Summer's End

Watercolor
22 x 15

I know this isn't exactly what you would call timely considering it's closer to the end of winter, but maybe it's just what we need to shake off the cold. Perhaps I'm ahead of my time or lost in the past or just totally screwed up.

This is the first watercolor I've done in a while so there was potential for disaster. A lot of watercolor depends on "feel" that comes from doing. Is the paper wet enough, dry enough? It's real easy to lose that feel so I was pleasantly surprised at this outcome. It's also a composite of a landscape reference with a model reference. Around here when you see a log like that, you can be pretty sure there will be turtles laying on it catching some sun. Personally, I think this is much better.

Here's a detail of the figure for anyone interested in details. It's about actual size, maybe a touch smaller.

Moonlit Dreams

Silverpoint
7 1/2 x 12

I don't know exactly which way to go with this post, but I do want to put something up today so I think I'll just offer this drawing without comment. There's some good things about it that I like, and as always, there are some things that could be better. You decide which is which today. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts.

River Bank

First off I'd like to announce the opening of Show Me Handmade. I've added a link over in my other pages section that has all the information of location, store hours and what kind of things they have including some of my work. The grand opening is scheduled for March 7, but they're already open so if you're in the neighborhood drop in. There's a variety of art related stores there in the mall that are or will soon be opening. That takes care of the business for today. On to what you're here for.


Oil on Canvas
18 x 30

I may be sorry I posted this one. It's one of those that I can't quite decide if I like or not. There are some things that aren't too bad, but overall something, like a reason to be looking at it, just seems to be missing. I had thought about putting a figure on the bank either walking into the scene or looking out over the river, but neither of those worked too well. Then I thought about flashing a tree with some bright early fall color, but that stuck out too much. So I muted that tree some and that's where we are now. What do you think, yes or no?

Since I don't quite know what to say regarding this let's talk about something related to this piece. Around here there is an activity practiced by a few called sandbar archeology. Rivers rise and rivers fall. When they go down all kinds of things are revealed. Most of it is junk of course, but some is quite old dating back to Lewis and Clark and beyond. In most cases of archeology if you find something it should really be left in place and reported just in case there is some real historic significance. On the river though if you find it, it's yours simply because there's no telling where it washed down from. In this picture the river is low. That "beach" is usually under a couple feet of water. If you're wondering, I didn't find a thing. You usually don't. That just makes the occasional find that much better.

Vanity

Silverpoint on off white prepared paper
12 x 10

I haven't put up a silverpoint in a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing any. There's actually a backlog to get out, so if you like silver keep looking in, they're coming. Come to think of it there's a lot of things to be posted. I'm not really a big fan of talking about my work. In a business where promotion (primarily self promotion) is important that presents a bit of a problem. Something else to work on.

One thing about having all these silverpoints sitting around is that I've had a chance to look at them in a variety of lighting situations. I wasn't feeling too well a couple weeks ago so I got lazy and just laid around in bed. As the sun crossed the sky the difference in lighting really affected the drawings. That's not all that unusual, I've noticed the same thing in oil paintings that have a lot of glazing on them, but this difference was enough to be remarkable. I suppose it was a matter of reflection or glare because the majority of change took place in the darker range of values. As you probably know silverpoint lines aren't terribly dark. I'd say it's comparable to a 2H pencil depending on the ground used. However I find that to be dark enough for most images, and it turns out that in the right lighting conditions that can be pretty dark especially if it's just used as an accent. It's certainly dark enough to make an image pop. At any rate I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by some of the recent pieces. Considering that I usually am not all that satisfied with my work, it makes a fella think. Maybe I'm just mellowing in my old age.

On one of the forums I look in on somebody mentioned that she couldn't see any lines on the drawing I posted, just smooth tones. Well there are lines there, a bunch of them, trust me. Here's a couple details that are roughly life size to show the level of finish. Maybe someone will find them interesting.

Early Morning Tree

Oil on canvas
16 x 12

No mythology, mysticism or any other m-words today, just a picture of a tree. This time its early morning, the sun is just rising and the ground fog is burning off. That's actually one of my favorite times of day, if only it didn't come so early. Well, you can't have everything. I'm not really sure what to say about this painting. It's not earth shattering in composition, color, paint handling or anything else for that matter, but it does do what I wanted it to do. It gives that feeling of the early morning quite when the world is just waking up. At least I think it does. One comment I should make is that, on my screen at least, it's coming out a half step lighter and higher in chroma than in real life. The coloring is really pretty subtle. One of these days I'll figure out the differences between all these picture programs.

