I'm up here in Maine and went to see a solo show of an artist I met about 10 years ago. He was good the now he's great. The show is at Dowling and Walsh galleries in Rockland Maine.
http://www.dowlingwalsh.com/represented-artists/colin-page/
Colin truly paints with light. I want to know where he buys it.
Jabba the Rock Oil on linen 30 x 20
This rock stands at the end of the trail to Whitehead on Monhegan Island, ME. Not quite finished yet but in the next couple of days, maybe.
This is the most complicated painting I've attempted in a very long time. I love some parts of it and almost hate others. Only time will tell. The rock sort of looks like Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars. I painted this with thinned oils using Mark Carders medium formula (minus the clove). I'm happy with the technique. The exposure of the photo is a little soft. When it's done and oiled I'll shoot a better one.
Free Bread. Oil on canvas 20 x 16
I got it finished. I like it but would like to spend more time to give it a polish. But hey.
Hopefully someone will like this one and WCAA can make a few bucks from it. I learned a bit from doing this about working with thin paint. I learned how wild it must be inside a loaf of bread while everything is expanding and exploding all over the place. Sort of like the beginning of the universe.
If you get the chance come the the WCAA auction in September at Main and Basin. I'll be posting date and time later on.
Free Bread
I've been working on a couple of paintings over the past 2 weeks. This one and a landscape that isn't ready for public viewing yet. This piece, Free Bread, is for a Wayne County Arts Alliance fund raiser. An auction taking place in September. I had to get it done to dry so I Can hand it in next week. We're going to Maine at the end of the month and I wanted this out of the way. Anyway...
About 25 to 30 of the WCAA will be submitting works on the theme of texture. the only limitations are it has to be 16 x 20 and hang on a wall. So this meets those guidelines. It took about 4 days overall spread out over a week. Getting the bread, photographing, printing full size, mixing intermediate colors then painting which took about 10 hours so far. When it's dry I'll glaze some and finish the foreground. I like this painting. I wasn't intimidating and was as always a great study in mixing complementaries. There are a couple of simple compositional considerations working here but nothing fancy.
I was a little stressful what with the time crunch but that feeling went away when I decided I liked it. Just like the bread. BLB Rustic loaf is out of this world. Lisa Woods only makes her breads and pastries for the public on the weekend. The bakery is off on a country road. Lucky for us we live only about 3 miles away on an even more country country road.
This is an iPhone shot. When it's done I'll make a full frame of it and put it up.
Okay this may seem weird but I just delivered a couple of paintings and now I miss them. I'll get over it but I did like taking a peek at them no and again. They've gone to a good home where they'll meet new friends and admirers.
These painting were the ones I put the most work into and got the most out of. They were partners in learning the way along the path to better paintings. One was a seemingly simple watercolor the other 2 were fairly complex oils at least for me.
A Couple of Cortlands
In the collect of Bill Sordoni
Motif Number 1.2
In the collection of Bill Sordoni
Oh Boy Pie
In the collection of Bill Sordoni
There they go. They're just down they highway about an hour and a half away. Maybe I can visit with them from time to time and catch up.
The Red Barn oil on panel 12 x 9
Yet another painting almost forgotten. I did this in January 2013. Put it away to dry. Forgot about it found it 6 months later and varnished it. Put it away to dry and forgot about it. While I was cleaning up for the recent studio tour I found it and had a frame put on it. A lovely solid walnut frame.
This is the barn at the end of my field that I store the tractor and mowers and tav in of seasons. It's an old thing with rotted isles and a roof the we keep patching. It was build right on the ground. I been repairs many time in the past but is still serviceable and convenient. It also has great character and grunginess. It used to be home to many bats until the bat populations started to drop. Now it just houses a few field mice and my tractor.
It's now listed in available paintings. HERE
I did this small painting on Arches Oil Paper.
It took about a day over Monday and Tuesday. It's ok.
I'm gonna let it dry and glaze in some tints on the flowers.
Signed and varnished
before simple glazing
When we hit a certain age the medical establishment starts controlling our lives. We have to begin regular testing for prostate or breast or colon issues. Even if we have no signs. And if there are signs. Well then worry comes into play. This week I discovered the reason that my hands are hurting is carpool tunnel. But theres no tunnels around here and I haven't commuted for years. There was a wasted day. Then I was supposed to have a MRI on my head because I not hearing words correctly. They squeezed me into an aging and rusty magnetic donut and I freaked out and leap from the hideous machine. I found out that all those drugs back then do flash back. And , that my brain can act real quickly when needed. I also learned today at yet another Dr visit that my prostate seemed ok. What a pain in the ass. That on top of having to pee in a bottle for a day.
Tomorrow I have to bring my wife for a colon scoping. She's been quite unhappy most for the last 2 days. I already know that life sucks when she's unhappy.
