Painting large

This madrona tree series is made up of five custom made panels. Each panel is 72 inches high and 18 inches wide. The panels are cradled two inches deep so I continue the look by painting a "gallery wrap" around the edges of each panel and they look very impressive hanging with a one inch gap between panels.

Reaching Out, acrylic on panels, 72x90

Fields and Fences

I have been busy painting a new series of my "Fields and Fences."  Here are a couple that I just recently had photographed. It is fun playing with some new color combinations. I am intrigued with shapes and the fields and roads can be whimsically manipulated in so many ways!

Around the Bend, acrylic on canvas 36x36



Morning Light, acrylic on panel 36x36

Summer "Pop Up" Gallery

 Well, it is official. We will again be occupying the lower corner space in the historic Hastings Building for our "839 pop-up Gallery" in downtown Port Townsend.. This is an awesome space. It has fairly good light, high ceilings and the art shows very well. I am again partnering with Jim Jacobson another local artist who works with oils and creates popular local and marine scenes.





We will be moving in the first of April and staying through the summer. I am looking forward to meeting all kinds of fun and exciting people and talking about art.  And, hopefully, we will be shipping a few paintings to new locations around the country.

Dark or light?

When I begin a painting I usually start with a black gessoed canvas or panel and draw my shapes in with chalk. It can take hours to get the drawing right but it is easy to erase with a damp sponge and redraw and adjust the chalk lines until the composition works.

I then start layering and glazing with color leaving the black of the background visible in selected areas kind of like a watercolor artist uses the white of the paper to represent the light areas.  They work from light to dark and I paint  from dark to light, just the opposite.

Evening Hues 20"x40"

"Evening Hues" is painted on a black background and the colors are very saturated and bright.

 

Sunrise in Lavender 30"x40"

On occasion I will start a painting on a white or lighter colored background. Sunrise in Lavender is painted over a white background and you can see the dramatic difference in the final result. The colors end up softer with an ethereal feel.

 

 

May in Olympia

Nine of my newest works will be showing during the month of May at the Childhood's End Gallery in Olympia, Washington. My art will be featured along with that of four other artists.

 

 

"Meet Me for Lunch" 24"x24"

Check out their website at www.childhoods-end-gallery.com. The exhibit will be up through May 31st. If you are in the area stop in and have a look at this great gallery!

From sketch to canvas

In an earlier October post I said that I was thinking of doing a full size painting using a plein air sketch I did of the Rose Theatre. Well, I found some time and did it. Here is the finished painting along with the original sketch.

 

I used fluid acrylics on a stretched 30"x30" 12 oz. canvas. I worked at it off and on for about a month until I was satisfied with the overall look. I used my artistic licensee quite liberally so it is more of a resemblance than an accurate portrayal of the site but recognizable!

 

 



A "real" painting

I like super realistic paintings although I do not try to paint them very often.  This orange was sitting on my studio table begging to be eaten or painted so I decided to see how realistic I could paint it with my fluid acrylics before I consumed it.  I had a little 6"x6" canvas handy that was primed with venetian red gesso so I drew it almost life size and filled the entire canvas with the subject.   I had so much fun that I went into the kitchen and borrowed a lemon and an avocado and painted them both in the same manner.   They turned out great and both sold before I got them photographed. 

 

It is great to paint outside of your comfort zone once in a while but now I look at this little 6x6 inch orange and think of how awesome it would look on a six foot by six foot or larger canvas!

 

Plein Air Convention and Expo

Wow!  We just returned from the 2nd annual Plein Air Convention and Expo  held in Monterey, California.  We had a great time taking in all the marketing seminars and most of the artist demos.  We packed light and didn't take our painting supplies but we really enjoyed watching all the outdoor painting.  It was fun to watch the artists pick a location and a subject and then proceed to make a great painting within an hour or two. It was pretty windy and I felt very intimidated by all the talent but I managed to sit still long enough to do a quick sketch of Fisherman's Wharf.

Here are a few of  my convention highlights!

This is one of my favorite painters, Ken Auster doing one of his demonstrations onstage.  This picture was taken from the huge screens they had on either side of the stage.  Very easy to watch.

This is Ken's finished painting.  He paints large (love it) and completed this San Francisco trolley car scene in less than an hour.  Impressive to watch!

This is Russian painter Alexey Steele drawing a likeness of another great painter Scott Christensen.  Alexey is very animated and great fun to watch.  He will keep you fixated with his accented commentary.

John Crump, Another of my favorite painters is shown here painting on the windy beach.  He also paints larger than most of the others so naturally I am interested!

This is John's finished painting that he created for his demonstration the day before.  This 24"x48" painting was executed in about an hour. Amazing!  I missed his demo but sought him out on the beach and got to talk to him in person.  Great guy!

This is Don Demers doing a demo on the beach.  He is a great Maritime painter and always draws a huge crowd.

And there were plein air painters everywhere!  They came from all over the world to be here for this event.  Spectacular!

Random Thought 4

In my search for serenity, I have found that I  must be at ease with who I am, where I am and what I have today.  On the days that I am not comfortable with any one of these things I find it much harder to produce good art.

"Tree Line"  acrylic  12x12

Let's make good art today.......

Special Delivery

One of my duties as an artist is to ship and or deliver paintings to the galleries that represent me.  Today I will be delivering six paintings to the Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island about a fifty mile drive from here.  I will be participating in a group show that will be opening there on April 5th.  For most deliveries I like to bundle my paintings for easier handling and safer transport.  I stack them, according to size, face to face and back to back with strips of foam core for spacers.  I then wrap them together with stretch wrap (the neatest tool since the invention of duct tape!)  It is quick and easy and they are now better protected and much easier to cart down the street or up and down the stairs to my studio.



I also use a wrap around the edges of some of my finished studio paintings when in storage.  It gives a little protection to the corners and edges and helps cut down on the inevitable road rash that just suddenly appears after they have been hung and rehung at various shows and gallery walks.  But alas, even after careful handling and stretch wrapping  the bruises are still most likely to show up on the paintings that need to be delivered asap.

Newest Painting

Quite often I am asked to do a commission and this one I just finished for clients of the Childhood's End Gallery  in Olympia. They gave me a couple of  ideas after looking through my  coffee table book and it quickly started to take shape.  I used my layering and glazing technique extensively throughout the painting and some areas have over 20 applications of glaze.  From inception to finish it took just under a month to complete and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.

"Hillside Orchard" 20"x 54"  fluid acrylic on 12 .oz gallery wrapped canvas

Over the years,  I have listened to many different opinions from fellow artists about doing commissions.  Some make their living by them while others have only horror stories to tell.  Personally, I enjoy doing them and think that to stretch my imagination and capabilities is always good.  So far I have only good stories to tell.  Any thoughts?