Merry Christmas

A little late but we were traveling. Thought I'd post anyway.

Recent Small One

Recent 11x14 painting. This is at a small body shop in town that seems to only have white work vehicles that they work on. It was a fun one.

Plein Air 11-7-14

This is a small (9x12) from this morning. What drew me in was the dark zig-zig shapes contrasted by the lit shapes. I always have to remind myself not to lose the elements that drew me in to begin with and not lose it by unnecessary details.

Figure Drawing 10-28-14

I can't always or don't always want to make the 40 or so minute drive to once-a-week figure drawing. So, when a model is a no show, I'm pretty bummed. Last night she was a no show and as we were packing up, three of the artists quickly filled in for some quick poses which was pretty awesome of them.

A Few

Here are a few recent smallish outdoor paintings. 12x16, 14x11, and 12x9 in the order they appear.

Halloween Witch Painting

This is a painting I recently completed this week. 20x16, oil. It's for a Halloween show in October in Kenosha. I limited my palette for this painting and probably could've limited it more (Cremnitz White, Yellow Ocher, Cadmium Red Deep, Cerulean Blue, Cobalt Blue Deep, Viridian, and Ivory Black). I try to keep from posting show pieces well before the opening but I figure no one who reads this blog will be at the event.

Plein Air 9-3-14

When I go out to paint stuff in the landscape, I don't merely find an old tractor and say, hey I'm going to paint an old tractor. I stare at the scene and squint and figure out what really drew me to the scene. I think about the underlying abstract design and value structure of the scene. What drew me to this scene was the dark arc of shadows that arc up from the left connecting the lower parts of the tractor up and through the shed. I liked the way this was balanced with the grain bins and how they also tapered down in size from left to right. When I did this piece I thought there was a lot of chroma (bright colors) for me but when I took a look at it when I converted to black and white I thought the values (lights and darks) held up very well. 14x18, oil.

Plein Air 9-8-14

As I was driving home the other day, I discovered this place and I knew I wanted to paint it. It's called Bobby Rockets and is about 20 minutes from home. I went back there this morning and painted it. 14x18, oil.

Studies

The last couple days I've been doing some small loose sketches/studies/copies....whatever you want to call them, of some paintings by artists I like. I kept them small (5x7 panels) and quick, about an hour or so each. They were a lot of fun and I hope do some more as I learned a lot from each.

Plein Air 8-6-14

This Saturday and Sunday I'll be at Lake Geneva Art in the Park. It's a nice little show...come on out! This is a little 11x14 from this morning. I really enjoy being out at this farm painting which happens to only be about 5 minutes away.

Plein Air 7-28-14

I painted this one today, beginning in the morning. It was one of those days where everything began going well. I knew exactly what the composition was going to be and it started to fall together quickly. Then, the remaining hour, I became hesitant yet anxious at the same time to wrap it up. I also was a bit rusty, as it had been 3 weeks since I last painted. Some of my hesitation was due to multiple garbage trucks going up and down the alley directly in front of me kicking up dust. It was also super windy. I thought these Beauport easels are rock solid in the wind, yet I had to literally catch it as it fell forward from the force of the winds. Anyway, I thought I'd post a photo of it at the scene, where I painted it. It's amazing how much the lift changes and will flip flop especially when you compare the light sides of the house. 16x20, oil.

Plein Air 7-7-14

My friend snuck phthalo blue and phthalo green on my palette yesterday while we were both out painting. A couple colors I've always been fearful of because of their intensity, but I went with it. This is a farm only a few minutes away that I've been eye-ing since last year. All the buildings are white with a few others not included in the painting. I will definitely explore the whites at this farm on future occasions. 14x18, oil.

Plein Air 6-23-14

Outdoor painting "gurus" preach about "not chasing the light." Well, in my opinion, if the light changes for the better, I'm going for the latter. In this case, the scene went from full sun when I began to a cloudy/fox mix rather quickly near nightfall. I'm a sucker for understated grays. Painted in Cedarburg. 16x20.

Plein Air 6-30-14

My good friend and painter, Kyle Martin, was in town for a few hours today so we hit a rural scene. It's always fun painting with him. 14x18, oil.

Plein Air 6-16-14

Today, I had about a 2 1/2 hour block of painting time. Sometimes, having these set time limits, helps while painting decisive marks so that I don't fuss too much with the piece. This was done mid-day. 11x14, oil.

Plein Air 5-29-14

This is an 18x14 I painted about a week and a half ago. It was a very busy scene with a lot of fallen timber, sticks, debris, etc. It caught my eye though and I knew it would be a challenge to paint.

