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Daily Paintings - Texas Sping Bloom

Texas Spring Bloom

 
My favorite time in Texas, spring! Wild flower and blue bonnet blooms are everywhere this time of the year.This is the best time to live in Texas. I have a few more spots that I want to try and paint before the wild flowers die off this year. I'm going to try and gather up some reference this weekend if I can. I'm going to have to do them from photos this time. I've got a few other things I want to paint for the next few days.

 This painting really taught me a lot. I approached the sky in a slightly different way then I normally do and it think it was a real success. I also realized ( a little too late) that I went to dark and not saturated enough with my initial washes of the foreground. I had to use a bit of white in my washes to bring back some lighter values. The problem with doing with is it also really pulls the saturation out of the color. I think I know how to correct this with the next one I want to try this type of subject. Stay tuned!

Daily Painting - Outside The Marina

Outside The Marina

  A quiet little marina I came across in Gloucester Massachusetts the last time I was there. I'm not a sailor so I've never understood how you get to your boat when it's out in the middle of the water.I guess you take another boat to it. I usually paint fishing boats and this is the first attempt at doing sail boats. I enjoyed doing it and might do some more if I have the reference for them.

 I started this painting by working on the boats first. I established all three boats first and a little of there reflection in the water. Once that dried I added a little masking fluid over the sails and the boat bodies and went in with darker washes for the back ground. The masking fluid allowed me to be free with these washes since I didn't have to cut around the boats. Once the background dried I removed the masking fluid and finished the water and boats.

Daily Painting - Slow Ride

Slow Ride

 
I was attracted to the slow moving water in this one. It was a lot of fun to try and capture it.Slower moving water has a lot more reflections in it then faster water. At least it appears that way to my eyes. It's been a while since I was able to really paint the reflections into the water. I found I have to concentrate on them a lot to not mess them up. The pattern is key to how they look.

 This is a little side stream off the main river that runs through Medicine Park, Oklahoma. There's a little water fall just up the stream from here that's maybe about 4 or 5 feet. Right above that everyone swims in the river. It's a great place to visit. My wife and I went there about 2 years ago and had a great time.

Daily Paintings - Horse Head Rock

Horse Head Rock

 
When I showed this one to my wife, her first reaction was "The rocks look like a horse head". This is where the title comes from.  I didn't really see it when she said it. It's amazing what a fresh pair of eyes will see. It wasn't until I started to get it ready to post that I saw it. Do the rocks look like a horse head to anyone else?

Daily Painting - Rolled, Not Stacked

Rolled, Not Stacked

 
Hay stacks, at some point every artist is required to paint them! Seriously, they are a lot of fun to paint.I really wanted to show depth of space with this one. I liked how the background was very simple, just a few buildings that almost disappear into the trees and sky. I also thought the rolling ground could play into the sense of distance.

 I started this one with a wash that went from the sky, through the distance trees and buildings and all the way into the for ground. I cut around a few whites and the mid and for ground hay stacks. I made sure to adjust the my color temperature as I went, cooling colors off the further back they are meant to be. Once this dried, I added a few darker values to the distance buildings and trees and painted the hay stacks. I used a bit of white paint to get the hay stacks painted. The color of them proved to be a real challenge.

News

Beach Buffet

 
This painting was my entry to the Society Of Watercolor Artists 29th Juried Art Exhibition in Fort Worth, Texas. Today was the reception and awards ceremony. I'm excited to report that I earned signature status today! If your not familiar with what this is, it's a right given to artists by the society that gives them the honor of putting that societies initials after their signature. In this case SWA. To earn this with SWA an artist needs to be juried into 5 SWA shows. The show this year is very strong. If you by the Fort Worth Library be sure to stop by before it closes on May 1,2010.

Daily Paintings - Star Lights

Star Lights

  I'm really not sure if these are wild flowers or just weeds, either way I liked the look of them and wanted to paint them.I used some making fluid to hold out the flowers and few other whites while I worked on the background. In fact the dry brushed look of the background is actually done by dry brushing some masking fluid across the paper and then painting in the darker strokes of color. Once I was fairly happy with the background I removed the masking fluid and worked on the flowers. When I was all done my wife looked at it and said "What color are you going to make the flowers?". I explained to her that they where white. I do agree with her though they could have used a "color". The problem is that I had made all of my color choices knowing the flowers where going to be white. I felt that adding color to them at this point would have looked forced and caused a lot of re-work of the background.

Daily Paintings - Jump In

Jump In

 
One more of the lemons I have on hand. To me the one in the back is yelling at the one front to jump in, while the one in the front is just dipping his toe into the blue. It's late and right now that's the best I can do.

Daily Paintings - Entourage

Entourage

  When I was trying to come up with a name for this one I kept thinking that the lemons had the lime surrounded. Then I thought, why would they surround him? That's when it hit me, they are his entourage!

