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Thursday, July 29, 2010

Finished mural



Total time on this was much less than I'd anticipated; three shortened working days (the heat made it near impossible to work past 2 in the afternoon).  Here's a close-up view of the surface -- great stuff for soft clouds and water, awful for anything that needs sharp definition:

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Progress, Day Two




Only two or three more hours to go, I think.  I won't be there tomorrow (Sunday). Should be finished Monday afternoon!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Progress, Day One

It was HOT out there, kids!  Hot, hot, hot, but the job is going well.

My mission, should I choose to accept it ...

... is to paint this rough stucco wall:


... with an Italian coastline type landscape something like this sketch:


In three days.  Today, tomorrow, and Monday.  Weather permitting, of course.  Today's weather will permit, but dang it's hot out there.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Railroad Flowers


I'd gone to Hopkins yesterday evening to get photos of one of the trains I often saw idling near Excelsior Blvd. and 169.  It rolled into motion as I was walking toward it, so I managed only a couple shots; it was moving pretty fast.


In the photo above, you can see my shadow on the grass.  I really like trains and hope to use these photos as a basis for some paintings.  But the trail along the tracks also offered some unexpected joys -- including this, which I've now learned is a Great Black Wasp, Sphex pennsylvanicus:



The wasp was about 1.5" long -- huge -- and not at all aggressive. I snapped tons of very close-range shots while it happily drank nectar.  While looking for information on the species I found a lot of message board posts from women who claimed to have been attacked by these, and I can't help wondering if the women in question were wearing something (perfume, hairspray, other forms of fragrance) that smelled like nectar to the wasp.

And with that, I am off to the studio for the day.  Probably will be plein-air painting this afternoon with Richard Abraham!  That is, if the weather holds.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

New Salvage Art


Security, found objects, wax medium and oil paint. 6" h x 5.5" w x 2.5" d.


This was finished an hour or so ago. The wood piece that forms the house was found near the Soap Factory, just after volunteer orientation there.  Please click the images to see the details more clearly!

Friday, July 9, 2010

I'll be painting spots in my sleep tonight

But I'll be happy about it.


It took two full working days (about 16 hours) for me to create this tree and leopard -- whose young owner has named him Hunter, much to my delight. 

Below, a snapshot of the wall before I arrived, with its existing green/blue color scheme:

Friday, July 2, 2010

Drawings while volunteering at the Soap Factory


Toy Lippizan, sanguine pencil, carbon pencil, Conté pencil on tan paper, 7 x 5".

Yes, I took my little Breyer horses with me to the Soap Factory.  I was tending gallery on a slow day and knew I might need something to work on.  These were fun.


Toy Morgan, sanguine pencil, carbon pencil, Conté pencil on tan paper, 7 x 5".   Usually when I use the toys as models I hide the fact that they're made of plastic.  This time I drew in some of the faint mold lines -- and then turned this one over to capture the rigidity of the pose.


Toppled Toy Horse.  7 x 4.5", carbon pencils, sanguine and Conté pencil on paper.