Hallet's Peak - part 2

I messed with this over the weekend and I will continue to work on it.  Most paintings aren't really finished as much as abandoned.  I tweaked the rock faces and changed the trees some.  This is a long way from being finished and I might convert it to a larger canvas to better work things out.  I started a smaller study tonight but I was not happy with it so I don't know when it will get posted if ever.

Sunshine trees - Part 2

Tonight, I looped back to this study I had blocked in of trees along a stream with a sun getting closer to the horizon.  I wanted to do something different than the Cherry Blossoms commission I was working on, so this is a lot more subtle in colors.  I refined the shadows on the water and the foliage near the base of the trees.  I added foliage in the tree tops.  I will probably add and change those some next.

Cherry Blossom Washington Monument - the Finish

So I am 99% done with the Cherry Blossom Washington Monument Commission.  I will sign it tomorrow after letting it rest of night and I will look at it with fresh eyes in the morning.  I changed the tidal wall color and worked a little on the reflection near it.  All the rest of the finishing touches were on the blossoms and their texture.

Turkey Point Lighthouse - Block-in

I worked on this block-in for this study for Turkey Point Lighthouse in Maryland.  I plan to do a significant amount of work on the left side trees and bushes.  I just put in a very basic value and shape.  I will tweak the clouds some also. Then there will be a lot of detail on the lighthouse.

Cherry Blossom Monument - getting closer

I was able to work more on this painting tonight after work and I am getting closer to being done.  The last miles are the hardest.  I worked on the water reflection and the retaining wall.  I added more blossom foliage and I am trying to get it structurally right so the tree has depth and structure.  I will have this done by the weekend and to its owner early next week.

Cherry Blossom Monument - Weekend of rain

We had a fair amount of rain here this weekend.  I did not get as much done as I would like (power outages, thunder, and lighting), but I did add somethings on the facets of the Washington Monument, added some more blossom structure to the cherry trees.  I darkened the trees below the monument and I am working on the tidal stone wall.

Cherry Blossom Monument commission

We had a huge rainstorm here which made the commute home from the day job, a long and tedious one.  I did not get to work on the commission as much as I would have liked but, I did start on adding texture to the blossom foliage.  I also played with the water a tiny bit.  This weekend I want to get this 90% done which should be an obtainable goal.

Thomas Moran Watercolor - Yellowstone

Artist Thomas Moran did the first paintings of Yellowstone National Park about 160 years ago.  His art was instrumental in helping Yellowstone being declared the first National Park.  I did this watercolor and pentel pen sketch after the style of Moran's original.  I some times do these little sketches to experiment and to try to learn the techniques used originally.

Blossom Study - Cherry Blossoms at the tidal basin

I blocked in this study of Cherry Blossoms over the Tidal Basin near the Potomac River in Washington DC.  I started this to work out some things for my commission of a larger painting.  I plan to add a blossom reflection in the water and better define the branches.

Full size 16 x 20 Cherry Blossoms Washington Monument

I have been working on a commission to expand the size of my original 5 x 7 inch Cherry Blossom study into a fairly large 16 x 20 inch painting.  I blocked in the sky, the monument, the water and the very basic impression of the blossoms.  I am very happy with the sky and the first stages of the water. I am going to add some faces (sides) and slight color variation in the monuments color to add some depth and structure to it.  Then I will be able to focus on the last work needs on the water.  Then all my focus will be on the blossoms and their reflection in the dark water near the shore line wall.

500th posting

This is my 500th  posting.  I had always wanted to do art work and paint, for as long as I can remember.  It always lurked in the back of my mind as what I ultimately wanted to do with the spare time and in retirement, or at some time in the future.  Life always got in the way and I had put it off till some time in the future.  It was not until James, my son died about 20 months ago it was reinforced to me, life is short and time is precious.  So these 500 posts are dedicated to him and to remind us all, but especially me do something now you have always wanted to do since you just don't know how much time you will have.

Prairie Cloud study - revisited

I am in a revisionist mood so I pulled out the block in of Prairie Cloud Study.  Besides taking a better picture, I darkened parts of the clouds to give them volume and some structure.  I modified the sky patches with more varied blues, and finally I better structured the darks in the tree and the tones in the grasses.  I think this is a good study for when I plan to work on some of my South Dakota Badlands photos.

Plains Monarch - second approach

I went back and worked on this study of a lone three on the Plains.  I had blocked in the basics and tonight I ran across this while considering what I wanted to work on.  I made minor changes to the clouds and the tree.  I did a lot more brush work on the grassland in the middle and fore ground.

Green River, Wyoming

Sometimes I feel a need to do something different so I worked in watercolor and brown Pentel pen on tan paper.  This is modeled in the style of artist Thomas Moran's watercolors from 160 years ago.  So I enjoyed this as a break tonight.

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.