new ol paints

I recently ordered some paints from Dick Blick. I needed some new whites, yellow and a few blues. If you follow my blog the last painting of seascape posted was done with new paints I ordered. I really like Maimeri, but it is very expensive. So considering the current economy I did some research and came up with an artist who has gone into the production of paint making. I can say I am really pleased with the texture and flow of the product. The seascape was done with titanium white, turquoise, manganese blue and cad yellow. The only substitute from the Graham line lineup was Maimeri primary red. I have so many red colors that I really didn't need to buy any, but I can almost wish I did buy some Graham reds. The link is I do so recommend them highly for the colors and flow of the paint. So in essence I feel like I supported an artist instead of a corporation. That made me feel good and I am so glad I made that choice.

http://www.mgraham.com/

new adventure

I can remember when I started painting, water was a difficult thing to paint. Water has such unique qualities. It reflects light and dark. It reflects its surroundings. It is not an easy thing to recreate raw nature. A tree as long as it looks like a tree one will interpret it as a tree. Water and sky there is no faking. It either is or isnt a successful image. At any rate i found this photo on Wet Canvas so I thought I would give it a try. This is the start of the picture. In fact it only took me an hour to get this far.

coming and going

Ok so where do I begin. The first picture is Dylan's copy of my painting. If you follow my other blog, you know that he is so wanting to paint like me. He is only 6 but I think he draws pretty well for his age. He gets frustrated because he cant do it like me. It doesn't help when I tell him it has taken years for me. The last picture was initially my finished product, but if you click on it and look closely at the left side the treeline made a boring hump in the picture. I softened the edge, blending it into the sky for a little more irregularity in the line so it became less of an eye sore for me at least. This was the view from my porch on a rather cloudy morning.

confessions of a plein air painter

I went out on my porch this morning. The moody sky was marvelous, looking toward the railroad tracks. It was not too cold. I bundled up well and had a blanket to sit on. I was trying to capture the dark clouds with breaks of the sky coming through. I think I got a very good start. It took me about an hour to get everything blocked in. I carried the box into the house as there is supposed to be rain off and on today. In trying to set the box up on its tripod stand I lost the whole box. It went upside town on the floor. Luckily the picture did not suffer damage but the container of turpentine dumped on the rug. Happily it was not paint on the rug or I would have had a major scrubbing event. But at least the painting at this stage of the game survived.

winter morning

Well did a little more painting this morning. Redefined some lines and some perspective as the small barn was a little off. Added more shadow to the foreground as the sun rising in the east casts a long shadow in the field from the large tree and builings over the field. I'm not sure what else I will do to it. Have to sit and look at it and see what else is needed.

new oil

If you follow my photo blog, I posted a picture of the winter morning yesterday. I loved the yellow orange tint of the trees in the early morning hours. Inspired by it I started this picture adding a horse picture that was taken by my daughters barn

snow day watercolor.

Well I did have this picture of a horse I took a while back. I just washed up my oil brushes so I thought I would give it a go with water color since I havent played with them since I did my Christmas cards. I was pleased that I got a reasonable semblance of a horse. I keep trying but I dont think I will ever get a hang of this water color business. Well as they say nothing ventured nothing gained.

Caillebotte

Well I guess I can say that I am getting tired of messing with this image. There is no way that I can adequately copy a masters painting. I was fun but I have to say, I have encountered that steep learning curve. Who I am as an artist and where I want to be. So much to learn so little time.