Next week hopeful

This is one of the four paintings from yesterday finished. This is my second favorite of the group of four but the most photogenic of them. This next weekend I hope that they are all in Richmond finding new homes. It is always hard to tell but I think they are of good enough quality to be in the sale. If you are in the Richmond area go check it out and hopefully my paintings will be there. This one was a lot of fun to paint because of all the highly saturated pigment. The blues, purples, greens and oranges all pop and it seems to work well together.

Today's exercise

These value scale under paintings are all 5"x7" and took about 5 minutes each to finish. I started by drawing quick thumbnails of all the photos in my current potential paintings folder. After 15 minutes and 30 drawings later I chose these 4 (because I only have 4 pieces of paper left) to paint. I circled my favorite four and then transfered them with slight adjustments to sanded paper. I then got a dark purple hard pastel and filled in the dark and mid values and used paint thinner to push around the pigment for a painterly effect. Im getting to the point where drawing these thumbnails is almost art in itself and it doesn't seem like work. It is easy to see now how some painters of old became so immersed in their art that it consumed them completely.

Night Painting

A while back I posted that I painted a few night paintings. This is one of those paintings. This one wasn't my personal favorite but I like it a lot. There are a lot more night paintings on the way and I'm super excited about these upcoming ones. These paintings border on abstract and realism. That is one of my favorite properties of a painting. If the painting is noticeable at a glance but then you have to take multiple glances just to make sure it really gets my attention. There is something about the mystery and mood of a painting of that nature that keeps me coming back.

A windy day

Today was a plein air day that kept me on my toes the entire time. I painted with Pam Newell this morning and then tried to paint on my own this afternoon. It started out nice with some sun and a few clouds but then the wind came bringing the rain with it. This is the first painting from the morning. It's 10"x20" which is on the large side for my pastels. This painting took a little over an hour to complete once I had set up and gotten everything going. Working larger and quicker is loosening up my style and hopefully putting me in a place I'm comfortable with style-wise. This painting felt a lot like a painting I did in Brookville that I liked a lot. I'm going to let this one set for a bit to see how I like it later.

Tonight after everyone else had gone to bed I began framing. Now I'm the proud owner of 4 completely finished paintings. The two oils that I framed are two of my favorite paintings that I've done so far. I think it is a good thing that my newest paintings are typically my favorites. It keeps me from getting attached to them and makes it much easier to let them go after framing new ones. The next item on the list for tonight is to write up an autobiography and resume to send off to some people that just became owners of my work. That is the kind of leg work that I'm thrilled to have.

Salvaging

This painting was done at the workshop this past weekend and it started life as a 16x20 and ended up a mere 12x12. The focus was to work large, quickly and deliberately. When all was said and done I was disgusted with the painting because I had messed up on the perspective of the bucket. I had chalked this one up to experience and was going to toss it but then I got to looking at it more. I began to realize that it was salvageable. Simply cropping the painting made me like it for the first time since the initial brush strokes. Sitting on paintings for a while gives them a second chance and some times that's all they need.

Tacit Knowledge

This past weekend I was at my first workshop and it was awesome. Wyatt Legrand was at Waycross and I was there. The workshop was in oil but the painting at top is a pastel. I think I learned a lot but it is hard to put in words hence the title. The workshop wasn't structured as a formal course normally is. It was at your own pace and was tailored towards the individuals. This fit me great and worked out very well. It is hard for me to put into words what I learned but if I was to try I would talk about colors, confidence and quickness. The confidence thing was mainly directed at painting larger and quicker. For anyone wanting to take an oil workshop in Indiana I would say jump at a Wyatt LeGrand workshop for all the reasons I stated above and watch him paint. It doesn't matter who the person is, if you watch them paint you are going to learn something. Hand movement is a big thing to watch when you are there at a demo. I'm not sure what other people are looking at or listening to but always watch the instructors hands. 

Anyway the painting above is what I did in 20 minutes tonight. This is the first time I have picked up pastel in two weeks. It felt good getting things going with the medium. After spending time away from pastel it makes me see it in a slightly different light.