Two at Roby King, 10x12 and 20x20

This month Roby-King Gallery is featuring paintings with water themes.  Here are two of the four that I plan to show.

The first is from a magical place that changes every time I see it.  The rocks and water are always flexing their colors and shapes.   It's up the Kootenai near Florence, MT on one of the many painting trips to the area with good friends Cathe Gill and Bob Phinney.   The water doesn't just flow, it dances it's way to the valley below.  Hey, that rhymed.  See.  I told you it was magical.

 
This 20x20 is somewhere around Poulsbo.  If you squint you can see that its about some simple shapes of light and dark intertwining with one another.  Sky and water form the bulk of the light.  Distant shore, docks, boats and logs form the dark.  The trick for me was describing the water in such a way that it wasn't dominant but created enough visual interest to pull the viewer across the surface and into the painting.

A Few Repairs, 7x9

 

A true boatyard for working vessels is hard to find so when I found this fishing boat in dry-dock it called to be painted.  I like the contrast of the differing reds.  Actually, it's pretty much a red, blue and yellow piece with variations of red/brown dominating.   Amazing how a sense of place and size can be put into such a small canvas.

Bouquet for Tuesday, 20x24, and Sergei Bongart

Tuesday night.  What to paint?  I realize that most of my still life postings have 'demo' after them because that's what many of them are, including this one.  Still life is a great teaching tool, especially during the cold rainy winter months.   The energy a demo generates translates to the painting and, when they work, are fun to look back on and remember that, due to limited time, these are so much 'seat of the pants' paintings.

A closeup so you can see the colors, not all of which show up in the photo.

I stumbled upon this the other day....a photo of Sergei Bongart teaching the movie star Jeanne Crain dated 1962.   Many people have been influenced by his paintings and teaching.  You can find out more about him at his wife's website HERE or in the five star book by Mary Balcomb HERE or at the Scream On Line HERE. 

The Tuesday Painter, 11x14

How many hours have I stood in front of an easel like this madly muttering under my breath because something wasn't going right and I had absolutely no clue what it was?  On Tuesdays persevering painters get together to try and figure out what makes a piece work and another flop.  While I try to tell them what I know, much has to come just from doing it again and again.  It's amazing how we can learn the most difficult things.

Too much time giving them my advice doesn't leave room for those personal 'ah-ha's' so I keep myself occupied in the background.....and this student became my target.  It also allowed one more inclusion of the still life already posted a few days ago.

Since I have a couple larger pieces in the works I'm going to take a small blog break so I can concentrate on finishing them.   Later.

And the Winner is....

The Free Painting Contest has Ended!

Deep in a hidden underground vault, sworn to complete secrecy, our highly trained staff has used a sophisticated random generator to carefully select a winner from almost fifty entrants across the country.  Transported by trusted carrier pigeon to our central office the sealed envelope was opened with shaking hands.  Even WikiLeaks didn't know!

And the WINNER is: R Teske!!  Congratulations!

BUT!  Since there were so many applicants there is a Consolation Prize.  Once again the staff had to go underground and pick another winner.  The following painting, A Bunch of Us Are Getting Together 8x10,  goes to: J Bentley!! 

If you didn't win I want you to know how much I've enjoyed your emailed comments and be assured that I'm going to do this again.  Just stay tuned...

White Roses in Two Versions

 

First Version:  3.5 x 4.5 inches, palette knife on paper.  A palette knife painting usually ends up with lots of pure vibrant color as once the paint has been placed it's simply there....no fudging the color with a brush.  It's just mix and place, mix and place.

Second Version:  16x20, demo with a brush on gessoed board.  These paintings were done a week apart.  While the forms are more easily recognizable and the color ended up pretty similar, it loses some of the abstract quality.  I like them both as different expressions of the same still life.  Someday I'd like to do a palette knife painting in a larger size but I'll have to save for some paint as they use a lot.  A bit more like sculpting clay...but with thirty dollar tubes of paint.

Tomorrow will be the announcement of the winner in the painting give-away.  There will also be a surprise coming with it.  I can't wait.

Marker Workshop Demo

This is the toned paper demo using warm gray markers done for the marker workshop we had on Saturday.  What a great group.  Everyone was willing to throw themselves into the unknown and try whatever I asked of them.  That takes courage.

Speaking of courage.  RN, the owner of Oil and Water Arts, certainly exemplifies that.  Three or four years ago, while riding his motorcycle in Oregon, he was hit by a semi that was passing him and didn't allow enough distance when pulling in front.  The long and short is that RN lost two fingers on his left hand....details of which you don't want to know.

