I typically don’t share work in progress posts, but I think that tendency will have to change as I ramp up my “en plein air” sessions. Why? Well, there are so many entertaining things that happen when you’re in the field trying to make art. Some of it can be frustrating, like sudden wind gusts that knock over everything, to entertaining and curious, such as bugs that end up as impasto effects in a painting.
Today, I was painting by a beautiful pond on a calm afternoon, as if that weren’t perfect enough, when along comes a gaggle (is it gaggle?) of geese. Apparently I had setup adjacent to their entry ramp into the pond, but my presence didn’t distract them at all. Usually I have a dog in tow, which tends to keep all manner of water fowl in the water, but I didn’t have my handy apprentice, Zip, with me today. She doesn’t care much about the geese, but she finds goose poop to be the caviar delicacy of the great outdoors.
As to the artwork, the focal point, which is impossible to tell at this mid-paint stage, is the strip of water lilies wrapped around the right side of the composition. I was only in the field for a little over an hour, but I’m happy with the structure of the painting and the aggressive approach with the dark values, which I tend to screw up initially.
Stay tuned for an update of the finished work in the studio. Thanks for reading!
Inspired by travel with dear friends and recalling the joys of the day over a bottle of wine… or two… or three!
When time flies by chatting with friends, so too does the wine, and we all need a friend who suggests “ONE MORE BOTTLE?”. I’m lucky to have such friends.
This composition went through a few iterations and ultimately strayed so far from my original reference photo that it’s not worth sharing. The wine is a rosé from #grassinifamilyvineyards out of Santa Barbara. While I personally don’t care for many of the Santa Barbara area wines (Paso Robles is much more to my liking), the wine and setting at the Grassini tasting room patio was excellent.
The use of a dark background in this composition made for a difficult painting, namely getting the pink/orange color of the rosé to show up properly against the black backdrop. Do a Google search for “still life painting of wine”, sort by images, and see how far you have to scroll to find a composition that’s not red wine and not against a very dark background.
Regarding the largely blank right side of the composition, it’s designed to create tension for the viewer: Why the hell is half of the painting missing? Is it finished? Is there something there I can’t see? The truth is I initially planned to paint an empty bottle in that space, but ultimately felt like it would create more clutter and wouldn’t add anything of artistic interest – I mean who wants to stare at an empty wine bottle. That’s just sad. The artistic vacuum I opted for instead feeds to the ONE MORE BOTTLE theme.
Let me explain.
If you note the amount of wine in the glass and what’s remaining in the bottle, it’s pretty clear there is more in the glass than what’s not in the bottle. The viewer is left to assume that ONE MORE BOTTLE has been procured and the wine in the glass is actually what was from the previous bottle and perhaps a little topper from the new bottle.
Finally, rosé is a wine for daytime hours (at least for me), so the dark background and soft light indicates early evening or dusk, which in my mind is how time among friends can fly by – namely you start visiting at lunch in the light of day with a bottle of rosé and the next thing you know you’ve filled the recycle bin and it’s damn near time for dinner!
For the artists out there, a few notes of interest. First, there’s a lot of texture on the painting surface, which is largely a byproduct of dumb luck from working over a previous painting. Sometimes textures from old paintings are a real pain in the ass, which is why I usually gesso or sandpaper them to a smoother surface. However, this is the second painting I’ve done recently that’s used a previous failure and I neglected to smooth the surface. I gotta say, I prefer the textured option.
Lastly, I used a palette knife to do the wine in the wine glass to add texture and realism. Rosé is a chilled wine, so the glass has to have some element of water beading or glistening. Furthermore, it helps add visual interest with impasto-like thickness.
Thanks for reading and cheers to all your close friends!
What’s not to like about a pack of puppies frolicking down the beach following their mom while playing with a stick bigger than themselves? NOTHING, that’s what!
I’d done a previous piece similar to this one called PUPPY BUTTS, but it was half the size and half the number of puppies. It was sold at an Art for the People Gallery show last year, but I received so many positive comments about it that I decided to do another one.
