Tag Archives: oil

October 10, 2015

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My thumbnail for Linemen Working was promising enough to move directly to a 22″ x 28″ canvas. Since the scene is a nocturne, I decided to cover the entire canvas with dark Golden Acrylic before starting. It may be a bit hard to see in the photo below, but the upper left corner is lighter and bluer where the sky is visible, while the trees and road are black. I used Mars Black and Prussian Blue for the background.

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I tried transferring the drawing with a Canary Yellow Prismacolor pencil, but found that it wouldn’t stick to the relatively slick acrylic paints. In the end I used an extra fine Shock White Montana Acrylic Marker.

Linemen Working

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Here’s my latest painting obsession: linemen working through the night to restore power after a storm. The truck is a 1:34 scale die cast from First Gear. It’s about 7 inches long and the bucket extends about a foot upward. The model sits on a piece of clear acrylic which approximates the reflections on the wet road. Lighting is from two LED headlamps and a small LED button light which sits in the back of the truck. The running lights were added in Photoshop. I’ll probably make a telephone pole out of dowel and balsa and then add some broken tree branches.

Once I get the scene designed and looking good in the camera, the plan is to drag the easel over and paint it from direct observation. Technically speaking it will be a still life, but my intention is to make it look fairly realistic, while dialing up the drama.

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October 2, 2015

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I finally got a chance to work on the peaches again and it’s about time because they are getting pretty ripe. This time I decided to mix things up and paint the peaches before painting the plate. My previous attempts have been fairly dark with the chiaroscuro dial turned all the way up to eleven. For this painting I’m going for a higher key design with more atmospheric volume and warmth in the shadows. My plan is to paint the plate and the shadows with the same value scheme as can be seen in the under painting.

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Mount Shuksan II

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Here’s one more painting from Day 2 of the the PAWA Mount Baker Paint Out. We returned to Picture Lake before dawn and set-up in the cold and dark. As the sun rose to the left of Mount Shuksan, we painted the mists rising off the lake. One challenge I had was that my water miscible paints would freeze on the palette as I did my block in. Once the sun rose, the paint thawed out and everything was fine.

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Artist Point

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At the PAWA Mount Baker Paint Out, Day 1. In the afternoon I headed up to Artist Point. We had tried the location first thing in the morning, but it was completely socked in so we went back down to Picture Lake. By afternoon, the clouds had lifted a bit at Artist Point, but not enough for grand sweeping vistas. Undaunted, I decided to concentrate the fall foliage. It didn’t rain for this painting, but I had to beat a hasty retreat shortly after taking this picture when a hailstorm filled my pochade box with icy pellets!

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Mount Shuksan I

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At the PAWA Mount Baker Paint Out, Day 1. I painted Mount Shuksan in the rain from Picture Lake. I’m a pretty slow painter and over the summer I had the luxury of spending multiple of sessions on each painting. Different story at Mount Baker. With the fall weather, the light is constantly changing, making it hard to do a longer, multi-session painting. Instead I am learning to work fast. This painting was completed in just two hours.

A reporter for King5’s Evening Magazine stayed overnight with us at the lodge and interviewed a number of us while we were painting.

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PAWA Mount Baker Paint Out

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I attended the Plein Air Washington Mount Baker Paint Out this weekend. We stayed at the Mountaineers’ Baker Lodge across from Picture Lake and painted two days – one in rain and hail and one in sun. Great company, great food and great painting!

Bennington Peaches IV

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I started a new Bennington Peaches painting. The previous iteration still needs another session or two, but it is has some drawing and compositional issues that I felt would be easier to address in a new painting.

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The peaches in this painting are fuller and really crowd the plate. The outlines of the peaches and their form shadows are more interesting and more specific. The previous painting started out more like this one, but the peaches shrank and became less specific as I worked on them. I will finish the earlier painting to get some practice painting the peaches and then apply what I learned to this painting.