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.

Still Life Cherries and Cornacopia Vase

 I haven't done a still life in a while so for a change of pace I did this one. I had bought this cornucopia vase off a seller on Etsy because I liked the shape of it and its ability to hold fruit or other objects for still lifes.  I also like the light value it has so there will be a nice contrast to whatever I place in it.

I used top lighting in this painting placing the shadows right under the rim of the vase and emphasizing the color of the cherries.

Morning Session at Core Creek Park

My brother Chris and I went out to a local park to do some painting before the heat set in. We started at a favorite spot of mine, it has a view of the lake and surrounding treeline. As we drove along the park road I noticed the subtle colors in the sky and clouds and decided to try to capture that.

We used 5x7 panels because the light was changing quickly and I knew we were going to lose what was in front of us soon. Squinting at a bright sky made the landscape look so dark, I didn't realize how dark I painted it until i got it home. I had neutralized the green to dark values. The water was a slightly lighter value than the trees. I was a little too heavy with the yellow around the sun.

We decided to try one more painting and found a spot that offered some cross lighting and shadows to practice with. I was happier how this one turned out and it helped not having to fight a fast moving sun.

I forgot to get a picture of Chris's painting of this spot, sorry Chris.

Afternoon Plein air

I stopped off at Core Creek Park on the way home from work today, I had my cigar box setup with me and painted this sitting on the back of the truck. This is painted on a 5x7 canvas panel.
With the constant winds we had today the clouds were zipping by and the sun kept playing hide and seek so I would have to wait for the sun to reappear to paint things that were in sunlight. I liked how the row of  bushes in the foreground were top lit separating them from the stand of  trees farther back in the distance. The clouds were changing by the minute so I fixed a group in my mind and painted away.

Green is such a challenging color to paint but it forces you to look harder for things like  color intensity, values, and tests your color mixing on the spot. At least I have a whole summer to practice.

Falls Twp. Lake

Maria and I went up to Falls Twp. Lake after dinner to do a little fishing. I didn't catch any but Maria caught two smallmouth bass this one being the biggest one.

A couple minutes before sunset the opposite side of the lake was bathed in a orange/green light and the trees on the point of land on the left caught a little of the light on the tops. I took a couple of pictures capturing this brief moment.
Below is the painting of the end of our night. I used a 4"x12" stretched canvas.

Feeding Deer on the Hill

This is a small (tiny) oil painting 3"x8" done on 300lb. watercolor paper primed with acrylic paint.  We see these deer on our evening walk at a nearby park that is used for exercise. I had taken a picture with my camera phone as we passed by them, and when we got home I did this small painting while the image was still fresh in my mind using the picture to help me capture shapes of the scene. I added a little extra color and lighting to make the scene more interesting.

During our walks we are passing by different scenes so I do mental exercises taking note of colors, values, what objects look like when they are in shadows. When an object stands out I look behind it to see how the background has influenced it. Its a constant learning process that doesn't stop.
This painting stuff is really addictive!

Young Womans Creek

Young Womans Creek  12x16  oil on RayMar canvas panel
This is an 11 mile long tributary of the West Branch Susquehanna River. It is heavily forested with a thick canopy which helps keep the water cool to the trouts liking.

Welcome Shade

This is an image showing the interaction with people and their pets. After a run in the afternoon sun a little  rest in the shade is a welcome relief.
I tried to loosen up a little bit and keep it more painterly, concentrating on value and color. But more important is the emotional impact a touch on the dogs head can have. You can sense the concern she has for her dogs.