Alberta
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Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
Jack Pine, 11H x 11W x 3D inches acrylics on canvas and detail of right side; wrapped sides painted. Signature is on the side, so one is superimposed here on the front. Hang on a wall or display on a flat surface.
Approaching Winter
Sunday, December 7th, 2008
Approaching Winter finished today, 60H x 40W x 3D inches acrylics on canvas. More contemporary than my usual work, thought I’d try a new approach to painting…with more attention to editing rather than overworking. Shown in two detail images above, and full view shown in right thumbnail. Large paintings don’t show as well on computer screen, so there are two detail images that were sharpened 2X to reveal the actual texture as it is close up. Post-dated note: on exhibit at Oxide Gallery in Denton TX until February 28th, 2009.
Dec. 6th: Colors mixed with matte medium: Ultramarine, Pthalos Blue, Prussian Blue, Cobalt Blue, Pthalos Green, Sap Green, Unbleached Titatium, Alizarin Crimson and Cadmium Red Deep, Mars Black (rarely use black). This morning I scrubbed and washed away a lot of paint in areas then reapplied more. Trying to stay with the less is more principle. Hope to wrap this one up by the end of the weekend if not before.
Dec. 5th: Stage 1, first coat of Ultramarine Blue and matte medium, very watered down, then applied thick in places. Inspired by photos taken by my good friend Ray Muskego in my home town, Cold Lake, Alberta during sunrise December 4th as misty fog drifted off the lake.
Painting facelift
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
Started April 7th this year, Rocky Mountain Vista received a face lift this week before I brought it in to be judged for a local exhibition. There are subtle but positive improvements compared to when I posted it as finished on April 13th. Progress can be reviewed on the April 9th blog post. It is now well and truly finished!
Not available. Donated to VAST Arts, Denton, TX.
Takkakaw Falls
Saturday, January 12th, 2008
Takkakaw Falls, Yoho Valley, B.C. 830 feet high, said to be the most impressive waterfalls in North America next to Niagara. 12H x 9W inches graphite, watercolors, based on antique Vandyck photos of the Canadian Rockies. Study only, not available
Mt. Assiniboine
Friday, January 11th, 2008
Mt. Assiniboine, about forty miles southwest of Banff, Alberta. 12H x 9W inch watercolor and graphite, study only, not available.
I inherited some charming antique books of hand-colored “Vandyck Photogravures” of Canadian Rocky Mountains scenery as it was at the turn of the twentieth century. The monotone sepia and few other pale colors add such a warmth to the already beautiful scenery in the 1910 photographs, and since I haven’t tried watercolors for years, I thought they would make perfect studies.
First Snow, final update
Saturday, December 1st, 2007
First Snow, 39H x 30W inches acrylics, crackle glaze on canvas and box-frame. Finishing: added some darker areas, dripped water down the top layer of glaze, and flicked some specks of white with a toothbrush. Sold, but can be replicated as a new, unique piece by special order in the same spirit as the original.
Detail images:
Gold In The Mountains 01
Sunday, November 4th, 2007
Gold In The Mountains 01, finished – 20H x 16W inches acrylics on canvas. Has 28H x 24W inches dark-stained antique frame with gold trim
Started late in 2005, Gold In The Mountains 01 has evolved through many changes to achieve the finished painting above. The first thumbnail shows the painting at a stage where I thought it finished so entered it into Artjury.com’s 2006 Spring/Summer online exhibition. It was accepted, and at the time I liked the larger areas of flat orange-gold, but about six months later I thought the work needed more depth, and the dark branch across the upper portion stood out, so I began a long process of scrubbing off, building back up, scraping and layering paint, repainting, etc. The piece reached a few different stages where it could have been called finished, but I was not entirely pleased, so kept searching. Here are a few stages in the transformation of Gold In The Mountains 01:
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Polypore Fungi finished
Thursday, November 1st, 2007
Polypore Fungi finished – 58H x 41W x 1.5D inches, acrylics, modeling paste, plaster on canvas, wrapped sides painted, narrow frame
One of the goals for this painting was to see if a composition could remain balanced with the main subject offset to the right. With Petra’s suggestion there is more contrast, also scrubbed some paint away for more background to show through.
Mushrooms, bacteria, molds, lichen and other non-flowering plants are lesser appreciated life forms that help maintain the healthy life cycles of forests by aiding the decay and conversion of plant and animal matter into nutrient-rich soil.
Polypore Fungi, work in progress
Monday, October 22nd, 2007
Polypore Fungi, 59H x 41W x 2D, acrylics on canvas, work in progress. Started in June, hung and studied in the loose-phase state; cautious about overworking it. Plans this week: most everything will stay out of focus, with details only on the fungi using a little modeling paste to sculpt. Modeling paste is applied in layers, drying in between, becoming permanent and adhered well to the canvas. Applying too thick at once creates cracks and unstable structures.
A tale of two drawings
Friday, September 21st, 2007
Northern Delights 01, Banff, Alberta, Canada, 14H x 11W graphite, water-wash pencil, oil pastel, colored pencils on paper. 3-inch-wide white double mat and 26H x 22W inch white custom-built white wood frame with crackle finish.
and
Redbuds 03, Eastern Redbuds blooming on a foggy Spring morning in Coppell, Texas. 14H x 11W oil pastels, graphite, water-wash graphite, colored pencils, eraser on paper
Browsing for pieces to enter in a juried exhibition, I came across two drawings started in March that have a lot in common. Both scenes are low-light situations that were achieved by lots and lots of layering, scraping, redrawing, and using the eraser over pastels for blending as well as erasing. Both are experimental re: oil pastels vs. paintable water-wash graphite pencil.