Friday, June 28, 2013

Plein Air Thursday

Yesterday’s plein air rendez-vous at Los Poblanos (a lavender and organic farm in Albuquerque) with several other plein air painters gave me a chance to practice painting on location. Like Van Gogh. This version has already been revised/repainted a couple of times. I have even more changes planned as soon as the oil paint dries a bit more.


Cottonwood Tree at Los Poblanos
Oil on canvas with digital enhancement




Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Unfinished Petunia

Practicing for Thursday’s plein air painting outing.


Magenta Petunias, unfinished
Oil on canvas




Sunday, June 23, 2013

Scott Again

One of the many poses provided by semi-regular model Scott at last week’s drawing session.


Q: Is it a pose or a break between poses?
A: It’s a pose. If it was a break he’d probably be wearing a robe.
Or maybe not. 

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Tree Memories

Next week I’m going to a lavender farm in Albuquerque with several other plein air artists to paint on location. Ergo, I need to practice slopping oil paint onto a canvas. As usual, I couldn’t resist adding a little Photoshop enhancement to a photo of the original oil-on-canvas.

The first oil painting I ever attempted was of a tree, when I was a freshman art student in college. It was so terrible that I barely lived through the critique the next day. On the bright side, any combination of brush strokes on a canvas is an improvement since then.



Tree Memories
30" x 24"





Monday, June 17, 2013

London Morning Coffee

While organizing some files on my computer, I stumbled across some images from our London trip of several months ago and couldn’t resist experimenting.


London Morning Coffee at Le Pain Quotidien

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Semi Plein Air


I suppose this watercolor is more plein photo than plein air. I wanted to experiment more with on-location watercolor but it's blazing hot out in the sun. So I opened a photo on my iPad that I took of a nice shade tree in Stowe, England, and painted from that. I was, however, sitting on an outside patio, so I think that surely must qualify as plein air painting.


Tree in Stowe, England



Detail



Friday, June 14, 2013

Plein Air Watercolor



Hill

Yesterday I stopped by the Arroyo Hondo Open Space trails to visit some friends who invited me to join them along with a group of plein air painters that meet at a different location every Thursday to paint landscapes (watercolor, acrylics, oil, pastels, or whatever you want to do). I didn't take any art supplies with me but it was nearby and I wanted to just check it out for future consideration.

It looked fun and I thought watercolor would be easiest to deal with while on location, so when I got home I dragged out what watercolor supplies I could find: an ignored collection of watercolor supplies that belong to Robin, a nice set of watercolors she bought for me at the Tate Modern several months ago in London, a set of watercolor pencils, and a pad of watercolor paper.

I’ve been wanting to experiment with watercolor, and I definitely want to experiment a bit before I paint with a group so I’ll have at least some vague idea of what I’m doing and what supplies I should take with me. 

This is the view of a small hill, extremely exaggerated, in the northwest corner of the property as seen from the front patio. This was fun. I think I’ll go along with the plein air people in the near future on one of their field trips, including a trip to some lavender fields in a couple of weeks.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Yoga Model

This week’s model was a Yoga kind of guy. Many of the poses looked stressful and hard to hold. The drawings below are some of the more relaxed poses.














Thursday, June 6, 2013

Rose Studies

Sideways
46" x 24"


Rose in Profile


Rose Study
36" x 34"



Facing Down
44" x 34"


Rose & Spikey Hair
30" x 24"






Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Jesus Color Study

From charcoal sketch to color print.


30" x 24"