CR 519, 6x6, oil on panel. Available

In my pursuit of keeping things simple, here is a small version of the county road I have been painting the past few weeks. I have so enjoyed working with this simple subject. I like roads anyway, which is not new, but I enjoy the ribbon effect of the county roads throughout the mountains. The colors in this landscape were stunning.

Exciting Block Ins - or How I love the Block in process

After a month of no inspiration or even thinking much about painting in any way, I started with three, no four, block ins within 3 days. So exciting and excited to be off to a good start. Only one has been moved past the block in stage so it will get its own post shortly.

The first one was inspired by an artist I discovered via a share by a FB friend. The artist is Leonhard Lehmann, a contemporary Austrian artist. His abstracted scenes really drew me in and reminded me somewhat of California artist, Richard Diebenkorn. This is a direction I would like to go more towards. It isn't hard for me to do this in the block in stage but as I go forward, I tightened down no matter what I see in my minds eye. Here is the piece that broke my month long hiatus due to life circumstances.

Road Ribbon, 18x24, oil on linen panel. Block in stage

A week ago, late in the day, I went to my easel and got the canvas covered in about an hour or so. Just goes to show what you can do when you are motivated. The weekend before I had gone up to Fraser to house sit for a friend of mine. This is the county road heading to his house off of HWY 40. The field off to the right was full of hay bales. Looking this direction was looking into the sun so the colors are dark and muted. I turned around and shot a photo of the road I had just traveled and it is full of light - almost a night and day study. I used colors in this block in that I want to use in layering but they are growing on me so who knows what will happen once I get going on it. What drew me to this scene is that I feel I can play with the colors and the large shapes down to smaller shapes. The rectangles, circles and triangles. It comes across to me already as abstracted shapes so I am wanting to keep it that way while also playing with the colors and not so much thinking about the colors as they are in the image.

The next morning, I decided to start a companion piece to the one above and paint the hay bales in the field. I took a number of shots of this field at different times of day, but I settled on this one due to its repetitious shapes. The hills repeat the rounded shapes of the hay bales and I also like the lines leading the eye into a Zig Zag through the fields and the houses into the foothills.

Since I am looking at this scene with my back to the sun, you can see how bright it is going to be relative to the scene above. These were both shot between 5:30 and 6 pm.

Hay bales, 18x24, oil on linen panel. Block in stage

Today, I started to work on top of the block in of the hay bales and it is coming along nicely. I also started a small one of the road. Who'd have thought a country road could be so inspiring...or just what I needed?

Venice Crossroads -

Venice Crossroads, 30x30, oil on linen, available

Motivated by my recent visit to Tuscany, I pulled this painting out of the closest. It isn't that I didn't like this painting as it was; There was a lot I liked about it. It just felt a bit too dull for me. Even if it was overcast while I was in Venice 3 years ago, it was brighter in my memory than I had painted it.
Rereading the original blog post is always interesting! I don't disagree with any of it but I had been working on it then for almost a year. So there is no limit of time when I don't feel reworking a piece is called for.
In the painting below from two years ago I was going for a more local tone approach even though there was a sliver of light coming down. I am still going for the same thing but I added a bit of brightness to the colors and not as much atmosphere. I also reworked all the figures and gave them a bit more personality, yet not pulling anyone out. I defined the chairs and table a bit more showing more of the light hitting them. I think it aids the movement I want to create through the painting. A few areas got broken down a bit more. I ended up doing a bit more than I had expected as once you get started you see all kinds of things that need tweaking.

Venice Crossroads, original, 30x30, oil on linen

Cortona - one of the oldest towns in Tuscany

Cortona, 30x15, oil on panel. Available

This piece is my favorite so far from my recent trip to Italy. We had wandered around this medieval walled town built on a hill for hours and were coming back down to the main square when I saw these buildings making great patterns and colors right in front of me. For the first time in a long time, I had to use two photos to make one piece as neither the phone nor camera photos were just what I wanted.

What I liked about this scene was all the repeating shapes and lines. Rectangles, half circles, squares and triangles. Despite the tall verticals there is good eye movement in it. Though it painted realistically, it comes off as an abstract. Since the majority of the scene is in shadow, I could paint it rather flat (local tone) with just a bit of light hitting the roofs (it was about high noon) to give dimension.

I am not sure of the significance of all the flags, but it seemed that each town we were in the town flag was in evidence. Everywhere.

On a Wing and a Prayer

6x6, oil on panel, available

My first thought when I saw this scene was 'Drive By Religion.' but that seems to trivialize not only the church but religion which I don't want to do. So I am thinking 'On a Wing and a Prayer.'  We were on our way to Rome from Montepolciano and I was intrigued that the road would curve around the old church. I believe the name of the church is 'Madonna Regina della Pace.'  My translation of that is the Reigning Madonna of Peace. I am up for correction if anyone knows Italian, which I do not.

I decided to do this one in a small format to work out the shapes. I thought the shapes fun and worthy of playing around with. The whole church is local tone (in shadow) while the landscape around it is in full sun. As is usually the case, when I see the painting in a photograph I start to see things that I had not noticed before. In this case, some of the patterns are repeating that I did not consciously think about. I am happy with that!

Italy - Walking the Tuscan Countryside

Hay Bale with Poppies, 12x24, oil on panel

Here is the next painting from my recent sojourn in Tuscany. The reference image was taken by Olin and posted in the groups Flickr album. I photographed a couple of versions of this scene myself. Had I not seen Olin's version, I would have been happy with mine. But my format was 3x4, so much more of a square, and his had the length that I liked better. I still cropped it to get the 1x2 format here. I punched up the poppies a bit but from the looks of it I may have to tone them back down a bit. The reds read okay in person, though.

I added the painting below from my last post because the field with the hay bale and poppies is off to the right of the road that we walked on. To put it in context. And one image was taken by the husband and the other, his wife. It was a lovely walk on a beautiful day.

Children of the Landscape, 6x6, oil on panel

The poppies were in their full glory and it brought to mind the field of Flanders and why poppies are handed out on November 11, Veteran's Day. Here is the poem from WWI In Flanders Field:

by John McCrae, May 1915, a Canadian Physician

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Italy, first round

Study, 9x12, oil on panel

A Walk Under the Tuscan Sun, 6x6, oil on panel

I have been busy doing some fun pieces from my trip to Italy last month. A 'walking' tour of Tuscany. Both of the references for these pieces were shot by one of my new friends from the tour, Nancy, from Tampa. Nancy was more than willing to share her photos with me to use. She and her husband are both avid photographers.  It is so much fun to see what catches other peoples eye.

We deemed the top painting's image 'Hopperesque' which was taken with Nancy's phone. I did this as a study to see whether I wanted to do it larger or not. I think I like it this size for now. 

Nancy took the bottom photo as well. It immediately made me think of Van Gogh and the south of France. I love the simplicity of the shot. I cropped it to be square, and I think these are the tiniest people I have ever painted! Group of 4 to fit in less than an inch squared. I had to get a sable watercolor brush out to to it as I do not own any tiny sable oil brushes.

I am always looking for help in titles, so if anything comes to mind, please let me know.