Still Life Painting with an Abstract Feel

The new year started with a whimper for me. I had all kinds of plans to do all kinds of new stuff but it all just seemed to evaporate with a puff of smoke. It may be that I have been focusing on my Magick stuff too much these days. My brain seems to be someplace else and despite lots and lots of meditation and other good mind stuff, my brain seems to have taken a vacation. I believe my teachers would say I need to work on grounding. OK, OK, I’m listening.

"Cityscape", 20" x 31 1/4", Oil on Linen

True, I had a video to produce on my Atelier class and that took some time and energy, but hey, I wasn’t the one editing it. My videographer was. But that’s another story. I’ll post the video after this post. I did manage to start another painting for the new year and I’m pretty satisfied that I came close to my vision for it. Lots of ideas are swimming around my head so maybe all that meditation did something after all.  I wanted to do a still life that had a feeling of abstract work. Well, not fully abstract. I am a representational painter after all. But I always say that a good realist painting has at it’s oily heart a good abstract design. So that’s what I was aiming for. I made the objects larger than they are in life and the painting measures 30 1/4″ by 20″ which is big for a still life.  Anyway, here’s the painting and I hope you like it as much as I do.

Marine Painting - Ship on Stormy Sea

Here's the second progress report on my first marine painting with a ship.  I have, of course, lots of photos of this piece in progress but thought better of boring you with too many closeups and small change photos. 

The water is nearly finished although I have made changes to the mid-ground and foreground wave not shown here. Also the sky. 

The ship remains with lots to do.  

Miniature Landscape Oil Painting

Hazy Day

6" x 8"

Oil on Canvas Panel

$75

When I lived in California, one of my favorite hiking and painting locations was the Santa Rosa Ecological Preserve.  It was located south of where I lived on the way to Temecula near Murietta.  It comprises 900 acres of rolling grassland filled with Engelmann oak woodlands. There are riparian wetlands, coastal sage scrub, chaparral, bunchgrass prairie, and vernal pools as well as more than 200 species of native birds and 49 endangered, threatened or rare animal and plant species. The paths are easy to navigate.  No matter how many people you may find there, it is easy to lose yourself in its peace and quiet. I took rolls and rolls of film there (before digital) and still have many of those reference photos.  Still, even if I didn't, the place is indelibly marked in my memory.  The Oak trees were, and still are, my favorites.  Over 400 years old, they stretch wider than their height - which is no mean amount.  Many of them are over 60 feet tall.  They provide luxurious shade on hot days and shelter from rain in the winter.  If you have a chance, visit the Preserve, and send my regards.  This small study for a larger piece is a view from one of the trails.

Skyscape

Sun Shower
Oil on Board, 10" x 24"

I just finished number seven in a series of skyscapes for a show in August when I'll be featured artist at Gallery 9 in Port Townsend, WA.  I usually show a variety of work but with the advent of spring and now summer, my eyes have been cast heavenward at the spectacular show of clouds we've been enjoying over our waters and mountains here.

I've also been trying to master the technique of glazing the difficult colors that emerge in sunsets.  Pigment, unlike light, is a gross substance.  It doesn't do what light does and although nature can get away with very intense color, when an artist does it, it can come out positively garish.  Also, in order to get the ethereal effects of rim light on a cloud, I'm forced to change the colors that nature displays.  For instance, I have to add small amounts of yellow to my whites in order to make them brighter and cast violet into the areas around the cloud so that when I glaze them later, the blue areas around the clouds don't turn green.  It's a tricky thing.  But very satisfying when it comes out right.

I now have about nine paintings for this show and I'm fairly satisfied with the results.  Still have one on the easel I'm toying with but I should work out the problems fairly soon and then be done with the piece.  Frames ordered.  Now to move on to other things.