Finishing up the month of August

It has been a busy month, but I finished up two small paintings.
Spring Magnolias at Wagner Park

After a long winter, I rode my bike one spring day to this park. It's real name is "Wagner Park" but the locals also call it "Pretty Park".  Many artists go there for some plein air painting, sometimes with models.

I was more interested in the blossoms than the "temple" structure at the park. It felt good to be out and about without boots and winter clothes.


This painting is mixed media, as I started in acrylic, then finished in oils. It is 9" X 12" on Ampersand panel.  I enjoyed painting on the panel as a nice change from canvas.

Morning Glory

I also like to paint on a black background from time to time, especially flowers.  I used black gesso on a canvas board to start this one, but eventually had to add some black paint when I was finishing up.

I usually see blue morning glories in the summer, but this one I spotted on my walk was white with just a touch of color.  The vines were growing down from the fence post as well as around it.

8" X 10", oil painting on canvas board.






I'm not sure when I'll start back on the larger paintings, but I prepared a little color study with acrylic paint on canvas paper.  This one is not a real place, just a combination of images in my head, from sunsets to beaches, maybe a jetty sticking out into the ocean. I liked the colors.

I signed up for another oil painting class that starts next month. I'm hoping that will get me to loosen up a little bit. The class is called "Explore, Exploit, Express".  I liked the title and the description: A visual art studio course designed and developed to: “get your drawing and painting beyond the mundane and mechanical cliché!”  This is a link to the NHIA catalog.
 http://www.nhia.edu/assets/Uploads/PDFs/CE--CT/2015/CE-FALL-2015.pdf

Meanwhile I'm getting ready to celebrate the wedding of my middle son at the end of this month. It will be my first time as "mother of the groom" and I'm looking forward to dancing and celebrating. That will be a good way to end the month.

Traveling and Landscapes

I finished my painting from our June trip to Canada. Athabasca River, oil painting on stretched canvas, 16" X 20". My website now offers T shirts, tote bags and some other items as well as cards and prints. Fine Art America has partnered with Pixels.com to print these items.  This view of the river is right before the water falls. I loved the trip to the Canadian Rockies (Alberta) and will probably paint more views from my photos. (Click on image to enlarge)

Meanwhile, my son's band was playing on a boat in Portland, Maine. I had never done a harbor cruise before and this was great. I've been to Portland many times (great museum there as well as fine restaurants and interesting downtown), but just cruising around watching the boats, old forts, lighthouses was very enjoyable.

Portland Harbor is also an oil painting on 16" X 20" stretched canvas. I enjoyed working with these colors too, quite a change from the colors in the Athabasca River painting.  This is the first time I've attempted an oil painting of a harbor with boats. I liked the way it came out. I did a small acrylic study of the sailboat first (image below). Then I decided I liked it enough to attempt a larger painting, but I liked the full scene for the larger painting, not just the sailboat.

Portland Harbor study, 8" X 10", acrylic on canvas board. I find that I'm enjoying working with the water mixable oil paints more as I get used to them, but I still like the acrylics too. Many times I use the acrylic paints as an underpainting. That helps me with colors as well as composition.  In composing the scene for the larger harbor painting, I moved the small boat in front from my photo (using scissors and tape on my printout, not Photoshop!) and placed it off center. The original photo showed it too centered for me. I also print out my photos in black and white as well as color. That helps me both with composition and values (light/dark).

In between the serious paintings, I also played with paints, trying a night scene on paper.

Night Study, acrylic paint on Strathmore acrylic paper. This one just came out of my imagination and some views I had seen on the internet. While Manchester (NH, my home town) is on a river, it certainly doesn't look like this, day or night!  I liked the way the sky came out, but that's about it for this painting.

Then I tried a self portrait, using the water mixable oil paints again, this time on Arches Oil paper. The nice thing about doing a self portrait is that I could make myself look much younger. The hard thing was mixing the colors. I need to learn how to make shadows better with these paints. Anyway, it was a fun experiment and I learn something new each time I paint. I'm just posting a little clip of this one here as I really don't like the full portrait.

