Sea shell and WC tube. 11x14 watercolor on bristol.

After a day of doing business stuff I sat down to paint and had a hard time "seeing". 

Decided to do a simple exercise to show my workshop people and picked a tiny broken shell and a used-up watercolor tube as subjects. At first glance not exciting items to look at, but holding each and looking carefully they revealed fun shapes to paint.

There's always something beautiful to see if you slow down and look for it.

July 15 2009  SF

Canoe on shore. 5x7 oil on panel.

Did this study some days ago from looking at a watercolor of the same scene. For personal reasons it's significant to me in that for the first time since I started painting again in oil I really felt in control of the medium and therefore could paint "the way I paint", as opposed to a perfunctory execution of a subject. 

I told myself when I (again) started painting in oils that I'd have to do 200 bad oil paintings to get where I wanted to be. This little study is about number 300. I guess I was optimistic, but whatever, here I am, and happy to be here..

July 14 2009  SF

Pond hockey. 5x7 oil on panel.

While I am certainly interested in doing gestural figures I couldn't help being distracted by these frozen pond images. Here I have eliminated any figures and simply looked at a pond that has been skated on.

July 14 2009  SF

Pond hockey. 5x7 oil on panel.

I liked what was happening with the foreground ice in the previous study, so in this one I diminished the one skater and made a composition that leaned more on the texture and reflection of the ice.

July 14 2009 SF

Pond hockey. 5x7 oil on panel.

I wasn't happy with this one as the gesture of the foreground person is dull. But I was intrigued by the background elements and continued  the series based on that.

July 14 209 SF

Pond hockey study. 5x7 oil on panel.

This was done yesterday after looking at the previous study of the same gesture; I realized I'd "squared up" the figure in the oil study, turning the figure towards the viewer a bit, while the pencil drawing of this figure is at more of an angle. 

This is a common ( and lifelong in my case) mistake people make when drawing a figure - There is a strong tendency to straighten-up a figure you are observing. You really need to tilt what you see more than what you think you are seeing, and generally that will turn out to be about right.

Another change was to set the figure on ice that is free of snow and reflective, which is very interesting to paint.

July 14 2009 SF

Pond hockey study. 5x7 oil on board.

This too is based on a drawing from yesterday. I hadn't meant to run the guy's skates off the bottom but was happy with the rest of the drawing and thought, hey, maybe it will look cool like this when it's painted.

July 12 2009  SF

Pond hockey study. 5x7 oil on panel.

This was based on a drawing I'd done out of my head yesterday. I found a bunch of great video of skaters but at this point felt it unimportant to get the drawing figured out precisely and simply followed my original sketch.

The big curved shape in the background is an undecided thing - Wanted the shape there but didn't decide what it would be. Might end up being a cloud, or a backlit snowy hill.

July 12 2009  SF

Two more pencil ideas. Off to bed. SF

Pond hockey sketch. One more.. SF

Pond hockey sketches. Various sizes. Watercolor on bristol, and ball point on paper.

Here it is mid-July in Iowa and for some reason my mind wandered back to my youth and playing countless games of hockey at the local rink. 

It occurred to me that this might be a good subject for a painting series; it's something I am passionate about, (pond hockey) and capturing a human gesture in a drawing or painting is absolutely my favorite thing, and maybe what I'm best at. (You wouldn't know I cared about this based on the previous 100+ blog entries, but the blog began at a time when I was exploring other things.)

I'll look into this. Stay tuned...

July 11 2009  SF

3 landscape studies. 5x7 oil on board.

Bottle rocket. 5x7 acrylic on board.

I was amused by this; July 5 I went out to cut the grass and found this large rocket expired in my yard. The stick pointed directly back at a good friend's house a block away, and knowing my friend there was no question about his having celebrated the 4th with enthusiasm. I put the rocket in a vase with some fake flowers.

July 7  2009 SF

Thumbnails.

The Orioles are watercolor on bristol, the others are oil on board. (Note coin on oils for scale.)

I find this very helpful before a painting session; I do a bunch of tiny little drawings or paintings(out of my head - Not looking at anything) to get my eye to be looking for simple compositions that work. Out of these thumbnails will come an appealing idea and I'll then look for reference material, live or photos, to paint from.

