Waterloo Park

Waterloo Park, 8 x 6
$85
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Today was the second weekly session of our plein air class. Laurel had us repeat the process of identifying the four primary planes in a landscape that we learned in the classrom last week. This time it was the real thing, though — painting en plein air. We were at Waterloo Park, two blocks from the capitol grounds in downtown Austin. Since many in the class were painting outside for the first time, Laurel wanted to simplify things a bit (that's my assumption, anyway) by having us paint a yellow and mixed-black duotone.

Meanwhile, I had brought only panels pre-painted with a semi-neutral rust color ground. Thus, my attempt became a slightly dull tri-tone. Still, it was fun, I did the intended exercise, and found a composition I'd like to revisit with a full pallet later on.

Rear Window

Rear Window, 8 x 6
SOLD

This is my entry for Karin Jurick's current Different Strokes from Different Folks challenge. I enjoyed participating in one a couple months ago, but have been preoccupied with other "challenges" since. Hopefully, I'll be able to do it more often in the future.

The Saga Continues

Cedars Study, 6 x 8

$85
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Wednesday was the beginning of Laurel Daniel's latest plein air class. This first day, we worked in the classroom from photos, because of the weather. Laurel walked us through an extremely helpful, group step-by-step demo of blocking in the main values in a landscape (see Cedars Study, above), after explaining the theory of planes and atmospheric perspective. Boy, I thought I knew it, which I did in my head, but the demo showed me I've been ignoring certain elements of the process when actually painting. That is, primarily, that those relationships must hold true within each general distance range of the painting, (foreground, middle ground, and background), and in addition that each of those succeeding distance planes must correctly relate to one another. It's hard to put it all into words, which I guess explains why actually doing this exercise was so helpful and so important.

Mountain Pasture, 6 x 8

SOLD

This second study was also from the first class, where we were to go through the above-mentioned process on our own, using a photo of our own. Mountain Pasture is from another photo taken while in Colorado.

The Road Out

The Road Out, 8 x 10
SOLD

Here is another piece from Colorado. It is a plein air study, which I didn't have time to clean up until today. I wanted to paint outside this afternoon, which was beautifully sunny and cool here in Austin. Unfortunately, I didn't have any new panels, so I finished this in order to get at least some practice for the start of Laurel's next plein air class, which starts Wednesday. Note to self: get panels tomorrow!

Mountain Road Studies

Mountain Road, 9 x 12

Mountain Road, 8 x 10 (original plein air study)

Here are two studies from my September trip to Colorado. The bottom one is the raw plein air field study, the top one done in studio, using only the field study for reference. I decided to do this because I recently found myself getting overly detailed when working from a photo, when usually the need in landscape painting is to simplify the forms (especially as they recede into the distance). I think I'll try to do this more often on studio work when the critical details can be referenced either from the plein air study or from memory.

Dog Heaven 2

Dog Heaven 2, 8 x 8

NFS

This is my Irish Terrier, Major Eamon. I recently brought him on the trip I took to Colorado with my college buddy, Bruce Powers and his dog, Gracy. We were there almost a week, nearly all of which the dogs were free of both leashes and fences. With the freedom to chase chipmunks, the scenery, and getting to split nearly half a t-bone steak with Gracy the night before we returned, life was about as good as it gets for a canine.

This is a one-hour study I did today for my daughter Natalie, who asked me to paint her favorite pooch when she saw the photo I later referenced it from.

I Didn't Do It, I Swear.

I Didn't Do It, I Swear, 16 x 20

Still life class was today, most of which we spent working with a full pallet on a streatched canvas. Laurel brought in at least five different types of eggplant, which she got from our last plein air venue. Several looked more like squash to me than eggplant, but I trust our teacher knows whereof she speaks. These were about the most egg-planty looking ones on hand.

Gracy's Place

Gracy's Place, 20 x 24
NFS

I painted this today from one of many photos I took while in southwestern Colorado a few weeks ago. I haven't painted this large in awhile, so I was happy to be able to complete it in one session, albeit one that lasted several hours. As you might guess, that's Gracy in the foreground. My dog, Major, is in on up the road, waiting on his friend.

Thanks for coming

No images to post today, but thank you to everyone who made the trek to Round Rock this afternoon for Trish Siegel's and my opening at The Daily Grind. It was the first exclusive opening for each of us and it meant a lot to see so many friendly faces. It was a lot of fun and both of us made sales, which made it even sweeter. Now it will be nice to focus on just the painting part for awhile.

Value Studies, Part II

Our latest class assignment was to do more value studies, using one color and its range of values for each study. The top left was a set-up from class, while the other three were done from home this afternoon.

Left Behind

Left Behind, 6 x 8
$100
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The threat of rain kept the turnout low for this morning's scheduled paintout at Johnson's Backyard Garden, a small organic farm on the southeast edge of Austin. Three artists showed up, though just two of us stayed to paint. This was understandable, since there was a stong chance of rain. With almost no one else around and just a light, intermittent sprinkle, it turned out to be a wonderfully peaceful and enjoyable morning. I painted from my car for the first time ever, with the window down, and though it was a little cramped, I'm glad I stayed. I know I would have been grumpy if I had driven all the way out there and not gotten to paint. This little shack sits on land next to the farm, at the end of an old one-lane road. The quiet, along with the threatening sky seemed to add to the mystery of this old relic of a life long past.

