Plein Air Again

I finally got some photos of my work outdoors. With luck this hot and humid weather will break tonight and my painting partner Gerry and I will get out again. This time I think we are going to try a water fall and break away from all the green.
Gerry found this sweet little hide away for us. It is a tiny rural cemetery on a little knoll over looking an elk farm, a nice meadow and lots of corn and bean fields. We could stand in the shade to paint and could find a painting with every turn of our heads. We did not try to paint the elk. But my, they are really big with huge racks on their heads. Hope the farmer makes a good living with them.

Number 1--This is a little 8x10 in oil on canvas. It is part of the pasture for the elk. They were in the shade but so far away that they didn't really show. Good excuse not to paint them -- right? The fence is at least 12 feet tall. So you can see that the trees were quite far away from me.

Number 2 -- This one is 10 x 14 oil on board. This day I concentrated on this willow clump. There was an elk in the shade again but not in the painting. Gerry and I are working on green variations. There are plenty to work with this summer. Everything is really lush from all the rain we have had. At least we get some variation in the clouds.  I think the saving grace in this painting is the little gravel road in the back ground. It breaks up the green in the foreground from the back ground fields and  trees.

Number 3 -- 11x14 oil on canvas.  I had an eye on this cross road. It was just down the way from our little cemetery. I had to stand almost in the road to get a good composition. It took about a half hour to set up my umbrella to give my canvas and palette some shade.  I liked the way the corn contrasted with the beans and the way the gravel road complemented the greens. Gerry said I had to add the stop sign. Dan says I need to put STOP on it. Not going to happen!  I did like the way the far road turned out with it's little dips.

While I was painting away my left brain kicked in and said " I like the horizon line in the middle and I love the way the poles are both leaning exactly the same. I am so good. I even fooled the right brain into thinking she got the horizon above the middle. The poles were so much fun to fool her with!"  

The right brain did touch ups at home to straighten one of the telephone poles and raise the horizon line. For a bit of wild life I put some birds on the line.

More paintings later--Blessings to all.

Airplane with final touches

Put the finishing touches on the Blue and Chrome Airplane yesterday. It was a busy day painting and today was a day of just doing other things. I wrote out the notes that I took at the Parish Council meeting last night. I am not used to doing that kind of work any more and it takes longer than it did when I was taking notes for money--before retirement. ;-) Then the Friday Muses got together. We had a new artist visit us. We hope Ruthann Miller can become one of our regulars. She is a multi-media artist with lots of creativity in her work. Later a visit to my Mom to catch up on family goings on and to show her the new painting of the poppies that I finished this week. And finally a casual dinner out with Dan and some street rod friends. Busy day and time to crash for the night.

Here is the new chrome airplane--oil on gallery wrap canvas. 24x 16. Hope you like it.

Work this week

I did this quick little magnolia (from a photo) just to do a flower painting . This is 8x10 on canvas in oil.

I have been trying to get my oil painting skills brushed up because I hope to be outside with plein air soon. I really am looking forward to warm spring sunshine. This week it has rained and rained---we are not complaining though just a little colder and we would have been up to our ears in snow drifts again. As it is the snow is going away. We can drive and walk without slipping around.

More blue glass this time without the kooky fish :-). "Winter Blues" also in oil, 16x20 on canvas.  One viewer thought that the back ground was too light. I had hoped to catch that overbright glowing light when there is lots of snow on the ground reflecting into a window.  I like the oil for it's blending properties. I could not get that cool turquoise with the brand of thalo blue that I got in the first Blue Fish painting. It  did give me that nice deep blue that I need in the shadows but the turquoise was much softer and not as intense as with the acrylic paint. 

Since I am an impatient painter (there fore love acrylics) and manage to get my fingers in wet oil paint no matter how long I wait, I decided to use Liquitex Cobalt Siccative medium. I can get my blending done and make corrections without waiting days. Love the stuff but clean up is hard. When the paint drys on the pallet it is almost impossible to scrap off. Luckily, I use the back side of old laminated posters for my palette cover and when it is too dirty I just throw it away. So far this winter I have not yet had to change the cover but with the oil siccative that is going to change in another painting or two in oil.

Done with this post--on to more oil painting.