Sometimes these thumbnail sessions are simply drawing abstract shapes, and I'll look at the shapes and see if they remind me of anything; a landscape, or a still life subject, etc., and if a shape gives me an idea I proceed from there.

July 7  2009  SF

Shells. 11x14 watercolor on bristol.

I was trying to get warmed up to do some landscapes but felt blocked. Rather than beat my head against the problem I switched to something unrelated and did these easy little studies of broken sea shells. It got me over the issue of trying to accomplish something that wasn't working, and by returning to the calming practice of observing and drawing I was then able to return to the landscapes.

July 7  2009  SF

Been busy painting but not posting of late.. Time to get back to it.

July 7  2009 SF

5x7 acrylic on panel. Thunderstorm.

I went out last evening to shoot landscapes in declining light and instead got great shots of a huge thunderstorm forming.. which I later drove home through with the Jeep top down. So it goes, so it goes..

Really enjoying doing these small studies. There is the sense that there's nothing to lose and therefore they have a fresh and intuitive feel to them. This then helps me to keep that same freshness when repainting them larger.

June 22 2009  SF

9x12 acrylic of pond with guy fishing.

June 21 2009  SF

11x14 watercolor and pencil. Pond.

Did this watercolor study last evening, then below it made notes to myself on how the composition might be improved. The acrylic painting above is based on this study.

June 21 2009  SF

18x24 pasture with stream. Acrylic on canvas.

Yesterday was the fourth straight day of rain and gloom. Took advantage of it and looked out my window across the street for information about lighting. 

The composition of this painting is based very loosely on a photo. I might do a little more with the grass and plants in the middle ground tomorrow but today I gotta get out of here as we finally have some sun.

June 17 2009 SF

9x12 Pond. Acrylic on canvas.

As an experiment I made this smaller painting based on the 18x24 below.

June 17 2009  SF

18x24 Pond. Acrylic on canvas.

Here's the painting done from the study.

June 17 2009  SF

1.5 x 3 inch thumbnail of pond. 

I have a couple larger canvases I'd like to use and be rid of so this afternoon I started doodling pond scenes. This is a small watercolor on bristol based on a composition I see across the street.

Satisfied with the basic shapes and values of this study I will make the larger painting based on this and take brief looks at photo reference for information about water and reflection etc. But the painting will be 90% invented. 

June 14 2009 SF

11x14 watercolor. Canoe on beach.

On a whim I did this painting on smooth (plate) bristol. I painted watercolors on bristol many years ago and forgot how fun it is. It's an extremely fast process as the paint dries almost immediately and stays put - No blending or softening edges later - It's a little bit like using markers, so all your decisions are intuitive and you leave a lot to chance. I think I'll try some more of these.

June 12  2009 SF

15x20 watercolor. American Robin and nest.

My goodness, what a distracting couple weeks it's been. Last week of school for my daughter followed by shopping and packing her off to camp. Also did a piece for The Nature Conservancy.

Anyway, it's good to be back to panting and the blog.

June 12 2009 SF

SOLD

11x14 watercolor. Baseball glove and summer thumbnails.

Wanted to do some thumbnails of summer icons and decided to use the ball glove painting for that.

June 1 2009 SF

The finished painting.

I was happy with the spare paint work on the glove itself, just enough to make clear what it is, but the painting as a whole needed more body so I put in some grass and shadow on the left side.

I'll write some remarks re: summer to the right of the glove tomorrow.

May 30 2009 SF

You can see here that I'm doing very little detail with the paint, painting right over detailed drawing with simple washes and letting the pencil show through to convey information.

Beginning the painting I put in some middle and dark values on the left side and then faded them out as they went towards the lit side of the glove. Right away I saw what I was going to do, which was to "blow out" the lightest side. That's photographer terminology for an effect where the lightest areas are deliberately over exposed, and fairly light areas simply go to white.

As I looked at my glove in the grass I tried to think of how I could paint it in the fewest number of strokes possible. Ball gloves are surprisingly complex if you observe them carefully, and I didn't want to get hung up with a lot of detail and have a painting that looked too careful and fussy. I wanted a painting that was fresh and spontaneous but still said "baseball glove" right off the.. er.. bat.

