of added essential drag to the top surface from the rough pigment.

2010 Winter Series Pen Barrel Detail

Winter 2010 - This is a closer detail of the transparent layered effect achieved through many layers of acrylic paint. This seasonal series is working out very well and I am now working on ideas for both the spring and summer series for 2011.

2010 Winter Series pen barrel

Winter 2010 Series of 10. The fall series turned and sold very well so this concept of a seasonal series is continued here. This shows the raw blank prior to the encasing in an acrylic block. It will then be turned down on a lathe and polished prior to assembly into both fountain pens and roller ball pens. All of the hardware on the pen will be done in silver with a snowflake at the top of the upper barrel - all adding to the cool colors used for the winter look. Once again, many layers of transparent paint were applied in varying thickness. It has the same sculptural effect of the fall series.

Olive and Tan pen barrel

Summer 2010 - Acrylic on pen barrel blanks. Olive and tan crosshatch pattern. This was another early trial pen to establish a method that would work on the finished product. It turned out well but did not make it as a finished pen due to problems with encasing it in a block of acrylic resin. I will likely re-do this pattern again now that we now have a better method. This is one of my favorite early attempts.

Blue Dot pen barrel

Summer 2010 - Another pattern in the individual series of fountain pen barrels painted this year.

Red Wave Yellow fountain pen and certificate

Summer 2010 - This is another example of an early fountain pen with the certificate that comes with it. These were all done to find out how the colors would appear when finished. This one was titled "Red Wave Yellow" and is the only one of this pattern I have done. It is signed and dated. I was experimenting with a very thick, sculptural, application of paint on the barrel. It does show up in the finished product.

Finished fountain pen 1

Summer 2010 - Acrylic hand painted barrel in a fountain pen. This is an example of the art as it appears in a finished pen. This is one of the very early samples done to see if it would work. I can't remember what I titled this design but it was one of the several individual patterns that I had completed. It turned out much brighter than the raw barrel that was painted. When the original barrel is encased in acrylic resin it makes whatever color used turn out much lighter. Almost as if under water the colors a amplified.  

George Washington pen barrel

Summer 2010 - Acrylic on Ebonite pen barrel. I painted this set of upper and lower barrels as a special commissioned work that was done to be part of a two pen set. Both upper and lower barrels are signed and dated on the opposite side. The other pen was made from the wood of a tree harvested from George Washingtons estate that was planted by him. Both the bust and signature were painted while under a large 20x magnifying lens using very small brushes. Both of these took a considerable amount of time to complete. The bust had an almost 3 dimensional effect when painted on the very dark ebonite. This was a fun project to do but very tiring. It was worth it in the end as I feel it turned out very well. There are plans to put these two pens in a special carved wooden diplay box. The set with the box has not been completed as of this date so I thought I would put show just these until all has been finished.

2010 Fall Series Pen Barrel

Fall 2010 Series of 8 pen barrels - This is a detail of the barrel (upper and lower ) prior to being made into a pen. Each is hand painted in acrylic and then encased in a block of clear acrylic resin. The barrel is then turned down on a lathe and polished to get a finished smooth look. All the hardware on this series was done in gold. I was really going for warm look in these. In all, there is at least 12 layers of paint on each of these to get the transparent layered effect I was going for. There was also a textural effect obtained by layering the colors on individually in a thick coat. The raw barrels ( prior to being encased ) had the look of a pile of fall leaves.

2010 Fall Series Display in Pen Store

Fall 2010 - Display case showing several of the 2010 Fall Series of pens that I had painted. This was the first series that we have done. There were only 8 pens made. Each is signed and numbered. Half of them were made into fountain pens and the other half were made into roller ball pens. This display is in a locked glass case in the center of the store at eye level as you walk in. At the time this photo was taken 3 had already sold. Each pen comes with a signed card indicating that it is an original artwork - a copy of this card is shown above.

Pen Store in Mall

Summer of 2010 - A new opportunity to display art. Through conversations with the pen maker and store owner, we had decided to try samples of original art painting on pen barrels. I produced several trial samples of various patterns painted in differing methods to see which would work best. This is the store front where the final products will be sold. We found a method to produce a pen barrel that could be made into a fountain pen or rollerball pen and would hold up to daily use but still be the actual original artwork. I will show a display of the 2010 fall series of pens in the next post. Note: I had not discussed displaying this information on my blog with the store owner prior to this posting so I decided it would be best to edit out any actual references to the store until I have obtained permission.