I’m entering my three latest little Kitchen Art paintings in this years Sixes show. 2020 Peach, Wild Apples and Red pepper. All oil on papel. Priced at $240 a piece. This is a giant fund raiser for DVAA hope you can participate.
Wild Apple oil on panel 6 x 6 2020
Wild Apples
Wild apples are a favorite of mine to paint. Wild apples can be the odd apple tree along the side of the road which these are. They could also be from apple trees which are part of a long neglected orchard. There is an orchard nearby that has been mostly revived over the past few years with great success.
This year I collected apples from three trees. A late season drought killed off many of my roadside harvests. Buy the way these apple make for great pies. They’re only unappealing on the outside.
The color in this painting as in most of my recent work is done from a neutral palette. Most everything I see is neutral, Chomeric grey if you will.
2020 Peach 6 x 6 oil on canvas 2020
2020 Peach
This fuzzy peach painting suffered a mishap coming off the easel about 10 days ago. I had to wipe down a portion. I was so bummed I put it away. This morning I finished it. I love the colors and barely control brush strokes. Not a great photo though.
I have some road side apple I picked last week ready for a few more ‘Kitchen Art’ paintings.
It’s been a tough summer. Hell it’s been a tough year. Last weekend I went fishing at Salmon River at Lake Ontario and caught a giant male King Salmon. My first real excursion out. Now I’ll hide out for a couple of weeks. Maybe get some more little paintings done.
Katlin on an orange field
Untitled 30 x 24 oil on canvas 2020
This painting was unfinished from our life painting sessions. I just finished it and I like it. The colors are just what I imagined. this is an uncorrected iPhone photo. I really miss our weekly painting sessions. I miss the light in Johan’s studio. Daylight. I do my best in artificial light but it’s not the same.
I’ve been painting a bit over the last month, making canvases and building compositions. I have a 3’ x 4’ canvas for a big boat painting waiting on the easel.
Red Pepper oil on panel 6” x 6” 2020
Another addition to my Kitchen Art series.
It’s been a long time since I did any little paintings. About a year. Even longer for a piece of Kitchen Art. This pepper came from Roger’s garden. We didn’t have a garden this year because the deer have figured out the fence. Next year I’ll figure out the fence.
This painting was done using my dual primary spectrum palette. I added Lukas Vermillion Deep and Geneva Pyrrole Rubine. Painted in one pass. I may have stopped to pee.
I haven’t been able to work since March. We shut down the weekly figure painting session. I miss the light of Johan’s studio, the camaraderie and the challenges.
I am a steaming pile of co-morbidities. Age, and health make me a rather fat target. Only recently have I come out of my basement like Joe Biden. Except I don’t want to rule the free world. All I want is to paint and sell enough to buy supplies and a desert island in French Polynesia.
15 x 20 oc wip
Block in of my first painting in 3 months
I have a bunch of props hanging around my studio. Stuff I just have, stuff I’ve found, and stuff i’ve bought. This is just a bunch of stuff composed in a sort of classical manner. A gas can, some brass bunnies, petrified citrus, big house painting brushes and a tea towel. Just shapes forms, color and value. Pretty much drawn out to what I want . Time to finish.
Progress to 8/3/20
Progress to 8/6/20
First palette since early march
From left to right:
Red Violet, Violet, Blue Violet, Blue Dual Primary ( Outremer, Cobalt ). Blue Green, Green, Yellow Green, Yellow Dual Primary ( Primary Lemon, Cadmium ), Yellow Orange. Orange, Red Orange, and Red Dual Primary ( Alizarin Crimson and Cad Red Deep).
The weekly figure painting group broke up a week before lockdown. Needless to say there was a lot of anxiety about what was happening. I was trying to finish my boat. I couldn’t by paper goods. My wife’s office shut down and she moved her work home. I was shocked by the severity and swiftness of events. Finishing the boat was hard. Finding even nuts and bolts was difficult. It’s done and is a great boat. I finished it last week. Now it’s time to get back to painting.
