Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Cherries in Pitcher


Second stage oil on glass-like gessoed masonite. I'll let this dry for a couple of days then glaze in the table cloth. Then I'll finish the pitcher and the last cherry.

Manito Park Finished


8 x 10 oils on canvas

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Manito Park stage two


working in two layers: a washed in thin layer to establish value and hue, then a thicker impasto on top. Background and middle ground nearly done. Its a very Thomas Kincaid subject, but I'm trying not to go there. The foreground will be large strokes of paint and I'll use palette knife and watercolor brushes for the lawn to give variety to the brushwork.

Monday, May 3, 2010

two new step by steps



It's time for a personal challenge. I'm going to post two paintings that I am starting and post the progress steps on them here. The first one is a landscape from a local botanical gardens. This one will be done like the last two landscapes in oils on canvas. The still life of cherries in a silver pitcher is on masonite with an extremely smooth finish. I haven't tried oils on masonite yet, and it is very different so far! Its like trying to paint with mayonnaise on a chalk board. It will be hard to blend wet on wet on this surface, so I will have to lay the paint on side by side and do soft brush blending, working with out medium and keeping things on the dry side. I'll have to let it sit between sessions and dry out, too. The smooth surface makes the paint 'lift' if you repeatedly stroke the brush, so it will be interesting to see how I like this support for the oil medium. Piece of cake with acrylics, but totally different with oils. The idea is to have very little surface texture to deal with.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Ala Prima Study


Here is a small ala prima sketch. Ala Prima means to paint the entire painting in one sitting, with no underpainting to speak of, and no sketching. The idea is to figure out the value (the relative light or dark or graytones), the hue (the color) and its temperature on the palette, then lay the stroke down on the canvas in one expressive stroke...no do-overs. It's harder than it looks!! You have to take into consideration what the stroke will look like sitting next to or on top of the paint already on the canvas. Things looks dramatically different on the pallet than they do on the canvas. Color reacts to its surroundings tremendously. I tried to push the color as well, because it was a white and aqua tea cup with an aqua interior on a beige cloth, and I love color. 6 x 4 oil, two hours, no mediums used.
What I learned: This method is saucy and is great fun to do. Learning to accurately see values is crucial. It uses a ton of paint. I won't be able to afford to do many paintings in this style, even though it suits my temperment because you can't be miserly with the paint.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Greenbluff cabbages


From a plein air sketch last fall. 8 x 10 oil

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Spokane River Summer Morning


Finally finished the plein air field sketch I started last fall. Its good to be back in the saddle again! oil on canvas 8x10. Available for purchase