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White Rock Lake Boat Houses - A New Original 9x12 Plein Air Oil Painting by George De Chiara

White Rock Lake Boat Houses

A few weeks ago, I was in Dallas dropping off my paintings for the Artist of Texas show at the Dutch Gallery. Since the gallery isn't very far from White Rock Lake, I brought along my painting gear with the hopes of getting in some painting. As luck would have it, we had  a beautiful sunny day with a nice breeze. After I dropped off my paintings, I scouted out a few different locations around the lake and felt this view would make the best painting for what I was after. In this case, I really wanted to include some buildings and lots of water. What a perfect fit! I found a quiet place to set up and painted undisturbed for a few hours. I had completed the painting and started to pack up my gear when I decided that I didn't like the way the water and foreground had turned out. It just lacked any design and added very little to the overall painting so I wiped it off. The problem was I wasn't sure how to fix these issues, so I headed home put the painting up in a place in the studio where I could see it easily and spent the next few weeks thinking about how to handle the water. This is what the painting looked like at that time:

In my mind I tried out several different ideas for the water. I thought about adding a few boats to the foreground, which was something that was originally in the scene. I thought about making the water very reflective and using the cloud pattern to creat interest. I thought about many different way to handle this, then finally I had the idea to use the reflection of the sky in wake of a passing boat to lead the eye back into the painting. Something akin to the country drive way leading you to the barn, but,in this case, on water. So in the end, this painting became a hybrid, about half of it was done plein air and the other half in the studio, but really in the end the important thing is I came away with a painting I'm happy with. 

White Rock Lake Boat Houses © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 9x12 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Available

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Lake Worth Harbor - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Lake Worth Harbor

 I must have driven by Lake Worth a hundred times while my wife and I were dating. In order to get to her house from where I lived, I had to drive over the bridge that's just a stones throw from where I did this painting. Somehow, I forgot this lake existed after we got married and moved. Then, yesterday, I was in the mood to go out and paint, but where...? Whenever I get stuck with this question, I usually go to Google maps and do a virtual search for places to paint. That's when I noticed this lake again and the promising looking boat harbor, so I grabbed my painting gear and headed out. It turns out the harbor is private property, so I had to find a different location to paint from. I've gotten pretty use to running into situations like this, so I had already scouted out a few other possible locations to paint from on Google maps. Luckily, the public boat ramp isn't too far from the harbor, so that's where I painted from. A few minutes after I started painting, a gentlemen came up to introduce himself and see what I was doing. It turns out he's an artist too and invited me to paint from his house and pier when ever I want to. It looks like his pier has a great view of the lake, harbor and a few of the other boat houses on the lake. I can't wait to go back and paint from there. Until then, here's the painting I did from the shore.

Lake Worth Harbor ©

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x6 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Day 13 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Beach Reflections - by George De Chiara

Beach Reflections

 Today, I still felt inspired to paint more water, reflections and the beach, so I again turned to my photo reference from Mustang Island. This painting actually has the boat from yesterday in it. I'm just pulled back a bit so I can also paint the catamaran next to it. To mix things up a bit today, I used my palette knife for a large portion of this painting. I'm slowly getting better with my palette knife and I can control it much better these days. Having used it to paint my color charts last month, the practice is really paying off now. The knife tends to put the paint on very thick, which is one of the nice things about using it. The colors mix in a very unique way that can only be achieved with a knife. When I needed to use a brush, I made sure to load it up with thick paint too so the style would match.

Here's how today's painting came to life:

Here's my initial wash of color. I did this with a brush loaded with very thin paint. I also used a paper towel to wipe out a few lighter areas. I just can't think of any way to do this with a pallete knife, and, to tell the truth, I'm not sure I'd want to. At this stage, I want to be loose and free to make changes. The pallete knife would put down too much paint to allow for this.

Now that I'm happy with my block in, I can pick up my pallete knife and start to lay in thicker color. My technique with the knife differs a bit from the brush. When painting with the brush, I tend to start with one object and move from the center out as I paint.  With the knife, I'm working methodically, from the top down. I find this helps me keep the colors clean since I'm mostly working into a dry area all the time my knife doesn't pick up any unwanted color.

I'm continuing to work down towards the bottom of the painting. The reflections are particularly fun to paint with the pallete knife. I lay in lots of thick color and then I can take a brush and blend the reflections into the water. With such thick paint, it's almost like sculpting!

