Had a good couple of weeks. I got three new painting I am anxious to post. Need to wait for the paint to dry to get a good pict. Two are in studio and one is plein air.

I am really getting anxious for the weather to change. This will be my first spring doing plein air paintings and I cant wait to get out. I have been scouting locations all winter.

The first painting I completed has a thread at wet canvas. The image isn't that good being that there is glare on it. Here is the link:

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5468445#post5468445

Art is like a hayride...

Did you ever go for a ride in a hay trailer? Pulled by a big farm tractor across dusty, bumpy dirt roads through a farm pasture? This is what the creative flow feels like. When I am completely engaged it is like sitting on the wooden bench in the back of a hay trailer. Tractor spews some smoke as it jumps into gear and lurches forward. Slow at first. Then it begins to pick up speed. I am sitting there enjoying the scenery and the blissful gently bouncing hypnosis of the trailers movement. But then it begins to pick up speed and the gentle bouncing turns into a rough bucking. The ruts under the wheels deepen and knock me from the bench. I get back to my seat and hang on for the ride. It's fun but you got to hold on. Then it gets real rough. The trailer is kicking and bucking hard now. I can barely hold on. The dust is kicking up and I am choking on the foul air. Kicking and bouncing, moaning and creeking, I get bounced to the back of the trailer. Thr tractor is speeding up heading down a pasture path. Half seated, half standing trying to remain on the trailer it hits a hard lump of dry earth. Throwing me up in the air I grab onto the back gate as I tumble over the side. Hanging on for dear life, dust in my face, teeth rattling, I am being drug along like a rag doll. Unable to hang on anymore I let go and crash into the hard earth rolling to a stop in the middle of the path. The tractor and wagon rolls on, bouncing and kicking till it is out of sight.
Thrilled with the excitement of the energy yet dissapointed that I couldn't hold onto it. Laying there I wonder if I will get to experience that again. But I have learned that if I stand up, brush myself off and start walking, another trailer will be by soon.

Top Ten Moments

All of the artwork is finally complete for the top ten materials moments.
This was an interesting project to work on. Each moment required some research to find specific items, or historic accuracy. Because of time restraints I couldn't complete each moment as a whole illustration. So to save time i created only on "sheild" drawing and compiled the sheild image together with the individual moments after inking and scanning. I also added the background texture to this composite, using Photoshop to bring them all together.

So here are the moments. Click on the image below to see a rotating gif file:

Old Paintings...

One that got away.



"Leopard" watercolor on toned paper, 1997, 11x14

I love this painting. Unfortunately for me it was destined for an auction to raise funds for the local women's shelter in New Castle.
I believe it fetched $300 which was contributed to the cause. That is good, but I would love to see this again, and in retrospect probably should have kept this one and created another for the auction.

If the person who purchased this is out there, and just happens to come across this post in my blog (one and a million shot), please email me and let me know who you are.

Old Paintings...

Another from the past.



"John&George" pencil on paper, 2001

I was commisioned to do this for a client who was a huge Beatles fan. Shortly after George Harrison died, they wanted this portrait done of both Goerge and John Lennon.
I was originaly going to title it "The Dead Beatles", but I guess that would be a little insensitive.

Old Paintings...

Work has been keeping me pretty busy as of late and I have not been able to commit much time to painting or drawing. So I thought I would take some time to post some old paintings that I have done.

Here is the first:



"Bear Totem" Mixed Media on canvas (acrylic, modeling paste, sand), 22x28, 1995

I still remember working on this painting. It was a complete experiment. I had this vision in my head and just went for it. It was a test of my patience, as I am used to sitting down and completing a painting in one or two sessions. I put on about three or four layers of modeling paste to build up the texture I wanted. Each layer took a night to dry, so it was about a week of prep before I actually got to paint this.

There are moments in our lives, there are moments in a day, when we seem to see beyond the usual-become clairvoyant. We reach then into reality. Such are the moments of our greatest happiness. Such are the moments of our greatest wisdom.
It is in the nature of all people to have these experiences; but in our time and under the conditions of our lives, it is only a rare few who are able to continue in the experience and find expression for it.
At such times there is a song going on within us, a song to which we listen. It fills us with surprise. We marvel at it. We would continue to hear it. But few are capable of holding themselves in the state of listening to their own song. Intellectuality steps in and as the song within us is of the utmost sensitiiveness, it retires in the presence of the cold, materials intellect. It is aristocratic and will not associate itself with the commonplace-and we fall back and become our ordinary selves. Yet we live in the memory of these songs which in moments of intellectual inadvertence have been possible to us. They are the pinnacles of our experience and it is the desire to express these intimate sensations, this song from within, which motivates the masters of all art.

