Arctic Circle - Northern Scandanavia

Sometimes the painting fights you and nothing works as you see it in your head verse what you end up putting down on the canvas.  I worked on three starts this weekend and all of them annoyed me, did not work or will need more work to even be half way presentable.  This simple study based on a photo and some other images I had from a trip to the Arctic Circle 25 years ago made up this study.  It went together in about 2 hours and worked pretty much from the start.  It is too bad more don't go this easy.

Cherry Blossom Festival - part 3

This is tonight's work on the Cherry Blossom Study I have been working on for the past few nights.  I have put in the foliage and worked on the water.  I am going to work on the water, the foreground, and add some additional color for depth in the foliage.  After I work out the water the way I would like I am going to add a reflection of the blossoms in the dark water near the tidal pool retaining wall.

Cherry Festival revisited - part 2

I added some of the cherry blossom foliage to the study for my larger Cherry Blossom painting.  Tomorrow, I will address the water shadow, and the monument's shadow in the reflection of the water.

Cherry Festival revisited

I have had some interest in my small study of the Washington DC Spring Cherry Blossom Festival.  I got home a little late so after messing around a little with some sketches of Cherry Blossoms, I started in blocking in a larger and slightly modified version of the original study.  This gives me a chance to keep what I liked from the original study but I can change and experiment with things I did not like so much.  This will need a lot more work but I will post tomorrows progress.

Cape May Lighthouse

Similar to last night's oil study, this is another lighthouse with a setting sun.  This is the Cape May Lighthouse in New Jersey.  I decided to experiment a little bit with the color of the sky.  I will have to think about this one before finishing it.

Lighthouse Sunset

Today, I blocked in this oil study of a lighthouse with the setting sun shining thru the lantern windows.  I am happy with the sky, but the water will need some work to be convincing.  I plan to add some curve the lighthouse's tower and some better light shine thru the window.

Lodge Pole Pine Study

So after fighting with the computer I was able to get this on to the blog.  More difficult than it needed to be.  This is a small oil study of Lodge Pole Pine trees in the Rocky Mountains.  I have seen similar scenes like this in Yellowstone National Park and in Rocky Mountain National Park.