Starting the drawing I made bold pencil lines, anticipating that when it came to laying in paint I would let those lines shoulder a lot of the work of suggesting detail. This would relieve me of having to do a lot of picky brushwork.

Had an idea today to do a series of paintings of simple iconic summer images; baseball glove, flag, watering can, lawnmower (well, maybe not..) lemonade, etc.

Threw my baseball glove in the lawn and got started.

May 30 (My mom's birthday!) 2009 SF

7x10 Peony. Watercolor.

The finished piece. I felt the painting was a little stiff, so I added some penciled drawings of pens in the cigar box and on the table to freshen it up a bit.

May 28  2009  SF

Now I am free to paint in areas that are secondary, like the jar full of pens and coloring the interior of the cigar box of pencils and brushes behind the flower. Also put in some foreground color for the vase to sit on.

I've moved on to establishing the strong dark shapes in the painting. (I've roughed in the basic shapes of the main subject, the basic shapes of the area around it, and now the basic shapes of the darks that will hold the composition together.)

With the petals roughed in I switched to filling in the general color of the surrounding area.

This is a terrible shot (the sun was not up yet, but the camera flash was too much.. so a weirdly lit shot under a drawing lamp.)

I started with the basic petal shapes, leaving white at the most highlighted areas, but mostly just trying to rough in the forms.

 

Peony.

This is my first Spring at this house and I was thrilled to see Peonies coming up here and there.

I cut the first fully bloomed flower last night and made a small painting of it this morning.

Here's the penciled stage.

SF

9x12 oil of shell, water, ink bottle.

This painting clocked in at 45 min. as well, which surprised me. Thought it would be faster than the previous one.

By only looking at the first painting while I did this I made a number of changes that were simply judgement calls: injected more color, made the glass taller, the shell less fussed over and smaller etc.

May 26 2009 SF

5x7 oil of shell, water, ink bottle.

Just did this small painting looking directly at the subject. Took me about 45 minutes.

It's not quite what I was after, so as an experiment I'm going to do a second painting looking only at the first painting.

May 26 2009 SF

7x10 watercolor of mixed olives.

Yesterday (Memorial Day) I wanted to make a painting of my picnic things; olives, cheese, salmon, crackers, fruit, and set those up around the basket with drinks and such.. and the whole project started to feel overwhelming. So I just did the olives rather than do nothing. I often remind myself on a drawing or painting day that if the forest is too much do a tree, and if a tree is too much do a leaf. Many times I have rescued a session simply by cutting the task down to a size I can manage.

May 26 2009 SF

Detail of one of the 5x7 landscape oil studies. SF

Spent the afternoon on a hot and dusty county road painting oil landscape studies and collecting smiles and two-fingers-off-the-wheel waves from farmers.

Here's a photo of part of the vista. I would look at parts of it and try to get a feel for the roll of the landscape and shapes of the fields, but I took great liberty with pushing the compositions around.

The (above) shots of the 5x7 studies are lame as new oil paintings bounce back the flash badly, but you get the general sense of what they are about. Hopefully.

May 22 2009 SF

7x10 watercolor of radishes.

I have a full painting day ahead but nothing in mind for subjects. When this happens I sometimes find it helpful to do some small studies or thumbnails out of my head just to get some bearing before I head out. If I haven't thought about what is an appealing subject before setting out I tend to drive around in circles and come home having done nothing.

The radishes (or something similar) I'll save for when I get back home. The tiny thumbnail sketches will be my inspiration this morning: a flag, an Iris, a park BBQ scene.

May 21 2009 SF

SOLD
7x10 Carolina Wren. Watercolor.

I've had this painting 98% done for a couple weeks but schedule was hijacked by the high school class I taught. A very enlightening experience for me, and I hope for a few of the students.

May 20 2009 SF

About 14 x 11. Watercolor.

This was fun and I think I'm going to try another similar painting this evening. The idea is that while I want to show a glass of wine (it might be used as a label at my friend's vineyard) I didn't want to make a big deal of that one object. So I put it in a setting to make it simply one part of an appealing environment.

May 19 2009 SF

20x15 watercolor. Vineyard boat.

