Category: Landscapes

Barns, Bluebonnets, and Barks

COMMONS FORD RANCH BARN | Oil on Artboard | 9×12”

This is my first composition of an old barn and it was an absolute blast! I came across this barn exploring a metro park near my home called Commons Ford Ranch. My initial goal was to simply find a new place to explore with my dog, and I was surprised to find this metro park on the map near my home, of which I’ve lived in for decades.

Commons Ford Ranch parkland was donated by Bradley and Wooley, Inc. in 1983, but the historic buildings, including the barn, were from the Resaca Ranch, which was a working cattle ranch in the early 20th century. If you live in the Austin area, I strongly suggest exploring this small park, which has riverfront, hiking trails, and obviously historical elements to enjoy.

After my plein air recon visit with Wolfy, I returned a few days later to do some quick field sketching. Having no experience with barns, I took some time back in the studio doing a more formal drawing, trying to figure out how best to simplify the elements of the barn and ensure I could get the whacky angles figured out. When I finished the drawing I realized the better angle was going to be from the other side of the barn because the tree was a distraction no matter where I put it, seemingly popping out of the barn like a jack-in-the-box gone wrong. But this is why we do sketches and practice drawings, right? 

I spent about 3 hours painting on-site the following week. The weather cooperated for the first 90 minutes, then the clouds rolled in, which threw off some of the preferred lighting. Luckily I took a few reference photos when I first setup and was able to use those back in the studio. I really focused my plein air session on highly contrasting values, something I feel would help improve the realistic nature of my landscapes. 

The studio work went very quickly, which I’m convinced was due to the strength of the values throughout the piece. I was able to convey a more realistic composition with depth. At least that’s my impression. The most tricky bits, which were honestly a bit maddening, were determining the colors for the wood. The gray of the actual barn wasn’t going to make for a very interesting painting, so I went with 20 versions of reddish brown. I used almost exclusively painting knives for the barn, finding ways to maximize wet-on-wet technique to get swirls and variations in the wood panels, giving them (hopefully) a more aged look. Lastly, using the edge of the painting knife, I applied somewhat random crisp black lines to get a more realistic look to the slats and slight gaps between the wood.  

The addition of wildflowers was a suggestion from my wife, which I think adds a nice pop of central Texas spring to the piece. These were also done with a knife, using scraping and splotching techniques. 

Overall, the Commons Ford Ranch Barn was a great introduction to this type of landscape feature that lends itself nicely to en plein air. 

#artbern #berntx #crashboomzip #painting #art #abplanalp #austinartists #atxartist #atxart #atxlife #contemporaryart #bernabplanalp #pleinair #pleinairaustin #commonsfordranch #getoutside #hikeaustin #austinparksfdn

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Bob Ross Goes Skiing

FRESH TRACKS | Mixed Media on Canvas Panel | 5×7”


This is project #2 from the aforementioned Textured Painting workshop at The Contemporary at Laguna Gloria. This was a real Bob Ross experience, as my original plan was to simply experiment with texture and some pottery tools to see how they manipulated the joint compound, as well as experiment on canvas board with my newfound medium. Lo and behold, I discovered ski tracks in the snow – an abstract painting exploration turned “real” composition.

The coloring of the snow is actually tinged with yellow and muted with purple, which is very hard to see in the photos. The first step was to paint the canvas panel all black, let it dry, then cover it with the off-white spackle. The pottery tool was some kind of metal prong with a very small, circular tip. Dragging this tool through the soft spackle exposed the black board underneath, sometimes closing back up over itself in the thicker sections, much like skiing through fresh snow. 

On day 2, after the initial spackle had dried, using a water spritzer, I applied some kind of sparkly dust provided in the instructor’s box of goodies, which created a very cool reflective effect, like sun on snow. The last step was to apply a sky-blue acrylic mix to some of the wider tracks, which added color and the effect of the sky reflected in the snow. 

