The Making Of: "Echoes of Mercy" 24x48, oil, Painting of the Nickel Bridge on the James River

While working on paintings for my show, I knew I wanted a few bigger ones, along with a good selection of small pieces.

See all 46 paintings in person:

  "Waterways"

Exhibit dates: Dec. 1, 2014 - Feb. 2, 2015

For Art's Sake Gallery 

9770 Gayton Rd, Henrico, VA 23238

 

I started with this study:

 

"High Point" 

10x20, oil on canvas

 View of the Nickel Bridge over the James River from Riverside Drive

Richmond, Virginia

I really enjoyed the process of painting the small one, especially the sky and the foreground trees. Getting the bridge at the right angle and in a straight line was tricky. As the last bits of the smaller painting were coming together I got an itch to turn it into a larger painting.

Enter the 4 foot canvas:

 

Above is the under-painting in alizarin and burnt umber.

I need to invest in a "big girl" easel, instead of spending so much time playing with wing nuts and levels on these tripod easels.

 

First step: the sky

 

Next: middle-ground

Not pictured: The step when I added the foreground trees and the 3-4 times I repainted them and the middle ground/river/Nickel Bridge.

"Echoes of Mercy"

24x48, oil on canvas

  View of Richmond's Nickel Bridge over the James River from Riverside Drive.

Richmond, Virginia

It was a challenge to get this painting properly exposed in a photograph. I might tweak the levels a bit more and repost later... Really, you gotta go see it in person. ;) It will be available at For Art's Sake Gallery during December 2014-January 2015.

Detail image:

Detail image:

30-34 (30 in 30 Challenge) - Qiang Huang and a bunch of studies

Every time I get on blogger to make this final post I've gotten distracted by other art blogs I follow. Namely Qiang-Huang. His artwork in my blogger dashboard feed makes me completely forget what I got on my computer to do. That and makes me re-think posting my little attempts at painting. His work -- the shapes, the tones, the angles, the colors, the brushwork.... I could look at it forever. So, yes, what I was saying: it has been a very busy week and the limited time I've taken to post to the blog has been hijacked by Qiang Huang (pronounce Chong Wong, fyi). If you don't have 20 extra minutes in your day, don't click on the link.

My 30th painting turned into five. Rather, five studies for future paintings. Some studies were for a commission, some for upcoming shows. All completed on July 1st, which was really the 30th day in the challenge for me, since I began on June 2nd.

 

Details are still being worked through, but a number of the paintings of the 30 in 30 will be on display at Gallery Flux's "En Plein Air" gallery artists and "Big Skies" juried exhibits during August and September. More details to come!

Thanks for all the "likes" on the blog posts on facebook and the encouragement during the month. I'm honored that you all actually take the time to look and read. Thank you!

22 (30 in 30 Challenge) "Azaleas in Bloom" 18x24

You may remember this post from the end of May. Well, several more hours (most of which were spent on those windows) and it's complete. I dropped it off at it's new home and the couple was thrilled. (And it made the artist feel great.)

I began the painting before the start of the 30 in 30, but it was completed during the challenge, so I'm counting it! Hope that's ok with you.

Azaleas in Bloom

18x24, oil

If you're interested in the last few step-by-step photos of the creation of this house portrait, here ya go:

(See Part #1 here)

 

How does the saying go? "Happy collector, happy artist"? Eh, not quite. Nor does it rhyme, but that's ok. It's true.

A Commission in the works

Hope you all are having a good holiday. I missed some time painting last week, so I spent the majority of the day in the studio with this one:

 Below is a  18x24" painting I've been working on for the last few weeks. I'm enjoying the intense spring colors. Those blues, yellows and reds are so delicious.

The biggest challenge with this house portrait is the perspective of the garage. It looked awkward even in the photos. I've spend I don't know how many hours moving the angles of the roof, shutters, siding a millimeter over and a millimeter back again and again. 

So many lessons I should have learned already. Don't attempt to paint something that looks wrong before you even begin.

I'm still not happy with the angles, but it will have to wait for another day.

To be continued.

15 Paintings in 15 Days (Round 2) - Day Twelve

Winter Willow

6x8, oil
Japanese garden at Maymont Park.

Below is what happens when I don't plan out the composition of a painting in my sketchbook before beginning -- shapes painted and then completely changed. As you can see the willow tree grew and the background trees shrunk quite a bit.

 (click to enlarge)

 Lesson learned. Next time I'll sketch it out beforehand and save a little time.

A painting grows up: "Clouds Over Jockeys Ridge", 10x10

Sometimes small paintings stay small and sometimes they also grow up into a little larger paintings. This was the case for a recent painting commission. Over the summer I painted a 6x6" painting titled "Clouds Over Jockey's Ridge". I painted it on location in OBX.

I was contacted by Diana at For Art's Sake to paint a slightly larger version of the piece for client. I took progress photos of the painting to share.

 

 Burnt Umber underpainting to lay out the shapes.