Robert Henri- The Art Spirit, International Studio, May, 1921

Drawing these hands was one of those moments. I sketched these hands from a photo reference on wetcanvas. I sat to simply doodle, half-heartedly, and this sketch just flowed out. So simple, so effortlessly. I love the presence of the line on the paper. The mass of the shapes; muscle, flesh and bone. I come to realize that this is my goal. To be able to engage that song within each time I place pencil to paper. Brush to canvas. Because of the disconnected flow of free creativity, due to the responsibilities of life, these moments are rare and valuable. Everytime I look at this drawing I am reminded of that song within. I am reminded that I can engage that song and hold myself "in the state of listening". Even if only for a brief moment.

Bucking Bronco

It has been a while since I posted something here. The month has been crazy getting ready for the holidays and my son's first birthday party. I haven't done much painting this month. I did however finish this painting that I posted the underpainting of at the end of November. This painting ended up being a struggle and I scraped the paint off a couple of times. It was a real lerning experience and I gained some good knowledge from this one. Not completely satisfied with the outcome, but there are a lot of elements that I do like about this painting. This was done for my nephew as a Xmas gift. I built tha frame myself and was very happy with the way the frame turned out.

Oil on 12 x 14 panel.

A Reminder of the Past

Last Friday I went to visit my parents for the afternoon. I painted this in the backyard. This painting is of Pete's farm which bordered the property line of my parents. Growing up I spent a lot of time up at the farm. Going out with Pete to gather hay bails, building forts in the hay loft, messing with the cows, running from angry bulls, riding bikes through the pasture, drinking cool water from the spring on hot days. That farm and the woods bordering it where a big part of my childhood. Even though I lived in a small apartment with two other brothers in one room, having permission to hang out at the farm made me feel like I grew up in my own personal estate. Unfortunatly progress marches on, and the farm was sold a few years ago to a developer. They have already begun to build large homes on the property. I hope to get back and paint what is left of the pastures before they are all gone.

This is what is on my easel currently. This is a painting for my nephew who loves rodeos. Especially the bucking bronco.
This is the underpainting which is a wash of oil on a 12x14 panel. I am pretty happy with the positioning of the elements but worry that the lack of connection from the bronco to the figures on the right breaks up the composition. I will probably drop the figure sitting on the fence being that he is so close to edge that a frame will cover part of him. Also I don't think it really adds anything to the composition and if anything is distracting.

I am pretty happy with the way this painting turned out. Painting is about creating an illusion of depth, light and form on a flat surface. As a painter I am creating shapes and color using brushstrokes to acheive that illusion. I feel, I have made a succesful painting when I buy into my own illusion. I still see a lot of "painting" mistakes, but for the most part I just see the subject as it is presented in it's enviroment. This was paintedfor my Nephew Logan as a christmas gift. He is big into John Deere tractors right now. I am also doing a bucking bronco for his brother Collin, who is big into rodeo stuff now.




"John Deere" 12 x 14 Oil on panel


This is a snapshot of the black and white underpainting.


Paintin...

Paintin...

I Did this a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to play around with an industrial theme and I came across a photo of a welder that had some great light in it. Most of the painting was done in one sitting. After I let it dry I came back and added in the sparks coming off the welding torch.




"Welder" 10 x 12, Oil on panel

Painting...

Finally got a chance to scan the paintings Ive done for the "Essence of Pittsburgh" plain air worksop I am taking. I can feel myself getting better and better each time I complete a painting. Some of Ron's techniques I struggle with, but I am taking some of what I am learning with Ron and what I already know and sort of mixing up my own technique. That style doesn't appear in these painting, as I am trying to stay true to Ron's technique for the learning value of it. I have a new painting on the easle that is definitly more my style.

This tree was from the first class. I only spent about an hour and a half on this. I really struggled with the color as this was the first time I ever used a limited palette.

8x10 Oil on panel


This ally scene is from the second class. Unfortunatly it was pouring down rain that day and we weren't able to get outside. Instead Ron brought a painting in that he had completed earlier and we followed along as he walked us through his process. I was situated under bad light and wasn't able to see the details of his painting. So most of it is plain and most of the detials are made up. After his demo I went up to take a closer look at the paintin and realized that I got it all wrong. But, all in all it was a great lesson.