The focal point was a bit of an accident, which happened after I’d blocked in all the pups. Sitting back considering how I was going to actually paint the dogs, yes with wine, the two on the right just seemed to be playing, and the idea of incorporating a stick jumped into my head. It’s hard to see from the photo, but the puppies with the stick are painted with a palette knife instead of a brush, adding contrasting texture to draw further interest. The singular, adorable black puppy is also meant to draw the viewer to that part of the pack.
It’s hard to know as an artist when a composition is done, which I tend to agree with in most cases. But when it comes to dog-related paintings, at the point that it makes you laugh, smile, or cry… it’s done.
MOTHBALL was inspired by a photograph I saw at a gallery show in Roundrock, Texas. My apologies for not citing the photographer’s name for this piece (I simply didn’t note his name at the time), but I did include the original photo for reference and if I can figure out his name I will update accordingly. Regardless, what grabbed my attention from the photo was that it was from the perspective of the moth, like a pilot landing a plane.
My goal with MOTHBALL initially was to simply emulate the photo as a painting, but about halfway through I got it in my head to steer towards the whimsical, which I did by taking the moth’s perspective via a few beers and a dram of whiskey. To achieve this goal, I incorporated 2 key design decisions. First, an assumption that the vision of a moth is very different from ours. Granted, I have no idea how a moth sees the world, but it’s safe to assume the focus is the flower and everything else is Mothvision noise… and probably green. Secondly, and most importantly, I wanted to get in the head of the moth and emulate how she saw the flower – this is where I shifted from beers to whiskey. What I came up with was something that screamed “YUMMY DELICIOUSNESS!”, essentially a rich, vibrant, active flower with pollen roiling on top like the surface of the sun.
The time lapse video below starts at the point I decided to go full Mothvision. If you pay close attention you can see the changes and deletions made along the way to make things work better.
Overall I’m very happy with MOTHBALL, although I recognize it’s a niche audience who might be drawn to such a concept. Hopefully the explanation provided here can at least drive some appreciation for the intention of the art.
BLOWN AWAY is a foray into a new area for me, namely the wonderful world of whimsy.
My wife and I were exploring Scotland earlier this year and were impressed by the art presence throughout many of their cities and towns. The inspiration for BLOWN AWAY came from street murals in Glasgow, Scotland, which are amazing by the way. Some of the work is jaw dropping, not just in it’s artistic beauty, but also in its messaging and creativity.
This composition was challenging on many fronts, most notably the profile of the child blowing the dandelion. To be clear, I’m not a portrait artist, never will be, don’t have any interest… BUT it comes in handy from time to time. This was my first portrait, aside from a painfully horrible self-portrait attempted years ago and subsequently burned shortly after completion. I have to admit I’m very happy with the outcome – well, if I’m honest, I’m more surprised than anything.
The umbrellas were my wife’s idea, which resonated with me as soon as she made the suggestion. However, the artist in me forgot how hard they can be to get just right, especially when their arrangement is pure chaos. I should have done a time lapse video so you can see the constant turning of the panel to paint the umbrellas in their varied orientations.
The final challenge was compositional. While I don’t fully embrace, nor know, all compositional rules and recommendations, I’ve come to appreciate the effectiveness of not straying from the core basics. Case in point, how do I avoid actively moving the viewer off the painting while embracing the action of blowing seeds off a dandelion, which magically turn into umbrellas. The solution I tried to incorporate – if it works is up to you to decide – was the use of brilliant light on the dandelion and the boy’s face, which are concentrated on the left side, and pull the viewer’s gaze back to that area after they initially follow the unfolding umbrellas to the right. Secondly, the shape of the overall mass of the umbrellas was intentional, so as to point to the focal point of the dandelion. Lastly, and this is a bit more subtle, the opening of the two largest, far right umbrellas was done as a sort of barrier with regards to being opened in a way that points back to the focal point.