Plein Air 5-22-14

I enjoy painting in alleys. They offer a disheveled, non-contrived composition that appeals to me. Kind of a behind-the-scenes look at how people live. 16x20, oil.

Figure Drawing 5-13-14

Some quick sketches from last night's figure drawing session.

Plein Air 5-8-14

This painting I did about 5 minutes away from where I live, a farm that I painted once before. The temps were in the upper 70s, a couple light sprinkles, with mainly cloud coverage. It was very comfortable weather to paint during. The tractor on the right is a Massey Ferguson and I believe the one on the left is a Case. 14x18, oil.

Figure Drawing 5-6-14

Here are a couple sketches from figure drawing last night, a 10 and 20 minute. It was nice to get back after missing the last few weeks.

Plein Air 4-15-14

I rushed out this morning to paint as this might be the last snowfall of the year (which happened yesterday). The other day it was around 70 out. Today was freezing. There was some magical light this morning that I tried to capture. 20x16, oil.

Plein Air 4-11-14

So, I come in from painting today, and have my painting sitting out. My wife passes by, and says, "That's cool. What is it?" As a representational painter, I like to paint stuff to look like stuff so that was difficult to stomach! Oh well. For the record, this is twisted up fallen tree at the river. 14x18, oil.

Ballpoint Pen Week 1

Sometimes, It's easier to grab a sketchbook and the closest drawing implement rather than setup to paint an idea or study. I'd like to do this more often. Such was the case last week. Here are some ballpoint pen sketches and a pencil sketch from figure drawing. I did a handful of Zorn sketches from some of his etchings. He truly has an incredible oeuvre of etchings. So much can be studied from his mark-making by studying them.

Plein Air 3-30-14

Yesterday was beautiful much like today is, minus the gusty winds. We saw temps in the 50s and 60s. I set out to paint and had it in my mind that I would paint a vehicle, specifically an old truck. I drove and drove and feeling depressed I didn't find anything that caught my eye, I started to head back into town. As soon as I entered town there was this old 50s Ford. I whipped around, pulled in to where it was. It was out in the front of a woodworker's shop (a stair-builder) at the industrial park. I got out and asked how long he'd be there (specifically the truck). He said an hour to hour and a half. I quickly set my easel with a small 8x10 panel and started on this little sketch. The day looked like fall with warm temps and no new growth, a display of greys and ochers. The gravel and background was simple and was a sun-washed high key low chroma kind of deal. It made things easier to paint quickly and simply. 8x10, oil.

Figure Drawing 3-18-14

Here are a few sketches from last night's figure drawing. 15, 20, and 10 minuters.

Recent Interior Painting

This is a recent painting I did. "Studio, Southeast Corner." 20x16, oil. I really enjoy painting interiors and different obscure corners of the house. I find them just as challenging as painting outside especially when relying on natural light because the lighting conditions change just as they do outside. Often if a room has multiple windows, skylights and lights on, the end result is a mixture of multiple light sources bouncing light throughout the scene and across objects in a manner that makes me have to think about the dynamics of light and color a bit more than outside. One good thing about interiors vs. outside is the consistent temperatures and relaxed atmosphere of being inside instead of out in the elements. This was painted over a few sessions (multiple days) during the same time of day with similar light conditions outside.

Plein Air 2-6-14

This is a recent plein air piece. 14x11, oil.

Warm Light Cold Air

It always amazes me that it could be so cold out yet have warm sunlight. This was the case yesterday. I drove around literally for 2 hours looking for something to paint with intentions of painting inside my truck. With that restriction, subject matter becomes much narrower since often I have to park and walk to a scene I want to paint. I gave up, came home, ate lunch and then decided to setup my easel in front of the 3rd floor window and paint. 20x16, oil.

"Shallow Water"

This is a recent drawing I did, "Shallow Water" (9.5x9.5). It is off to be framed and I wish I would've been able to take a better photo of it before it's behind glass. I think I might try scanning my drawings instead of photographing them. This is graphite on clayboard. I picked up a couple clayboards a few years ago but never got around to trying them. I believe my intention was to try silverpoint on them but that never came to fruition so I tried graphite. I found some pros and cons in working with it. First, I enjoyed having a rigid board to work on rather than paper clipped down or taped to a board. I usually don't like the movement of paper when working up a finished drawing. I enjoyed the smooth texture as well. Now for the cons, it seemed that the surface was easily scratched by a hard pencil and also, real fine circular sanding marks became evident from the manufacturing process. I do think I will try the surface again, however.

Happy New Year

A new year and hopefully an abundance of art making. I'm anxious to see what's in store and hopeful in achieving the goals I'm setting for this year. First painting of the year. "The Veil." 30x24, oil.