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I haven’t been painting with oils much in the last couple years. The watercolors took me on a journey. Many months after my show in Mount Vernon, Dave Oneill gave me a call about doing a painting for his dinning room. He had seen the show and had some ideas for a commission. After going back and forth a bit with his vision I came up with a few ideas in rough sketch form.

Dave wanted it pretty large, 5 x 3 ft painting, so instead of a watercolor I recommended an oil on canvas.

I transferred my sketch and did a thin “imprematura” underpainting. This seals the gesso ground so the oils don’t suck in as bad and it provides some color coming through the layers that will be added on top.

Next comes the block-in, to get the darks, mids and lights all established and really start to understand how I’m going to paint this scene. At this stage I start to make the planes or shapes, sit in front or back of each other.

The painting starts to come together at this point as I listen to a CD of the high school kids from Maui.

After a couple weeks of painting it was almost done. I really had fun painting those crazy, electric splashes around the salmon. I’ll let this dry thoroughly for a few days, oil it out with a very thin rub of Galkyd thinned with Galkin to even out a few sunken in areas. After that is completely dry, I’ll put on a final varnish, mount it in a frame I made and take it to it’s new home.

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Sunny Kiss 10×8 watercolor

We’ve been socked in with winter fog for days. This morning the glorious sun hit the hills outside our kitchen window. I’m trying to narrow down my view in a few small watercolors trying to catch one fleeting effect. An enjoyable hour with morning coffee at the kitchen table.

Snow on the Hills 8×10 watercolor

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I’ve been putting some final glazes on these flowers and foliage and really enjoying it. Some manners of painting don’t use glazes at all, going after that modern matte flatness, the truth of paint on a surface. In this type of painting I want the illusion of depth. I want the viewer to look right through the picture plane, with forward parts almost popping in front of the painting itself. It’s a dimensional composition leading your eye in, around and back out again. And when you are up close there is no doubt it’s just paint on a board. We always have to simplify, leaving out as apposed to leaving in. I’m leaving a lot in at this point, it’s consciously full. Now I want it even brighter… maybe the next one.

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Plein Art in the garden with the dahlias

I’m trying to spend enough time this summer to get a few garden paintings done. They don’t come easy. I have a tendency to put in way too much and not simplify enough. It’s one of the issues with working “Plein Air”. Nature has more than a simple painting can handle. Every place you look is beauty beyond belief. I’ll just keep trying and appreciate every moment spent outside observing. This painting is coming along, started while sitting in these flowers, then worked on for a while in my studio and now back outside. It’s changed so much in a few days that I don’t know it this will help.

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Down our drive the morning light is low and casts long shadows. This shot is a little later in the day than the painting.

I’ve been getting up pretty early for me, and heading outside for the morning light. I usually have a piece of paper taped-off and readied on a watercolor block. If I get to it I might even do a wet into wet sky the night before so the paper will have time to dry and be ready to work on in the morning. After the initial layin out in the field I take it back to the studio to finish.