By coincidence, thinking about my last posting on titles, Jason Horejs posted a good video on the same topic recently.  http://reddotblog.com/art-marketing-minute-video-creating-compelling-titles-for-your-artwork/

I bought a used pochade box (portable paint box) from an artist friend. These are very expensive to buy new, but I wanted one for plein air painting (painting outside). I would like to practice a bit before our next trip to Israel (next year). We will be staying at Ein Hod (an artist's village) for a full month and I plan on painting outside, not just from photos. I definitely need more practice with that. I've tried it out in my studio, but not outdoors yet. Looking forward to that too.

Giving titles to paintings

Watching the Tourists, oil on canvas board, 8" X 10"

I felt that this little rodent was watching us just as we were busy snapping photos of him (or her). We were enjoying walking on the trails at Two Jack Lake in Alberta (Canada) on our trip to the Canadian Rockies last month. I took photos of various ground squirrels, chipmunks and other small rodents. I can't really identify which one this guy was, but I thought he was cute. (Then again, as an artist I also think iguanas are cute too.) I never know what to title my paintings, so I decided on a little bit of irony for this one.

I had difficulty making a good photo of my artwork.  The first few I tried had too much reflection on the pigments even though I was not using a flash. 

I also started another 16" X 20" oil painting from our last trip.  This view is of the Athabasca River just before the Athabasca Falls.  I'll continue working on it this week. I had some good photos of the falls, but I didn't feel like painting another waterfall this time (I've done those in the past).

I'm not sure what I'll tackle next, but I prepared another 8" X 10" canvas board with black gesso again since I liked the way that looked on the dahlias painting. I may experiment with it a little knowing that I can always cover up my messes or wipe them off.  That's the nice thing about painting, it's easy to fix mistakes.

Dahlias in My Garden, 8" X 10", oil on canvas board

I was happy with the way this painting turned out. I made some cards too and will be bringing some cards and prints with me to "Trolley Night" this week in downtown Manchester. I will have a few paintings on exhibit at the gallery across from Pappy's Pizza (1528 Elm Street, Manchester, NH). The free trolley runs from 5:00 to 8:00 around the downtown with interesting stops at various venues.

More painting progress

This is my first painting from the trip to the Canadian Rockies.  It is a view of Moraine Lake in the Valley of the Ten Peaks (in Banff, Alberta, Canada). I still struggle with composition and colors, but I'm happy with the way this came out. It was a magnificent view of the mountains and glaciers.  I hoped to give some sense of the massiveness of all those mountains.  As usual, it was hard deciding whether or not I was finished or if I would still do a little touching up, but I think this is done.

Oil painting, 16" x 20". You can buy a card or print here.

Meanwhile, I decided to do a couple of small panels.  These are not done, but I'm having fun with them.

This little guy seemed to be watching us. I'm going to continue working on the panel this week. I'm calling it "watching the tourists". Oil on canvas board, 8" X 10"

I planted dahlias for the first time this year in front of my house. I took a photo of the first one to open. I'll be working on this one and hope to finish it this week. I'm happy with the way it looks so far. Oil on canvas board, 8" X 10".  The background is black gesso. I think I'm going to leave it that way as I like the way it sets off the flower and leaves.

Canadian Rockies

I took hundreds of photos on our trip to the Canadian Rockies (Calgary, Banff, Jasper etc.). Photo above was taken in Jasper, across the street from our bungalows. The female elk (wapiti) are called cows, the babies are called calves.

It's hard to believe that some people do not know how dangerous it is to approach wild animals. I guess they think they are like the ones on the television. Anyway, we saw bear (safely from the bus), deer, elk, chipmunks, ground squirrels and other rodents.

I took too many pictures of the glaciers, mountains and lake to post here, but if you have the time and patience, you might enjoy viewing them. Here is a link. Linda's photos of the Canadian Rockies.

I forgot to post my last painting before I went on vacation, so here it is:

Time?

And finally, a new profile picture:

I loved the different colors on the lakes there. Some interesting greens (from glacial silt), some bright blues. I'm having difficulty decided which image to paint first!

Back to acrylics

In the Grand Tetons, 16" X 20", acrylic on stretched canvas.

I think this is done now. I haven't put it up on my website (so no link yet) because I'm still thinking about it. After working with the oil paints for my 12 week class, I found it a little strange to go back to acrylics. I really enjoy the quick drying time, but at the same time, I liked the ability of the oil paints to last longer and mix better. I will probably continue to experiment with both media. I will definitely use the oil paints if I do any more outside painting (plein air). I hope to do some of that during the summer.

