Hummingbird

Happy Friday! Hummingbird style.  You have to love this crazy bird which science can barely understand.  Science does not understand how it can fly aerodynamically, and can barely understand how its heart can beat so fast and how it can fly so far.  Some fly across the Caribbean Sea from the U.S. to Central America for the winter.

More Japanese Wood Block Prints

More winter scenes done with markers.  I wanted to capture the sky, the snowflakes, and the water.  This is another experimental copy of the japanese master, Kawase Hasui  SO this is a little bit of a challenge in marker, but the original master had this scene carved out of a wood plank for each color.  That is the truly amazing part.

Japanese Wood Block art prints - Kawase Hasui

This is originally a wood block print by Japanese artist, Kawase Hasui.  The Japanese wood block prints revolutionized the European artists outlook 120 years.  The Impressionists were influenced by these wood block prints.  Even now, an artist can see if they can reproduce the techniques to learn from a master.  This is what I did.  Above was done as an experiment with art markers and white gouache paint for the snow flakes.  So you can see the abstract shapes of the foreground snow in to the middle snow.  The same design considerations go into the snow cover and branch shapes on the pine tree.  I hope to be able to capture snow and design as well as Hasui did.

Henna Hand

The Henna tattoo is a common ritual in many countries and cultures.  I know of its use for the Bridal party in weddings in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.  While temporary, it is beautiful and unique.  The artists who apply the dye for the bridal parties are unique and creative in their chosen filed.  This is a marker drawing to capture one design in a more permanent mode.

Still Life

Happy Sunday, Olympics are over so everything can get back to normal.  This is an oil painting of a vase and flowers.  Enjoy!

Family Affair - Part Deux

This is a SCUBA diving painting done by my father, Richard Suitts.  I seem to have gotten part of my sense of adventure from him and an interest in Art.  He dove back in the early 1960s, i.e. almost pioneer stages compared to today's equipment and training.  He sought to capture his experiences in paint and succeeded pretty well.  He was 26 when he painted this.

Family Affair

This is a painting by my Father, Richard Suitts.  He probably did this around 1964ish.  It is an oil painting of the American Desert, probably of the Book Cliff area near Grand Junction, Colorado.  So Dad passed away in 1966 and my mom remarried to Richard Brandt.  Luckily for me, he raised me as his own.  He is an artist in his soul also and is a photographer.  So we go out on photo safaris and record the world as we see it and find it.

Signal Lantern

To finish up the railroad theme, this is a pen and ink sketch of a brakeman's lantern.  They were used to signal the engineer of the train and to signal other engines, if necessary.  I liked the look of it.

Cumbres and Toltec Narrow Gauge steam engine

If you are ever in Southern Colorado check out the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad.  It is the old Denver, Rio Grande and Western Railroad's line across the San Luis Valley and into New Mexico.  The eastern terminus of the road near Antonito, Colorado was used in the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade movie's first scenes as the Circus train chase scenes.  The run finishes at Chama, New Mexico.  Half-way thru your trip the train stops for a lunch stop.  This is where I found Engine 487 and turned it into a pen and ink.

Today is my Grandfather's 93rd birthday, he helped with the train interest and took me out to see things like the Cumbres when I was young.  So Happy Birthday.

Galloping Goose - Part Deux

This is a pen and ink of the Galloping Goose with pines and thunderhead in the background.  This art shows the Goose as it looked in the early 1950s with the Wayne Bus body and the windows in the box for the tourists.  I Goose is also have this available on my Fine Art America site.  

http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/scott+suitts/all

Colorado Galloping Goose

I am originally from Colorado and an interesting tale of the "Good Old Days" is of the Rio Grande Southern Narrow Gauge railroad in Southern Colorado.  I will give the  short version of its history, the railroad had the misfortune of starting in a depression over 110 years ago.  The road limped on for years through some of the most impression scenery in the state.  One of the financial crises was a lack of money during the 1930s depression, the road faced a loss of the U.S. Mail contracts because a steam engine was too expensive to run.  The Rio Grande Southern's engineering department created rail cars which eventually became known as Galloping Geese.   They wobbled down the track and looked a little like a goose trying to fly, hence the nickname.   The road made seven of these geese, most used Car bodies and boxcar like rear areas.  Eventually the front car bodies were replaced with Wayne Bus bodies on some.  This is what I depicted above with art markers.  The history of the Rio Grande Southern is really interesting, full of ingenuity, and the photo's of the road are of spectacular scenery.  So if you want more look around on line.

