Lost Horizon

Lost Horizon, oil on gessobord, 6x6"
SOLD

After lining up the last four paintings I have done, I realized  they are all of vast fields I've photographed while flying through in a car, on a highway trip.  As I looked at them together, they all seem.... moody; a testament that one's state of mind does reveal itself into the creative process.  I've been working on two larger paintings incrementally but have been unhappy with the progress.  When I take a break and grab a smaller surface, these smaller paintings seem to work. Not sure why I'm having this block but it's not fun!! :-)

To purchase click here

Chaos

Chaos, oil on gessobord, 9x12"

I painted this last month, but it was lost in the shuffle of preparing for the art fair.  The cattail series quickly became my favorite subject matter....it was a great opportunity to learn to paint foreground and interpret intermediate ground using color rather than detail.  Each of the paintings presented something new and fun, and I am hoping to return to them soon. 

buy

Italian Landscape(s)

 Italian Landscape (Me), oil on gessobord, 8x10"
SOLD

Italian Landscape (Hugh), oil on gessobord, 9x14"

A couple of nights ago I ask my son Hugh, who was in an "almost a graduate, not yet done with high school" mood, aka no more assignments to deal with, to paint with me. That perked him up. Since I returned to painting a year ago, we have not had an opportunity to work side-by-side, again because his Visual Arts magnet school provided him with plenty of work. He usually had 2-3 assignments going on together, whether it be painting, drawing, photography or printmaking.  Kind of like  being an art major in college, but he is still in high school. 

He decided to call our painting time a "paint off" and he chose an image from which we worked.  It was a great experience, and fun, and in my opinion his painting was a hundred times better than mine. He picked this image because the sky was so dramatic, and his painting captures it beautifully. I am very proud of him and know it will be difficult when he leaves for college in the fall.

Art Fair weekend

Art Fair Weekend :-) 

Here are a couple pictures of the setup, before the itsy bitsy spider was washed out by the downed rain. 

It was fun, learned a lot, had a great host in Blackacre Nature Preserve, and I am looking forward to next year.

The Straight and the Narrow

The Straight and the Narrow, oil on gessobord, 9 x 14"

Over the weekend I participated in my first Art Fair-type event. My son and I spent a few hours setting up the evening before, and my good friend Lynn helped hang up the artwork the morning of, only to have the event overtaken by storms. Despite being disappointed for the sponsors of the event and for the lack of visitors, I learned quite a bit, and am contemplating another event. 
While still in my post-fair fog, I hid in my studio and painted a few bad paintings (a reflection of my mood I guess). Somewhere in all those bad ones this emerged...a road to somewhere. Maybe a metaphor, maybe just a road, in the middle of some beautiful plains headed to the mountains. Maybe yet, a hint of my future!?!

Cow Pasture

Cow Pasture, oil on gessobord, 9 x 12"

I am slowly starting to adjust to painting larger than my 6x6"-ish norm.  This painting at 9 x 14 is a comfortable "large".  When I get too much larger I tend to have the most problems with things like scale, and which brushes to switch to.  But I am getting there.  I love the way this turned out. Microscopic cows in their big universe, full of color and enough grass to live on forever. Sounds like a great life!

Parallel Universe

Parallel Universe, Oil on gessoed panel, 7 3/4 x 12 1/4"

SOLD

This is fresh off the easel, so I apologize for the bit of glare on the left side of the photo.  It is a little different, in the fact that I cut my own boards this time, to try something new.  I need a new saw blade. Because of this, the upper left edge is a little "jagged" but it kind of adds to its character. It's an odd size too. I may try to cut more panel in the future because I like the feel of it over canvas.  I really love the painting itself...this was painted from a photo I took while traveling to St. Louis recently. Along the way there were streaming fields of goldenrod, which I love to look at...from a distance... in a car....where I won't sneeze.

New River Fork

New River Fork, oil on board,

On the way back from Washington D.C. over spring break we stopped at the New River in W.V.

It is an incredible river area surrounded by one of the oldest gorges in North America. This lively fork which flowed to New River was full of rocks that looked a million years old. The water was speeding through because of all the rain the eastern half of the country was having and because of the trajectory.