Thursday, August 22, 2013

Landscapes

Lately I've been thinking about branching out and doing some landscape painting, so that's what I've been working on lately.  My hope is to get out sometime and do some actual plein air painting because that just sounds really really fun.  Even to take a road trip somewhere and paint outside just sounds awesome.  Hope to work up to that, but in the meantime I'm working from photos, and just trying new things with brushwork, paint handling, color, etc. 
You would think that landscape painting would be somewhat easier than portrait/figure/still life because the subject matter lends itself to much more loose, abstract, and spontaneous brushwork, but that's not necessarily the case... at least for those of us that don't do much landscape painting.  I first started out oil painting when I was a kid in early high school years doing Bob Rossian style landscapes.  It was fun, and it taught me a little bit about how oils behave, and a very general approch to manipulating oils.  And long story short, here I am today doing mostly portrait and figurative stuff.  But when it comes to landscapes, I've gotten better, but I still haven't really completely advanced out of the whole Bob Rossy, happy treesy, poofy white cloudsy way of doing landscapes.  It was all good and fun when I was a kid just starting out, but I'm far beyond that now and it's time to get real with landscapes.  So here is what I have done so far.  Each of these was about a 2-3 hour alla prima, and for the most part, lots of fun.

Road Trip
oil on linen
16x20 inches
2013

Hey Hay
oil on canvas
20x16 inches
2013

Mudscape
oil on canvas
11x14 inches
2013

Mighty Oak
oil on canvas
11x14 inches
2013

Hiking Trail
oil on canvas
11x14 inches
2013

There's still much to work on, but not too bad.  Don't get me wrong, I have not abandoned or quit doing portraits and figures by any means.  The best is still yet to come on those.  Like I said, this is just a little branching out (no pun intended) into painting not necessarily happy trees, but real ones.
More to come soon...

Friday, August 2, 2013

Thursday, August 1, 2013

RAA Exhibition, August 23-24

Next exhibition coming up!


This is my second year doing the Raytown Artists' Association show, and like last year I'll have 3 paintings showing, including the one in this picture called Sfumato.  I'm really hoping for a great turnout this year. 
By the way, there is a People's Choice award at this exhibition, so if you are able I encourage you to come on Friday and vote!  It will be awarded later that evening at the awards reception.

No major news on my newest work, St. Sebastian.  It's almost finished... I'm just waiting for the FedEx truck to get here and deliver my medium that I'm going to be using.  But for now, the painting is on hold.  Tonight is figure drawing class at the gallery, so I'm anticipating this painting will be finished sometime tomorrow, or perhaps this weekend.
All for now.. more to come soon!