Boat build by Dr Paul Diamond and Jim Kingston
The Road to Kevins
Work in progress 30 x 40 oc 2020
The Road to Kevins
Started this three weeks ago at Peters workshop. I let it sit for a while to give me a fresh eye. I’m trying to create space with mostly just shapes and color. Today was a crummy rainy day and the furnace was broken. So I planned to paint while waiting for the plumber. I’m glad I did
This is painting using the semi neutral colors I mix and tube. The result is this highly chromatic neutral work. Not a great photo though. When I finish I’ll make a good one. For now I put it away for a bit to come back again for a new look.
work oil progress 2019-2020
A long winters pose
Almost done. We have been painting this pose since November. We painted another pose in between the start but all agreed that we needed more work on this. The light this winter has been horrible. We paint with natural light from overhead skylights and the weather has been so gray and gloomy. This was the first week that we had great light. At the end of the session I wiped out the face. Oh well, next week.
This is an exercise in neutral color.
Another life painting
It seems that all I paint these days is nudes. I guess that’s all I’ve been painting is why. Is is a 7-8 hour painting over 4 weeks. It ain’t slick or super precise but it is correct in it’s space and excentuates the gesture. Again neutrals.
One model 4 poses
Earlier this year we started a series of painting where our model Katalin would strike multiple poses with the intention that they would go into one composition. Sound hard? You bet.
Painted in the colors I see. Neutral mixes of bi-colors to achieve chromatic greys This was quite an achievement for me in that I did this in 10 to 12 hours.
This is the finish.
Dance 30 x 40 oil on canvas 2019
Below is the sequence as it was composed and executed.This was painted over 5 weeks. Every Monday for three hour or about 2-2 1/2 hour of model time accounting for breaks. Painted under natural light that was constantly changes minute to minute week to week.
The most beautiful light
The front room of the Olsen House
We were up in Maine for the Fourth. We usually go for Labor Day be this time we were early. It was very different. Lots of fish activity at the cabin. Blues chasing big schools of bait fish on the changing tides. Seals chasing bait fish and thousands of seabirds. It was hot. Except on the from deck. The photo above was taken in the Olsen House where Andrew Wyeth paint so many iconic paintings. Truly the best light I have ever encountered.. The highlight of the trip for me.
Of course there was Moody’s where I had the best blueberry pancakes on the planet. I was a trip jam packed with surprises. We went to a clam shack in Seabrook, NH I haunted in my youth. Visited with an old friend in Haverhill my home town
On the why to the highway I turned onto the street where I grew up ‘I think I’ll drive by the house’. I stopped in front. A woman and a dog were there. I’ Grew up in this house’ I said. “Are you Jimmy Kingston the artist?’ she asked. It’s a long story made short we looked around inside flooding me with forgotten memories. Wow. Far out.
125 Kingsbury Avenue
Jitterbug Straight Up
Sold! Purchased by a fellow art traveller. 8.6.19
Oil on Linen Panel 2019
This illustrative painting is the result of a series of doodles and sketches done over the past few years. This antique Jitterbug was purchased about 3 years ago with the intent to make a painting of it.
This is a rendering with a touch of expressive brush stroke.
The first Largemouth Bass I ever caught on a lure, maybe the first fish I ever caught on a lure, was with a Jitterbug on Angle Pond in Hempstead, New Hampshire. My cousin Raymond Sweetser taught me how to fish with lures and flies in the summer of 1960. I never thanked him enough for doing this.
This is the latest in a long series of fishing lures and flies I’ve made over the past 30 years. Pieces in watercolor, oils, and cg.
WIP from weekly life painting
The is a detail from the biggest painting I’ve ever attempted from a live model. 4’ x 3’. I think I got pretty far along in the about 7 hours over three weeks. It’s not done by any measure but a good solid base to finish from a photo. This is Katalin our new model. Again it’s color and value. She had a crown of flowers in her hair like it’s 1967. Far out great fun to paint.
Spring Maiden 4’ x 3’ oil on canvas 2019 WIP