Texas Oaks

Texas Oaks
6" x 8"
original oil on canvas board
Click here to purchase.

Another wonderful view from my mom's back yard. My son was taking a nap, so sat on the back door's step and stole a few minutes for this painting.

I love this painting. Greens have been giving me trouble for a while now, but I stopped trying to see them as shades of green and started looking for the reds, purples and blues instead.

I am so hooked.

Plein Air painting is Hard.

Union Flat II
6" x 8"
oil on canvas board

Whew! I decided today to go back to Union Flat Creek to try my hand at the rocks again. Getting there, but they still just look like globs of paint rather than rocks. What am I not doing that I should?

I may have to do some up close and personal rock studies...

I also decided to concentrate on the drawing bit of this painting, and found that helped a lot. I've been reading Richard Schmid's Alla Prima so today, I was trying to look at the subject as a specific problem that I needed to work out. As I was painting, I realized how little attention I have been paying to the exact placement of objects in the view.

Color. All the greens really get me. Subtle changes make all the difference, I suppose...

I need more drawing practice.

Plein Air and Chocolate - Its a Good thing.

Lazy Daizies
8" x 10"
Oil on Canvas Board

I had a good painting session today!

I picked up a box of chocolates on the way out of town, which was something of a big deal for me because I hadn't had chocolate (or anything else with even the slightest bit of caffeine in it) in almost three years. Count 'em- three.

I enjoyed my chocolate. And I enjoyed painting. I am attributing some of my success today to the chocolate. It may become a part of a weekly plein air routine... But then I will have to start hiking to my painting destinations to burn off the extra calories.

Three out of four of the sketches in this picture are now paintings. The lower left one is today's sketch. You might recognize the top two...

I really liked the curl of yellow flowers on the hillside and wanted to make that the center of interest. I had to nix a tree and move the purplish shrub over to the left a bit. Good ol' artistic license!

I was painting out of the back of my 4Runner so I and my canvas were in shade, but everything else in front of me was washed in glaring sunlight. I had trouble seeing the colors on the canvas. I didn't like the painting until I got home and had a chance to see it in even lighting.

All I can say is "Yippee!"

Jenkins Rd- Barn

Jenkins Rd
11" x 14"
oil on canvas
Click here to purchase.

Well, that was pretty fun. The rust on the roof to the right of the barn was surprisingly difficult, but I think it turned out rather well.

I think I will have to make something of a study of grasses and rusted things...

WIP - Red barn (ha ha ha!)

Just have to fill in the buildings... I find grasses difficult to render. I don't care for the hyper detail of every individual blade painted, but I like some texture and direction. I've seen some artists make their grasses in a semi-drybrushed blocked-in sort of way, and it works... They have rich, wonderful grasses full of texture and life, all in what looks like a few brush strokes. If I could only figure out how to do it myself...

I have a chance to go paint outside this evening, so I am going to take it. I was really hoping what the weather man said would be true, but surprise, surprise... he was wrong... again. Maybe I will get lucky and the sun will break through all the gloom in the next thirty minutes.

Otherwise, I will be painting in grays!

Oh!!! Here comes the sun! I'm outta here!