Happy New Year

Fireworks being set off on a barge on the Delaware River in Phila, Pa.   11x14 oil on canvas

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!   (SOLD)

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.                      8"x8" oil

Autumn Landscape Core Creek Park 12x16 acrylic

I finished this painting this weekend that was sitting around for about a year unfinished.
As you can see in the entry in my sketch book I stopped off at the park after work in November 2010.
The light was just right but all I had was my sketch book because I had not planned on going to the park. On afternoons when the light is right sometimes I'll make a small detour to the park to look around.
I'm getting better at attending to unfinished paintings. The painting from the last post was one too.

Long Cast

Long Cast  12x16 oil painting, fly fishing art (Sold)

This painting is about the wonderful solitude of being in a place like this, whether its walking thru the woods and observing the multitude of trees or listening to the sounds of the stream as you patiently wait for the trout to show themselves. After a day of this you feel so refreshed.
 I used backlighting to echo the colors of the trout into the landscape they live in.
And our fly fisherman is poised for the strike.

Foggy Morning

After hearing the weather report last night for thick fog in the morning I decided it would be a good morning to get out. It would be a chance to get some good reference material to create some moody paintings.

This spot normally looks like this but today with the thick fog looked barely recognizable.

The deer showed up well in the fog

So after I got done shooting the photos I found a spot in the woods with the fog in the background and settled on this tree that has seen its last days. When I got home I adjusted the color in the foreground and put the details in the tree.

A Few More Paintings from our Flyfishing trip

5x7 Acrylic              (SOLD)

A flyfishing scene from one of the streams we fished in north central Pa. this year.

5x7 acrylic              (SOLD)

These small trees were right next to where we set up our tent when we used to camp at the state park, it was like seeing an old friend each year we went up. You could always count on some color from them. Now they are taller than us. Each year when we arrive at the state park after a four hour drive we stop off at  the campsite we always used, good old number 7.

Back from our flyfishing trip

Returned yesterday from our annual flyfishing trip to upstate Pa.

The cabin we stay in is awesome. Its a far cry from camping in a tent like we did for 18 years.

The rain and age did us in from camping. We go every October so morning temps are in the low 40's, and it rains a lot in October.

The fishing was great, we fished four different streams catching brook, brown and rainbow trout. This time of year most of the the trout have intense color  to them.

Tom with a rainbow trout

Me with a nice brown trout

I did a few paintings back at the cabin at night.

                                                                                                  

A forest interior

Fall foliage reflection in a stream

                                                                                          

Now we deal with Hurricane Sandy tomorrow into Tuesday.

Good luck everyone.

Autumn Afternoon

Autumn Afternoon 8x10 oil

I started this painting last year and it was halfway done, but as fall turned into winter I lost interest in it and it went into the section of unfinished paintings. This past week I came across it while moving things around and put it out where I could see it.
This morning I was awake at 5:00am went out put the coffee on and put the painting on the easel and brought it to completion.
I like the warm afternoon light and the subtle shadows from the oak tree in the front yard.

The Right Light

The Shed  5x7 acrylic

A simple shed seen in the right light can help produce a pleasing picture.
A half hour before that I did a sketch of the bird feeder but wasn't happy with it so when I saw the light on the shed I turned the bird feeder sketch on its side and painted this over it.

Plein Air sketches, oh deer what a morning.

I got an early start Saturday morning, when I pulled into the park I was greeted with thick fog from the lake. I slowly drove around looking for deer and when I saw the first sign of color in the sky I went to the small parking spot over looking the lake.

I like this time of morning when you can just barely start making out the colors in the landscape and the sky goes thru its quickly changing light show. I did this sketch as the intense color started, by the time I finished the sky had changed completely.
As I was putting things away to move to the next spot I turned around and saw a herd of deer had gathered in the field  behind me. That explains the dog barking earlier.

I moved around to the back of the park where last week I saw this field starting to get a nice yellow color to it.

As I was setting up these two does decided to investigate why this person was in the corner of their field.