Overall, I’m very happy with this abstract turned ski tracks realism piece. I think it would be a very marketable piece, too, at a larger size in a black frame for someone who loves skiing. Thank you, Bob Ross!

Virtual Frame
Fresh Tracks Zoom
Texture
Texture, Sparkles, and Blues

artbern #berntx #crashboomzip #painting #art #abplanalp #austinartists #atxartist #contemporaryart #steamboatsprings #skicolorado #bernabplanalp #getoutside #contemporaryatx #texturedpainting  #acrylics #mixedmedia #bobross #happyaccident

by Categories: Abstract, Landscapes, Mixed MediaTags: , , , , 4 Comments

Spring Point in Spackle

SPRING POINT LEDGE LIGHTHOUSE 2 | Mixed Media on Wood | 8×10″

I recently attended a 2-day workshop at The Contemporary at Laguna Gloria. The focus was textured painting, which ultimately boiled down to playing with joint compound (gypsum spackle) and acrylic paint. I was amazed at how easy and fun it was to adapt to this medium.The technique is very straightforward, whereby one mixes acrylic paints into the joint compound, which is an off-white, and do whatever you want provided it’s put on a hard surface, for which I used wooden boards.

Most of the class did abstract pieces, which make sense as you get to play with pottery tools to get cool shapes and textures. It’s very forgiving, too, because you can simply wipe it off and start over again provided you don’t wait more than a day, at which point it hardens. I chose to do still life and landscape pieces, taking advantage of the impasto nature of the spackle. The instructor said she hadn’t considered doing landscape compositions with this technique, but to me it seemed intuitively suited for the textural nature of the real world. 

I intend to add some vibrancy to this composition with acrylic paint… I think. This is definitely the start of a new and exciting medium! Stay tuned for a number of new pieces in spackle and acrylics.

#artbern #berntx #crashboomzip #painting #art #abplanalp #austinartists #atxartist #contemporaryart #southportlandmaine #abplanalp #bernabplanalp #springpointledgelighthouse #lighthouse #maine #portlandmaine #getoutside #fortgorges #contemporaryatx #texturedpainting 

by Categories: Landscapes, SeascapesTags: , , , , , , 3 Comments

Holiday Group Show: Small Wonders at Austin Fine Art Gallery!

I have the good fortune of 7 of my paintings being included at Austin Fine Art Gallery’s annual holiday group show of small arwtorks called “small WONDERS”! All works are framed and ready to go on your walls, or, given their relatively small size, they’re easy to ship to friends and family who might appreciate authentic art from an Austin artist. 

  • BLACK LAB | Graphite on Paper | 11×13″ 
  • BULL CREEK, AUSTIN | Oil on Board | 6×8″ 
  • DOG TIRED | Oil on Board | 16×12″
  • JUST THE RIPE SIZE | Oil on Panel | 5×7″ 
  • SPRING POINT LEDGE LIGHTHOUSE | Oil on Board | 8×6″
  • POPCORN | Oil on Canvas | 14×11″ 
  •  SOMETHING BLUE | Oil on Board | 12×9″ 


Small WONDERS will consist of over 300 mini works by over 35 greater Austin artists, ranging from 5×7’s to 16×20’s. Everything will be PRICED to GIFT with prices ranging from $100 to $600. Don’t miss this wonderful show to start or add to an art collection for you and your loved ones!There will be an opening reception on Saturday, December 9th from 4-7pm. There will be holiday treats, drinks and live music during the opening reception. The show runs through early January. 

For more information about the gallery and this show specifically, go to www.artframingservices.com, navigate to the “small WONDERS” show announcement, and consider dropping by for some holiday cheer and say hi during the opening reception. 