Meanwhile I started another urban painting from my photo of Manchester (NH)'s downtown scene.  I think I am going to continue in monochrome instead of following the colors in the photo. I like the way this looks so far. This is also acrylic paint, but 8" X 10".

I found simplifying all the details in a city scene quite complicated. I will have some people walking on the sidewalk in the finished painting, but I'm definitely leaving some details out.  I'm enjoying working on this one.

I am heading out to more mountains soon, so the next post will probably have photos instead of paintings. I hope to have some time to work more on the urban scene before I leave.   I'm enjoying the spring weather (although it's very changeable from day to day in New Hampshire). Here is a little photo from yesterday's walk around the pond.

Back to School, Final

By the Sea, 16" X 20", oil on stretched canvas. I finally finished this painting that I had started in my oil painting class.  I really enjoy seeing the different colors in the oceans and seas when we travel. They are very different than the colors of the Atlantic Ocean as seen along the coast of New Hampshire and Maine. This scene was of the Mediterranean Sea from Caesaria, Israel.  I had taken photos when we traveled there. I had made a very abstract painting of this scene on Yupo paper years ago and decided to do something more realistic this time.  We hope to go back to Israel in 2016.

Meanwhile, I was tired of painting with oils and did a gouache, pen and ink painting (see last post). Then I gesso'ed a hardbord panel and painted some day lilies in acrylic, but in an oriental style, not a realistic one. I have painted these before too, but with watercolor.

Day Lilies 3, acrylic on hardbord, 9" X 12". You can see the earlier painting and this one on my website. I think it was a good break to switch off from doing the complicated realistic oil paintings and just play with other materials.

After that I assembled another canvas using stretcher bars (with primed canvas I had in stock). I have decided that it is not worthwhile to do this. It's easier to buy the canvases already mounted. I had difficulty getting the canvas squared up properly. Anyway, I started an underpainting with acrylics, of the Grand Tetons. I did a sketch first to change the composition around a little from my photo (which I had already cropped).  I blocked in the shapes and now I need to decide whether to proceed with acrylics or oils. I might do this one in acrylics and a second one later on in oils.  I love the way the oils blend and spread, but I get frustrated with the long drying time. Decisions, decisions. . .

This is the first block in. The final composition will probably be a bit different.

Back to School, Part 5

Pelican Party, 18" X 24", water mixable oils on stretched canvas.
I think this painting is finally done. I haven't posted it yet to my website in case I change my mind. I painted this with palette knife and brushwork. I didn't put in as many pelicans as were in my original photo. The pelicans were at the Laguna Beach State Marine Reserve (California). There were some other birds on the rocks too, probably cormorants or terns. I couldn't tell from the photo, just saw some black birds.

It was actually fun painting with the palette knife, but the downside is that the paint is so thick that it takes a long time to dry. That meant I couldn't add the pelicans until the painted rock was dry. I used a brighter blue than I usually use for the Pacific Ocean (Phthalo blue/red shade). I also made some mixes with white and with cerulean blue. I thought that really brightened up the painting.

I used an olive green and titanium white mix for some of the rock and some of the guano. I used raw umber mixes for the browns.  I didn't really need too many different colors for this painting. There is a little bit of sap green to show some moss or grass on the rock (you can enlarge the view of the painting by clicking on it).

I am finished with my 12 week oil painting class at New Hampshire Institute of Art. It was hard work, but I feel that my skills with this medium have improved. I still have one more painting to finish (below).

By the Sea, WIP. Since this is the Mediterranean Sea, the sea colors are very different. I used mixes with Viridian.  I'll try to finish this one within the next week or two. These two paintings are really the first time I have tried seriously painting seas/oceans. I am working on this one with brushes, not palette knife (I had enough of that for a while with the last one.)

Then I took a break and did a little illustration with gouache, pen and ink. This one is on Canson 140 lb. rough paper. I enjoyed playing with my old paints, although some of them were a bit dried up. Even though they were dried up and I had limited colors, I was still able to make a study I was happy with. I don't like the image enough to spend time painting a larger painting. This is the view of Fort Constitution (from Fort Stark) in New Castle, NH. The water is the Atlantic Ocean.