Lone Oak

Oil on Canvas
12 x 16

I used to think a tree was just a tree. Then I grew older and possibly wiser, and found that trees were much more. At one time I was real big into bonsai trees. I still am but not to the same extent. There's a distinctly romantic component to bonsai. One tree is supposed to represent all of nature. Ideally it will take you away to a place.

Many bonsai artists also begin to dig into some of the folklore regarding trees. Let's take a brief look at the oak. The oak was considered the cosmic storehouse of wisdom by the ancient Celts due to its growth and expanse, and was honored for its endurance and noble presence. The wearing of oak leaves was a symbol of honor in several cultures such as the Greeks and Romans and is even continued on today in military medals (oak leaf clusters in lieu of duplicate medals). Sometimes the name druid is traced back to the Celtic term for the oak, duir. The usual translation for duir is door though. According to lore the spiritual Celts would "access the ethereal planes of higher thought" (visions and such) by "opening the oak door." Further merit was given the oak as a consequence of it's apparent ability to attract lightning. Personally I'm not so sure I would consider this a plus especially if I were a tree, but then I'm not a druid. The oak is said to represent "all that is true, wholesome, stable and noble." So if you're having a rough day picture the oak and draw into its strength.

Not much about art today I'm afraid, but maybe this was interesting anyway. So what do you think of all this? Does this painting give you any of those feelings? Nobility and strength cutting through the mist maybe. If it doesn't I guess I screwed up or maybe sometimes a tree is just a tree.

If you're interested in the symbolism of trees and other assorted things you might want to drop by www.whatyoursign.com

Sunrise

Oil on Panel
5.5 x 12

Let's get back to some of these little landscapes I mentioned a while back. I've tried to stay away from the pretty, calendar art landscapes in my work, but I find that the last three I've done are just that, two sunsets and now a sunrise. This is the flashiest of the bunch, and as such it almost makes me cringe. Well, if the Hudson River painters could do it, I guess I can too, at least I can try and see how well they are received.

I thought I had more to say about this, but I can't think of what it would be. So there you go, first post of the year.

The Coming Year

Watercolor
11 x 7

As the year comes to an end you can expect all the year in review shows complete with predictions for the coming year. No predictions here from me. You don't want to know what I think is coming, trust me on that. As for what's past, if you've been keeping up you've already seen most of it, so just flip back on your own. I had thought about going back several years to let you decide if I'd shown any improvement, but due to a technical problem I can't get to any old files stored on my zip disks. So you dodged that bullet too.

One of the few files I can get to right now is this little watercolor. It struck me as a relatively good image to end up the year on. Is she watching something / someone go, or waiting for something / someone to come? Maybe she's had a really bad year and is getting ready to jump. What you take from a piece depends a lot on what you bring to it, doesn't it?

To my reader(s) I hope you're not getting ready to jump. I wish you all a good new year and remember the trick is to keep your head when those around you are losing theirs.

Head Studies

A few months ago there was a discussion of the working methods of William Bouguereau at one of the forums I visit regularly. That struck me as pretty interesting. I'm personally not a huge fan of Bouguereau, but I have to admit that the man knew how to handle paint. As a result I thought it would be a good idea to try a study or two and see if I could come away with some added knowledge. There was one problem though, there didn't seem to be any agreement of how exactly he did it. I've never seen one in person so that made it even harder to decide for myself who was right or at least closest to right. After a few weeks of discussion and one side arguing for one way and another side offering arguments for a different approach I finally decided it didn't matter that much to me. But by then I'd already dug through my saved files and found a couple Bouguereauish poses courtesy of the lovely faestock from Deviant Art link . I had them drawn on the panels and was already to go. So I just decided to do them the way I normally would. Here are the results. Both are not much more than sketches and are unfinished. They could be polished quite a bit more, and brought to a higher degree of finish, but I don't know that that would really add much. Besides I'd done all I'd set out to do.


Oil on Panel
12 x 10
SOLD


Oil on Panel
10 x 8
SOLD

I think this is the better of the two. For all you paint freaks out there that like to get up close here's a couple details.





All in all I think I may go back to the original idea and see if I can do a convincing Bouguereau study. The man could push paint around.

Dusk

Oil on Panel
8 x 12

Another of the little landscapes I'm playing with at the moment. A very simple little image hopefully expressing the peaceful, quite time just as the sun is going down. I don't really know what else to say about it. It will have to speak for itself.