 

 I began with the sky, and everything that touched it -- the trees on the horizon and the bush in the foreground.

  

A shot of my palette post-sky.

 

The water on Jockey's Ridge (the sound side) is shallow and the waves were small. Love that dark smokey blue with the flecks of the white caps and the reflections of the sky.

 

Next, I started constructing the shapes of the driftwood/bear branches.

 

Beach complete, but the colors needed to be corrected. I gave it a week or so to dry before adding some thin glazes of color.

 

"Clouds Over Jockey's Ridge"

10x10, oil on panel

It was definitely a fun one to revisit.

Thanks for reading!

15 Paintings in 15 Days (Round 2) - Day Four

For Day Four I'm posting a commissioned painting that I started a few days before the 15 in 15 began, but the majority of the work was completed during the last 3 days, so it'll have to count for one of my 15 paintings. 

 "Gunny's Lookout"

9x12, oil

(It's not 100% finished -- still need to work on the lettering of the sign on the side of the house.)

As I mentioned this was a commissioned work, so here's an opportunity to explain my process for creating a painting for a client. 

5x7" study of "Gunny's Lookout"

1. After discussing the concept or location the client wishes to capture I paint a loose study of the scene and ask for feedback. We settled on this vertical orientation to capture his puppy, Gunny, standing with front paws on the railing, looking out over the beach.

2. Next a size is chosen and the underpainting is begun. In this case I spent a lot of time getting those architectural angles correct and adequate spacing of the railings to "let" Gunny peak through.

3. I don't usually paint one section to completion before adding color to the rest of the canvas, but I did in this case because of the amount of detail necessary in such a small almost 1" squared area.

4. I ended up painting almost this entire painting section by section. As I said I don't usually do this but I had my previous study by which to assess my colors and values. In the above photo I painted in the color of the house and the beach chairs/fishing rods/Adirondack chairs that would be behind the railing. I let this section dry overnight.

5. Next step was the railing & posts/pillars. For some reason getting the right gray with the correct amount of color in it was pretty difficult. I'm very happy with the result, but this portion of the painting was quite time consuming.

6. After several hours the paint was starting to get tacky so I sealed it in a large palette saver (plastic air tight box) and placed it in the "freezer" (the back porch) over night. Above is after working on it a bit more. I made a "swipe" of the sky color next to the house which really helped to asses values and hues. Wish I had done that the day before.

 

7. And then the fun dabs of color to make up the beach, bathers, tents, sea gulls, kite, sand and sea grass. The client asked for an oval OBX sign to commemorate the trip. I still need to work on the letter for the warm wood colored sign on the side of the house, but the rest is complete.

Below are a few detail shots of the painting.

 Definitely counts as another fun one! I'll update this post when the sign is added... but I had to get a painting posted before I head out to the in-laws' house tonight. Have a great weekend!

15 Paintings in 15 Days - Round 2

It's been a year since my last 15 Paintings in 15 Days Challenge. About time to try it again.

Here goes nothing.

 

Check back tonight for the finished (I hope!) painting...

"Cleo" - Black and White to Color

I know I've been MIA for the past week or so, but that doesn't mean I haven't been painting. If you're on my Facebook page, you've seen I've been doing a bit of painting on location as well as sketching for the Summer Sketchbook Challenge. In addition I've been working on a number of commissioned paintings. I hope to share a few of them here over the next few weeks.

Below is one that took quite a bit more effort than most. I don't typically paint portraits from black and white photos, although we did quite a bit of that while in art school at VCU. I wouldn't even consider myself a portrait painter. This commission was a tough one to tackle, but I am happy with the result.

Cleo

16x20, oil

I recorded each step in the painting's progression:

I started with a 5x7 "study" to make sure I could handle it.

Here I set up the underpainting with burnt umber, then added the dark areas of the hair, eyes and eyebrows.

My palette and the flesh tone mixtures.

 

Here is the reference photo next to the study. Flesh tones were being placed and the blouse painted. The request was for a blue blouse. :)

 

 

A loose block in of the flesh tones, and some refining of the tones & transitions.

Finishing up with the eyes & then painting in the background.

Now I'm ready (as I'll ever be) to paint the full-size piece - 16x20:

After laying in the underpainting, I decided to start with the eyes this time.

 

Here I'm beginning to lay in the skin tones & clothing.

Finalizing the facial structure & defining the hair.

 

Here, the reference photo with the study & final after the background was added.

 

The finished piece. 

16x20, oil.

She loved it. :)

Blue and White 8x10

Blue and White

8x10, oil on panel

Based on a 6x6 plein air study of the boats at Sunday Park (Swift Creek Reservoir, Midlothian, VA) on an overcast spring morning.

All the blues were crowded together on one side of the piece and all the whites stuck to the other side. It was a challenge to make the painting "work" with the colors of my objects (i.e. the boats & building), but a challenge definitely worth taking.

 

The finished 6x6 study.