Then we went into an economic downturn which has greatly hurt the arts...and art stores.  Despite returns that were initially not good RN decided to weather it out and his store and school have shown remarkable success.

Two weeks ago we had some heavy snow.  The roof of the little two story mall began to leak.  Being a good neighbor, RN decided to go up on the roof and move the snow to prevent damage to other businesses....his own was fine.  Coming back down, the ladder slipped and he fell about 15 feet onto a cement/tile floor.  Yesterday he had surgery to fix the four broken vertebrae.  Monday he will have his shattered right heel operated on.  The left heel, ribs, and head are healing on their own.   He's had two weeks of unbearable pain because the hospital missed the broken vertebrae. (!)

This is the clincher:  Less than 24 hours after surgery we were talking to him on the phone and he had new ideas about how to make the store/school even better.  A Timex watch could take lessons from this man.   Tick, tick, tick...

Life is a Beach, 12x15

Did you know that it rains in Seattle?  My friend Gillian, desperate for a hint of sun, set up a beach scene for our Thursday painting group to work from....indoors, of course.  She turned it into an outdoor scene but, since I'm somewhat of a slave to reality, I painted what I saw.  Ah, the 'tyranny of reality' as Robert Genn would say.  For you painters, this was done without any line drawing....only the dark or shadow shapes were blocked in quickly and then I began with color.

Before doing the piece I sketched two with markers.  Here is one of them using warm gray markers:

If you compare the two you'll notice that in the painting I increased the distance from front to back to give it a more spacious feeling.  The drawing was only carried to a stage where I knew where I was going with the painting.

The marker workshop is this weekend so I'll post some of the folks drawing next time.

Remember to enter for the free painting.  Go to my actual blog (click HERE) to find out more....look at the last two posts.

Oops! I goofed!

Oops....I didn't think of those of you who use an outside mail server.  The directions to enter for the free painting (last blog entry) would be frustrating for you.  Here is an alternative.  Click HERE and you will be taken to the 'Contact' page of my website where you can see the actual email address to use.  Enter now.  There is still time.   If you've already entered....thanks, I'm having fun with this.

The drawing is digital with absolutely no purpose in mind other than to entertain you.

'Celebration' With a Painting Give-Away!

Sometime in December this blog published it's 100th posting.  Now that's not a lot of postings but it seemed like a celebration time to me.  That plus beginning a new year has left me wanting to give away a painting!  

This painting, appropriately titled 'Celebration', was done in November 2010.   If you would like to be part of the drawing for this piece here is what you do.  Go to my blog by clicking HERE.  Once there, look for my picture on the right hand side and click on 'View my Complete Profile'.  You will find a link for emailing me on that profile page.  Send me an email with "I'm in!" in the subject line and you will be part of the drawing to take place on January 31st.   Easy.  I'll even ship if for free to anywhere in the U.S.  Outside the U.S. we'll work something out.

Classes are Beginning!  This week my painting classes resume.  For the first time I'm opening the subject matter to landscape photos students want to bring in as well as the usual still life.  On Saturday is the workshop 'Value Sketching With Markers', based on my book.  Contact Oil and Water Art Supply for more info.

Garden Variety, 20x20

Tomorrow I may wake up, see a glaring error and wish I hadn't posted this.....but this is today's effort set up by a painting friend, Wendy.   An amorphous pile of red leaf lettuce was difficult to make convincing but I think it gets helped along by being surrounded by veggies and in that context becomes 'lettuce'.

This is acrylic which I like to use for several reasons.  In this case I wanted to experiment with color changes which, because the medium dries so quickly, makes it easier to quickly throw on a color to see how it works and not have everything get muddied around.

Painting garden stuff I'm reminded that the days are getting longer once again and every time I remember it I have a little internal celebration....often several times a day.   This is something folks in the Pacific Northwest understand.

Hamilton Farm, 12x16

Isn't it fun to find money in an old pant pocket?  That's sort of the feeling I get when I run across an old 'iffy' painting and realize that with only a few strokes it's a keeper.  Not only that but it resolves one more thing in my life!

For those that are interested I made the roofs more varied in color, added a little blue in the grass and some more sparkle in the yellow 'whatever it was'.   Mostly just correction of values.  The rocks almost got eliminated but keeping them gave the pasture a more interesting shape so they stayed.

New Book by Catherine Gill

My very good friend, and in my estimation the finest watercolor instructor I know of, has just been published by North Light Books.  (She co-authored the book with Beth Means.)  While the many paintings printed in the book are watercolor or mixed media, I would recommend this to painters in any media (I ordered one...).  Cathe has a unique way of breaking down complex compositional and painting issues into easy to understand solutions no matter what tools you work with (she is also an excellent oil painter and print maker).   I predict this will be a foundational book for every artist's library. 