Now, I'm working my way back the other catamaran. At this point, I'm using a brush and knife equally. I did a lot of the beach with a brush loaded with thick paint. Then, I used the palette knife to put in a few details and spots of color. I'll also use it to blend the paint that's already on the canvas. With a clean knife, I'll lightly hit the high spots and blend them with the paint underneath.

The finished painting.

Beach Reflections

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x6 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to bid.
Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Day 12 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Beached Catamaran - by George De Chiara

Beached Catamaran

Yesterday's painting got me thinking about painting more water, specifically reflections in the water. I'm not sure why, but I really enjoy painting the reflections. There's something about the symmetry that puts my mind at ease. I often find myself getting lost in thought while painting them and when I finally look up, hours have passed and huge portions of my painting are done. This is one of the true joys of painting for me, that zen-like state where you can lose track of everything and just relax. Some people call it the painter's high and I've talked to a lot of artists that have experienced this. There's a long thread on this topic on Fine Art Views blog. Here's a link to it. Have you ever experienced this? Care to share your story?

 For this painting, I had to use one of my photo references from Mustang Island. We were there over Memorial Day weekend last year and the beaches were filled with people, boats, and tents of all kinds. On one of the many walks my wife and I took along the shore, we ran across a few catamaran's on the beach.  The reflections on the wet sand and lapping water just sparkled with color. I knew one day these would make for a fun painting and today was one of those days!

This is the photograph I'm working from. I edited the figures in the background out since I didn't feel like they added anything to the painting. Other than, that I tried to stay pretty true to the image.

This is my quick block in. I mostly used some thinned down Ultramarine Blue and Yellow Ochre to block in the water and sand color. Then I took a paper towel dipped in turpentine and wiped out the lighter areas. With the dry portion of the paper towel, I can mix the wet color and wipe it down a little to get a mid-tone. The lower right corner is a good example of this.

Once I let my block in stage dry for a few minutes, I can start to build up my color and refine the painting. I'm starting with the background, since I want those colors to have a little more gray in them so that they recede into the distance. I find it easier to do this by starting with those grayer colors and mixing cleaner color as I get closer to the foreground. This gives me something against which to judge the rest of my color mixtures.

Remember what I said in the beginning of this blog about getting lost in painting the water? That's exactly what happened right after I took this picture, so this is the last image in my step-by-step pictures. I felt once I had gotten to this point I really wanted to start to get the reflection going, since so much of the painting is a reflection. I find it helpful to paint both the reflection and the object being reflected around the same time. This way I can use some of the same color mixtures, tinted slightly with the water or sand color, for the reflections.

The finished painting.

Beached Catamaran

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x6 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to bid.
Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Boat Docks on Lake Waxahachie - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Boat Docks on Lake Waxahachie

This is the next painting I did during the Waxahachie Plein Air Event. I had found this scene over Memorial Day weekend, but it was too crowded to paint, so I went back on Tuesday. Thankfully, it was a lot less crowded. In fact, I think I was the only one there for a  long while. If you have been paying attention to this blog and the work I've posted, it will come as no surprise that I'm a real sucker for boat docks. It seems I've painted them at almost every lake I've visited in the last year. I love the fact that they so often seem improvised with whatever materials the dock owner had lying around, which creates great character in these structures. These docks attracted me because of the overhangs on the one with the red roof. The light was quite scattered in that morning and it gave this whole scene a sense of depth that was elusive. The thing I learned during this painting is that sometimes I just need to keep at it and only wipe the parts of the painting that I'm not happy with. There where several times I thought about wiping the whole canvas because one or two areas weren't coming out the way I wanted. Boy, am I glad I only wiped off those areas and on kept painting. This painting will be available at the show and sale starting Friday, June 3rd at Charauqua Auditorium until Sunday, June 6th.

Boat Docks on Lake Waxahachie

 
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 9 inches x 12 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

American Beauty - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

American Beauty

 I almost always have a list of what I want to work on with my painting. Some things on the list are simple objects or items, like trees, water reflections, skies and clouds, and others are more complex, like composition, color harmony, and working with gray colors. Every painting I do is an attempt to solve or work on one or more of these things. It's a never-ending list because as some things come off the list, others go on. There's always the desire to paint something better than I've done it before. The painting posted today is an example of working off of my list.

