Experimenting with different reference materials, winter landscape,11x14

Winter landscape  11x14  oil on wood panel



I did this plein air sketch (below) about 7 years ago late in the afternoon on the way home from work. It is very basic but captured the warm lighting that afternoon. A small patch of snow was left hidden behind a sloping bank and I wanted to capture the sun light on the snow and the shadows.
I always liked this sketch and wanted to use it or parts of it in a painting.

Seeing the snow we had recently inspired me want to try a snow scene, so I looked thru my sketchbook for ideas and came across a sketch I did last year at a local park, it was a footbridge crossing over a small brook.

I want to try combining the lighting from the plein air sketch and the composition from the pencil sketch to see what I could arrive at.

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.

Ocean View 8x10 oil

I found this reference painting from about four years ago while I was cleaning out the studio.
This was from a trip to the New Jersey shore. I had my paints with me but because of the constant strong wind I would have ended up chasing my equipment down the beach. I usually bring my video camera and a digital camera with me on these trips so I always have options in case the conditions aren't suitable for setting up an easel.

I was attracted to the glare on the water from the sun trying to get thru the clouds and the ton of highlights from the wind swept waves.  I set up the video camera and let it run but made notes of the values of the scene because I know from experience when you point a camera at something bright the meter wants to compensate and ends up making everything darker than what it really is.

So I painted this while watching the video just like if I was standing there on the shore.  I like the loose treatment I accomplished from hurrying along. I feel like too many of my paintings end up being tight if I spend too much time on them.

Its a wonderful feeling when you can spend a whole day alone wandering from spot to spot picking out the  most significant qualities of a scene and getting a  successful painting out of it.

Snow Day

I painted this a couple weeks ago from pictures I took during a walk in Neshaminy St. Park last year. Seeing that it snowed last night I thought it would be appropriate to post this painting today.

This shows how important it is to have reference material that you can fall back on. That day at Neshaminy Park I didn't take my painting equipment because I wanted to gather as many pictures as I could while the snow was still there. And on a picture taking day that usually means a lot of walking. I will visit two or three parks in a day, each one offering something different.

When painting on location time is spent finding the right spot with the right lighting and then usually an hour to a hour and a half to paint the scene.

Last week I was in the mood to paint outdoors and didn't care about taking pictures. I did one painting in the morning at the lake, did another of a field and trees but that one didn't turn out too good so I wiped it.    
And then went to Washington Crossing and painted at the graves of the unknown soldiers.

So your frame of mind and the mood you are in help determine how successful your day will be.

Looking out the window today and seeing all the branches of the trees covered in snow gave me an idea for a painting with the layers of branches going back in the distance and a cardinal in the foreground to brighten up a winter day.
This is the painting half finished, I still have to put in the snow covered foreground branches  and give the cardinal a little more detail.

Figurative Work Practice

In August Maria and I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame which is a half hour away from each other. While we were sitting outside the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame I spotted this mother and daughter sitting across the way, the mother talking away and the daughter texting. The mother seemed concerned with something out of our view, minutes later her husband showed up and they left.
I didn't want it to be obvious I was photographing them because I wanted natural poses, so I held the camera on my lap and looked the other way as I shot pictures hoping some of them would turn out.
The background was cluttered with a tent and other unnecessary objects so I switched a hedge for the clutter keeping the background simple and not detracting from the main focus.
I enjoy doing these figurative works as challenging as they are. Some are successful and some aren't.

I'm almost finished with a painting of  my wife Maria pruning the flowers in her planter. This painting of Maria  just seemed to flow off the brush, I had three quarters of it done the first night, which is unusual for me.

Reference Material

Icicles 10x8 Acrylic

Every morning when I get up for work I"ll go over to the living room window and check the weather, and every once in a while I'll see a skunk or an opossum foraging in the lawn. One winter morning I looked out and saw these icicles being lit by the full moon. I grabbed the sketchbook next to the couch and drew in the scene and wrote down the value ( how dark or light) of each object. Later on I did this painting using the sketch as my reference.