Sunday Morning-Dun Laoghaire side street

Sunday Morning Side Street, 30x24, oil on linen

We don't often think of Ireland being sunny, but here is an example of a beautiful, quiet Sunday morning in the coastal town of Dun Laoghaire which is just south of Dublin by commuter train. It is pronounced Dun Leary I learned when I was trying to catch the train and I was making sure I was on the right side of the tracks. My sense of direction was not tuned to the area yet. It was not that early in the morning but I felt like I had the town to myself as I wandered around. Although the sun was out it was quite chilly near the water so I explored the town first. 

This little street scene reads more like an alley but it was a street as you can see by the stop signs. I was attracted to it because of all the colors. and repeating shapes. Pink, green, blue, yellow and that great terracotta in the sun at the end of the road. I was in Ireland in March but the planter boxes were already green and flowering.

The visual approach for this painting is light and shadow. This is my first painting from Ireland but I do intend to do more.

Young Artist at Work in black and white

4. Young Artist, color started; 5. above finished dark/light pattern

3. block in for painting, 24x18, oil on pane.

2. Study for Young Artist, 9x12, oil on panel

1. study for Young Artist, graphite on paper

1. This was my first attempt at a dark/light pattern for this painting. (In doing a dark/light pattern you have to think of the mediums values going either towards the dark or towards the light while maintaining a good flow to the pattern created.) In this version I joined the stool and the taboret (artist storage shelves) together and it seemed too heavy, not enough pattern, even though the colors of the two are very closely matched which made me think to tie them together.
2. In the small oil study I carved the stool she is holding on to out of the dark shape and also a tube of paint that is standing up on the lower shelf within the shape of the legs of the stool. I decided I had to leave parts of the legs tied to the dark pattern and I am liking #2 better. 
3. On the full sized board I decided to start the color version with a black and white block in to help keep me within the pattern I had created. I added on more section of the fourth leg into the light pattern but I am not convinced it will stay there. At this point in time, I don't think it adds anything to the whole. 
4. Here I am starting to add color. In the dark recesses of the taboret is dark blueish red, which reads as a dark as does the blue black of her jeans. Distinct color shifts but not value shifts. This is not going to be a "color filled" painting overall, but you can see what color does to the overall image already. Her shirt is a solid black but I was leaving the black of her shirt that is in the light separate for the subtle value shift that will come. This is just where I ended my day.
5. This is the completed dark/light pattern although technically I would force a few more areas now that I see the photograph. In the light hitting her shoulder for one. I forgot to go back in and tone that down. It is now too late as I am moving it into a local tone painting. Stay tuned!

Miniatures and more at Elements Gallery

Opening Friday night at Elements 5280 Gallery
November 21, 2014, 6-9 p.m.
5940 South Holly, Greenwood Village

Hope you can make it! The show runs through December 24th

 One of my minis in the show.

Studio Interior with Library Chair

Interior with Library Chair, 30x20, oil on linen

This scene from my studio I painted from life a few years ago and always wanted to revisit. I recently came across the old painting and decided the time was now. This is not painted on top of the original which I often do but a fresh start. I did not set this scene up as a still life. I just happened to see that the tableau worked as it was. That chair was a catch all when I had it there by the door. I set my hat there when I came in from painting outdoors.

In the bookcase are mostly art books and art magazines; the books include: "Modern Painting,"  "The Art of Richard Diebenkorn," "Carl W. Peters" and a John Grisham novel! That bright green adds a nice discordant note, don't you think?

Trail Down Herman's Gulch

Block in, 18x24, oil on oil paper

Here is a studio landscape that I was determined to try and maintain a more loose or painterly approach throughout. So far so good on the block in. Keeping the big shapes very simple.

Next phase

I tightened up on the background area but still keeping loose up front. I can live with that since I want the distant hills to recede and quiet down. I added more blue to the back hills but they are still retaining too much color variation and not enough depth. The trees had light added to them but still must remain darker than the hills behind them. Played with the path a bit to give it some depth.

Trail Down from Herman's Gulch, 18x24, oil on paper

Here I blued down the distant hills again...it is amazing how much blue you have to use to get them to recede! I added the clouds, still keeping the strokes loose, added some flowers to the hillside and more motion to the path calling it done. Sure love this hike and have always wanted to paint it. There is a view from up top that is still on my radar to paint.

Venice Crossroads

Venice Crossroads, 30x30, oil on linen

This painting was in a somewhat completed state last February.  I have sat on it all this time wondering how to finish it. Sometimes one just has to put a painting away until you are ready for it or it is ready for you. This was not an easy painting for me but I was really attracted to the scene for all the repetitive shapes as well as the activity. So many ways to go in and out of the alleys in Venice.

I actually did more work on this than I had thought was needed as once I get going I see more areas that need attention. I started in the shadows leading the viewer in. I darkened it down a notch or two and added more details though still trying to keep it simplified. Just enough to have some interest as you go into the painting and to also lead the eye in to the visual motion I was going for. That made a huge difference. So I went into the interior and deepened some colors and lightened others. I was in a groove so it did not take me that long once I figured out what it was that needed doing. It is such a good feeling when that happens.

This is my second Venice painting from my two days spent there wandering the alleyways. I sure loved every minute of it and hope to go back and explore other areas of the city. We were staying in the area that is called Cannaregio. It is the old Jewish Quarter and is on the outer rim of the city to the northwest. Across the Lagoon from our vaporetta stop is Murano, where the glass factories are. So we stayed pretty much on that side of the Grand Canal.

Venice Laundry blog post. This painting has sold.

quotes to ponder

A book was recommended to me not too long ago, and it finally came in at the library. Guess it is popular little tome. I found a few quotes within it I want to share.

"We want you to take from us. We want you, at first, to steal from us, because you can't steal. You will take what we give you and yo will put it in your own voice and that's how you will find your voice. And that's how you begin. And then one day someone will steal from you."
Francis Ford Coppola

I found this quote to be spot on. It is so true that we try to mimic what we like, but it does come out with our own imprint on it, unless of course,  you are purposely forging, which is not what this is about.

I like the chart from the book (Steal Like an Artist) by Austin Kleon on this subject. It puts in two columns Good Theft vs Bad Theft; I have added a few words to his one word list here and there for those of you who have not read his book.

Under GOOD Theft:

• Honor who you steal from
• Study works of those you steal from
• Steal from many
• Credit those you steal from
• Transform what you steal into your own voice
• Remix 

BAD THEFT

• Degrade who you steal from
• Skim
• Steal from ONE
• Plagiarize
• Imitate
• Rip off

Austin on TED Talk