Snobs

Snobs, 10 x 20" oil on canvas

 So this is going to the Maple Grove Arts Center today, for the Art & Food Show which opens on July 13th.

The photo -- ugh, glare, and I can't get the colors accurate to save my life. You'll need to come see it.

Across from Dayton's Bluff

Evening Across Dayton's Bluff, study, 10 x 8" oil on canvas board.

This got started last Friday evening while I was out with my friend, Tom Winterstein, hunting for things to paint (the usual problem there is that you find too much, not too little). I loved the way the evening sunlight was hitting the nearby overpass and the path closer to my feet, and then making a beautiful contrast with the violet shadows on the buildings downtown.

We lost our light completely before we could finish, but the thing about standing there and painting a while is that it fixes a lot of things in your memory that you'd otherwise forget.

If you don't have a travel sketchbook, this is a reason to get one, even if you are sure you can't draw. Anything you do draw, no matter how poorly or cartoonishly, you'll remember with a clarity that your camera can't offer. Something about the process makes connections that last.

Insomnia

And My Shadow, 6 x 12" oil on canvas.

I'm not sure if I was painting because I couldn't sleep, or if I couldn't sleep because I was painting, but whichever -- this was the result. I am less-than-energetic today as a consequence, but happy I started when I did, since the cute little flower was on its way out by morning.

Update: Sold.

Old Depot Detail, St. Paul

Depot Detail, 7 x 5" oil on canvas board, at Derek Davis' painting class 6/24

So this is What I Did in School Today. I learned a lot watching Derek mix the colors for this building, and realizing that although it is red brick, the actual color, in today's light at least, was much more ... reddish-violet, with hefty amounts of pink.

I have no idea what this small structure is, on the side of the building, other than "artist bait." If anyone can tell, I'd be interested in knowing. It's the old train depot at Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary. I stood literally in the shadow of the Kellogg overpass to paint it.

Junk Goldfish

Junkfish, 10 x 8", mixed pencils on cotton rag paper

This was done at a Metro Sketchers outing at the Science Museum of Minnesota tonight. I didn't get the name of the artist who created this amazing (and quite large!) sculpture that hangs from the ceiling in the museum. Absolutely HAD to draw it, though.

This is available as the drawing only (no mat) at $65. With a custom mat, it will fit a standard 11 x 14" frame.

Stillwater Griffins

Stillwater Griffins, 18 x 18"each; oil and wax medium on panels. Please click this to enlarge!

Sometimes, things just take as long as they take. I had more false starts on these things than I care to recall. Changes; add wax medium, ugh, too much blue. Add red and orange, oh no, eek, too much! Gray it down, gray it down, hey ... that might work.

They are still a little different, for me, but I like them now. About ... 20 months, I think, after I started them.

The basis is a pair of bas-relief griffins on a streetside wall in, you guessed it, Stillwater. I photographed them in October 2010 and started these panels not long afterward.

I'm not dead!

I don't want to go on the cart! I feel happyyyyyyy!

 

Found while moving: prep sketch for one of the murals at Hopkins Honda. This is on a standard "security" business envelope, in ballpoint and acrylic, which was what I had on hand at the time.

Moving has gone as well as it ever does. It would have helped if I hadn't come down with an ear infection (!) just afterward, but that's getting better, and I promise there will be photos soon of the new place, or at least the little balcony and the bedroom that I turned into a studio.

For now, I must run along: I'm due to go painting with Derek Davis this morning, a privilege I can't pass up.