Local Color, Value and Light

It's been a busy few weeks with work, travel and the start of a new art class, and thus my postings have been rare. Okay, they've been nonexistent. But that changes with tonight's post, which shows work from my first assignment in Laurel's "Color and Value in Still Life" class at Laguna Gloria.


After warming up by painting a simple value scale from white to black, the first phase of the main assignment was to paint only the local values in any one of several still-life setups Laurel had arranged around the studio. That is, render the inherent lightness or darkness of the objects in one of the still lifes without showing any of the cast light or shadows that we normally use to distinguish shape and texture.

Next, we were asked — ever so sweetly by our wonderful teacher, Ms. Daniel — to now do another study, showing how light and shadow affect the local values of the objects.

Finally, we were to try one more version, this time including the local color of the objects in the lighted scene.

In case you were wondering, the spherical object you see is what used to be called a smudge pot, for some indecipherable reason. They were used back in the day, more or less as heavy-duty lanterns by road crews to light detours or road construction boundaries. And yes, I'm old enough to remember them. But that was in deep East Texas, where I wouldn't be surprised to still find them in use today. So I'm not necessarily that old. Just for the record.

Lakeside Breeze

Lakeside Breeze, 12 x 9

My apologies for another tardy post, but I have another excuse to go with it. I've spent considerable time of late getting ready for an exhibit of Patricia Siegel's and my work, which we hung today at The Daily Grind coffee house in Round Rock. It's the first featured exhibit for either of us, so it's nice to have taken that step. As far as the picture above, it depicts a view from our paint out site last Wednesday, at Cindy Ridge's lake house on Lake Austin. As you can no doubt can tell, I had a lot of trouble with the mountain in the background. I tried to solve its issues back home afterward, the effort of which was further hampered by the fact that I took no reference photos to work from. There were some other elements I felt were working in the piece, however, and since it has been well over a week since my last post, I decided to go ahead and put it up for all to see. Please be gentle.

Lost Creek

Lost Creek, 10 x 8
$150

This morning, the plein air group was at Lost Creek, in southwest Austin. The creek is way down, and while this kept some views from being worthwhile subjects for painting, it allowed us to reach other vantage points we couldn't have otherwise.

Sunshine

Sunshine, 24 x 24

NFS

Apologies for the sparse postings of late, but I've been helping my son get his new-used car ready to head out of state for his sophomore year of college; and also spent nearly two full days rounding up various documents from all over Austin for my daugher's learner's permit exam. Check and check. He's hopefully in Knoxville, TN by now, (please, God) and my daughter passed her test. Locals, beware of the latter.

I met this bright-eyed beauty on a horse farm in northwest Austin. There were several others I took pictures of, but this one — I'm calling her Sunshine — loved the camera. There are two other poses of her I hope to paint in the next week. This painting is my first attempt using only palette knives, which I really enjoyed and will continue to explore.

Neighborhood Bridge

Neighborhood Bridge, 11 x 14
$250
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Our paintout this morning was on the grounds of the Elizabet Ney Museum in central Austin. This bridge spans Waller Creek, which continues south through the UT campus and downtown, before emptying into Town Lake.

Let's Do Lunch

Let's Do Lunch, 11 x 14

I was running too late for this week's plein air paintout, so I worked inside, on this still life.

Dog Heaven

Dog Heaven, 8 x 10

I've started working on some larger studio pieces this week, so today, and periodically for awhile, I'll be posting some finished work that had yet to make it to the blog. This plein air piece was done on our first of two visits to Bull Creek Dog Park back in early June. Despite the lack of canine activity in the painting, this place was full of all kinds of dogs that day, every one of them seeming to have the time of their lives. This swimming hole is fed by the creek coming from the viewer's left, and it is this portion that the dogs seem to like the best because of its a smooth, rock bed which is shallow enough for the pooches not to have to swim. If they get too hot, they (the lab and retriever types, mostly) will jump into the pool you see here.

Too Busy To Sit

Too Busy To Sit, 8 x 88
SOLD

This afternoon, the Plein Air Austin paintout was at Martha Ruth's house, just a mile or so below Mansfield Dam, on Lake Austin. It's a beautiful spot and Martha and her husband, Gene, were terrifically hospitable to have us there.

Well Deserved Rest

Well Deserved Rest, 14 x 11
SOLD

This was my first submission to Karin Jurick's "Different Strokes From Different Folks" Challenge. If you're not already familiar with the Different Strokes blog, check it out at http://differentstrokesfromdifferentfolks.blogspot.com. This bi-weekly challenge is a great service to artists interested in getting better. Also check out Karin's work at http://karinjurick.blogspot.com. She is phenomenal.