8x10 Oil on Panel


This painting, from the third class was outside in Polish Hill. This was lookiing across a three way intersection towards a bar at the crest of a hill. I dont like the color much. I was too focused on the color and forgot to place importance on the value of the light. The whole painting looks rather flat.

8x10 Oil on Panel

Plein Air Paintin...

I joined the PAPWP group on Sunday the 8th at Phipps Conservatory. It ended up being a beautiful day and the gardens were a great place to paint. This painting is from the side gardens looking out across Panther Hollow to the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh. 10 x 12 Oil on panel.



This one was a quick grab of some purple flowers that were to my right. I don't recall the name of the flowers(I need to start carrying a notebook to jot down notes),but I had just finished with the Cahtedral painting and a nice beam of sunlight was shining on these purple flowers and the scene was so dramatic. So I moved my easel and started to paint them. Unfortunatly as quickly as the sun hit the flowers, it just as quickly went away. Iwas in a bad position as the sun was behind filtering through a tree. So everything would either be in complete shadow or direct sunlight, depending on how the tree branches moved. So I only spent about fifteen minutes on this. Quick and dirty. 10 x 12 Oil on panel

Paintin...

This is a "plein air" painting I did in the studio(if you can do such a thing). I painted this from a photograph I pulled up on my computer. Even though this is inside, I approached it as if I was painting outside. I spent about two hours on this.
Mostly brush work with some knive painting to ge the crest of the waves and the pier. I also used the knife to create the shadows coming across the beach from the right. I like working with the knife but it is definitly going to take practice to get used to it.

Sketchin...

I have been wanting to do some figure studies for a while now. Just doing the plein air painting is keeping my hands full, but I managed to squeeze this one out in a couple of sittings. I came across this photo from a California photographer. I would love to paint some figures from his work. He has a great sense of dramatic lighting that really highlights the body.
The sketch took about 20 minutes to complete. Finishing it in Conte' crayon took about an hour and a half.

Sketchin...

Here is a recent sketch of some profiles. These are from magazines I sketched from while sitting in front of the tv.

Ramblin...

Phew! Time flys by when you are not looking. Been thirteen days since my last post.
I started the "Essence of Pittsburgh" en plein air workshop this past Saturday.
Was fun and very educational. I think I am going to learn a lot from Ron. The group was small, maybe eight people, which was nice as it kept the one-on-one time more personal. Very nice group of artists and I look forward to painting with them all again next Saturday. First Ron talked about his pallete set up and color choices. We are using a limited pallete of Thalo Green, Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Red, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Yellow Lemon and Titanium White.
Okay, it doesn't sound so limited, but when I was trying to capture the color of a tree trunk before the sun moved and the color changed, I panicked and struggled. I just wanted to grab a tube of Burnt Sienna and Yellow Ochre. But that is the point of taking this class, to learn something new and paint a little differently than I normally do. I actually like the limited pallete, as it forces me to learn better color mixing skills. I plan to create some color charts this week using that pallete.
After discussing his pallete and basic set up for painting outdoors, Ron did a demonstration and explained some of the difficulty and challanges of painting outdoors. Not only dealing with the elements and people, but mainly how you have to quickly capture the light of the scene before it changes.
After Ron's demo we had about 45 minutes of time left so he let us loose and we took up positions through the grounds of the art center and painted. I will post a photo soon. I have about 3 painting to post, just waiting for an oppurtunity to photograph them.

Been a while since I last posted, so I thought I should check in. Been hard to find the time to create art. I did get out this past sunday with the plein air group. I completed two paintings, one in hast as I was losing light. I think I improved some in my brush work, but I am still struggling with color mix and temerature.
Saturday we went to the Lawranceville art crawl, which was interesting. Highlight of the walking tour was stopping by Ron Donohue's studio. His work was georgeous in person and i cant wait to start the workshop he is teaching at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.

I will post my paintings from Sunday as soon as I get a chance.

Heres my plein air from Sunday. I am still having trouble getting good pictures, but this will work.
This is the playground across the street from my house. It was an overcast day, but every ten minutes or so the sun would break through and gave me some nice shadows.
I tried to limit my palette to the following colors: Ultramarine Blue, Cadnium Yellow Light, Burnt Umber, Alizarin Crimson, Titanium White and Ivory Black. I am still trying to wrap my brain around color temperature, I understand it, but it tends to get lost on me during the painting process. I will post this on wetcanvas for some advice. I am sure someone will be able to advise me on how to warm up the painting, being that it is mostly cool colors.