Assembling a Cabin (8x10in sketch)

Winter Sketch

Here's another oil sketch approximately 8x10 inches on canvasboard. Seems appropriate since we have had snow warnings this past week with no result. We live in a valley and when the temperature varies between 30's and 40's, incoming cold fronts don't have the strength to deliver snow. Instead, we get a lot of rain. I think the local meteorologists like to remain cautious to cover their bases. Still cold as gee-whizzes, though.

Sketching like this is helping me to get back on track. It doesn't take a lot of paint or time, usually an hour's worth of work. I want to do a couple more and then begin a large canvas and settle down to something I can spend time with.

My Son, A Budding Photographer!

Over Christmas, my son Stoy asked to upgrade our digital camera and add a tripod to practice taking pictures. It seems he is taking an interest in this after his grandmother, "Gran Lou" (who was quite a shutterbug herself). We thought it would be interesting that I manage his blog and post his work, so I added a link to that blog here. You can go directly from here: Stoy's Photo Blog. Check it out and leave comments! Enjoy!

Getting Wavy With the Gravy

Ben and Jerry's ice cream is certainly a work of art, even at the molecular level. My wife got a link in her e-mail to it and here it is. Check it out! The Ice Cream Collection

My favorite is the very first piece, not only in flavor, (that being coffee almond fudge crunch) but in the abstract sense. Would look good on an 18x24 wrap-around canvas!

Sketching in Oil

There she is, our Bonnie Belle who places first dibs on my chair. Considering the health problems she has endured the past year, I guess I have become more of a pushover. Instead of moving her, I get another chair and go to work on an oil sketch.

I'm still out of practice and a little rusty. This one went hard on me. Color was my main concern and much of it was looking good until I overworked it and started seeing mud in places. It is on one half of a 11x14 canvasboard and I used #2 and #4 filberts. It's small and it didn't photograph well. We are overcast and headed for some winter weather!

First Painting in a While

Taking a few clues from Margaret Kessler's book "Painting Better Landscapes", I practiced foliage...how exciting. I say that jokingly. It's difficult to understand the thrill of a tree until you look at it differently and actively duplicate it in technique. This exercise was very fun and I'm pleased with the results. The first few "sketches" I produced from my imagination and the second piece, a palm, was done from a photo.



The basic technique relies on building up a form or overall shape of a tree with a thinned wash of oil paint, mapping out darks and lights. Next, I apply a local or base color in a middle value with a slightly thicker wash. Now, I add mixes of dark and light colors, involving temperatures, to fill out the form with thick paint in a series of dabs and strokes depending on the nature of the tree's personality. I did the exercises directly on a white surface, so the values in the sky are not all that consistent. In anycase, it gives me plenty of ideas on how to proceed with a full piece where I would work on a toned surface to have background colors show through.

First Sketch of the Year

I wipped up a quick one in my sketchbook to get warmed up for starting a new painting. It won't be of this mill, but nonetheless, sketching is a good way to train the eyes. This subject offers a decent challenge of structural perspective, not to mention rendering rhythms found in foliage. The mill is local and has an interesting history that I included here...

"Originally constructed in 1798 along Lost Creek, this mill was operated by four generations of the Rice family. The mill has had many changes throughout its history. At times, the mill was also rigged to power a sawmill, a cotton gin, a trip hammer, and even to operate a dynamo that supplied electrical lights for the Rice home in 1899. Tennessee Valley Authority purchased the land the mill stood on which was to be flooded by the building of Norris Dam. The mill was carefully disassembled and reassembled much of the structure at its present site. The mill still grinds corn meal in the summer."

Happy New Year!

I have been away far too long! Now that Christmas and New Years have come to a close, I can get back to business of creating! Perhaps this calls for a New Year's resolution, but not anything I can't stick too. Surely I can make more of an effort to keep my practice up. Looking back on 2006, I have been very blessed. For a start, a few paintings have been completed and many more varnished from a previous year. I stayed busy sketching and hunting for references and even attended a spring show and an openshow. That is until my son's fall break from school and following family obligations and other distractions put a halt to all that.

The worst of it happened when our apartment complex and city both made numerous repairs and upgrades to the property very early in the morning like at the crack of dawn. I work a late shift and turn in by two in the morning, so for a good two months, I was a walking zombie. When I don't have enough rest, I don't draw or paint. I rely on a good night's sleep and a clear mind for my best efforts, so I didn't bother to force it.

Looking forward now, there is a list of things I would like to accomplish in no particular order. One, continue my practice on landscapes. There are a few techniques on painting foliage that I would like to have a go at. I got a lot of references that literally beg to be painted, so I have much enthusiasm for that. The autumn was beautiful this year, so that will be something I look forward to posting! When I'm bogged down with life, I will try harder not to worry about painting and sketch or draw more. I noticed I tend to neglect the small stuff sometimes...not this year and that will lead hopefully to more blogging! :) As a last item, I would like to try painting from some of my previous drawings and sketches. One of them I might try I posted below. This piece was done a few years ago from life in charcoal. Not the best photo, since it was done on newsprint, but you get the idea. The challenge here will be to work out a palette not only from my memory, but to be a little more creative and "create" my own palette to suit the color scheme and mood from a black and white image. I always wanted to try that and hadn't so far, so this year might offer an opportunity. Here's to a New Year!