Artists showing include:

BERN ABPLANALP
UMBREEN AHMAD
TOM BENTLEY
VICKI BREVELL
TAMMY BROWN
HOLLY CRAIG
ALAN EHRLICH
PAT FLATHOUSE
ANN FLEMINGS
JULIA FLETCHER
SALLY FRASER
OLGA GORALEWICZ
LACY HUSMANN
JESSICA GREENWOOD
PING IRVIN
CRAIG IRVIN
CHRISTINE JAMES
CAROLYN KILDAY
MELISSA KOTZEV
SCOTT LEOPOLD
MARCH MATTINGLY
LINDA MONTIGNANI
M MURDOCK
EDD OGDEN
NANCY PATON
RICARDO ROBLES
JOYCELYN SCHEDLER
ANASTASIA SHIMANSKAYA
CELESTE SMITH
CONNIE TAYLOR
MINDEN TEN EYCK
LILIANA VASQUEZ
LINDA WELLS
JOHN WEST
ELIZABETH WILSON
WALKER WINN
RENEE WOMACK

#artbern #berntx #crashboomzip #abplanalp #atxart 
#austinartist #austinart #originalartworks #austingifts #texasartists #austinfineart #austinartframe #artforyourhome #texasartist #instaart #artoftheday #smallwonders #christmasartist #christmas #holidaycheer #gifts #giftideas 

by Categories: dogs, Drawings, Events, Landscapes, still lifeTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Answer to the Lotto Question

WINNERS | 12×9” | Oil on Board

The coast of Maine is one of the most beautiful in the country. Needless to say it provides plenty of inspiration for painting. While this is not a plein air piece per se, I did a study sketch plein air and spent hours on Fishermans Point enjoying the cool sea breeze and beautiful views.

The inclusion of the home on the sea cliff is not only intentional in this composition, but it is the name my wife gave the house, “Winners”. We have no idea who they are, but we’ve strolled by 2 Bay Road often and we know what we would do if we won the lottery.

This piece is a study of sorts, in large part because it’s a very tricky subject matter for me, combining all the hard things into one painting – boats, complex architecture, and rocks. Man, the effing rocks! I can say, however, this turned out pretty well and the learning experience was very rewarding. I also had the good sense to setup the time lapse camera, both as entertainment for all of you dear readers, as well as a way to remind myself how I went about this painting when I decide to do something similar.

Enjoy the movie and thanks for reading!

Painting Time Lapse
by Categories: SeascapesTags: , , , , , , 2 Comments

Waiting to Sail

SPRING POINT BOATS | 10 x 8” | Oil on Canvas Board

This is a follow-up to a previous post while in Maine. SPRING POINT BOATS was started en plein air, the session just long enough to allow me to lay in a solid structure and composition that was interesting. There was some artistic license taken in terms of boat placement and colors, but the remainder of the setting is, believe it or not, an accurate depiction. 

While the paint didn’t effortlessly jump off the brush, something did click regarding boat shapes and structure. I’m not happy with how some of the areas look a bit chalky, but that should be easy to improve in future efforts. I believe I relied too much on Titanium White to lighten values throughout the piece, as opposed to reserving it primarily for the boats. However, the sense of a strong mid-afternoon sun on a calm day came through pretty well.

The last self-critique, and it’s a big one, is the compositional structure. I didn’t notice until the work was done, but now I can’t “unsee” it, that the lighthouse jetty looks artificial because it comes into the painting in a parallel that’s very distracting. It needs to be more angular, or at the very least, I need the sight line to be above the jetty so you can see the side and top, not just the side. I have to laugh, though, because I was so proud of my artistic licensure of the boats, yet I ignored the massive rock jetty in the background. Oh well, there’s always next time.

Thanks for reading!

#artbern #berntx #crashboomzip #painting #art #abplanalp #austinartists #atxartist #contemporaryart #southportlandmaine #abplanalp #bernabplanalp #springpointledgelighthouse #lighthouse #maine #portlandmaine #sailboat #marina #sailing

by Categories: plein air, SeascapesTags: , , , , , , , 1 Comment

You Can’t Fix Stupid

I ordered a new tripod for my New Wave u.go plein air pochade box from Amazon this week. More on the tripod in a minute, but first I had to share the shipping fail, which made me laugh. Do you see it in the image below? Note Amazon marketing hard at work touting their environmental credentials, extolling their green leadership with “This box is now made with less material”, all the while shipping a 3”x3”x18” product in a box that’s easily 4x larger than necessary. Seriously, Amazon? FAIL!

