Friday, May 22, 2009

Spring Reflections

Hey, hows that for a title!

Yet another portrait of the fishing ponds near my work. Photography really dosen't capture many of the qualities of oil paintings.


On this piece has the wood grain semi visable thru the water in the pond. It's a neat effect that was total hapenstance.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Sunlight on Vasona

I'm pretty happy with this painting. It captures the dusk light pretty well if I don't say so myself. This is based on a shot I took of Vasona lake in April.

This is the site that rewards you at the end of the Los Gatos Trail after a long bike ride. I have atempted another painting recently of this scene zoomed out further... that ... ah... didn't go so well but I'm sure I'll be painting this scene more in the future anyway.

BTW this painting and the previous were painted on canvas panels. I've since switched to painting on wood panels. The canvas texture at 6x8 seems a touch to much so I've opted for painting on a smoother substrate.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

April Path

This is the first decent painting I did. Prior to this piece I'd been struggling with many aspects of oil painting. I'm still struggling of course but this piece gave me hope and direction after quite a few weeks of muddling about.

It's a recreation path close to my work. I used to ride on this path every day early in the morning on my way to work. It's very beautiful there in the morning. This painting is actually based on a shot taken in the early evening.

Quicksilver Morning Oak

I woke up super early last Saturday to go to Almaden Quicksilver park. I haven't been there since I was a kid. Getting up early on Saturdays is not something I usually do but I really wanted to collect inspiration in the morning light.


This oak was right across from the parking lot. Looking at it now if I ever repaint this scene I might handle the foreground grass differently...

This is part of my ongoing 6x8 series. I was gonna post paintings in the order I completed them and I'm still going to do that. However I've got about seven others done that I think I'll post and write about before I go back to chronological order...

Friday, May 8, 2009

Painting 5-7-09


This is another painting in my series based on Los Gatos trail and Vasona park. This is actually a fishing pond that many people love to go fishing at. The day was very cloudy and I I really wanted to capture the feeling of the clouds with blue sky peeking through.

It was actually warmer than it appears to be that day. I'll be painting more from this area I'm sure as it's very close to where I work and I really like the scenery there.


So..It begins

Hello

I'm an artist...Been many different kinds of artist in my life. Currently I'm an Illustrator and oil painter.

Here's a painting:

This was painted a week ago or so...It's mid day light not my favorite light but...It's based on a plien  air piece I did that same day...Plien air is definitely challenging but I plan to do more of it as time permits.

All of the pieces here are part of my 100 6x8 pro jet I've set up to learn more about oil painting in the most expedient manner possible. I've done about 11 paintings in the series so far. I won't be painting larger until I complete 100 paintings. I may jump up to 8x10 at that point.