I think that's it for a while on ocean/seas/water paintings. I have prepared a hardbord with gesso to play with next. I'm thinking about flowers to go on it. Spring is slowly getting here and my daffodils are open now.  I keep watching for more plants/flowers to open. Our bikes are ready for their first ride of the season and I'm looking forward to that too.

I ordered some new business cards from Vistaprint. It was actually cheaper to order cards from them than to keep printing a few of my own each time I do a show. The paper is a very good quality too. They have sales periodically. I waited for a good sale and I'm happy with the cards. My next scheduled show is July 26th in New Castle, NH.

Back to School, Part 4

Erev Shabbat (sabbath eve) in Tsfat (Safed) Israel, 16" X 20" oil painting on stretched canvas. I enjoyed working on this despite my difficulty with greens.  The teacher and my classmates were all very helpful. You can buy a card or print directly from my website. The original is also for sale. More information is available on that site too.

One thing we all agreed about in class is that no matter how hard you try to photograph or scan an original painting, the colors never quite look the same as the original.  I have two monitors and when I look at the same JPG photo, it looks different on each one even though the monitors are from the same manufacturer.

I haven't been writing every week as I have been busy with the Passover holiday, my painting, family and gardening. Now that winter is (hopefully) finished here, I have lots of cleanup work in my yard to catch up with. I cleaned my vegetable patch and planted some onion sets. They are very hardy and will survive another frost if we have one more.

Meanwhile, I finished two more paintings.

Monarch Amid the Mums, oil painting on canvas board, 9" X 12". I painted this from a photo I took several years ago.  The monarch butterfly was kind enough to stay long enough on my flowers that I had time to grab my camera and take some photos.

Birches at First Connecticut Lake, 9" X 12", oil on Ampersand panel. I found it more difficult working on the Ampersand panel instead of canvas.  I have ordered a few different types of panels to try out and experiment with. I enjoy trying new processes and playing with new art supplies.

Meanwhile, I have started two new paintings with ocean/sea views. One is of the Pacific Ocean at Laguna Beach with Pelicans on a big rock. I am doing that one with a palette knife.  I only have one more class left in this series, so I may not get it done by the end of the semester.  I also played with colors and did a small painting based on the colors in a scarf that I like.  I don't know if I'll do anything to finish that one, or just use it as a background for a card later one.

The other painting I started is a view from Caesaria (Israel) of the Mediterranean Sea. I had done that one before in a very abstract manner. (It was done on Yupo paper)  The oil painting will be a little more colorful and realistic.

Happy Spring!

Back to School Part 3

I was getting tired of looking out my window and seeing snow, so I pulled out an old photo and made a small painting. This one is an oil painting, 8" X 10" on canvas board.  I was pleased with my teacher's comments. He said my painting was an improvement over the photo. :)

I posted it on my website and you can order a card or print here.

I finished the painting I was working on earlier and gave it a title: Valor and General Stark, those are the names of the horses. This one is 16" X 20".  I'm enjoying the oil painting class and learning more than I was learning on my own from DVD's and books.

My acrylic painting of the bridge is now up on the conference room wall at Webster House and I stopped by yesterday to deliver more paintings and had my picture taken with my painting. Seeing it this way gives a better idea of the scale of the painting. It is 4' x 5'. I'm very happy with the way it looks and I changed my image at the top of the blog to this one.  My smaller painting of the same scene is on display locally and I'll be bringing it back home next week.

I didn't work on my painting of birches this week, so I still have to finish that one. I decided to start a new painting instead, one that I felt more emotionally connected to.  I picked out two photos I had taken in Tsfat (Israel), just as the Sabbath eve was beginning (not quite sunset yet). Last week I brought a sketch to class since I had to combine photos and rearrange them a bit to get the image I wanted.  This week I started with a color study on oil painting paper. I taped the paper to a white board. This was the first time I had used this paper and I wasn't really comfortable with it.  (Also the teacher suggested I do a value study next time as well as a color study.)  

I liked the way the composition worked out from my combination of photos. I worked on it more in class and will continue next week with more detail.

Still learning about values - the sky is the lightest light (even though it was getting to be sunset). I'm starting to get a little more comfortable with my brushes and oil paints now.  Some of the other students thought the image might be from France or Italy. I will probably title it "Erev Shabbat" which is Hebrew for eve of the sabbath.  That is Mount Meron (Israel) in the background.