Soha standing

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Soha Standing oil sketch on linen roughly 20x24

For the second week I attempted an oil sketch. Soha was the model again. This is about 2 hours of work. The proportions and placement are good..ish. I have an iPhone photo that will use to tighten this pose up and hopefully add some color. The paint is applied using OMS (orderless solvent). It show stay open for a few days so I can adjust tones and shapes fairly easily. I'll let the thing go almost dry before adding the color sparingly. This intended as a sketch after all.

This life drawing thing is so important for me. Though it will be finished from a photo I know how the parts sit in space. There is an immediacy that forces decisions and a bit bolder approach.

The second thing I'm going to invent is a camera that takes an image from every point of view at once and lights each perfectly. That is of course after I invent the worm hole from Millanville to Honesdale.

Added some color in the studio using iPhone photo as reference. A nice sketch for a short time... for me at least..

Soha

This is a first at least since the 60s and art school. This is a brush drawing in burnt sienna oil paint. Oil and solvent. It was done starting last Sunday at Johan's Sunday 3 hour one pose drawing session. The model is an Egyptian art student spending some time here in the Catskills. I had an sketch after that and was going to let it lay. I had taken a shot with my phone just in case I might want to finish it in the studio. On Tuesday things were slow and I printed out a biggish print and continued with the sketch. I've spent about another hour and a half over 2 days and I'm happy with it overall. 

I don't know where I was going with this when I started. It was a completely different approach for me. My initial sketch was pretty accurate in proportions so it didn't take a lot to 'finish' it. It it's real finished.

Once it drys hard i might quickly paint over it in color. But not before I get a good scan of it.

the initial sketch

A little touch of home

After a pleasant vacation on the rocky shores of Maine eating lobstahs and oystahs its back to the Upper Delaware valley. Back to the board and easel. I made a few vain attempts at 'plein air' painting I'm glad to be back at my easel. 

We went to Rockland Maine and saw Colin Page's show (as hyped previously). I'm still seeing his beautiful  paintings in my head. A plein air painter by the way.  We walked the Boothbay Botanical Gardens which were gorgeous. But the most fun for me though was crawling around on the rocks shooting with my camera. I was lucky to capture some classic and some dramatic scenes. I now can fake a wave building and crashing in my warm dry studio.

Anyway here I am. The first thing I did was this color sketch of the Delaware River which is just about 800 feet from my house at the bottom of our road. There's a spot just as you start up the rise on River Road across from Bill's chickens that offers up this little scene. The river winding its way up to Skinners falls. Not really a falls  but a ledge that creates a chute that I no longer want to navigate. The time of year, angle of the sun height and color of the water and number of rafters affect the picture. I've been stopping and looking at this for years. I'e even photographed it in magic light.  I could never get it. I decided that I'd better give up the 'idea' of the perfect moment and just do it. Like I said I'm no outdoor painter so I did this quick sketch from a photo and I like it. As I painted it I imaging how a series of this scene in different conditions would be fun and a great study. So here we are Eel Weir number 1.

Just hyping a great painter. Colin Page

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

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... Finished

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. A Beach Lake Bakery Rustic Loaf

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. 

Saying goodbye to good friends

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. 

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A Couple of Cortlands

In the collect of Bill Sordoni

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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.

Another lost painting

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've nerver painted flowers... Part 2

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.

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Signed and varnished

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before simple glazing

Finding the time

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've never painted flowers. Part 1

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.

The Studio Tour has come and gone...

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

A reminder for the Studio Tour...

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.