 This is one of the first still life painting to come from my new set up box. I'm still not happy with the lighting I'm getting in it. Everything is getting a bit washed out for my tastes so I'm still experimenting with the lights I use it. Right now I have 3 different lights that I alternate between. I'm looking for one that's more of a spot light and can focus the light a bit more. If any one has any good suggestions, I'm all ears.

Daily Paintings - Spin Cycle

Spin Cycle

 
While I was painting this I kept thinking about abstract paintings and how I really wanted to make sure I paid attention to the patterns and the movement in the water rather then the water.The movement in the water is what really attracted me to this subject. There was white water everywhere!

 With this one I started by applying some masking fluid to retain the white of the paper. Once that dried I stared by adding some cobalt and cerulean blue mixed with cobalt violet, olive green and raw sienna. I let the colors mingle as much as possible on the paper rather then in my pallet. Once that had dried I went in with darker mixtures of the same colors plus a bit of prussian blue and burnt sienna to build up the rock forms. I let this mingle and blend with the first wash. I then removed the masking fluid and went back and adjusted some of the light values and punched up some of the dark values.

 

Daily Painting - River Valley

River Valley

 
Another one from Oklahoma. This is the river we hiked along for one of our day trips while we where there. It's the only picture I took of this view. The only reason I have it is because my wife and I had stopped to take a picture of ourselves and this was the background behind us. Of course I had to crop us out of the photo for this painting.  I really wish I had taken more as this is a perspective I'd like to do more of.

Daily Painting - That-A-Way

That-A-Way

 
This is a little ceramic piece I picked up at the Main Street Art Festival (in Fort Worth) last weekend. My wife and I have gone every year we have know each other. We usually try and pick up at least one small piece every year. This year I got this little...container...? I'm not sure what you call this. The artist said she envisioned it being used for olive oil or soy sauce. I can totally see that. I really liked the spout on this one with it's sharp angles and drastic direction changes.I'm sure I'll do a few more with this over the next few weeks and then perhaps use it for it's intended purpose. The flower sticking out of it is just a little piece of Hawthorne I picked off of some we have growing in the yard. They finally bloomed for us! This is the first time since we've moved in that they bloomed so we are pretty excited.

Daily Painting - River At The Refuge

River At The Refuge

 
This is one of the rivers on the wild life refuge in Oklahoma. I tried another technique with this one that I don't use often, this time I used a razor blade to scrape out the light values on the rocks while the paint is still wet. The idea is you put a lot of thicker pigment on the paper and then scape off paint to make the light values leaving behind the dark values. I've tried this a few times before and to be honest I've always had mixed results with it. It proved to be even more challenging at this smaller size. It might had worked better if I had a smaller blade. I didn't even think about that when I thought I'd try this method. That's one of the wonderful things about doing these daily paintings, you expose yourself to a lot of different situations. You then have to pick an approach to this new problem. When it's all over you get to reflect on what worked and what didn't. Then the next time you encounter it you already have a stronger game plan of how your going to attack it.

Daliy Painting - Fire and Wind

Fire and Wind

 
Another attempt at doing a sunflower. This time I changed my approach a bit and tried to get more saturation into the colors and let that drive the values a bit more. Overall I think I was successful with that, but I totally failed on the composition. I pretty much put the sunflower dead center in the painting. Doh! I really should have know better but I was so caught up in thinking about how I was going to do the painting I forgot to pay attention to where I was placing everything. I used a bit of white paint with my watercolors to get a few opaque lighter values in the background to help define it. I've got to admit the background was not coming together very well until I started to lay in these opaque brushstrokes of color. These really helped define it and pull it together.

Mine!

Mine!

 No daily painting today. I spent the day doing "office" work getting paintings ready to ship and framing. This painting is one I framed today for the 25th Annual Texas and Neighbors Regional Art Exhibition coming up next month. I have to drop this painting of this weekend. I'm really happy with the frame I used. It's the first time I used this style. It's from the Arts and Craft collection from American Frame. I've used American Frame for the last few years and have always been happy with them. My frames always arrive on time and in great shape. Tomorrow it's back to painting!

  This painting really starts to show where I want my paintings to go style wise. It's a lot of fun playing with the harder edges of smaller blocks of color. I've tried this style on a few paintings now and I'm really having fun exploring this style. I have no idea where it will lead me, but I can't wait to see. The reference for this came from the gulf coast here in Texas. These sea gulls would chase the waves as they broke across the beach. The guy on the far right was really aggressive and ran faster then all the other birds around him. This is where the name of the painting came from. It's him saying "Mine!" as he chased what ever the water washed up.