Having spent countless hours painting with Cathe I've watched her take scenes of what I saw as nothing and turn them into inspiring works.  Just look at the front cover of the book.  What might have been humdrum has been changed into intriguing shapes and color.  You can take a look at her book HERE.  Get one from her website and receive a signed copy plus an extra freebie.

(Just don't eat her peanut butter and candy corn sandwiches....)

Rainy in Rockport, 11x14

Can you believe another year has come and gone?  (and I still don't have my studio clean)   Tomorrow is the day of the annual sorting where paintings of this last year are summarily tossed into the bin of no return or given one more chance.

This painting off the Maine coast will survive as good source material and good memories.

I hope your year has been rewarding and that you are looking forward to the next in good health and high spirits.  There is so much to be appreciative of despite our troubled Earth.  Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year bring with them so much possibility and hope that in the future things can be  different for our world and everyone in it.

Who knows, maybe this year I'll get the studio clean....

Waisted Curves, 16x20

 

How often in life have you run across someone who dresses everyday as if it was 1898?  This subject was so deserving of a much larger canvas but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get down at least a sketch.

An author, milliner, seamstress and now model, Sarah and her husband both dress in period costume and give lectures on the subject.  Her book, Waisted Curves: My Transformation into a Victorian Lady is available from her website.  She began wearing a corset two years ago and you can see her before and after pictures on her site.  Worth the visit.


By the way, they drive a DeLorean while wearing their tophat and shawl (ok, maybe not the tophat).  Another painting of her in Victorian dress is HERE.  Her waist is actually smaller than I painted it.

Room for One More, 10x12

Lost in one of the painting piles was this and another from the trip to Maine.  While here in the Seattle area isn't exactly boring, I do envy those painters on the East Coast and all the beautiful subjects/shapes they have available.  The grass is always greener....and I have wander lust.

This is from the Rockland area.  I'll post the other one soon.  

Johnson Farm, 16x16

Ever have pieces that just don't turn out?  Every year on New Year's Day I go through the pile of paintings/drawings of the past year and start tossing.  It feels good to unload and dump the pieces that went south for various reasons.  Occasionally I'll keep a few of the rejects and see if someday a solution might appear.

This painting was saved from the reject pile seven years ago or so and I stumbled on it the other night looking for a new panel.  A solution came to me a few minutes later and here is the result.  Now there's a chorus of rejects all begging for a second chance.

Copper and Poppies, 11x14 oil

While folks in class were painting I didn't want to hang over their shoulders too much so sat and painted this during the lulls.  Another of the five setups painted on a fairly small canvas board.

By the way, if you have emailed me since November 15th it probably didn't get through as the mail server had issues.....which are now cleared up.

Have a good Thanksgiving....if you are in the U.S......or have a fulfilling week wherever you are.

'Sometimes we need to just pause and let happiness catch up with us.'  The Dalai Lama

Kathy's Ledge, 8x10 oil

This is a study from the Maine trip in September....and a gift for Kathy whose cabin we stayed in.  The old bench was built by her parents many years ago and, even though they are now gone, the bench is still around but leaning a bit.  The 'ledge' is an outcropping of bedrock jutting out into Lake McGunticook and has been there since before the English landmass separated and drifted across the Atlantic......now that's old.

Here are two forest studies from western Montana that were done just a few feet from the cabin.  It's a fun challenge to just walk out, plop down and paint whatever is there and try and make something of it.  These are both 8x8 oils and took about 25 minutes each if I remember correctly.

The rocks (more geology) were dropped by the mile high glacier that once covered the area and left Flathead Lake behind.

Instructional Still Life, 20x24, Acrylic

Last night I began wondering about still life painting.  It's a great way to learn to paint  (no model to pay, it stays in one place, no bugs to swat) but where did this rather odd activity come from?  According to Wikipedia and other sources, representing everyday objects with food began with the Egyptians, can be found in Roman tile work, fell out of style and was revived in the Middle Ages.  During the Renaissance and the increased interest in the natural world it experienced a great revival which seemingly hasn't let up.

While it still seems a bit odd to me, who am I to question thousands of years of people who have gone to garage sales and Goodwill for second hand junk and surrounded it with fruit and vegetables just for pleasure.   I will admit that it's a great excuse to play with paint and color and the paintings are somehow more interesting to look at than the objects themselves.

I painted this as an instructional example.  It was done in acrylic and is one of the five current setups we are using--which get changed every two to three weeks.  The next painting session will begin January 18th.