This is the 5x7 field sketch done that morning.

11x14 studio painting done with acrylics

My interest was the field in the middle distance so I darkened the foreground shapes and added more of a golden color to the field to help make a more dramatic picture.

To Paint or not to Paint

I went out this morning to paint but I was in a neutral mood, like do I really want to paint this morning. I love being out at sunrise whether I'm painting or not, when the early morning sunlight has that orange glow to it.

I went to the park looking around for a spot with good lighting but the clouds were moving in thicker and the sun was having trouble getting thru. I couldn't find anything interesting to paint (which happens when I am in a neutral mood) so I figured I would take one more look around and finally settled on this spot with the red cedar tree which I have painted in the past.

I used a 5x7 panel and simplified the scene omitting the group of trees on the right and excluding the big section of dull grey sky.

This is the completed painting from a morning of indecision.

To protect the wet painting I use a 5x7 piece of masonite and four wood plugs that I position on each corner of the painting. Tape the four corners together and you are ready to go.

Early Morning at the Lake

Went to the park early Saturday morning, on the drive in I saw this beautiful sunrise but because I got a late start I was witnessing it on the drive in instead of being already set up on location. I took a few pictures and rode around to where I was going to paint.
More clouds had moved in as I set up and the sun was playing hide and seek. So I figured I would just make the best of it. A couple of fishermen took up position on the point of land so I got some pictures of them for reference for later. They ended up moving out of sight 20 minutes later anyway.

I painted this final version combining the sky I saw coming in with the location sketch. I'm thinking of putting some figures in after the paint dries a little, there is a lot of glare from the wet paint.

Etsy Treasury

One of my Aceo's (Art Cards) was featured in a treasury on  Etsy.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/NzA0NjQyMHwyNzIzMzA3Mzcw/small-fall

The curator of the treasury has two wonderful shops worth visiting.

http://www.etsy.com/people/boxerlovinglady
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SweetVirgil

I was out yesterday enjoying the weather and did a 5x7  plein air painting of a group of people having a picnic

 I must have been painting slow because this spider had time to build a web on the lid of my paintbox. I saw him crawling on my palette earlier but didn't pay much attention to him.
If you click on the picture you get an enlarged view. His shadow looks more menacing than him.

I'm in the process of painting in the fish on the aquarium picture from the last post.

Baltimore Inner Harbor Trip , Sketches

Maria and I spent the weekend at Baltimore's Inner harbor to celebrate her birthday. We had a great time at the National Aquarium and I came away with some reference material for future paintings.

The tough part was trying to get workable pictures in a dimly lit crowed area.I tried getting still shots but the pictures weren't coming out too good even though I had the iso up to 400 trying to compensate for the low light in the viewing areas.
 I switched to the movie setting on the camera and recorded  people and  the brightly lit tank setting.

I did this 5x7 acrylic sketch to try to get a feel for the lighting conditions inside, but more important is capturing the excitement in the people as they view the exhibits.

The painting below is in the block in stage where I try to position the people and get the lighting in the tank close to where I want it.

Lake Reflections

Evening at the Lake  8x10  acrylic


This painting is from Saturday evening at the lake.  It was painted from photos I shot as the sun was going down.
I have been enjoying painting these summer skies this year.

Some evenings Maria and I will go to the park after dinner and sit and enjoy watching the activity at the lake as the sun sets. When the sun is gone we get in the car and search for the deer within the park.
We got lucky Saturday night and saw some giant bucks.

We were getting ready to leave the park when these bucks crossed in front of us. I made a u turn and staked out a spot I thought they would be headed.

Sorry about the quality of the videos, it was a lot darker than what the video shows. The video actually lightened the scene. But you can get an idea of the size of the racks on these deer.

Back Yard car wash

Back Yard Car Wash  11x14 acrylic

Another attempt at figure painting.

 This was painted from photos I took while Maria was washing her car.
I was trying for something that looked natural and not so much posed.

I kept her rock garden and the fence lower in value to help separate her from the background.