May 19 2009 SF

15x21 watercolor. Chard.

I was going to do something else with this painting and then some guy struck a nice pose in front of me, looking up at paintings on the wall (mine, in fact).

May 17 2009 SF

CSG 

Detail of trumpet player. 

Can't believe my last blog post was May 1.. I accepted an invitation to teach two classes at a high school and badly underestimated the prep time this would require. It's all I've done, all day every day for three weeks. Finally wrapped that up this Friday and then remembered I had to go to Marion to do a painting gig. I'm exhausted but behind on work schedule, so no break yet.

May 17 2009 SF

SOLD
10x8 watercolor. Ideas for fishing book.

A friend dropped by yesterday and was intrigued with this page of thumbnail studies which I'd posted on blog some time back. She suggested it would be kinda nice framed but needed something in the lower right corner to finish out the shape.

Good idea!

May 1 2009 SF

SOLD
7x10 watercolor. Carolina Wrens.

April 30 2009 SF

SOLD
7x10 watercolor. Orioles.

April 29 2009 SF

SOLD
7x10 watercolor. Cardinal.

April 28 2009 SF

SOLD
7x10 watercolor. Oriole.

April 28 2009 SF

SOLD
7x10 watercolor. Flowers in jar.

April 28 2009 SF

7x10 watercolor. Mother's Day flowers.

April 28 2009 SF

SOLD
7x10 watercolor. Another Iris. 

April 28 2009 SF

SOLD
Iris. 7x10 watercolor. April 26 2009 SF

Cardinal. 7x10 watercolor. April 26 2009 SF

SOLD
7x10 watercolor. Mother's Day flowers.

With Mother's Day on the horizon I'm devoting this week to birds and flowers.

April 26 2009 SF

Crappie Jig. 6x6 watercolor.

This was the spot illustration selected by Garden & Gun magazine to accompany the scene of the guys fishing.

April 23 2009 SF

SOLD

Two guys in boat. 7x10 watercolor.

April 23 2009  SF

Iris. 7x10 watercolor.

April 23 2009 SF

SOLD

Here's the finished painting for the magazine story. (Garden & Gun magazine)

With this one in hand  I might try the same painting again a little looser.

April 20 2009  SF

Did this as a spot illustration to accompany the main fishing painting for the magazine assignment.  April 20 2009 SF

Waiting for my friend to call (we're burning a field today) and had twenty minutes, so I knocked out another idea for the magazine piece, again just making this up, so the perspective is probably off and so forth. I like this better. We'll see what the mag says. 

April 16  2009  SF

Crappie fishing study. 7x10 watercolor.

This was a study for a Garden & Gun magazine story about Crappie fishing. Did this quickly out of my head, and if the concept is approved I'll shoot pictures to make the scene more convincing. Not more detailed, but the effect of light refraction, the gestures of the people etc. more accurate.

Tomorrow I'm off to help a friend burn another field.

April 15  2009 SF

(Detail of Olives.)

SOLD

Olives. 15x20 watercolor.

My last painting of the evening. I actually did four paintings tonight but one (my favorite) was bought on the spot and taken, so no picture available.

April 11 2009  SF

SOLD

Piano. 15x20 watercolor.

Here's an example of the value of elimination; I saw a general L shaped composition from where I stood, and to make that composition work I needed to knock out about 80% of what was actually there.  My aim was to suggest a piano and a wine bar and people in the room and a general feeling of a festive evening, following that L shape, and when I squinted at the painting and saw that this had been suggested I quit.

April 11  2009 SF

CSG

Flowers in bottle. 11x14 watercolor.

This was my warmup painting that began another delightful evening at Campbell Steele Gallery.

Had a ball tonight painting and visiting with guests while backed by a fantastic jazz trio. (Well, for the most part people listened to the music, drank great wine, snacked on superb plates of cheese and fruit, and visited, but from my perspective as I daydreamed and painted the trio was backing me.) 

Can't say enough about how great it is to be associated with a gallery like this. These guys make art fun. What a refreshing concept!

April 11 2009  SF

CSG

Lemon. No.2. 7x10 watercolor.  

April 9  2009  SF

CSG

Lemon No.1. 7x10 watercolor.