Despite the dim witted packaging, the Sirui tripod looks good and could prove to be a major update to my plein air setup. Sirui has a wide range of tripods, but I needed something that was sturdy, portable and lightweight, so I went with the Sirui Carbon Fiber Travel Tripod. I have yet to use it in the field, but the setup in the studio was surprisingly quick and easy. The horizontal and vertical swivel heads are liquid smooth and easy to lock, the legs invert to fold up around the neck of the tripod so it compacts to 13”, and there’s an actual clip for hanging a weight bag (or backpack) in the center for further stability. This isn’t advertised as a painter’s tripod, but it should be!

Stay tuned for an update on the Sirui field test later this week!

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Sailboats, Ospreys and Bird People

SPRING POINT BOATS | Oil on Canvas Board | 8×10”

SPRING POINT BOATS is a work in progress from a gorgeous day on a pier overlooking a marina adjacent to Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse. This initial session was about 2.5 hours, half of which was spent establishing the composition structure and a practice sketch to verify the arrangement of the boats. Note that boats move, even when they’re tightly anchored in the marina, so photos of each boat in the desired position are essential to finishing a seascape like this in the studio. 

The temperature was perfection in the shade, my wife was with me enjoying the outdoors and providing very helpful compositional tips, and there was a family of Ospreys on the other side of the marina (right behind us) that are the talk of the town… amongst bird people at least. I’ll admit they are interesting to watch, as the parent (not sure which one, I’m not up to speed on Osprey gender identification) was busy dropping off fresh caught fish for the two babies. At some point, one of the bird watchers rounded the corner of the pier where I was painting, said “hi”, and I was convinced she was about to ask to see what I was working on, only to then question “why aren’t you painting the Ospreys?” Of course I told her I hate birds, was dismayed at the tankards of shit they spray all over town, and that their screeching was something of nightmares. 

Of course that was with my inside voice. My public self, using my actual voice, told her instead that the Ospreys were entertaining but difficult to paint, an answer she seemed to deem acceptable – perhaps she hadn’t considered the complexity of painting moving birds in a nest of twigs atop a 75’ pole in the middle of the bay. She giggled and shuffled away, apparently never having noticed I was painting. Perhaps some grumpy plein air painters – you know who you are – scared her off in the past and she’s afraid to ask. I digress…

As to this painting, I had already decided this was going to be a 50/50 job, namely half outside, half in studio. The goal was to lay down a solid structure and really balance the massive blue expanse of the sky and sea with the focal points of the boats. The lighthouse should give perspective and some added interest to the piece, but the intent to so give the sense of place sitting on the water watching the day go by. For me, this is still very difficult because virtually all sailboats are dominated by white, either the sails or the top deck, so the brush strokes have to be very intentional and the values need to shift much stronger than what I see “live”, at least that’s how I think it should be done.  

Stay tuned for the completed work, which I’ll keep very loose and painterly in an attempt to put the viewer outside with the boats. 

Thanks for reading!

