Wildlife Sketches

Sorry to disappoint, but these were not drawn from life. I'm still tied up with contract work, but I'll kill two birds with one stone and post some pencil drawings I had to do for work. It felt great to get off the computer a bit and into some old-school, down-to-earth pencil drawings. They're concept sketches for art that will be redrawn in a digital format.

Painting Metaphor

I have many new paintings from a recent workshop to post, but this week has been really busy with freelance work. For now I'm going to post a musing on plein air painting that passed through my head yesterday while I was watching the wind blow in the back yard. (Yeah, that's what I do when I'm busy.)

When you paint en plein air, you're fighting nature. You're forcing the moving sun to stand deathly still on your canvas. You're taming a flock of shaking leaves into a few swipes of bristles. You're crashing through nature's defenses, striving to own and control a being that is guarded, haughty, and independent, like a beautiful woman being wooed by a man. But sometimes the man, despite all his flailing efforts, can touch on a core of need within the woman, just as somewhere in all the sweat and strain of painting, the painter can find the essence of the scene before him, and nature suddenly acquiesces and beams back at him from the canvas.

Well, maybe I'm speaking for myself as far as the flailing and straining. But if this were easy, I probably wouldn't feel as drawn back to it as I am!

click here for flailing men

(the song is fantastic ... thanks for sharing, Taz!

Passing Photographers

This post is to showcase the work of some talented photographers who were passing by while I painted at Radnor Lake.

A photographer named Oleg Volk took this candid picture of me as I painted "Sun Stain" at Radnor Lake. I'm really impressed–it looks magazine quality! Here's a link to more of his work: http://olegvolk.net/gallery/main.php

click to enlarge

Another photographer, Terra Forest, took these pictures of me at Radnor Lake–also great quality. Wow, now I see how, um, eccentric I look as I paint plein air. 

Since I'm posting photos, I think I'll include these two photos of my dog posing as art critic.

I asked Capone to help me with touch-ups.

But soon I tired of his insulting attitude.

Lyle Teague Moulding Company, and results of Radnor Show

I found a new place to get my frames: a wholesale company called Lyle Teague Moulding Company. Thank you for the recommendation, Bitsy King! A customer needs to have a sales tax ID number before making any purchases. There are plenty of frame choices in stock, and Lyle and Stanley Teague are super nice to work with! Here is "Brazen Morning" all glazed up and placed in a handsome frame from from Lyle Teague's.

Here's some news from the show...I entered 7 Radnor Lake paintings and one barn painting. All of the Radnor Lake paintings sold.  "Weathered Memories," a barn painting from Triple L Ranch, is still available (8x10). 45% of the proceeds of all sales go toward preservation of the lake and surrounding area. I'm happy to contribute, along with all the other artists and Radnor sponsors who made the show happen.

Wrapping up the Radnor show series

The weather was better by Wednesday, so I was back to the lake. 

On the painting just below, I added the power-walking woman using my camera LCD screen as a reference, while still at the lake. I added the dapper gentleman using my computer screen as a reference after I got home. I wasn't quick or brave enough to paint passers-by in real time! I know many painters have done it, and I eventually plan to try this myself.

"Promenade" 8x10

Painting a sunset in real time is almost as hard as painting moving people! The color blocks morph and shrink faster and faster, the later it gets. But it's during that fleeting time when the colors become the most dramatic and incredible. I enjoy the adrenaline of the mad dash, the high-risk gamble, of attempting to capture that Olympian drama with my mundane paintbrush.

"Surface Gems" 6x8

"Sun Stain" 5x7

Cherry Moon

The last photo of this moon painting was taken in the dark, on location, and was pretty blurry. I posted a better photo below. (I had originally commented that my sky and water were too light...but on a later viewing, I was happy with the contrast.) I entitled this painting "Cherry Moon" because I was painting with a cherry Coke and a cherry moon pie in my stomach, and also because the moon was surrounded by pink tones in the sky. 

"Cherry Moon" 6x8