Saturday, October 22, 2011

Quick Post
Tonight I'm busy getting ready for another show and an adventure tomorrow. The other paintings of the dunes haven't been photographed yet and this was one of the small studies that I have ready. This is a little 6x6 of the canal downtown. At the north end of the canal are two areas where the canal forms circle points. This is of the first one. Along the edge of the circle are neat water features that radiate out and pour water into the canal. Things like this always catch my eye because of my background in landscape architecture. Anyway I hope to be a little less busy tomorrow night but if not that will be a good thing.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Painting from sketches of the dunes
This is the first painting based on a group of sketches I did up at the dunes. This is a square 8"x8" painting from Mt. Baldy. The day I was there a heavy fog covered the entire lake front. In the distance was a factory that I'm not sure can be made out in this small thumbnail, but it I like how it reads in person. The values really matched up with my value studies and that is typically a good thing. This set the bar high for the rest in the set so hopefully these last couple keep up. This painting along with another will be in a show down in brown county coming up soon.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Still Life Madness
This is the last still life I will show before moving on to some of the dunes paintings. I've been doing my best to paint the gesture of shapes instead of drawing the objects that I see. So far I think this is the best attempt. I like how the values turned out which almost always leads me to liking a painting. This one was also an experiment with using color reflection on everything and trying to get a good amount of bouncing of the light. This was a lot of fun to paint and with practice I think more still lifes will take on this quality.

And on a side note I just got back from the Richmond art exhibit open juried walkthrough. I am joyed to say that one of my paintings made it in. This was my first juried walkthrough and  my stomach was tied in knots through out the entire process. I had put an oil and pastel in. The oil sadly didn't make it but there were a ton of better paintings that didn't make it in. The biggest suprise though was the pastels. I couldn't come to grip with how many awesome pastels there were. My stomach filled with butterflies when I walked into the gallery. I wanted to turn around and go home but ended up staying and am happy that I did. It was wonderful seeing so much great work and while I didn't agree with all the judges choices he did get a good diverse field. He did throw out a lot of great landscapes because that field was dense in amazing work. He through out a piece that I thought was best of show but then again im not the judge. It was an oil and if it ever turns up I want it. The show opens Nov 3rd for anyone interested.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Color telling story
This piece is titled 'Regal Rooster and minion'. The lighting in my studio is far from great but occasionally when I see an item placed in here taken directly from good lighting, it looks alien. This little green clay pot looks absolutely beautiful when sitting alone in any other room. When it is under this light it looks so strange, and when placed around a large amount of purple it is a completely different pot. When the pot is set up next to the white porcelain rooster and cigar box on a purple cloth it stood out in the composition but my mind makes it play second fiddle to the rooster. The large complex shape of the rooster along with the perceived whiteness sitting next to the simple and deep colored shape of the pot told me a story. The rooster gets the attention but the pot is what holds everything together, its the anchor. One of the reasons I love these still lives is your mind can turn off and just stare for a bit or it can turn on your imagination and make up its own stories. There are also other stories for this painting that my mind sees when I look at it sitting in the corner. The rake and its jilted lover is one story I see with the wandering hero and his green sidekick as another. I think the cool colors along with the perceived warmness of the rooster keep bringing my mind back to the original title. The rooster is cool and dark where the light doesn't shine, and the pot shows even more of its dark side. Anyway I hope that next time you have a few minutes to stare at a still life you let it take you somewhere other than the obvious.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

What I've been up to
For the past two weeks I have been painting a lot in my studio. During the summer most of my time painting was out in the field but with the changing of the weather and a new appreciation of still life that has changed. Since taking an oil class with Pam Newell (http://pnewellart.com/) I've been fascinated with setting up still lives and painting them in pastel and oil. Soon I should be motivated enough to pick back up watercolor as well. The painting above is called 'lean on me honey'. It's a lot of fun to set these still lives up and give them a story. I was struggling to get a configuration that I liked so I went into the kitchen and started making some tea so I could procrastinate longer. The idea hit me and I brought everything back into the studio with me. Its refreshing getting to see the actual object I'm painting in the same way you get to step into the landscape when painting in plein air. It is something that a photograph can't describe. Anyway I've been working on these and from little field sketches from the dunes.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Sorry for being away so long

For the past two weeks I have been trying to build a good amount of paintings for the blog. Before if I would miss a day I would get down on myself and stay up trying to get one done. With everything that was going on it was hard to keep up so I decided to build up a bank of daily paintings. Now if I'm sick, tired or just don't feel like painting I can still post something new up every day. I've got big news from this weekend and from the past two weeks so I'm excited to be posting. Again sorry for the delay on new stuff but I think the wait is worth it. These past couple of weeks I think my work has come a long way. Thanks you to those have still been visiting.

Roy