Reference Photo
The Setup
Progress

#artbern #berntx #crashboomzip #painting #art #abplanalp #austinartists #atxartist #contemporaryart #southportlandmaine #abplanalp #bernabplanalp #springpointledgelighthouse #lighthouse #maine #portlandmaine #getoutside #ospreys #sailing #sailboats #birdwatching

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Fix and Finish Spring Point Lighthouse

SPRING POINT LEDGE LIGHTHOUSE | 6×8”| Oil on Canvas Board

Finished! I’ve posted a couple of progress related updates regarding this composition and I’m happy to say the 3rd time is a charm… this one’s done! If you look at the previous progress post, you’ll notice the removal of the tiny island fortress of Fort Gorges, an extreme application of artistic license. It was giving me fits compositionally, in part because the intent to use it as a balance with the lighthouse on the right was more of a distraction than something complimentary. I was going to simply mute the greens of the trees and push it back in the scene, ensuring the lighthouse was the focus, but what I discovered was that it’s such an unusual structure that it took over the composition as the viewer is sucked into wondering “what the hell is that?” I mean seriously, how often do you see an old fort on an island with a miniature forest growing in the center? I tried to convince myself that I painted it so realistically and thus it was a distraction, but in reality it’s simply weird to see out of the full context of Casco Bay, so I wiped it out… in the interest of artistic integrity.

The fort was easy enough to wipe out, but the issue it was meant to address, namely a well balanced composition, was still a problem. Not a pro at just dropping shit into a painting out of thin air, this seemed like a good scenario for practice. I’m pretty happy with the result, but it took a conscious effort to ignore details and simply work in some loose brush strokes. I also incorporated some of the ubiquitous lobster buoys found in and around Casco Bay, and lastly some distant sailboats to give the sense of an active afternoon on the water.

As to the focal point, the final result of the lighthouse and the complex stones of the jetty came out pretty well given my relatively minimal subject matter experience. As any of you artists know, tackling new subjects can be a reminder of the impossibility of knowing how to paint anything and everything equally well. The process was very enjoyable and satisfying, so there will be more lighthouses in the near future. I might expand my new found rock painting knowledge to some coastal scenes, too. 

Thanks for reading! 

#artbern #berntx #crashboomzip #painting #art #abplanalp #austinartists #atxartist #contemporaryart #southportlandmaine #abplanalp #bernabplanalp #springpointledgelighthouse #lighthouse #maine #portlandmaine #getoutside #fortgorges

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Gray and Rainy… Perfect Day to Paint

SPRING POINT LIGHTHOUSE | 8×10”| Oil on Canvas Board

Presented with a sketchy weather forecast for the coming few days, my need to get out and tackle this lighthouse painting got the best of me and I made a rare late afternoon plein air session happen. Nothing about the timing or the weather made sense for an outdoor session, but when the temperature is in the lower 70s that’s all the motivation I really need. 

The drawing session from last week proved very helpful with this composition. I knew exactly how I wanted to orient everything, which in this case was the jetty, NOT the lighthouse. I need to remember this for future works, namely to find the piece of the composition that’s going to serve as the anchor for all perspective and measurements and start there, noting that this isn’t always going to be the focal point. The vertical orientation of everything on the horizon and the width/centering of the lighthouse relative to the jetty was also key. This made things move very fast so I could get to the business of putting oil on canvas. 

Starting with the sky and working forward was my approach this session. I’m ultimately ignoring the very gray, muted light because I know what this looks like on a sunny day and the plan is to polish things up in the studio or return to this location to finish it off with better contrasts. However, I’m very happy with what I finished today in just over an hour. A part of me says I should leave it as is and simply shore up the lighthouse details. Maybe I’ll put myself on an hour limit and refine whatever I can within that time constraint? Something to think about. 

Side note, a family with a young girl come by to ask if they could check out the painting. Apparently she likes to paint and seeing someone doing it outside on a day like today was either very cool, or just weird. Either way they seemed to be entertained and were very appreciative of our brief chat. I’ve never understood plein air painters who get so bent out of shape when people ask to check out what they’re working on. Doesn’t bother me, especially if what I’m painting doesn’t look like garbage. 

Thanks for reading!

#artbern #berntx #crashboomzip #painting #art #abplanalp #austinartists #atxartist #contemporaryart #southportlandmaine #abplanalp #bernabplanalp #springpointledgelighthouse #paintingintherain 

by Categories: plein air, SeascapesTags: , , , , 1 Comment