Aceo still life

 Aceo  Art Card   2.5"x3.5" Peanut Butter Cup

A miniature painting for a miniature candy. The last time I was in the grocery store I picked up a few of these in the bulk candy section.  When I'm in the store I always skim the shelves looking for something interesting to paint, things that might have different textures or color.
I wanted to try to capture the reflective quality of the wrapping paper against the richness of the chocolate.
And Maria always wonders why I forget some of the groceries....... just kidding.

Speaking of Maria, I've been working on a painting of her in the back yard washing her car.  It gives me a chance to get some practice in with my figurative work.

Core Creek Park at Dusk

                                 Dusk at Core Creek Park  12x16 oil


This painting is about the quiet mood at dusk. This night Maria and I were here fishing when she made mention of the pink tinged clouds. I kept the lake surface calm echoing the quiet feeling of the night.

Evening plein air sketches.

I went to the park after dinner to do some sketching.  I wanted to see this one part of the lake where Maria and I were fishing two weeks ago. We were there at the right time because we saw some interesting lighting conditions which I captured with my camera.  And tonight I just wanted to visit and paint it on site even though the lighting was different tonight.
These are the sketches from tonight.

 5x7 oil sketch

2.5"x 3.5" Aceo card

I was packing up when I looked up and saw the sky and decided to try one more. I used a Aceo card and was finished in 10 minutes. You can see the paint smeared  on the way home. But I have the important facts of the scene down.

ACEO stands for Art Cards Editions Originals, the only requirement is they have to be 2.5"x 3.5", the size of baseball cards. They are also called Trading cards.

Thanks for looking.
Pat

Clouds at Sunset

Clouds at Sunset  8x10 acrylic on canvas panel

The night I came up here the spot I wanted to paint at had a full parking lot so I knew I was not going to have the solitude I needed at this time of evening when the light moves so quick and you need all your concentration on the scene in front of you.
This  spot was my second choice and when I saw the clouds in back of the trees I knew this was a good possibility.

This is the 12x16 panel I have divided into 4 sections. It makes it convenient that I only have one panel to carry which fits into slots in the back of my paintbox. The sketch on the right was done at the very end of the night as the sun was disappearing out of the sky and was used for the previous painting.

Evening Light

This was painted from a plein air sketch I did last week  after dinner.  I completed one sketch half hour earlier and was getting ready to leave when I saw this sky and pulled around to my familiar spot and finished just as the light left.

This is an 8x10 painted with acrylics.

Watermelon Slices Revisited

After looking at the painting of the slices of watermelon I did on May 23rd I wasn't real happy with it. The background is dull and uninspiring, but at the time I was only interested in rendering the slices and didn't put enough thought into the background.

I wanted to make changes to it and decided to put them in an outdoor setting where people can relate to it, as if at a picnic or out in the yard. And what is more refreshing on a hot summer day than juicy watermelon.

I simplified the background with summer colors associated with a humid day and put a blue tablecloth down to complete the story.
Oh yea,  thats a watermelon seed on the plate not a bug.
Thanks for looking.
Pat

Summer Landscape Core Creek Park 11x14

Core Creek Park Summer Landscape  11x14 oil


This painting was done from a plein air study I did a couple weeks ago  (a post on July 1st) when I was out painting with my brother Chris at Core Creek Park.  A few things interested me about this scene, first was the strip of bright grass separating the background from the middle distance trees.
The other was seeing into the shadows on the group of trees on the left next to the walking path. I wanted to maintain the contrast of shadow and sunlight but still being able to see in the shadow areas.
I added a jogger on the path to lead you into the scene and had the shadows of the trees mimic the shape of the walking path.

I am rediscovering this local county park the more I go there. Even though we have fished there when we were younger and I have painted there over the years I think the more I learn about painting the more things I see that I didn't before. Its like seeing the park with fresh eyes.
Core Creek Park is only 6 to 8 minutes away so its an easy trip when your time is limited.
 I'm going to try to do a series of paintings within this park over the course of a year to see where my interests lie.