You really know you're getting old when you start attending fundraising events for causes you don't know about or even care. When do I find the time to paint?
This Sunday look like I'll have the time. After I go get the gas can and diesel cans filled up and fill the mower, ATV, tractor and chain saw. Mow the lawn. Cut down that dead hickory by the drive and drag it away with the tractor. I'll have time after we swim, 1 hr round trip plus swim time.
Yeah I'll get to that painting real soon.
I have never painted flowers. At least that I can remember. As the Peones were fading we cut the last of the batch and slammed them in a vase with some water. Not much thought. I brought them to my studio and set them up in front of the camera. Over 3 days I shot the set up sometimes with side light sometimes with top light. This photo is a combination of 2 shots 3 days apart. One top lite on side lite. In photoshop I masked and merge the images.
I built a relative proportion grid over the photo. Transferred the grid 1 to 1 onto a piece of Arches oil paper stained with DMP stain.
My intention here is to first see if I like painting flowers... they're pretty fussy thing. How I feel about the result will determine if I do a larger version more complete on line.
The real intriguing challenge here is the color matching. The subtle gray pinks cast with hints of green contorting with the purples and magentas. Oh boy.
I'm also doing this to show how important it is to sometimes spend the time and effort to solve problems before you commit to doing an expensive effort on linen. What I'll learn here will make doing a finished painting easier and quicker.
Today I start finding the formulas for all those delicious grays. Yummy.
Wish me luck.
With some measure of success. I sold 6 painting and 8 reproductions. I had to discount a bit but thats not unexpected. A lot of people visited the studio even with our remote location. Some friends showed up late Saturday from Jersey and we had a great evening.
Its surprising how many folks I know in these parted considering I've only been here full time for 3 years.
For those of you that read this silly blog and came to visit thanks for the support
This Friday, Saturday and Sunday The Wayne County Arts Alliance is holding a tour of 24 artists at 17 different location in Greater Honesdale, PA. About 100 miles NW of New York City.
www.waynecountyartsalliance.org for a map and directions to locations.
Here's a radio interview from WJFF that Lindsay George, Alan Wood and I did on Monday's Making Waves program.
Heres a look at some of my stuff set up in the studio.
This has turned out to be a lot of fun. I helped hang the show on the weekend and it looks great. The general level of 'talent' is very high. Many many absolutely exceptional artists. We have quite a few nationally known folks around here its a thrill to be part of it.
To get my hands working again I did this little still life of a tarnished loving cup and a lemon. This seems to be a common theme. I liked the colors and surfaces. I painted it without and 'pencil marks' just brushed it in. It only took a few hours to get the feel of the brushes and ey hand thing going. I'm happy with the result. But it's not very interesting.
Oil on Linen 10 x11?
Not such a giant deal but I taught a 2 day realistic painting workshop to about a dozen and a half high school kids at The Art Academy. A week long summer program for kids that is independent of the school sort of. It was a Honesdale High School in Wayne County PA. What a great facility they have for the kids there. Many of the kids came from other schools in the Wayne County System. This is a very rural and low income area of the country. But the schools are very good. While most schools are minimizing arts programs Wayne is continuing to support them. They have lots of computers for design and photography, CAD systems, pottery facilities, and presentation tools. I was impressed.
I had be advised that the kids were hard to get to. As are all kids I guess. As old as I am I can still remember being a little prick. It was true they were hard to get to really only wanting to get painting. It was a bit of a physical challenge having to be on my feet for much of the time. My knee doesn't like me much today and forget my feet.
We worked in watercolor which is the preferred medium (it's easy to clean up). But difficult to paint with well. I supplied a bunch of props like old bells, silver cups, fruit and other such things. A couple of kids built still lives but most pulled out their iPhones and painted some image had had stashed there.
We didn't have the high quality materials but certainly good enough. Some kid were inquisitive, most not. The hardest thing to get across was to let the water do the work and not scrub away at the paper. I introduce the use of the proportional divider. Thanks Mark Carder. One girl actually used it to scale up a drawing from a picture on her phone and did a great job in record time. I was impressed. 3 or four kids did real good jobs. They all tried. One or 2 did really good painting. PICTURES TO COME.
The funny thing I notice was the angst that some of the kids had through the process. Confident their idea would work well to start, struggle and despair as they worked. Just the same as I do when I work. Hating just before I'm done. And miraculously liked as I finish. Go figure.
Today the local arts association hung show with one piece from each kid that participated. I hobbled there late this afternoon. It was great a rock band of high school kids and cookies and lemonade.
I have to give great props to Ellen Silberlich the HHS teach who organized and runs this program every year. She is a tireless worker for her kids. She is also a great potter. Her work can be seen here.
This July The Way County Arts Alliance is having it's annual Studio Tour. I'm on it. Here's a link to the WCAA web site.
http://www.waynecountyartsalliance.org/artists--studio-tour.html
