Mt. Rainier: Wall-sized

I just had the pleasure of spending a week in Georgia with my sister Rachel and my brother-in-law Tyler, along with their wonderful children.

The occasion? They bought a new house! And what new house would be complete without a mural? 

Tyler grew up near Mt. Rainier... and it was decided I should paint it on their dining room wall.

Check it out:

 

 

Obviously, since this WAS a David The Good original, a few tiny details needed to be added to this otherwise somewhat pedestrian landscape...

I love doing murals... it had been too long and this reminded me of how impressive filling up a large space can be.

Musical inspiration

I like this track. A lot.

Sunday Inspiration: J. Kirk Richards Paints a Portrait

Little boat

A little 5 x7 experiment.

I know, I'm just posting a lot of so-so bits and pieces right now. I'm gearing up for some bigger work and I'm testing colors and glazes.

This one was a test of a limited palette as well as glazing in acrylics.

Colors:

Titanium white
Burnt umber
Alizarin crimson permanent
Ultramarine blue
Cadmium yellow pale

I don't like the way the yellow glaze added too much yellow to the image. I wanted to warm up the cold blues a little... the yellow went too far and added an unnatural cast.

Good thing I didn't do that on anything important. I once messed up a portrait royally with the wrong glaze. Made the subject look like he had liver issues.

This is why I should have gone to an atelier, not a state university.

There, I would've learned little silly things like "how to render forms" and "how color works," rather than great and glorious concepts like "how does this tone make us feel" and "everything is equally valid."

On the upside, I did manage to match my reference photo with this limited palette. These are the colors recommended by Will Kemp. I'm impressed with their versatility.

Laundry Day

Laundry Day. 8 x 10". Oil on canvas.

A quick figure sketch in oils.

Sunday Inspiration: Plein Air Painting in New York City

Cool as heck:



I've never tried painting in the city before. I might have to go hit Gainesville one day... or even better, Ybor city.

.357

I was fooling around with my acrylics a couple of nights ago and decided to paint a portrait of one of my favorite firearms.

.357. 5" x 7", acrylic on canvas.

The gun was painted in burnt umber and titanium white.

The background is cadmium yellow light, ultramarine and titanium white.

Okra pod

Okra Pod. 5 x 7". Oil on canvas.

Another small painting with oils.

Watercolor faces

Practicing with opaque watercolors...

Elephant Garlic

I'm trying to get the feel of oils right now by doing some simple (and small) still life paintings. It's exciting. I've been working with acrylics forever.

There's a buttery goodness to the oils that is quite satisfying.

Elephant Garlic. 8" x 10". Oil on masonite.

The thing that always gets me: paintings with expressive brush strokes look cooler up close.

Maybe I should attack the canvas with a bigger brush...

Plein-air Painting: The Back Field

I went out painting again yesterday and caught the fading afternoon light in the field behind my aunt and uncle's house. My aunt took some great photos:

Later that evening I touched it up a bit in my studio:

Almost there. When the paint dries a little I'll add some finishing touches.

Oils are really enjoyable... I'm surprised by how well I'm taking to them after being an acrylics guy forever.

In other news - I love Florida.

There aren't a lot of places in the States where you can comfortable go out painting in short sleeves during January.

Plein-air painting in the park

 

Yesterday afternoon we visited Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings State Park. I was hoping to paint a view of the lake but it was inaccessible, so I wandered around for a bit until a pair of cabbage palms caught my eye.

I took these shots at about 2/3rds of the way through my painting session.

After I got home and had dinner and a cup of coffee, I put on the finishing touches.

I'm satisfied with it. Good first attempt at plein-air painting with oils.

Sunday Inspiration: Roos Schuring with a Seascape Demonstration

Bottled water

A little unpolished sketch.

Reflections on a Pond = Serious Dedication

I like Kevin MacPherson's work and own a couple of his instructional books. He has a nice painterly style... and apparently, some serious dedication:



Not quite as sexy as Helga, but he's proven to us that even a pond can be worth painting.

Note to self: work on being dedicated.

Drift Seeds

Drift Seeds, oils on discarded cutting board, 5" x 7"

A tiny painting of drift seeds found on the beach at John U. Lloyd State Park.

Name the three depicted species correctly and I'll mail you a drawing.

Runner beans

A quick piece to test out my new set of gouache paints:

Runner Beans, 3" x 3", gouache on paper.

There's an interesting luminosity with this medium... and not as much forgiveness as there is with acrylics.

How about we bring this thing back to life?

FloridaSurvivalGardening.com is rocking along... yet I've been neglecting my other passion: art.

The last few weeks I've been doing a lot of painting.

Recently, I bought a bunch of oil paint and supplies from a friend. His wife, Ana Lesswing, (who was also a friend of mine) was an artist and art teacher. Two years ago, God decided to take her home after a long battle with cancer. Now, with some sadness, I have most of her paints, canvases and tools.

Something about "inheriting" these supplies from such a vivacious and non-stop artist has given me a boost. I realized how much I've been missing in my life by simply pursuing work and gardening without feeding my love of the visual arts.

So, without much ado, I'm kicking this blog off again.

I'll be sharing my own art and the work of others, plus book reviews and inspiration from other sources.

Let's start with a song, shall we?


See you all again soon.