With this painting, I really wanted to work on sky and clouds, so I looked through some of my photo reference from a trip my wife and I took to Port Aransas. I remember the clouds being very full on this trip, which is perfect for my goals. After an hour or so of looking at my reference, I settled on 2 images, one for the sky and one for the boat and water. After working on a few thumbnail images to work out my composition and figuring out how to combine my images, it was time to paint.  I gave myself two days to work on this painting for a couple of reasons.  Primarily, I spent the whole morning looking at images and doing thumbnails so I didn't think I could finish it in one afternoon.  I was really able to relax and paint slowly, which was a prime advantage of my timeline. At the end of the day, I was a little surprised to see that it was just about done. The only thing left to do today was to finish the water, add the masting to the boat, and make a few corrections to yesterday's work.

American Beauty

 
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 9 inches x 12 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to bid.
Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Anchored at Johnson Park - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Anchored at Johnson Park

This is another painting I did in Marble Falls during the Paint the Town Plein Air Festival. I actually painted this scene twice; the first one I wiped off after about 90 minutes of painting. I just wasn't happy with the direction the painting was heading and sometimes it's just easier to start over rather than continue to struggle.  After a short break for lunch (back to the Bluebonnet!), I returned to the park and tried this scene again from a different angle. This time I was happier with my results even though the boat moved so much on the water that it proved to be a real challenge to paint. It never stayed in one spot. The wind, which was very strong that day, just kept blowing it around. In fact, I had to remove my umbrella from my easel since the wind almost carried it away at one point. In order to paint the boat, I had to wait for it to return to the sweet spot, paint a little of it, watch it shift, and then wait again for about five minutes.  That's committment to the subject, but what a day...!

Anchored at Johnson Park

 
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 9 inches x 12 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to bid.
Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Last Light - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Last Light

Recently, I was sick for a few days and unable to paint. While laying in bed, I had some time to look at a watercolor painting of this subject that I have hanging in the bedroom. I remember when I painted the watercolor how much I liked it, but after spending some time looking at it again, I felt I wanted to give it another try. I usually don't like to paint the same thing over again, so this time I changed the proportion of the canvas and the medium. I also wanted to get the time of day a little more accurate to my reference photo, which I took at the end of the day when there was just a little light left as the sun sunk below the horizon. I knew I wanted to make this a high key painting and that meant a lot of white paint and very subtle color mixtures. Even with this in mind I was surprised at how much white paint I used. It seemed like every hour or so I had to squeeze out more white paint. It really turned out to be a great exercise in mixing lots of high key colors.

Last Light

 
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 8 inches x 16 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Buy now through paypal ($275)
Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Lake Weatherford Boat Dock - Daily Painting by George De Chiara

Lake Weatherford Boat Dock

My wife works in Weatherford, an up-and-coming little burg just outside of the metroplex. For most of it's life, Weatherford has been a town that served the ranches that surround it.  You can't stop progress though and slowly, but surely, this place seems like it is on the verge of being swallowed by DFW.  So this morning I joined Marcie for the ride to work intent on painting the rural sights before they all get developed away.  After dropping her off at the college and looking at different areas, I finally settled on Lake Weatherford to paint this view of some of the private boat docks. There's a little curve in the lake where the land goes out a bit and offers this view of these docks. This little spot is public access to the lake, so I was able to set up there and have a great view. I even had a large tree to give me some shade while I painted, so what more could you ask for? 

Daily Paintings - Port Aransas (TX)

Port Aransas (TX)

 
This might have been too much to try to get into such a small painting, but it was fun to try! Mostly I was trying to get more into the sky and clouds. It's something I've really been trying to work on this week. That's very typical of the way I work. I pick out something that I want to work on, like skies, trees, water, anything that I think I need to improve my efforts on and then I try to paint it in as many situations as I can. I've noticed over the last few years that this exercise really has helped improve my paintings. It's a constant push to improve.



 

Daily Painting - Docked At Seadrift (TX)

Docked At Seadrift (TX)

 
I actually combined 2 different photo references I took to create this so don't go looking for where this is! The buildings are from Port Aransas, TX and the boats are from Seadrift, TX. It was fun to try, but I really had to pay attention to which reference I was looking at because the lighting was different in each one.

 I chose this because I had a few ideas for approaching skies that I wanted to try out. I have felt that my skies where a little weak in some of my paintings and needed some work. I'm not sure that I got there with this piece, but you never do. It takes practice, lots and lots of practice. That's really one of the biggest advantages of painting daily. Everyday you get to practice!