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.

Gathering Peonies While I May

 

Peonies at Josie's, 10 x 8" oil on canvas board, from yesterday afternoon.

So I'm home, in a sense: I am packing to move and my life right now is the kind of chaos that happens when you're packing to move.

Which is why I painted this before going home yesterday, instead of kidding myself that I'd get any painting done once I was back here.

Photographing these things is still difficult, though. This one, for example? Lost most of the blue and violet tones in its green areas, making them more vivid and less natural-looking than they are in reality. I've corrected as well as I can, but it's not enough to make me happy. I suppose the thing to do is ... come see them for yourself, when they go to a gallery. :-)

White Petunias

Heartwood Petunias, 10 x 8" oil on canvas board. This painting, as I post this, is about an hour old. I went for a sunshiny effect even though it's very cold and grey out there. I'm pleased with the results. Glad that Josie Geiger basically shoved me out the door to go do something.

Now it's time for ice cream and Bailey's!

Irises Before the Storm

 

Heartwood Irises, 10 x 8" oil on canvas board

 

Six yesterday evening and the storms threatening, and I went out with my Guerrilla Painter Box and caught some irises, as the wind picked up and the sky darkened.

Glad I did it then: today, the rain and the lightning won't stop.

I'm still at Heartwood Conference Center & Resort, in lovely ... I am not sure if it's Chicog or Trego, technically, but it's a beautiful part of Wisconsin even with the thunderstorms.  Heading home tomorrow afternoon, maybe painting on the way if the weather and schedule will allow.