Here's a funny thing; my illus. agent sent me an email yesterday re: a design firm that is doing an overhaul of some restaurant. New menus etc. The email said, "Do you have any paintings of Italy, or lemons?" Uh.. no on Italy, but lemons are easily had. Did these two lemon paintings this afternoon.

April 9 2009  SF

SOLD

Iris Two. 7x10 watercolor.

April 8 2009 SF

SOLD

Iris One. (I did two today) 7x10 watercolor.

April 8 2009 SF

SOLD (This time it really is sold..)

Robins. 15x20 watercolor.

NFS 

Page one of my new fishing journal. April 7 2009 SF

NFS

7x9 watercolor. A sketchbook page for Daisy on her 10th birthday. SF

SOLD
Mar.30 Nuthatch. 7x9 watercolor.

Friends who have been by have asked for some smaller paintings they can give as gifts so I'm starting a series of birds, flowers, fishing at about 7x9 and 9x12ish.  SF

SOLD

11x14 watercolor. Oriole.

Saw my first oriole of the year today, making my subject for painting at Hope Lodge an easy pick. March 26 2009  SF

CSG

7x9 watercolor.

There's something about this composition I like and I might try this same again larger.

March 25 2009 SF

CSG

Fishing March 23. 7x9 watercolor.

Not quite what I was trying to do, but this worked out okay in a different way.

March 23  2009  SF

SOLD

March 21 Fishing. 

15x20 watercolor.

Last night just before bed I shoved in some big dark abstract shapes to create a hill behind the character, thinking this morning I might delineate some trees in there.. but I like it as is. 

March 22 2009 SF

NFS

Today was one of those wonderful days you just can't anticipate; Daisy and I headed out into the country where we went for a very long hike, and then later resumed her driving lessons. ( She is a week short of being 10, and drove 7 miles off-road today and shifted into 4th gear for the first time.) Mid-hike we stopped and had a snack of cheese and crackers, an apple, and a tin of smoked rainbow trout.

As I have suggested before, when journaling don't try to illustrate the day for someone else. Just draw what is in front of you when it occurs to you to remark on the day.

March 21  2009  SF

Detail of painting below. SF

CSG

Fishing March 20

15x20 watercolor

Painted this today at Hope Lodge, then came home and had sardines for lunch. A fish day.

March 20  2009  SF

9x12 acrylic on panel. Published in Harper's Magazine.

A funny week; These past few days I've been thinking ahead to summer plans and decided I'd do a lot of fishing with my daughter, and do drawings and paintings journaling our outings for a possible book. I started (as usual) doing thumbnails in my sketchbook to get my eye and head in the game, so when afield I'm already looking for things that will make for interesting paintings.

And then I got an email from Harper's Magazine, interrupting my thinking, asking me to do a painting of.. a fish.

The Harper's story, which I would urge anyone concerned at all about our future to read, was about the possibly terminal decline of King Salmon.

March 19  2009  SF

SOLD

Mar.18 Robins. 15x20 watercolor.

I feel like I should move on to some other birds, but I do like painting robins and feel like I'm getting to understand their form a little better each time around. Still I might do a loon next.

March 18  2009  SF

Olive dish detail. SF

SOLD

March 14, No.4

This one was a gem; a little tired at the end of the evening I was chatting with G as I drew this piece and discussed with her what would and would not matter as I worked on it, (I love visiting with people while working) and realized as I got ready to paint that the only thing that needed painting was the little olive dish and the very cool reflection of it in the table.

And so ended a perfect evening.

March 14  2009  SF

CS Gallery

March 14, No.3

15x20 watercolor.

CS Gallery

March 14 No.2  15x20 watercolor.

This one was fun; A guy next to me asked what I was going to paint, and looking down the length of a gallery thick with art and filled with people I answered, "Everything in the place."

My solution was to make a composition with the foreground guitar player's shoulder and strap that emphasized the forced perspective, and also obscured a lot of foreground detail. I skipped indicating art on the walls and just tried to give a sense of the depth of the room and the sparkle of backlit people way at the back.

March 14  2009  SF

CS Gallery.

Painting No.1 March 14. 15x20 watercolor.

