Sycamore Hill 8x10

Lovely morning in Irvine Park enjoying the sycamore trees. Great to get out and do some plein air.

Park Life

Today was a fun day out painting with friends.  I am taking a couple of plein air sessions with Kim VanDerHoek and today we were at Eisenhower Park in Orange.  Lots of pretty scenes of water, ducks, geese and trees on the lake and ponds.  This loud goose modeled for us and would take a break and return to almost the same spot.  

Today I mostly wanted to work on water reflection and setting the background back.  I took lots of photos and I think I will work out a few studio pieces from them.  The tree and water value contrasts are strong.  Working the composition out in studio is much easier for me than on location.  I tend to paint what I see.

10x8 oil on canvas

DPW Auction

Time Well Spent

Time Well Spent is a 10x8 oil of a valuable past time.  This is a precious moment in the life of this father and son.  It is priceless.  The young boy, standing with careful observance to the end of the fishing pole, is my great nephew James with his father Scott.  James has a little brother Nathan that I painted with Scott some time ago, "Precious Moments," and the painting hangs in a gallery of family photos at the top of their stairs.  According to my niece Mary, James wished there was a painting of him and his dad to go along with Nathan's.   James will be having a birthday this week and this was commissioned for him.  So he too will hang as an oil painting in the gallery with Nathan doing what is most precious...spending time with dad.

SOLD

Far Far Away

10x8, oil, $120.

Such a lovely girl.

WARMTH UNDER A SUNNY CANOPY

10x8, oil, $120.00

This was interesting because I painted this late afternoon with not much light on my canvas.  It amazed me how warm, for one, and how intense the color turned out.  It was done in a short amount of time.  I wonder if I had had time to try to correct color, if it might not have ended in failure.  I think so often I am on the right track and just don't trust myself.  It was really fun to put the paint down and go with it...ha cha cha!

STEPHANIE

10x8, oil, nfs 

This is lovely Stephanie.  It is always wonderful to paint, draw or just observe life.   Today was a good day.  Stephanie was our model at a life painting session.  All I can say is it was fun.  I enjoyed every minute.

COOL ON WARM

10x8, oil, $120.00

Thought I would try my hand again with a rose.  I enjoyed painting the warm background against the cool pale yellows, blues and whites of the rose.  I found myself focusing on the vase and leaves more than the rose itself.  The light was a incandescent with a fluorescent.  I directed it more directly over head and found that it flooded the soft pedal of the rose and washed away color and shadows in the rose, but still cast a nice shadow on the background.  I loved the play of the green leaves against the warm red.  

What is fun about painting almost everyday is the chance to just try things.  Tomorrow is another day and another painting with new things to try.  Taking info from today will always benefit tomorrow.

Before I started today I read a little about values and light in a book from my self called "Problem Solving for oil Painters", by Gregg Kreutz.  I loved reading this in the chapter on light,"The thing to remember is that you're not really painting a green apple, you're painting light hitting an apple.  The apples existence is revealed by the light".  So light is everything...

  

"CASTING A SHADOW"

10x8, oil, canvas board, $120.00 + $12.00 S/H

Went to Trader Joe's yesterday and found  they had orange daisy's.  They just struck me and I had to have them.  I brought them home and place each of them in their own vase.  

I really liked working in the same color and just splashing the green in on the stem and in the shadow.  The green in the shadow photographed much brighter than it is.  Oh my photograph wains at times.

A Precious Moment

10x8 oil on canvas board

SOLD

 I love capturing a moment.  With Father's Day right around the corner, I have found myself pouring over photos of those moments that are so precious between a father and child.  After I named this I thought a more personal title would have been, "Gentle Father, Precious Son".  

My approach in composing this was to look at the negative shapes first.  It is all about shapes...  AND color ..value...brushwork and so many things.

Today I am happy to announce the start of a new daily painters site, "DAILY PAINTERS ORIGINALS".   And even better is, I am now a "daily painter ".  This means I will be posting more and my work will be viewed by a larger audience.  I am also delighted to be associated with such a talented group of artist.  You can click here, "Daily Painter Originals" to see just what I am talking about.