Happy Sunday - Blue Jay

He is not the BlueBird of Happiness, but the Blue Jay is always are entertaining and intelligent bird.  They are always around, active, and very vocal.  They have been very prevalent in North Carolina and Maryland, but we have seen them in other states, too

Valentines Day

The wife loves the Day of the Dead so I always do something skeletony for Valentines Day, Birthdays, Anniversaries, and Halloween/Day of the Dead.  So Happy Valentines Day! +1 

Bluebird of Happiness

Happy Valentine's Day - a little Eastern Bluebird colored pencil sketch.  He is the perfect bird for the Valentine's day with my wife since she makes me happy.

Ruby Throated Hummingbird

Snowy, sleety day in Maryland. I have been fighting a headache all day, so new art.  This is a colored pencil sketch of a male Ruby Throated Hummingbird in warmer days.

Stellar Sea Lions

Stellar Sea Lions frolicking on an island in Auk Bay near Fairbanks, Alaska.  They were loud and happy.  They were enjoyable to see and to draw in pencil.

Crow Woman Statue

This is a pencil sketch of another artist's statute of a Native American woman with a Crow head.  I am going to search around and add the name of the artist and the piece.  I did this about ten years ago for practice and for myself.  I really liked the idea and captured it in pencil.

G -Man

This is a Pen and Ink of an Old School G-Man with a Thompson Sub-Machine Gun, a Smith and Wesson revolver, and Fedora.

New Dungeness Lighthouse

This is pencil sketch of the New Dungeness Lighthouse in Washington State.  So if you are leaving Seattle by ship look for this house on the port side as you depart thew Puget Sound and head out into the Pacific.  She sits on a spit of land separated from the main land.  Salmon like the waters off the shore as we saw some jumping clear of the water.

First Painting - Still Life Acrylic

This is my first acrylic painting in my first Art Class with teacher, Jan Peterson.  It is a still life of dried flowers and seed pod.  I was 11 years old.  I made this a present to my God Mother Karen Stevens.  She gave it back to me about 20 years later.

Pen and Ink mailboxes

TGIF, very little art done this week, so this is a pen and ink I did 20 years ago.  I had been doing these since I was a kid, not an original design from me, but I don't remember exactly were I found it.  I have done a few of these for family and add their names to the main mailbox.

African Pied Wagtail

So it was a long day at work, so short post tonite. This is an African Pied Wagtail.  These birds were my breakfast companions in Kenya, they were always on patrol for crumbs and leftovers.  Enjoy the white and black design.

Prairie Twilight - Part 3

Prairie Twilight was dry so I worked some washes and dry brushed various colors into the foreground and sky.  I am not happy with the center right light cloud mass so I will tweak it some more tomorrow night.  Once the white skyline is dryer I will start to add the Pronghorns.

Juneau's Alaska Welcoming committee - the Bald Eagles

Last September, we went on an Alaskan Cruise.  It was beautiful scenery and great wildlife.  This pair of Bald Eagles were perched on a channel marker on the way into Juneau.  I did a little sketching but mostly captured pictures.  Thank God I have a massive lenses to capture great photos of wildlife.  The great thing about being a painter and sketcher is you can fix your photography mistakes in your artwork.  The long term plan is to live this art centered lifestyle all day instead of on vacations and on the edges of each day.

Another Ruby Throated Hummingbird

This is an oil painting I did for my Grandmother, Joan Jenkins.  She has pasted away now about eight years or so.  She taught me and got me interesting in wildlife, wild flowers, and birds back 45 years ago on trips into the Colorado Rockies. So I did this Ruby Throated Hummingbird (male) checking out a Trumpeter Vine flower.  I had never noticed the vines till we lived in Utah and then found them in Maryland.  We always have the Hummingbirds loitering around the house between the vines and the feeders.

American Robin

More Project Bird stuff.  This is a colored pencil of an American Robin.  A common favorite bird from all around the country.  I like to watch them and look for the hidden white spots on their bodies.  Next time you see one look to see if you can spot these markings when they spread wings, bob their tail and around their eyes.