Okay, when was the last time you went to an art gallery and had strangers walk up to you, and shout over the killer music of a great jazz ensemble, "ISN'T THIS A BLAST!!?" 

Such was my evening at Campbell Steele Gallery tonight. I've been to a zillion gallery evenings and they range from okay and kinda dull, to pretty good and kinda dull. I have not before had the experience I had tonight of seeing terrific work at a handsome gallery, and then also want to describe the evening as, "A hoot!"

Priscilla and Craig (owners) were thinking outside the box ( a tired expression, but still a pretty good one) and invited me to paint at the gallery during tonight's event. Like a life drawing session, except everyone has their clothes on and no one stands still.

Above are four pieces from this experiment.

March 14  2009  SF

Detail of robin in leaves. SF

SOLD

Robin in leaves, done at Hope Lodge. 15x20 watercolor

Having gotten something of a feel for how a robin is put together over these past couple days I made this final painting of today's session and tried to convey just the essence of a robin without doing much detail. As with painting anything in minimal fashion what is first required is a full understanding of the subject. Only with that knowledge can you know which lines are critical and which are dispensable. 

March 13  2009  SF

Detail of fishing scene. SF

SOLD
15x20 watercolor

This is the first try at doing some fishing scenes (as opposed to studies of equipment) where I'm trying to make an interesting composition and kinda ignore that the painting has anything to do with fishing.  March 9  2009 SF

NFS

Yesterday I had one of those great days where everything goes your way; A break here, a kind word there, an encouraging email, a fresh idea, etc. I was reflecting on this while I made dinner and simply made a drawing of what was in front of me while I was appreciating these good things that had happened. 

This is an important lesson for journal drawing - Don't try to come up with a profound image to communicate what has happened. Your journal is not supposed to convey ideas to others, but should be a collection of snapshots along the way of your life. Just draw what is in front of you when it occurs to you to observe or reflect. That IS how we remember our most important moments; banal scenes before us when we get significant news.   March 7  2009  SF

SOLD

15x20 watercolor.

Did these quick studies in pencil watching the chickadees at my feeder then painted them later.

March 6  2009 SF

A friend contacted me tonight and asked about WC gear; paints, paper etc. For what it's worth here's my answer.

My first advice re: WC painting is to buy all of Charles Reid's books and read them over and over and over again. I've been painting in WC for many years and am still reading Reid's books and am still learning from them.

I use a folding pallet that keeps all the trays flat in transport. Some pallets fold in such a way that half the colors are upside down when it's closed. Bad design.

On Reid's suggestion I use Holbein tube WCs. These refresh beautifully with a few drops of water.

I put them in plastic full pan trays with strips of magnet tape on the bottom to keep them from scooting around when I'm digging for colors.

The colors shown here are, left side, top to bottom: mineral violet, smalt (a Winsor color), ultramarine deep, cobalt blue, cerulean, lavender. Second row, T to B: ivory black, perm yellow orange, cad yellow medium (almost never used), cad yel. pale, another Winsor color I forget the name of, lemon yel., sap green. Right side, T to B: burnt umber, raw umber, burnt sienna, raw sienna, carmine, cad. red light.

I set my folding pallet on a 16x20 gessoed panel and use this for mixing colors. I prefer the tooth of the gessoed panel over plastic or enamel. It cleans up easily, is cheap, and flat. (easy to transport to life sessions etc.)

The water can is the bottom half of a Platypus water jug (I forget the size). It is astonishingly rigid and stable when full, but weighs nothing and folds flat. I put bright pink tape on it so I see it and don't knock it over reaching for something.

The paper I use is Canson Montval 140 lb. cold press. I like other papers as well but this one is the most versatile for the way I paint. I use both the spiral bound sketchbooks and 15x20 blocks.

And here is where dear Mr. Reid and I part company; Brushes. I've used expensive sables for many years (and still have a lifetime supply of new ones in a drawer) but a few years back I stumbled onto a cheap synthetic brush from Dick Blick and now use it for everything. All my oils, acrylics, watercolors are painted with this one brush. It's a 1/2" Golden Takalon #2060 (it's a square brush). I simply like the way it handles, but maybe that's just me. 

March 5  2009  SF