Daily Painting - Small River Falls

Small River Falls

 
This is the second time I have tried to paint these falls. The previous version became scrap paper.I'm much happier with attempt. This time I used some masking fluid to hold out the whites of the water. I also splattered some of it to simulate the spray of the water. Once the masking fluid had dried I went in an started adding the mid tones of the water. I used lots of pure color and let it really mix on the paper. I painted into the rocks since I knew I would come back with a darker wash later on once things had dried. After my second wash I took off the masking fluid to reveal the white of the paper again. I made a few adjustments to the white area that was left and punched up a few of the darks. Sometimes a painting really comes down to the last few brush strokes. It wasn't until this point that I really started to like this.

Daily Painting - The Engagement

The Engagement

 
This is a scene I've returned to a few times over the years. I just never get tired of it. In fact this is the same scene I painted for the picture I gave my wife for our engagement. This is where the title comes from. I make sure to vary the design every time. I really enjoyed this one and will probably do a few more. It's a lot of fun painting the patterns of the rushing water.

Daily Painting - Spa Day

 
I wanted to do one more of my lily before it started to droop too much. I wanted to try it white on white with the lily and the cup. Once I put the background into my set up and all that color reflected around the scene I knew I had the arrangement I wanted to paint.

  Last time I painted these I wasn't happy with the approach I used. In watercolor it's all about your approach. When do you put in your dark values, how dark and what color? I find if I jump to soon to my dark values or wait too long, I blow it. What I did with this painting is lay in all of the mid values first starting with the shadow side of the lily and cup. I used the mid values to cut around all of the light values so when I wash done with this one wash I had established 2 of my three major values (light, mid and dark). After everything had dried I went in and quickly laid in all of my dark values. Once that was dry it was just a matter of one or two adjustments here and there and I was done. I really enjoy paintings that go this way. They almost paint themselves.

Daily Painting - Sand Steps

Sand Steps

 
This is from an old reference photo I took at, I believe, the Indiana Dunes. It's been a few years so the location may be off. I didn't do a great job in those days of marking where the photograph was taken. For some reason I thought I would just remember it forever.

 I've really enjoyed these paintings of beaches. (My first daily painting was a beach scene) I hope to go back to the gulf coast this spring and gather some more reference. Hopefully I'll be able to do a few plein air (painted from life) studies while I'm there. I really enjoy painting the water on the sand. There are so many colors to play with in the reflections.

 Try as I might, I couldn't get the color on the scan to match the painting any better then this. To me the painting has more blue in it in real life and seems a little sharper. I'll work on it some more and see if I can get a better image to post, but in the mean time this one will have to do.
 

Daily Paintings - Cup of Lily

Cup of Lily

 We picked up a lily plant this year along with a few other flowers. I got it right before Easter and had it sitting outside for a few days. The wind kept knocking it down and this flower broke off. I put it in a cup in the studio with a little water and left it there for a few days. It's been doing so well that I thought I'd try to paint it.

 

Daily Painting - Farmer's Tan

Famer's Tan

  I've said it before and I'll say it again, painting at this size is hard. I really have to pay attention to my brush strokes and make sure I let the paper fully dry between washes. That's one thing I really wasn't expecting working at this size, but if the paper if even a little moist the color will run and soften all of the edges. The one thought that keeps running though my mind is something Irving Shapiro said one day in class at the Academy, "With watercolor you need to learn to sit on your hands". In other words, let the paper dry!

Daily Painting - Top Heavy

Top Heavy

 
Sunflowers always look so inviting to paint. They are large, bright and have a lot of interesting shapes and form. It's hard to know how much of their environment to include with them so it doesn't distract from the flower. I think I was successful with the balance I came up with here.

 The strong yellow color of there pedals is a real challenge. I'm not sure I found the right approach to that here. I did think of a different approach to painting them after I had finished so I guess I'll have to try it again soon. What I want to try is to really make sure I push the color values of the yellow more then the saturation of it. What do I mean by this? Well, rather then trying to get the light parts of the pedals to be so intense in color, I'm going to try to have it be the correct value instead (lighter) and let the parts of the pedals in shadow have the intensity and saturation. I think this will really give it some pop! I'll let you know how it goes:)

 

Daily Painting - Flower Confetti

Flower Confetti

I wish I was better at identifying flowers so I could tell you what these are. They kind of looked liked daisies except they flowered multiple times on the same stem. Actually the stem looked a bit more like a vine. I'm not sure how well that came across here. I took a few liberties with the look of them and had a lot of fun in the process.

 I haven't had a lot of time to paint or post these last few days. Life seems to be getting in the way of art here. I'm hoping this week will be better as other commitments are slowly fading off. I spent some time today updating my still life set up box. I can't wait to try it out, but that will have to wait till tomorrow. Happy Easter!

Daily Painting - Flower Rapids

Flower Rapids

 
This painting reminded me of painting water rapids while I was painting it. I mean I knew I was painting flowers and grass, but a lot the choices I made while painting them where based on if they where rapids. Once I realized this the painting almost painted its self and went very quickly. I used a little white mixed into my paint at the end to put in the yellow flowers at the very end.